Ellen is in San Diego, I'm in DC, and we have similar financial woes...sigh.

msdreportgirl (02:30:59 pm): the only thing i'm really dreading about not going out is having to listen to people tell me that i can afford to go out
msdreportgirl (02:31:46 pm): "oh come on you can afford it, it's just one drink..." or "you never go out, you have to come out" or "you never see them, how come you can't make an exception? you went grocery shopping yesterday, i don't see how you have financial problems"
msdreportgirl (02:31:48 pm): grrr
msdreportgirl (02:31:52 pm): :-D
Chambermaid720 (02:32:10 pm): makae up some extravagant lie. say you're saving for a boob job
Chambermaid720 (02:32:26 pm): or to leave to rescue orphans in uganda for a year
Chambermaid720 (02:32:38 pm): they'll leave you a lone
msdreportgirl (02:33:20 pm): i'll tell them i've begun worshipping satan and that my time is better spent praising him
msdreportgirl (02:33:26 pm): i'll have no more friends after that comment
Chambermaid720 (02:33:32 pm): LOL you top me every time...
msdreportgirl (02:33:49 pm): haha, sorry
Chambermaid720 (02:34:05 pm): praising him and building small shrines of gold in his honor
msdreportgirl (02:34:10 pm): yes
Chambermaid720 (02:34:10 pm): hence the lack of funds
msdreportgirl (02:34:16 pm): that's awesome haha

So far since this morning in lovely downtown DC, I’ve witnessed one car accident (Rhode Island Ave, NW) and one fight (Desales Ave, NW). I’m kind of concerned that I should have just stayed at home safe in bed today!

When I was in college surviving on an extremely limited budget in my first apartment, there were certain home necessities that I absolutely resented having to buy. Cleaning products, kleenex, paper towels, lotions, hand soap, etc., are just some examples that fall into my category of productus despisus. These little things add up dammit! So it seemed aisle after aisle, something on the grocery list was always sacrificed.

This attitude has unfortunately remained with me into adulthood – where in the hood of DC, (the land of expensive rent), it’s to the point that I turn my nose up at the lavatory and paper aisles at the grocery store and cringe. (Well, if I get a bottle of wine or the strawberries then I guess I go without mouthwash for another two weeks...) And don’t even get me started on condiments, those things should just magically appear in the fridge. One shouldn’t ever actually have to PAY for ketchup or salad dressing! Take margarine for instance, if I lift the butter dish top, it should just be there, and never go away. There’s nothing like going to butter up your pancakes on Sunday morning only to find out that you’ve been betrayed by your own refrigerator - which is apparently making mayo, cheese and butter sandwiches and devouring them whole while you’re at work. Well, how long can I go without buying butter? A week? Two?

Oh shit, I just remembered I’m out of olive oil.

So jetta has some issues. She’s a V-dub, of course she does. But after a week debacle with her battery (I left the lights on twice, (don’t ask – evil car gnomes I swear...) and the summer heat killed the recharge once – which means I’ve jumped jetta thrice in one week!) I finally took her to a garage. Immediately they thought since the battery is fairly new they’d test the alternator, and from this I received horrible news. The alternator wasn’t charging my battery. They gave me about 4 months of life on the alternator and the battery after a recharge, so instead of dropping over a grand immediately, I left her overnight to have the battery fully charged.

Well, turns out the next day I went to pick her up and they had thought to try another machine and three other mechanics to verify diagnosis, and the alternator is fine - I had just exceptionally drained the battery after all.

And after all the testing and the recharge, my garage rang me out for a penny! So, while she still needs some work soon, she’s my little lemon for sure. But lovingly I’ll refer to her as my little lemoncello.

Oh jetta.

A convo I had today concerning the lovely seductress, Jette Kelly of Jette-Ives:
(http://www.myspace.com/jetteives)

oooohhhh I totally saw her live at the Rock and Roll Hotel – she opened for the Raveonettes way back in March or so. You're right I loved her – she was awesome, totally fell in love with her sultry style. She was pretty drunk too, very entertaining :)

ha yeah i think shes good but there were like 7 people on stage playing with her which was a lil much. I think shed have better success with a smaller band with the basics and focus on her voice as the main component.

She played with just her keyboard(ist?)/mac techy guy when I saw her and they were amazing. She said she wrote Darker Than You so she'd have something to f**k to - couldn't forget that if I tried. Yes, she was exceptionally lushed-up that night.

One of my girlfriends recently described in detail a dream she had about her ex boyfriend, whom she use to live with. In the dream, she was at his house and taking care of her cat, Chandler, and his pet, which she described as a "creature". This is an abreviated excerpt from her email:

"...So I was watching his house and this weird creature he had as a pet...His new girlfriend had all of her stuff in his closet, and a huge bottle of perfume on her nightstand, and her name was Liz...Then a guy came in with his whole family because I guess he was checking on me to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong. But Chandler had taken to eating his creature, or was trying (much like a Tom and Jerry cartoon) so I was chasing Chandler, hitting him on the head to pop out the creature..."

I told her I LOVED the idea of the "ex-creature". In fact, I think all of our ex-boyfriends should get a creature assigned to them! Something we could conjure up to chase away (or in this case, have our cats eat) in the event we find ourselves spending to much time dwelling on them!

*snicker*

"28" highlights

1) Had the day off
2) Roomie woke me with birthday cake (yay cake!) and a mimosa pitcher. She gets three stars.
3) Got crazy hugs
4) Got money
5) Got presents!
6) Got mystery flowers in the mail
7) Got free brunch
8) Got free smoothie
9) Got free ice cream (yeah baskin robbins)
10) Got free paddle boating!
11) Went to the Hirshhorn
12) Slurped Oysters & Shiraz, also free :)
13) Played foos, won one, lost one
14) Car did not break down on drive home to PA
15) Little bro put air in my car tires
16) Parents were tolerable & have guilt from neglected childhood so showered me with free crap ;)
17) Got lots of love from my two other kitties
18) Loved on a pug puppy
19) Loved on lil sis for 2 days (“Get off of me!”)
20) Had a glass of wine with grandma Lucia on her porch
21) Went to drive-in movie and ate too many snacks
22) “RENT” sing along moment with lil sis in car. We'll keep our day jobs.
23) Went to secret shame chain restaurant, Red Lobster. (it sucked – may need new secret shame chain restaurant)
24) Got antique jewelry from Nanny
25) Slept in til noon Sunday – woke up on deflated air mattress.
26) Went swimming & sunning
27) Car did not break down on drive back to DC
28) Called out of work Monday ;)

Sorry pals. Apparently, if I wanna watch my weight, you gotta stay away from the orderves at parties. Or, I just ignore you. hehe.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/04/16/healthmag.sneaky.tricks/index.html

Was this in the forecast? At least it’s not a Monday to boot. I do usually so love a thunderstorm...but at home, curled up in a blanket with tea and a good movie.

Le sigh... At least it’s befitting of my mood.

Not too much to report. Went to Rehoboth Saturday and had a blast. Painted my room on Sunday and then had (many) Margaritas outside at Lorioul - it was perfect. You know it's a good evening when you walk home and later ask - "how did we get back here??" ;)

Here's the weekend. I like how me exclaiming "everybody make a face!" leads to only my buddy greg and i making complete morons out of ourselves. From left to right: Me, Greg, Leslie and Nadia. Leslie is actually a blast from my Ramstein high school past! It's great to have her in DC now and she had never been to an east coasty beach. Leaving DC that morning she asked "so how long is this going to take?" To wich I couldn't stop laughing, I just assumed she knew we were all stuck in the car together for the next 3.5 hours!

So, everyone have a happy 4th! I hope it's filled with hot dogs and fireworks :)