Budgeting According to Ben

Me: Did you talk to the TV people about why our rates increased?

Ben: Yeah, a couple of promotions expired and we're not eligible for any other promotions until next month. I was thinking maybe we should just cancel the service.

Me: *blink* (while experiencing panicked thoughts at the loss of HGTV and Bravo)

Ben: ...but college football is going to start soon...

Me: That's totally what I was thinking.

Ben: I could just go to the pub to watch the games...

Me: *blink*

Ben: ... but then it would end up costing us more in beer than if we just paid for the TV service. We better not cancel anything just yet.


There you have it, folks: Real Housewives < $ than beer. TV WINS!

Sick Days

Do you remember when sick days used to be kind of fun? No? Maybe your mom didn't let you take "sick" days when you really just needed a break from life. No wonder I became a psychologist. I was raised with mental health days before I even knew what they were. It's also no wonder that I never came close to winning the perfect attendance award.

That was then, though. Now sick days involve cancelling sessions (which means not making money) and cancelling fun plans. I cancelled seven fun things over the last three days. This is probably an indicator of why I got sick. Maybe seven fun things in three days is too much for a healthy, balanced person. Next time I run into one of those, I'll ask.

What I did get to do was catch up on various Real Housewives episodes and reruns of Friends. Entertaining, yes; but not as entertaining as my real friends. So, I'm just going to sit here and remember the good old days when I used to have a social life. Sigh.

If I had a daughter...

Today's Voicemail

Vivi: Hi, Robin...

(tif in the background): It's just me, Vivi, wanting to call and say hi.

Vivi: It's just me, Vivi, wanting to call and say hi.

(tif in the background): Bye.

Vivi: Bye.

(Vivi in the background): She didn't talk.

Everything Is Illuminated

I just finished this book and I might have a new favorite author. If you recall, Jonathan Safran Foer also wrote this, so I guess it's not a stretch to say he has been a big influence in my life. And that was BEFORE reading his novels, which usually touch me in more meaningful ways than non-fiction.

One of the many gems:

Jews Have Six Senses

Touch, taste, sight, smell, hearing...memory. While Gentiles experience and process the world through the traditional senses, and use memory only as a second-order means of interpreting events, for Jews memory is no less primary than the prick of a pin, or its silver glimmer, or the taste of the blood it pulls from the finger. The Jew is pricked by a pin and remembers other pins. It is only by tracing the pinprick back to other pinpricks - when his mother tried to fix his sleeve while his arm was still in it, when his grandfather's fingers fell asleep from stroking his great-grandfather's damp forehead, when Abraham tested the knife point to be sure Isaac would feel no pain - that the Jew is able to know why it hurts.


When a Jew encounters a pin, he asks: What does it remember like?
 

Thrive

Kaiser Permanente is trying to put me out of a job one 61 second radio ad at a time. Plus my voice is way less soothing than Allison Janney.

And then he mispoke

I'm so far behind on posts that I'm starting to refer to this blog as my scrapbook.

Until I can post pics from Europe and our Dirty 30 Birthday Roast, let this tide you over: Tonight Ben and I were warming up tacos for dinner (note: trust that when the taco guy says he can feed 30 people, he really means it - don't buy more food). I was giving Ben a big hug when he leaned back so he could see my face and the following ensued:

B: Hey, I was thinking of something today at work that made me miss 17 year old Robin.

R: (stepping back from embrace) Excuse me?

B:  (reaching for me) Come here! I was just saying that something reminded me of you at 17 and I missed you.

R: What's wrong with (almost) 30 year old Robin?

B: Nothing! Nothing!

R: Are you trying to make me jealous of myself?

B: No! What I'm trying to say is that I thought of a memory of you and it made me want to leave work right then so I could see you!

R: Riiiight.

B: I'm serious! If I could just remember what it was, you'd really like it. It's a compliment!

R: Mmmm Hmmm. Keep digging your hole.

If his memory doesn't get real sharp real soon, Ben's going to feel like he's 17 again and sleeping on the couch in his bedroom (because he was too lazy to make his bed).