coexistapart's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peggy's pantry full of bountiful bacon Yesterday was a day where I felt very good at what I do, regardless of its non-existent impact on my life not having tangible direction. I had the car, so I took the third Christmas box for Big's kids to be FedEx'd. It was a little more expensive than I thought--I didn't weigh it, thinking it was as heavy as the others, but in reality it might have been just on the line as to whether it was cheaper/more cost effective to ship by FedEx or UPS. Went to the automated post office machine and dropped off an item I was able to sell very quickly Second Chance; I hope the original buyer doesn't cause too many problems, though I did inform her throughout. *knocks on wood* I went to the library and a couple of the newer books that I wanted, which were not in the system at all last month (i.e. they had not even necessarily been ordered because they were not on the radar as something this town would read...) were on the new book shelves. In addition to "The Zookeeper's Wife," "The Last Lecture," and the new Paul Auster, I also picked up the first three Little House books and Emily of New Moon, some of my all time favourite childhood books. I love Lucy Maud Montgomery; she's most famous for "Anne of Green Gables," but she wrote so many other books. I probably had two dozen when I was growing up. They were the quintessential, Canadian-version of Laura Ingals Wilder...just books about growing up at the end of the 19th century. They were the first to truly make me happy in a way I could reread them ad nauseum and seem to disappear from real life. I'm not so generally depressed that I'm looking to make that happen, but on the other hand it's a cheap way to feel happy for a couple of days. When I was at FedEx I remembered that Old Navy was in the mall. It's hard not to: it's a big-box mall with only five stores, however we only got Old Navy in Canada say four years ago...after I'd move to Toronto for college, and I was pretty much doing all of my clothing shopping at US Outlets of Banana Republic. Old Navy featured prominently in my Women's Studies class in freshman year, with the prof talking about all the different "Made in" labels she cut out of her children's clothing. Sri Lanka. China. India. Taiwan. Nepal. Indonesia. We've seen them all; it's not like you're going to open up a 3/4 tee and see "Made in Norway." However there's no denying that Old Navy makes some really, really cute clothes. I can't say that I try to avoid shopping there based on ethics, when the reality is their clothes are too cheap for my taste except when I see something super cute like a $15 bikini or a long underwear-style waffle shirt that I get for so little money and then wear to death. But now because everything this year has become rapidly so ethical to me--I pretty much stopped eating meat (and subsituted with legumes or tofu) unless I was buying ethical products from Cumbrae's--but now I walk into Old Navy, and I see beleagured, hunchback sweatshop workers amidst already inexpensive items marked down an additional 30% because the economy is so bad. I know I sound like an idiot, and the amount that I listen to NPR and have been following this progression since late September means I shouldn't be surprised, but everyone is doing so badly it's unbelievable. I mean we've probably received 10 different coupons in the past week, half of which I will actually use because they are at stores, for items that I was likely to buy anyway. I went to Target to buy some food for a gift box to ship to the pool, some packs of onesies for Juanita, the toys for my church donation tree kids, some cards to send out, and gifts for our mailman and the weekend security guard, and I got a $5 off card. For spending $70. Then I went to Albertson's where I bought all inhumane products (I'm not sure that Big is at the point where we can go meatless if it's not cruelty free,) because somehow he neglected to leave grocery money. So I have like $20 for food until next week, which in theory is fine in and off itself because we do keep cans in the cupboard, but a gallon of milk is on sale for $2.99, I get a chicken for $4.44, and a think of picnic cuts of pork for $4.00. Forget that I already KNOW what conditions those animals had to be raised in for them to live, be processed, and shipped PROFITABLY for $4.50 but it's still a shock. The bit I was going to say about Old Navy before was that I went into browse sweatshirts options at Old Navy because sometimes they have items that say something cute that might make it look like it's NOT bargain from Old Navy. I need to buy a sweatshirt and sweatpants for a 2.5 year old boy. Items were regular price $16 each, which seems absurd to begin, now 30% and with a tee I found for $1.99 I was able to actually get the gift in under $25, like I was supposed to. And, with that, I better get going. I read my book late into the night yesterday and the day before. Today I need to wrap those gifts, work on some financial paperwork, probably list some more items on eBay. eBay is not going so well. Part of it simply could be that I started off so well, just like my cousin in real estate, that it comes easily to think that everything afterwards will always be so successful. Some items are just not selling. This does not inherantly surprise me, but I'm disinclined to re-list them right away because I think the market IS cold. No one has any extra money with the winter holidays around the corner, and unless it's something very premium, it's too late for most people to bid, hope to win, and get it shipped home in time to wrap it either for the 25th or Channuakh. I'm not posting anything between December 20 - January 5 at least, but for now I have to muddle through the next 10 days with $5 here and $40 there for various items, none of which are the ones that I know COULD actually sell. It's weird. Big claims that it's fine, he's happy that I'm still making the effort, and that he was prepared for this. But then like 2 hours later he's asking about when we can expect them money and I'm saying "what money?" because the first $120 has to go to pay eBay percentages from last month. That is a whole separate kettle of fish that I'm not going to get into, but that door got closed last month (or October?) and I just don't know how to nudge it open...at least not until after Christmas. It's disconcerting because the more I think about it the more it upsets me, and the less I think about it the more I believe "he's a big boy, he can do what he likes, it doesn't effect my finances or spending," but then on the other hand I think back to Suzie Orman episode where she was scolding this widow for "willfully ignoring" and being consciously complicit. Etc Etc. Anyway. Yesterday was also hugely productive cooking wise. I made rice pudding, BBQ sauce, roast chicken, pumpkin soup, and pork ribs all from scratch. I prepped the mire poix to make chicken stock today, and I think I'm going to make some coffee cake for tomorrow. Lots to do, nothing pressing really, but just trying to keep up with my responsibilities. 9:27 a.m. - 2008-12-10 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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