Man house stuff is expensive

I am returning everything that still has tags on it to pay for more useful stuff that will actually impact my quality of life. Like ensuring I have enough in savings to not get panicky when something inevitably goes wrong in a 100 year old house. And buying paint so that the little bedroom doesn't look like a kids circus fantasy.

Shopping for clothes used to be really fun when every purchase wasn't laden with house guilt/hope. Plus I am going to the Bay area for a wedding in November and would much rather have ample funds to spend on vacation (since I planned it out to stay a week). A great date to a new restaurant while on vacation is infinitely more memorable than any of the DC dresses I bought just because they were marked down twice. If I feel like it and have internet, I will post a memorial to the closet that could have been.

It is strange how my attitude has shifted over the last month+ of living here in Georgetown. The novelty has worn off re: being walking distance to a consumer mecca. Occupying the fanciest house I've ever occupied, in the fanciest neighborhood I have ever inhabited has made me a little more class conscious than usual. I intend to stop looking for the quick thrill of consumption for consumption's sake. Besides, I have a lot of career related goals to accomplish in the fall that would be served best by a moratorium on the lure of window eshopping/consuming. Not having a steady shipping address helped break me of that habit. I should be able to keep it up once I move back to Pittsburgh.

I am off to return the wireless aircard, get a service credit from At&t, and then finish writing my museum lecture for tomorrow. Hopefully I won't need internet since I don't feel like hanging in a cafe.

Sierra Aircard= epic fail

My formerly perfect solution to the lack of unprotected wifi here is the worst. So unreliable! Constantly booting me if I try to do anything more complex than a simple google search. And because I use a Mac, At&t is unable to offer me adequate customer support. So I get shuffled between Apple and At&t, both of which perpetually have "longer hold times than usual." How long does it take until the average hold time estimation increases? If every time I call them it is "longer than usual," doesn't longer than usual just become usual? Regardless, I will be returning this piece of crap technological miracle before Wednesday which marks the end of my 30 day trial period. I will be reimbursed for my trouble and already got service credits when I called to complain about the inadequate customer support for a product that was promised by them to be my perfect solution.

Anyway, I am unable to blog with any reliability as a result. Without internet service it is hard to locate stock photos of recent purchases or upload my own photos of anything. It also means I can't read the blogs and browse the websites that drive me to post in the first place.

But just because I don't have internet service doesn't mean I haven't consumed. As I've mentioned in previous entries, I recently bought a house with my partner so curbing spending is priority number 1.

Some things that help me save money: I have no DC rent to pay and limited bills. I don't eat out much. It is easy to resist seeking out great restaurants because I am alone a lot of the time. Without company I don't feel much incentive to dine since a huge part of the dining experience is social. I've been cooking a lot and occupying myself planning inexpensive meals for the week. My lack of internet service and address transience mean I don't shop online and I don't browse as many websites that enable or encourage conspicuous consumption. The decrease in online consumption is somewhat neutralized by living in a neighborhood with such great brick and mortar shopping. But the lure of novelty has worn off and my drive to browse has diminished with it. I never thought the day would come when I could choose to walk to Anthropologie or Zara or Barney's Coop but opt instead to go home.

Tomorrow I will go with an e-pal to an outlet mall that has a Nordstrom Rack and Off Fifth. Hopefully there won't be too much that catches my eye. I am more excited to hang out with a friend and spend some time exploring new territory. I have to stay financially focused on the projects that Chris and I have planned to increase the value of our shared investment. And on making our house a home.