Buy Nothing check-in number 2, or what should I be doing in today's economic climate?

Oh February, you wet and weary month (Thank you, Oscars.  Thank you birthday).  It's a hard month in which not to spend money.  I mean, it's not as if you can spend all that free time picnicking and riding ponies.  No, you are pretty much trapped indoors while the rain tap, tap, taps on your window.  And sometimes indoors means, for example, a mall. Or perhaps a boutique.  Sometimes it means Target.

Yes, this is all just preamble to my admission that I was less than perfect during BUY NOTHING: MONTH 2. It wasn't that bad, but there were a couple of incidents of shopping-as-entertainment.

I'm not going to bore you with another purchase-by-purchase list, but I will say that I did score a couple incredible consignment beauties (not new, and thus totally acceptable under the terms of agreement) like this purse in gray from Rachel Nasvik for $26 (please note that it retails for $595). 

 

All-in-all I spent:

$19 on a vinyl "M" for above Maggie's bed.

$43 on above mentioned purse plus a pair of pants

$60 on a pair of jeans marked down from $200, so, you know, not so bad.  Unfortunately, they are a size too big.

$8 on more lip gloss.  This time on the actual color worn by Drew Barrymore.

$45 on various baby gifts for all of our reproducing friends.

$15 on an amazingly beautiful Calvin Klein dress found on the clearance rack at Marshalls (I know, I shouldn't have been there. But aren't you glad I was?)

$16 white t-shirt with becoming gathers

$24 on 20 pairs of socks for the kids (because it was getting ridiculous). 

$25 on more plastic bins from Target

Total: $255.  

Yikes (but still less than the retail price of the new purse).

Up next: Restaurant-free March.  That's right, we are eating every meal in this month.  Starting on the 2nd because we forgot it was the first and we ordered in sushi.  But now we're serious. Stay tuned to see how we do it. 

And please, comment and let me know if you are cutting back this recession season.  Sometimes I think I am only helping to make the economic downturn worse.  But I can't help it.  I'm nervous.

A thing I like

Grammar Girl.  What exactly is a comma splice and why is it bad?  She knows.  Who or whom?  She also knows that.  She even knows the answer to the whole diphthong debate.  I could spend hours.  Really.

Kim Carnes is the most exciting thing in my life right now

I know, I know, it's been an age.  I wish I had a good excuse but really I've just been wandering around in a sort of daze punctuated by moments spent watching music videos from the '80s (hello, Rick Springfield!) on You Tube.  A few things happened: My dad came back from a meditation retreat in Patzcuaro, Mexico; I went out to a bar and got totally blottoed on two drinks (it's been a while since I've found myself in a bar), I finished reading a novel that I thought I was going to love but didn't, I lost four pounds on Weight Watchers. But, as you can see, they lack a certain, um, narrative cohesion.  Unless the story they are trying to tell is one about arriving at a plodding middle age.  Here's the thing: I have no idea what's going to happen next.  I'm not even sure what to look forward to.  I know that's supposed to be a sign of depression, but I'm not depressed.  I'm just really, really sleepy a lot of the time.  But obviously I need to shake things up a bit, no?  Now that the Oscars are over and my birthday is behind me I need something to look forward to.

Tell me what you are looking forward to.  Maybe I'll get some good ideas.

But here's something: my children have been lovely this past week.  We've had our battles, but on the whole it's been quite pleasant.  Maybe our endless disciplining is paying off?  Or maybe they got together and decided to give the old lady a break.  She just seems so sleepy and all. 

A thing I like

Betty Davis Eyes, which, let's be honest, is a fantastic song that has really withstood the test of time. I miss the days when you could just rent a wind machine and a get together in your friend's basement and make a video.  Although I have no complaints about Thriller either.

What I found in my closet: history, Hungary, and Dave Eggers

Not my real closet

I'm true to my word and last night I began the odious number 37 on my 39 Things to do Before My Next Birthday list. I started with the closet in the guestroom/TV room/office/library.  It's also known as the Mister's closet. The Mister, being the exact opposite of  a clothes horse (what it takes to get that guy to buy a new pair of pants, I swear!) only needs half a closet.  The other half is relegated to, well all that stuff we think we need, but don't really want out and about: Framed art we no longer hang on our walls, a sewing kit, many old photo albums in various states of yellowing, all my beading paraphernalia left over from the '90s, a gazillion instruction books for obsolete electronic devices.  You get the picture.   

But here are some things I found that were kind of cool:

1. A list in my grandmother's handwriting titled "50 best paying markets for writers."  It's dated 1948 and includes a section called "Markets buying humorous greetings."  This reminds me so much of my own yearnings, ambitions and bouts of industrious list-making I almost can't stand it. 

2. Three crumbling copies of the Golden Gate Park News with advertisements for Dr. C. Bouvier's Buchu Gin health tonic, "fine lots" in Larkspur for $200 ($1 down, call Bush 541), and "knit to fit" underwear on Post St.  I can't for the life of me find a date on the thing, but it advertises the new Japanese Tea Gardens so I'm figuring they're from around 1894.  

3. This polaroid of Dave Eggers and some girl I've never seen before. By the way, check out his lovely if nervous acceptance speech for the 2008 TED award.  "The primacy of the written word in terms of nurturing democracy, nurturing an enlightened life."  Oh, Dave.  Sigh. 

4. My student ID from when I studied in Hungary in 1989.  Obviously it was before the whole eyebrow shaping phenomena.  Man, did we eat a lot of sausage back then. 

 

A thing I like

Getting rid of stuff.

Magnolias in bloom

You can buy this image here.

It's drizzly and gray again here.  We desperately need the rain, and yet, sigh, it's not exactly a mood elevator.  Except, of course, when you happen upon a Magnolia tree all bursting and blooming and gettin' crazy with huge pink blossoms.  My Magnolia calls them "Maggie trees" and whenever I point one out to her she nods and says, "Now open your eyes and look for an Olive tree for Ollie."  Isn't that magnanimous of little Magnolia? 

Speaking of twins.  If I lived in this Brazilian town, I would STAY AWAY from the water.

A thing I like

Photo originally published in Domino Magazine

I'm sort of addicted to decorating and home blogs (not the nerdy ones, just the room-porn ones).   I didn't used to be like this.  I used to take my ma's old castoffs (Hello, chipped lavender nightstand. Hello, dresser I've had since birth.) and call it a day.  Now?  Well now our little 1941 house in the Sunset is under constant scrutiny and in the throes of a hundred DIY projects.  It's all due to my job as a home editor at Sunset magazine, where pouring over beautiful homes is part of my job description. 

Anyway, right now I am, like everyone else, loving Design Sponge.  I especially like this little tidbit on how to go about remaking a room.  Personally I start by manically perusing Craigslist for used stuff, but some people, as I understand it, start with a grand vision. 

It's a good thing they're cute

Because they sure are putting me through the ringer.  Everything, and I mean everything, is a fight these days.  Maggie is ripping up books, hitting me and the Mister, putting her fingers in the stamp pad milliseconds after I tell her that the only rule I have for playing stamping is not putting your fingers in the stamp pad.  Oliver is throwing himself to the floor and wailing, throwing his couscous on the ground and then stomping on it. It's like living with two door-slamming, eye-rolling teenagers.  It's rough.  I am not handling it as well as I should be.  I raise my voice.  I yell.  I jut out my lower jaw in a threatening manner.  Tonight, in an effort to speed up time, thus reaching bedtime more quickly, I let them watch an entire hour of TV (Stellaluna on DVD, actually).  This is something we simply do not do.  But, ugh, I needed backup.

There are still traces of my two little darlings.  They are affectionate and cute and sweet often enough to keep me from leaving them at the nearest Target and hitting the road.  But, man, why can't we all just get along?

Here's a little sample of the cuteness that still glimmers through:

OLIVER (switching off my bedside lamp): You have to turn off the the light when you leave the room so you don't waste tickly. 

A thing I like

In the last two-and-three-quarter years we, as a family, have gone through more than 10,000 diapers.  I can't even contemplate the number of wipes.  A bazillion? That's a lot of landfill, people (hallelujah for potties!).  Nearly every single diaper change was facilitated by Diapers.com.  It's cheap.  It's fast.  It's reliable.  It's a company I might even miss doing business with, and I can't say that about very many businesses.  So, if someone you love still wets themselves, you should shop there.  You won't be sorry.

39 things to do before my next birthday

It's my birthday. Thirty-nine.  Doesn't that sound old?  It does, doesn't it?  But it doesn't feel old.  It feels just fine, in fact.  When I stop to think about how we all seem to be so terrified of getting older, it seems rather silly.  I suppose it's the sense of shrinking possibility that does it.  Less time to do the stuff that feels worthwhile.   And the looks thing, of course.  But what are you gonna do?  I had my chance to be 23.  And I can say with certainty that it was no better than being 38.  In fact, it sort of sucked.

Here are 39 things I like to do in the final year of my 30s:

1. start some meaningful and ongoing volunteer work

2. re-read some Shakespeare plays

3. learn to sew, even a little

4. make a headboard for our bed

5. throw a party

6. visit a state I've never been to

7. reunite with some friends I don't see very often: Tara, Vida, Kate, Hilary

8. publish at least one piece in a national publication

9. go sailing

10. take my kids to the circus

11. eat hot dogs on the pier at Chrissy Field with my family

12. swim in the Yuba River

13. take my kids to play in the snow

14. take my kids to see a dance performance

15. go to Vermont

16. host a brunch/clothing swap at my house

17. follow the sun more when it gets foggy

18. eat oysters at Tomales Bay Oyster Company

19. spend a weekend by myself

20. make ice cream and then sundaes with Magnolia and Oliver

21. finish landscaping my front yard

22. find some more good, cheap restaurants to love in San Francisco

23. go the Alameda flea market

24. take a dance class

25. do some more encaustic painting

26. go hiking with the kids in backpacks before they really get too heavy

27. take the kids on a ferry ride to Angel Island

28. clean out the garage

29. eat pupusas

30. plant a few veggies (pickling cucumbers!)

31. spend a weekend away with The Mister

32. write a letter to my representative

33. have a movie marathon day at a multiplex

34. write a rough draft of the novel I'm working on

35. bake bread

36. get a massage

37. organize the closets

38. make a new friend

39. have a San Francisco day with my family: cable car, Swensen's, chowder in a sourdough bowl, Fisherman's Wharf

P.S.  If you want to give me a b-day gift, go over there to the right and become one of my followers.

A few interesting things I saw this weekend

Mostly it rained and I hung out with my lovely family (we made muffins and went to the Discovery Museum). I also saw a few noteworthy things:

Like this little trio walking down Union Street.

And this truck parked in front of our neighborhood Catholic church.

And the way the sun broke through the clouds 

at sunset and lit up the houses of my neighborhood.

Oh, and also, The Mister got me the Thing I like seen here for Valentine's Day.  That guy!  Always thinking.