Debt Becomes Her

With Xmas just around the corner, nothing gives me more displeasure than not being able to shop for family and friends but most of all myself. There's nothing like succumbing to the pressures of advertising and buying a sparkly gift for yourself that will put a smile on your face for years to come, er okay rather weeks to come. I buy something for someone else and then I buy something for myself that's how it's always been. This year has been a completely different story. With the cost of everything going up, up and away, I've had to tighten the purse strings for extra things like shopping :( Let's face it everything has gone up, condo fees, property taxes, regular taxes, gas, food - everything! Wages don't necessarily go up to reflect the current increase in everything which is really crappy. 

I'm the opposite of the expression "Good on Paper". I look great when you see me in person. I make an excellent first, second, third impression to infinity - always, that is until I have to go into a bank for a simple thing like an increase to my overdraft. You walk in all confident and they make you sit and wait in this little office, while they print out a long list of all your transactions and then ask you questions that they very well know the answers to, simply to make you feel bad when you're caught in a lie. Banker, "What is your current salary?"  Me, "I make er $75K a year".  Banker, "It says here that you made a monthly deposit of $700 last month". Then they show you the long list and you look at the "Banking Specialist" with a confused look and say, "That's not me, there must be some mistake". "Did I tell you that I'm the opposite of good on paper?"

So here's the crux of the situation. When you take two years off from the work place (because the company you worked for was suddenly sold), you tell yourself that the universe is telling you that now is the time to finally finish that damn degree, as that will help in securing an even better job. So you go full throttle with the task of completing a Liberal Arts degree you started in 2001 (part time), and are over the moon when you finally graduate in the spring of 2011. But wait, as it turns out this actually guarantees nothing in the market place apart from personal satisfaction. Apparently employers don't give a crap about whether you have transferable skills and an Arts degree to back it up with. So forget about finding your "dream job", it basically comes down to anything and everything that pays, because the bills don't take a hike just because you don't have the funds. So then when your uncle asks you why you didn't become a lawyer, you say, "Let's see, because it took 10 years to get my undergraduate degree on a part time basis, while I worked full time and paid for it on my own". In your head, you give yourself a window of "I'll make it big at 25", when that doesn't happen, you tell yourself 30, when that doesn't happen, then it's 35, well you get the gist. So now you convince yourself that a steady job with health benefits and a small monthly allowance for clothes, or entertainment or groceries will suffice.

People with money often say to people without money, "All you ever think about is money". A cold and detached statement made by rich people who are completely unaware of the struggles that ordinary mortals have to endure on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. It's true that most of us do live pay cheque to pay cheque to make ends meet. It's precisely for this reason that our credit cards & lines of credit have become our closest friend. During this blissful time, when everything is a haze, credit cards seem to understand us and are there for us. It's as if a spell has been cast to muddle the reality of what's actually happening, but we don't question it and blindly pay the crazy interest until we can't. When we need to feel better about ourselves, we buy a lipstick, a dress, a pair of shoes.  My Russian friend Karina always says, "I hate living alone". (it's only been a year). "After I'm done paying my mortgage and all my bills, I barely have anything left to eat". After a 5 minute pause, "Did you see my new Prada shoes?" Me, "I thought you just said...?". Karina, "I had to have them, it's an investment for $1,000, I got them on my credit line".

Sometimes, credit cards serve as a pseudo income during a time of need, loss of a job, a car emergency, a home emergency, or to compensate for the shortfall of bills for the month. Or sometimes, it's just simply to feel better about ourselves and to cheer ourselves up temporarily. For me, shopping is the ultimate high, I'm euphoric when I've had some good shopping & great deals, and then I crash... I never understood that when you don't need a credit card or an increase to the card, that's when it's automatically offered by the credit card companies and banks. And, when you desperately need an increase to get you through a crisis, the door is completely shut. How is this fair, that is the question? Money doesn't grow on trees, but money does make the world go round. 

Moody Girl Out.

The Girl With The Red Face

I'm a firm believer in good skin care, always have and always will be. I studied make-up artistry and esthetics eons ago, long before university, because I wanted to know as much about make up and skin care (mostly for myself) and for my sister Thalia, who has also benefited from my knowledge. Over the years I've kept up with updated information, new make-up, techniques, what's in vogue, and of course new skin care innovations, creams etc. I don't make it a habit of offering unsolicited advice as I don't want to appear as a big head, but when someone asks me something, I'm always happy to share my "secrets" (well not everything, but enough).

For the last two years my Russian friend Karina has been hounding me every chance we get together or talk on the phone for skin advice. "I look old, my pores are too large, what should I do?" "Why do you have such smooth skin, do you use Botox?" "Why do you look so much younger than me?" Anyway, you get the drift, for the record, I don't use Botox (not that there's anything wrong with that if that's your preference). Karina is younger than me, but looks older due to excessive sun exposure, like tanning on the beach for hours without sunscreen (bad), drinking too much Vodka (it's a Russian thing) and not eating enough fruits and vegetables (good diet is everything). It doesn't help that she doesn't drink enough water. Being the good friend that I am, in an effort to help I always email her articles on new products, the latest study on antioxidants (the best fruits and vegetables), the benefits of water. I told her that Botox, chemical & laser treatments should be kept as a possible last resort and that she was too young for that. In an effort to dissuade her from more radical skin treatments (trust me she doesn't need it), I even compiled a comprehensive list of best skin care products (based on my personal R&D), and healthy foods for Karina to include in her diet.

So last Saturday I attended my friend Mariya's dinner party to celebrate her belated birthday. It was an intimate event, some of her close friends (including me), Karina (her other close friend) and Mariya's young kids (didn't expect that). Imagine my surprise when I walked in and saw Karina looking absolutely horrific, no exaggeration. She looked like she was part of the dinner menu itself and had been placed in boiling hot water for an extended amount of time, taken out of the water, cooled down & dunked back in the boiling water, eventually taken out and then prodded for several hours. I couldn't help but wonder if lobster was on the menu. But you catch my drift. It turns out that the idiot decided to get a chemical peel and laser treatments a week before her 31st birthday (as she thinks she's over the hill). Well someone ought to roll her down the hill as it was hard to look at her, while simultaneously wanting to stare at her face at the same time. I was thinking to myself over dinner, "What the f---k did you do you to your face, you moron?" While trying to have pleasant conversation with Mariya and her friends and trying to pretend Karina wasn't there. Karina, oblivious to the overall reaction to her face, innocently asked, "Do you like my hair, I lightened it?" I looked around the dinner table to see if it was just me and it was confirmed by the other shocked faces that Karina was either clueless or in complete denial.

When Karina decided to suddenly bail after dinner due to a sudden suspicious headache, after receiving a mysterious text. Mariya pulled her aside and said, "What the hell have you done to your face? You look awful!" I wasn't going to say anything at the dinner party, but Mariya asking was perfect. Karina became extremely defensive. She looked my way and snarkily replied, "Creams don't work". I simply shook my head and replied, "No more skin care advice for you". What I should have said is, "Have you actually looked in the mirror?" My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Mariya's six year old daughter tugging at her mother's dress and sweetly asking, "Mommy what happened to Aunty Karina's face?" Karina quickly gathered her stuff, waived goodbye and left.

I called Karina to wish her a Happy Birthday today and to also inquire about the dinner plans for tonight, and she made an excuse about not wanting to celebrate today, preferring to stay indoors (solo). Hallelujah! Yes please stay indoors, because truthfully, I don't want to be seen in public with her until her face looks normal again. Don't feel bad for Karina, I know her, she has an intimate dinner planned with her on again/off again lust interest, and that's the real reason she cancelled. I just hope she wears a veil!. At the end of our phone conversation Karina said, "My next chemical peel is in another few weeks and I know my skin will look amazing". While she was blathering on, I was wondering if I should give her a mask for her birthday present. My response to Karina, "No comment". Enough said!

Moody Girl Out.