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When you ain't got nothin, you got nothin to lose
by anna at 06:06 PM on November 14, 2005
I am sitting here in this huge house, shrouded in total darkness. My PC monitor provides the only glimmer of light in the whole place. That and---pop cultural irony drum roll please---the big screen TV. On and on it prattles about tsunamis and floods and politics and innuendo, all punctuated by ads for drugs to remedy disgusting maladies that have even more revolting side-effects. I don't know why I let it creep into my house but I do.
Why the darkness, you ask? It's part of our aforementioned thrifty kick, brought on by this $600 deficit we've been running for months. Or at least that's what our bank statements say. We've never even bothered to check its accuracy, let alone balance our accounts. We've just lived and spent willy-nilly and now it has all come home to roost.
I have to admit I don't mind that much. In fact, I am kind of into it. On Sundays I get in line to wait for an hour for the cheapest gas in town. Then its off to Total Wine for the best deal on 5 liter box wine and off to Shooper's for my Stouffer's lunches, 3 for $7. No lights, no heat. Shopping aroundv online for deals in car insurance and credit card rates. Reusing condoms.
Through all these measures we have managed to eliminate the deficit altogether. But here's the thing: I have lost a part of myself, the carefree money snob. I used to roll my eyes when people would go on and one about how much they saved at Walmart or Costco---right down to the cents. I've never set foot in either store, I'd smugly say. And it is true, I haven't. Until recently.
Man, there is riff-raff like you couldn't imagine in those places! You know how tornados and hurricanes arrive on land and immediately make a beeline for the nearest trailer park and decimate the whole place and all its inhabitants? Well, these are the survivors and I am not at all accustomed to rubbing elbows with these folks. Urban poor, yes, these tattooed yokels, no. Until now I have never heard the redundant term "ink pen."
Where do these people come from? How did they wind up on the short end of every stick? At least the urban poor have their hippity-hop cultural cachet to hang their hats on. These people have nothing but expired coupons for a free early bird breakfast at Denny's.
comments (10)
When do you go from being a carefree punk to an old geezer?
When you start caring about saving money. Not just the dollars but the cents too.
I know I haven't a clue of the day that I passed from punk to geezer, I just know that a lot of the "new" music is too loud, yet I play all my music loud and proud. I guess it happens to all of us, I'm looking forward to being a burden on society when I retire.
Anna....How in the hell do you re-use condoms??? Do you wash them or turn them inside out?
by Long Time Lurker at November 15, 2005 9:48 PM
I can still recall the first time my stylist cut hairs out of my ears. Bah! What are hairs doing growing out of my ears and making me look like Herman Munster or Mr. Burns?
LTL, you don't.
by anna at November 16, 2005 7:36 AM
Those poor folk, when you see em, a lil part of me wishes I could experience some of that. I don't mean in the toff slumming it at Uni sense. Buying a tin of beans for dinner and shopping at a charity store for your clothes, and then when you leave Uni you go back to daddies millions and take a spin in your porsche. Not that kind of experience. Those toffs know they have daddie to rely on, me too, I can fall back in any direction and get caught by somebody, s'why being carefree is easy, people have got my back.
But to actually have been born into that kind of poverty, some of these people are so stupid they don't realise that there is more to life than a free meal at Denny's. They float through life without questioning their place on the planet or thinking beyond their immediate surroundings. Marry aunt Lucy and have some kids, get a tatt and maybe a job at the factory outside of town. Life's good. I got mah kids and mah wife, and a job, I got cash coming in and... what the fuck else is there?
I'd love to have that, maybe I could go a day without thinking about things which are completely beyond my control. I can look around and see my country going to shit in some instances, but if I had the mentality of these people... I wouldn't even bother looking at anything beyond my next free meal at Denny's. I wouldn't have an opinion on just about anything! Heh.
"Vote for the guy with the brown hair, my dad had brown hair and he was trustworthy." *tick*
"Get off my lawn!" *cocking rifle*
"Get the dishes done woman!" *slurp*
Be great!
by Ex Crimson Guard NCO at November 16, 2005 12:58 PM
What are you saying, ignorance is bliss? Though I must say they seem to lead relatively uncomplicated lives.
by anna at November 16, 2005 6:15 PM
I'll have you know Im related to those people. Poor saps.
by Clonereject1138 at November 17, 2005 4:34 PM
Yeah ignorance is bliss... only, I used a broad 'I have no idea what I'm talking about' brush to cover it. The "these people are so stupid" thing... exposed me as the toff I am, completely oblivious to the trials of the truly poverty stricken. But still, poor education, no education, all makes for an interesting life... the highlights of which can ony be seen through the eyes of 'those poeple', while looking at the coupon for Denny's.
Getting chuffed to choking about a coupon doesn't even cover it, and making sure you have enough beer in for the weekend. Uh... Since sex takes up a lot of my thinking time, I could define them by it. Might not be right, but I always imagine these people making the act so utterly primal that it's secondary title of love making sails right over their heads... some just wouldn't connect the two acts. The inability to seperate passion from base needs. Lacking completely a capacity to appreciate or understand the difference between all out sexual desire, and a controlled act of seeing that desire fulfilled. They hump like dogs... is what I'm saying. There's no other way to hump, ya just hump. This is how I see em... I'm probably waaay off. Heh, it wouldn't be the first time, but I could care less.
Heh... it's three in the morning, WHAT am I going on about!? I'm talking shit. What I am sayig is... those people baffle me. Since intelligence is relative to environment... they'd have me beat if I were forced into their neighbourhood to live as they do. Oh yeah, I'd be starving by the week's end, or at the very least I'd be sporting a beard and baggy eyes, be pissed out of my skull with my new neighbours as they give me pointers on the best places to pick up coupons.
by Ex Crimson Guard NCO at November 17, 2005 10:56 PM
I agree about the prima sex. And it's also why a lot of classier folks deign to slum with these folks.
Ignorance is bliss but the opposite is also true, it is ignorant to be blissful. That's why so many bubble-headed celebs dig yoga or Kabala or whatever.
by anna at November 18, 2005 7:35 AM
Sure, you can claim ignorance and not get blamed, but think of all the stupid things you did cuz ya didn't know better. Like hire a whore and get a STD.
by Clonereject1138 at November 18, 2005 11:01 AM
She was a professional mood enhancer I'll have you know... and it wasn't a STD she gave me, it was LSD. I still suffer from flash backs, not unlike the symptoms of Tim Robbins in Jacob's Ladder. I remember the whor... uh, mood enhancer's head spinning at an alarming rate anyway.
What I meant by the sex analogy was, that they apply that 'just do' sense to every aspect of their lives, except they 'just don't' seem to want to climb outta the shit they're in. There's no deliberation, well, at least not on a wider scope of: "Shit, I have to get out of here... where's the nearest school?" When I said they'd have me beat if I was forced into their neighbourhood; chances are really rather good of my being out of there on the second day. I'd seek help from organisations that are in place to help me get whatever qualifications I need to do what I want to do, and I'd find a job away from the slums before I could even become apathetic enough to accept what's been given me, kick back, and get drunk.
That road leads to nowhere. Except maybe a little house with auntie whatsername, a nice tatt, a job in the factory outside of town and couple of beers and coupons to make my day.
by Ex Crimson Guard NCO at November 18, 2005 12:22 PM
My local paper now calls prostitutes "sex workers." Maybe "professional mood enhancer" would be even more PC.l
by anna at November 19, 2005 7:51 AM