Rainy Day

Today was another regular day of work. After work, I had to drive to a doctor's appointment an hour away from where I live. I could probably find a doctor in this town, but I trust my old doctor, who has known me since I was three or four, when I am truly sick. I'm willing to go to anyone when I'm only slightly sick, but when I'm feeling terribly, I like going to someone that knows my body nearly as well as I do. I got a nearly clean bill of health and am happy to say that I feel immensely better than I did this time last week. I think that follow up appointments should be free...it seems silly to see the doctor for five minutes and have him say “Yep, you're looking and sounding better” and then have to pay them $30 (or more, that just happens to be my co-pay) to tell you that you're better.

After the doctor's appointment, I went out to supper with my parents at a Mexican restaurant. You may have noticed by now, but the only restaurants I eat out at are Mexican or Chinese. I am a fairly decent cook, but for some reason I cannot seem to get these two types of dishes right. I very rarely go out for “American” food, since I can cook it better and cheaper at home. The same is true of Italian food. I just don't like spending $10.00 for a meal that I can make for $3.00 or less at home. I do love going out to eat with my parents, since my father always manages to get the check before I can...some day I'm going to sneak in and pay before we even order, I've had to do that before with a college advisor.

Next, I needed a few things at Wal-Mart, some household items I am nearly out of and wanted to get before next month's abstinence from all things not American made begins. It is amazing how fast personal items and cleaning items can add up. By the time I got everything on my list I had spent $70. I was a bit ashamed of myself, but I didn't get anything not on my list, and I didn't slowly getting the items and tempt myself more with repeated trips to the store. What is truly amazing is that when I got home tonight and got the mail I discovered two envelopes that I had completely forgotten were coming. One held the $20 rebate from my purchase of Microsoft Word in December and the other was a $50 gift card for K-Mart. My credit card gives me a penny for every dollar I spend, and I had been saving these points up for quite awhile to get some new DVDs. I have realized that I really don't need to own any new DVDs, and that the site egregiously overprices their DVDs when I compare their prices to those at discount stores. I decided to trade my points in for something I could use, a shopping card. This way, I get to have a little bit of a splurge when I go to Kansas City the next time. I think that I can make that $50 shopping card last for my next two months of going to Kansas City, but we'll see. I don't really see this a cheating, since I didn't have to pay for the card. I suppose I did, in a way, from my irresponsible spending in the past, but it is over with now, and I won't be earning any more shopping cards anytime soon. Now, the only things which go on the card is my automatic payment for my phone/Internet/cable (yes, I know cable is a luxury, but it would only save me $5.00 a month to get rid of it).

Tomorrow, I'm going to use the coupon for a free trip to the movies I got in the mail. All I have to do is take in a can of soup for the soup kitchen (I'll probably give them two since it is a for a good cause). It will be a nice evening out. I'm going to take my bottle of water with me so that I don't have to buy soda (if they get grouchy about this, I'll just tell them that I have to have water for my cold). If you feel bad about sneaking in a bottle of water, most movie theaters will give you a glass to get water from the fountain at, or sell you a cup of ice for $0.25, which is far cheaper than paying the $2.00 they want for a bottle of water. Who knows, maybe I'll go crazy and stick a few Hershey's kisses in my purse so that I have something to snack on while I watch my free movie.