I Need Some Talavera Too

I was featured on the Bloggers in Sin-City page yesterday!



Now if I can find a fantastic deal on a flight I'll be thrilled, any suggestions?!

I'll have to visit my favorite souvenir shop while I'm down there...I'm getting low on dead cows

Calgary Blogger Meet-Up

Ok kids, time to do something a little crazy - meet each other.

Mich at Who is Mich is organizing a Calgary area blogger meet-up so anyone in the area who wants to come out of their hypothetical closet...wait, I mean shell...? (That's Nutshell to you Carmen) should come down for some drinks and all that good stuff.

Here are the details:

Sunday June 21st at 12:30
Earls on Stephen Avenue
Drinks and Appies

Pretty sure Earls is somewhere around here...

(Erm...Circa 1912)

For you Calgary peeps, I have long hair that's not really blonde or red or brown and wear high heels. Look for me there.

Seriously what color would you call it?

I'm not making any promises to be showered though. It's Sunday morning for gawdssakes

Weekend Fun, Yet Again

So we all know how much I love random weird stupid nights out, right? Last weekend I had another. See, I've been sick and also working two jobs. I got a second job at a piano bar two nights a week for some extra cash flow. So lately I haven't really been out very often.

Friday night I went out with Party-Girl (karaoke naturally) and to this rocker bar on the Red Mile afterward. It was an awesome night but relatively tame for the two of us. We ended up back at her place, and crashed shortly after. The next day we went shopping for ugly sweaters for our other friends Ugly Christmas Sweater party.

Oddly enough I had two ugly sweater parties to attend that weekend. The one I found isn't bad though, long and brown with that tiny diamond print, it's a V-neck. I would even probably wear it again. The selection for ugly was limited, sadly.

I worked Saturday night and was planning on heading to the party as soon as I was done. One of my tables bought me a glass of wine so after I finished work, I sat down at the bar to drink it.

These two guys, as soon as I walked in the bar, started talking to me and bought us three tequila shots. I was laughing with them because they were just SO random and funny but we went outside for a cigarette and it turned out I knew the one guy's sister, very well (I used to work for her for a year) so I'll call him Bro.

They invited me out with them, it was the weirdest thing - we all got along as if we'd met years ago and been friends forever. Joking around, making fun of each other, it was great. I told them about the sweater party and they basically said "Let's go!" first they wanted to stop off and change.

Well the sweater party never happened for us. His sister was home so we were all doing shots of tequila, playing "strip poker" (in which the girls always had clothing on, while the guys were in their tighty whities - the game may or may not have been rigged) . Next, the three of us (minus his sister) headed out to the bar.

The first bar we went to, Bro's friend, I'll call him RedBull (RB) got in a fight outside because he lent his jacket to these two girls. Their boyfriends showed up and didn't like that very much. needless to say we were out of there pretty quickly.

Next we headed to this dance place that has a rave room downstairs and Top 40 and oldies upstairs. It was actually pretty fun but the best was those two guys. They were making me laugh the entire time. I don't even remember what we were laughing about but I do know my stomach hurt the next day.

After that bar, we headed back to Bro's house and all of us passed out on various couches within the hour.

When I woke up RedBull was gone, and it was snowing like crazy outside. Bro made the two of us breakfast (well, BBQ chicken and cheese & crackers - the breakfast of champions). We sat around watching TV and talking for a few hours until RB came back to dissect the nights events, apologize for the fight and rehash the finer points. Bro's sister also got a kick out of the events.

Later that afternoon, Bro drove me from way in the Northwest of the city all the way to the very, very South in the blizzard style snow so that I could go to my other friends Ugly Sweater Party. After meeting a few of my friends, sticking around for a drink and making fun of everyone's sweaters, he drove me back up to my place and dropped me off.

But not before giving me a fabulous goodnight kiss.

A Post About Money

Reading a post on Caz' blog about money kind of got me thinking about my finances. I realized that I have a pretty good grip on it. Sure, I live paycheque to paycheque; I spend inordinate amounts of money on clothes and shoes (especially shoes), I party at least once every weekend, go to dinner at least three times a week and buy my lunches almost every day.

I splurge on Starbucks every once in a while, I take cabs a couple times a week - usually only late at night or on the weekends, I buy makeup and hair products at an alarming rate, I even go to the hair salon just to get my hair washed and blow-dried every couple of weeks.

On the other hand, I have almost no credit card debt (I'm down to $600), no student loans to pay off, and no car payments. I have a savings account with my rainy day fund and an RRSP with enough for a very small down payment on a house.

Therefore I think I'm in an okay position to talk finance.

Don't get me wrong, life isn't all peachy keen. I don't wander around throwing money to the wind while singing a little ditty about my Monolos or diamond-encrusted Diva Vodka (neither of which I have ever owned) .

I've been so poor that I grocery shopped on my Bay (department store) credit card, the only card of 4 that wasn't maxed out. My phone has been disconnected and I went without cable for a long time (partial laziness, partial brokeness, partial not caring enough to watch TV).

I had moved out of Douche-ex' place where I paid $250 a month for rent and into my own apartment where I paid $900 a month plus all my own groceries, nights out and entertainment. That's what I call a huge adjustment. I slept on a semi-futon chair for a month before I got a bed and ate more then any sane persons share of macaroni and ramen noodles.

Eventually I got adjusted, luckily I knew that rent came first and was never late with any payments, I started paying down my credit cards after cutting three of them up and acquired furniture - slowly.

I got my new job a year and a half ago. Better pay, normal hours, nicer people. I also moved to a different apartment (because my rent went up to $2100 a month - damn you "no rent control"! Obviously I moved before that rent came into effect) last year that is cheaper but still spacious.

Luckily my dad made me start an RRSP when I was 19. My work takes ten percent of my paycheque, matches it and puts it in my RRSP as well so I'm doing well on that front. It's strange getting a letter every four months about the amount in there when I don't even notice it missing from my cheque because I've never had it in the first place. It's the best way to save.

I opened an ING account a year ago. I put ten percent of my income automatically into it off each cheque for my rainy day fund. With that money I've gone to Cuba and PEI, I've gotten many a pair of shoes, I've bought Christmas and birthday presents, I'm planning on flying to Victoria for Thanksgiving and possibly Hawaii in the spring.

If I didn't automatically save money I would have spent that all on food, booze, and gawd knows what else. Instead I get to enjoy it. My dad wishes I would save it all and use it for something bigger (like buying my house) but you only live this life once and I'm going to enjoy the freedom I have to travel and have fun while I'm still young and single enough to enjoy it.