A Winning Weekend

I feel like we just had a huge success for The Compact, which resulted in a new living room.

It started with moving the couch.  Our house is sometimes painfully small, especially the living room / dinning room combo space.

Call it a stroke of genius, I thought moving the TV (my least favorite piece of electronic equipment) into the "office" (which was the "yoga room" before takeover) and creating a "man's room" would help create more "living" in the "living room."  Then we could face the couch toward the chairs in front of the window and create a real, live and livable space.

It was my covert plan to remove the TV from literally the center of our house.

I thought I'd meet resistance since Ron's favorite place is the couch, remote in hand.  He was surprisingly open to it.

First we had some measuring and logistical issues to tend to: what furniture do we have now that we can use in the re-work.  We needed something to put the TV on, something to sit on in the Man's Room, something to hold the stereo in the living room.  Technical assessments included outlets and cable.

We determined that the move was, in fact, possible, and decided what we needed.

Let's get down to what we actually bought.

We got a papasan chair and a great rug on Craigslist.

A writing desk at a yard sale for my much needed window-view work area. 

A 6-foot mirror that was not in the plan, but Ron wanted.

A pair of old (I think "antique" is a little too flattering, tho they are very cute) chairs.

A 1920s amoire which holds my yoga-related library.

(Previous two items at The Antique Company, and mirror at Home Style, our neighbors.  Felt good to keep it in the hood.)

And what we reused.

TV stand for TV in Man's Room.

Couch, chairs and ottoman which is not my seat for the desk in the living room.

Old old old TV stand for stereo in living room.

I think the amazing thing is it feels like a completely different house.  It's more inviting, more conversational, more "clean" feeling.  

The Man's Room is tight.  As in close-fitting.  And, Ron might never leave that room now.  Desk - papasan - sleep - repeat.  I promised him we will reassess in a couple of weeks.

I'm utterly blissed out at having a room to go where there is no TV.  It really is that big of a deal.

The funny thing is, I don't know that we would have done it much differently even if we weren't doing The Compact.  We still would have checked Craigslist and our neighbors.  We might have gone to Living Space on Broadway, or looked for a new rug.

Either way, I'm so excited about the change it's had on the house and the feeling of space here.

Continued whining

Saving money does not seem to be one of the benefits of joining The Compact.

We had a wonderful weekend in Point Reyes.  Really, the weather was unbelievable, so much to do, and just to be in raw nature like that was so rejuvenating.

Plus, it was our "romantic get-away" weekend.  And it was.

But it would have cost less to stay home and go on a limitless shopping spree at Crazy Mary's the Apple store.

Not that we bought anything.  It's just that lodging and food and other miscellaneous necessities always exceed my planned per diem.

Well, we did stay some place nice....

And not shopping somewhere else is just as hard (or more so?) than not shopping at home. Like, I thought maybe the trip would ease some of my non-spending anxiety.  But no.

I purposefully did not go into a couple of stores that had fabulous things in the window.

And there was a little dilemma about what to get my mom for staying at the house and watching the kids (dogs and cats) while we were gone.  Thankfully, all she wanted was a seashell and I found one at Sculpture Beach.

Must note, though, that for Ron, the relief and contentment of not having to go into shops with scarves and coin purses and candles and silver jewelry -- all the things I love to leisurely poke around and debate about buying/not buying, which color/scent/size -- probably equals my utter glee of not having a tv for a weekend.

So in that way, we created more time for ourselves, more time to be together.  In a meaningful way. It was nice.

Our next "non-spending" spending is the Bruce Springsteen concert in San Jose.  We're staying the night there, too... but at the Super 8.

Avoidance

I love how creative the ego can be when it doesn't want to do things like meditate, organize tax receipts, or answer its own questions.

I am a very busy and important person and I do not have time to fess up to things like, "yes, I paid the extra postage and had two shirts I'd completely forgotten about re-shipped to me from Canada."

Oh, and then there's that bit about how I went on a girls shopping day and told my friends that I couldn't buy anything because we'd just spent $900 on vet bills.  Completely true (and nauseating), and not the only reason.

We're getting into some good stuff now.

So, yes.  I paid the shipping to get the shirts that I ordered before the 1st of the year.  It felt like a stretch of the rules, but not a break.

Then I got the shirts, and like so many other internet orders, they didn't fit, weren't like the picture and I sent them back (thank you double transport pollution).

If I'll stretch the truth for myself, why not for other people, too!?

Before Christmas a friend took me out to Granite Bay to this ritzy boutique with AMAZINGLY beautiful clothes.  I would be exaggerating if I said there was nothing under $100, but I'm getting so good at that, why not?

Seriously, most of the things there were $200 and up. 

But she was having a sale - 60% off.  And I bought several things.  Beautiful things.  On sale.

Still, I came home and after the buzz wore off, I realized that I can't play with those dogs. Those are big dogs and I'm a very little dog.

So this friend suggested that we get a few more women (other big dogs) and make an afternoon of it. The date was chosen. The dogs were excited.

As the trip got closer, Ron would ask, "Why are you going if you can't buy anything? Why haven't you told them about The Compact? Why do you think you can play with these big dogs?" All very good questions.

Then we had Cat Week.  

Stray from off the street who lost a fight and came to our porch to die (or so it appeared).  His vet trip cost us $300 and him his testicles.  "Un-neutered males are more prone to fighting." 

Ron named him Joe, and we thought we had ourselves another member on Team Feline, 11th Ave.... then the neighbor across the street gave him away.  Strange and a completely different story.

Several days later, our indoor kitty, Shiva, got sick.  She's awkwardly obese and never misses a meal, and suddenly she was not eating, drinking or cat'in around.  We waited it out a few days and ended up taking her in.

Of course they start with an x-ray because Shiva loves to eat string and dental floss.  Do you want to hear about the time I pulled some used floss out of her... ?  No, you probably don't.

No "bunching of the intestines" on the x-ray, so that was good. On to IV fluids and an overnight stay.  Jesus, how does it add up so quickly?

Isn't it amazing how I can avoid the point?

Anyway, even if we were not doing The Compact, I couldn't have spent any money on this shopping trip.  So it made for a really nice distraction and "better reason" for not buying anything than "oh, ya, I've chosen to deny myself simple pleasures of beauty that I deserve!" 

I don't know if I can get into the deeper stuff right now.  Like how there's either embarrassment about who I am (or am evolving to be), or a lack of faith in my friends, or how I wanted to quit the whole thing and buy this really beautiful top (I swear, this top would make me a better person...), or how watching my friends shop brought out anger and judgment (look at how catty and superficial they are!).

I just can't go there right now.  Maybe later....