Thursday, June 02, 2005

Bangers on the birthday

What an emotional day yesterday. Just one good thing after another.

I guess first things first. Congrats to my friend A. and her husband J., who are expecting their first baby in January. Everyone's "jazzed" as she says. And here I was telling her (and another friend that's in the process of trying to make a baby) not to freak out if it didn't happen in the exact month they wanted because your chances are something like 25% for each month. So she goes and proves me wrong and gets pregnant days after she goes off of birth control. That shows me! I seriously doubt things will be that easy for me if/when the times comes.

My mommy turned 50 on Friday, but she had to go to a funeral in Arkansas. Rather, she tried to go to a funeral but apparently to have a memorial service the mortician people want their money. Anyway...I had a surprise party for her yesterday and it went quite perfectly! We went to Paddy's first for a really late Mother's Day dinner. I had bangers & mash, partly because Maggie blogged about them. Ok, that was only about 20% of the reason. The other 80%? If you know anything about me you'd realize that there's not a chance I could miss out on eating phallic shaped sausage called "bangers." I loved the bangers but not the mash so much. I left my sunglasses on the table and realized it right as I stepped out of the door, but I was trying to get her to my place quickly so I figured I would go back and get them later on. I told Mommy that she had to come by my apartment and pick up some stuff for my brothers. She walked in the door and it was the whole "surprise" bit. Geoff took wonderful pictures of her coming in with a priceless look on her face. Ask for pic if interested. Merritt's makes a great cake, too. I had everone there tell either a funny story about Mom or one of the first memories of her. Thus, I got to hear of the very first time my dad saw my mom. Freaky voodoo stuff!

After the party, D. came over. We ran back to Patty's where she waitress told me she didn't find a pair of sunglasses. Liar! But what can ya do? This is why I only buy cheap sunglasses. Well, that and the fact that I can't fathom spending more than $50 on a pair. I would end up sitting on them and breaking them anyway. I also went back to Walgreens to return an unused package of black streamers. I'm 90% sure D. thought I was insane for driving 2 miles to get back $1.62 back on my credit card and I'm 100% sure the customer service manager was pissed, but whatever.

6 comments:

Lavaughn Towell said...

If O.J. has told us anything, it's to just let the sunglasses go if you leave them somewhere.

Ask ET about sunglasses. Still, paying a lot seems to have made her keep an eye on them better, as she still has them after what, four years?

ET said...

Damn! He beats me to the punch again! Okay, back in the days before you and ATM even MET, he sold me on expensive sunglasses. My logic was this: I go through a $10 pair of sunglasses about once a month, maybe once every two months if I am lucky, SO if I buy a pair of sunglasses that are, say, $300, I will take really good care of them, never lose them, and they will last me forever. (Remember, back in 1998 I was a very poor college student working at Old Navy for spare cash, so $300 was a HUGE amount of money to me.) So off we go to Sunglass Hut where ATM FORBIDS me to buy anything involving plastic lenses. I picked out a pair of Revo shades, top of the line...then I balked when I heard the price. True to form, I was going to walk away and the guy offers me the glasses for a better deal, and will throw in case, cleaning cloth, and cleaning spray. SOLD. ATM later raves about how he didn't realize the price of things was NEGOTIABLE and how he paid full price for his Maui Jims, but such is life. That was spring of 1998. It is now spring/summer of 2005 (bet you guessed that one, eh?), so seven whole years have passed. I still have my Revo sunglasses, the case, the cleaning cloth, and the spray. I wear them ALL the time, and they are fabulous. When LT totalled his car, my sunglasses were in the case under his passenger seat. Let me just say, they were about the only thing that survived intact (and Storey Wrecker was NOT going to give them back...they took them out of the car when they towed it and didn't bother to tell me after I spent two hours getting everything out and searching FRANTICALLY for them. I had to specifically ASK, and then the lady tried to argue with me about what color the case was, but she finally gave them up).

I think I ended up paying $275 for them in '98. So, seven years at $275 versus seven years at $10 a month = a HUGE overall savings. 7 years x 12 months = 84 months; 84 months x $10 per month = $840 in cheap sunglasses (and I would still be having to always buy another pair -- see Vimes "Boots" theory of economics). Thus, by shelling out $275 for a really nice pair of shades seven years ago, I saved $565 AND I still have a great pair of sunglasses that show no sign of giving out anytime soon. And better eye health due to the features of the Revo lenses. Go for an expensive pair.

I hope you weren't serious about your friend getting pregnant "days" after going off birth control, unless her birth control was a condom or some such...because the pill is known to cause birth defects if you get knocked up while on it or shortly after stopping. You are supposed to wait like three months or some such time frame. Just saying.

Rachel said...

Your theory of economics would be fine except that I don't use one pair/month. I have no idea how you use that many. And I don't buy expensive ones because I KNOW I won't take care of them, regardless of how much they are. I'm just careless with sunglasses.

And indeed it was the pill. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing bad happens.

ET said...

Well, my experience with cheap sunglasses is that they are...well...cheap! So after about a month a side would fall off, or they would be scratched, or whatever, because I, too, was careless with them. But carry on with your cheap shades if it makes you happy. But keep a sort of mental "tab" on how often you buy and whatnot. LT HATES my Revos...the style (which ATM said was very Hollywood or something along those lines), but they are still totally functional and I love them...and they have the polarized glass lenses so they are GOOD for me. No reason to change.

Well, your friend will probably be fine. It's just a warning that bc people are supposed to heed. Hopefully posting it will alert someone ELSE to the possibilities...I really think the doctor should mention this before s/he puts a girl on the pill. Sheesh!

Anonymous said...

I was on the pill when I got pregnant both times! They're fine, so i'm sure everything will be okay.

Rachel said...

And they're both cute! I've seen pictures.