Sunday I went shopping with my very rich friend. We went to Saks. I bought a $300 pair of boots. A $70 pair of boots. A $60 pair of shoes. Some shirts for SigOth from Saks. Clothes for Hope from Gap and numerous other even ritzier kids stores. Plus three pairs of shoes for her. I spent $1200 in one five hour afternoon. I would have bought a lot more, another coach purse, more jewelry, more shoes....I was insane.
I was so caught up in the buying frenzy (and my friend spent twice what I did) that I just couldn't stop. The clothes and shoes for Hope are fine. That's why we went to this particular outlet mall, because it does have some stores that aren't your run of the mill mall stores and I wanted some special "different" clothes for Hope. My mother buys nice things, but she tends to buy eight of the same shirts in different colors and six pairs of jeans and call it a day. I wanted Hope to have some stylish clothes. HER clothes were reasonably priced and almost all half price or better.
My purchases were almost all half price too. You do the math. What the HELL do I need with a $600 pair of boots???
So this weekend I will be making a trip BACK to the outlet mall to return all my major purchases. I was paying bills last night realizing that I still have $1500 left to pay on my cat bill, plus just my regular purchases (gas, food) for the month and NOW I have $1200 more to add to that. I had to dip into my Disney trip money just to pay my monthly bills.
That kind of purchasing scares the shit out of me. I haven't done it in a long time. Don't get me wrong...I enjoyed every single minute of it and I don't mind one bit taking it all back (okay, I still covet the boots...) I'm disappointed in myself for not being able to curb my spending just because I was with someone who DIDN't have to. And she didn't expect me to spent any money either. I just got caught up in it. I wanted something so I bought. The power of plastic.
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Today was Hope's FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!!!
I didn't take her this morning (she's going to a school out of district, the best in the county, my mom works there so we were able to swing it) and I decided not to take her because they like car riders to, even on the first day, be dropped off and NOT walked to their classrooms by their parents. So my mom took her this morning, since that's what will be happening from now on. We had a meet and greet on Monday so we could meet her teacher, see the classroom and get a feel for the school. Completely unnecessary for Hope since she's been going to this school since she was two with my mother. She greeted everyone by their first names, right down to the Principal. (We had to have a little talk about that.)
I DID leave work early so I could pick her up from school. If you don't catch Hope right after something happens, she answers questions in monosyllabic grunts. "How was your day?" "Fine" "What did you do?" " Nothin." That kind of thing. As it was, since I picked her up, she told me everything. She had a BLAST and can hardly wait to go back tomorrow. Art was her favorite thing she did today. Each day they have something called "specialties" where they either go to Art or Music, Gym or Spanish. One thing I like about this school is that beginning in Kindergarten they all start learning Spanish. At least 40 minutes a week. I don't care how you feel about Spanish, but I think it's WONDERFUL that they're being exposed to another language at such an early age.
She got her own lunch, didn't drop her tray and is already complaining because "they have meat in EVERYTHING." She wants to bring her own lunch but I have a sneaking suspicion it's because she wants the matching lunchbox that goes with her bookbag. I told her she'd have to eat school lunches for the remainder of this week and two more and after that we'd talk about it. I quite frankly DO NOT want to pack a lunch every night. Blah.
Our new schedule is she can watch the 6:30 -7:00 Simpsons. Then she must do 15 minutes of homework (tonight she had to practice drawing yellow jackets (her class mascot) for a t-shirt they're going to make tomorrow.) Then a fifteen minute bath and toothbrushing. In bed by eight with a 15 minute story. She did it last night...unhappily, and asked me this morning "Why do I go to bed during the day and get up at night??"
I didn't really have an answer.
Here is her very first daily report (click to enlarge):

I thrilled with her school and I'm really thrilled with how much she seems to like it. I hope her experiences here, even in Kindergarten, will be pleasant and build her self esteem and prepare for the more challenging things to come.
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SigOth and are having fun now. Things are good, he's opening up more to me and I'm able to tell him more about my own fears...and even be more honest about when I'm HAVING them, rather than just not saying anything at all and "suffering" through things that make me nervous.
I am (at the request of friend, although she did ask me to email it to her rather than post it here) going to write about my current oral technique. I assume I can get some advice and some constructive criticism (from all those of you willing to read what I write!!) Of course, I'm not at ALL sure I have the courage to write about this. Making jokes about hemorrhoids (thanks for the advice, the dangly bits seem to be gone) is one thing. Discussing actual BLOWJOBS (and more specifically ME giving actual blowjobs) well, that's going to be rough.
I'll probably write it in an email to my girlfriend who's giving me the advice (and I won't tell you who, she can if she wants) and then once I've written it, go ahead and post it here. I do that all the time with things I find too embarrassing. I "pretend" I'm not going to share it with anyone and then of course I do. My brain works in mysterious ways.
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The Great Flood started Sunday. Isn't there supposed to be some sort of 28 day rule?? Because this seems to be happening every 21. And I don't like it one little bit. I probably should go have that sonogram and other tests the GYNO suggested which I ignored. I'd rather ignore it and hope it will go away rather than find something terrible out.
I hope everyone is having a great week!!!!