Wednesday, Dec. 03, 2003
Turning off the heat, posted at 2:31 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I'm trying to use my heat as little as possible right now. Since no one else is living in the part of the house that I am in, I can keep it down as low as I want it. I've only turned it on a couple of times over the last week, and that's only for a couple of hours at a time. I usually turn it off at night, making full use of my 75-pound heating pad and all the blankets I can muster. I always turn it off during the day. Last night, I came home at 5:30 and turned on the heat up to 62 degrees for a few hours, then turned it off when I went to bed. My heating bills were incredibly high last year, and I don't want that to happen again.
I am getting ready to begin Christmas shopping. I actually officially began over the weekend, picking up a low-carb slow cooker cookbook for my mom, who is big on the low carb diet thing and loves crockpots. I have two problems with Christmas shopping. First of all, I feel like I'm one of the easiest people in the world to buy for. I'll be happy with a book, a DVD, a CD, a make-your-own sushi kit, clothes, just about anything. My interests are eclectic and I'm way more materialistic than I'd like to admit. On the other hand, I belong to a family that don't have those interests, and, if they do, they don't want them as gifts. For example, my parents see no benefit to owning DVDs. I do. I like to watch and rewatch movies, and don't like to rent movies because I rarely remember to return them on time and often the fines are more than the cost of the DVD. In addition, the things that my family is crazy about in the ways that I'm crazy about most things are things that I know nothing about - like my sister's interest in makeup and my dad's interest in Carrhart products.
So, what happens is, I'll be shopping, and see all these things that I'd love to get, but figure I won't. I even look at those pre-packaged stereotypical "gift" packs of things like cologne and shower radios and think, "Wow, I'd really love to have that." Then, in previous years, I would tend to buy myself some things while I was shopping for others. I would go to Old Navy, and pick myself up a sweater to go with the clothes I was getting for Heidi.
So, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I found myself at Best Buy. Since I have no idea what my parents would like, I often go with music, because they used to like music even if they don't anymore. I picked up Bob Segar's Greatest Hits for my dad and Sheryl Crow's Greatest Hits for my mom. At the same time, I'm walking around, and thought to myself how much I'd really like the R.E.M. Greatest Hits CD, how much I'd like the Chingy CD, how much I'd been enjoying Outkast songs ("Holida Inn") on the radio ("Hey ya"), and how intrigued I was by Nelly's remix album. It's so dangerous for me to go into a music store.
I still don't have any money, am still struggling to make car payments and insurance payments, and, don't worry, I didn't buy any CDs. I had decided not to buy any for myself, basically because I thought I'd be able to get one of my students to burn at least a couple of them for me (bad teacher! bad teacher!) and, if not, could get better deals at Soundgarden. Then the line was too long to spend $13.99 on a Bob Segar CD. If it was a good deal, then maybe, but it wasn't. So I bought nothing, which is certainly for the best.
I love Christmas. I don't mind that it's too commercial, because I genuinely enjoy giving gifts. But, this year, I've got to make sure that I'm not giving myself any gifts along with others.
By the way, my mood is incredible right now. Five mornings in a row to the gym does that to me. Have got to remember that. Especially tomorrow morning, when my alarm will be going off at 4:40am after waiting tables tonight until 11pm.