I’ve been on a major de-cluttering kick in preparation for “Superfluity,” my church’s annual rummage sale. The idea is to strip your life of superfluous stuff. You get cleaner digs and the church raises cash for its various social programs.
Although I knew my place was getting crowded, I had no idea just how much superfluity existed around me. As I fill bag after bag I can only say, “Holy crap.”
On my way home from the store recently I found nine cents, a My Coke Rewards cap and two ice-cream bars.
About that last: While waiting for the light to change I saw a discarded plastic grocery bag on the ground. As a rule I pick these up for my sister to use when she walks her dog. This bag held one of those Klondike Bar six-packs, with four missing.
The supermarket register receipt indicated they’d been purchased only about 15 minutes earlier, and it was a chilly day. You bet I took them home.
If you feel you must say “eeewww,” go ahead. I’ll wait.
My daughter lost the baby. If I’m brokenhearted, imagine how bad Abby and Tim feel.
Here’s my feeling about presents: Once they’re yours, you get to use them any way you like. If you want to regift it, donate it to charity, sell it in a yard sale or run over it with a steamroller, that’s your business.
Which is why I sold two of the gift cards I got during the holidays. They morphed from $75 worth of might-not-get-used promissory plastic into $63.79 worth of Amazon.com gift cards.
Some would look at this as an $11.21 loss. Not me. I look at it as being that much closer to the crib I need to buy.
Great news on the home front: My daughter and her husband are expecting a baby in August.
Some women freak out when they’re told they are soon to be grandmas. They think it means they’re old, or something.
Two thoughts about that:
My friend and former fellow MSN Money columnist Liz Weston really, really dislikes gift cards. She despairs of a world in which a shopper grabs a dozen plastic rectangles from the supermarket’s “gift card mall” and does a mental butt dance: Woo hoo! I’m all done my holiday shopping!
That image bothers me, too. Gift-giving should not come down to, “How fast can I get this over with?
Yes, I know you’re busy. So are a lot of people. But must generosity be reduced to a time trial?
That said, I think that gift cards can make good presents. It’s the intention that matters.
Today’s post is a bit of a grab-bag.
To anyone interested in joining Swagbucks: I might be able to get you 100 extra points. On Saturday evening I took part in an online chat about shopping/rewards sites. Those “attending” were given a code to offer to new referrals in addition to the usual 30-point sign-up bonus.
At some point on Tuesday, Nov. 1, this site achieved a milestone: 500,000 page views. To say I was surprised would be putting it mildly. To say that I’m happy would be stating it precisely. That’s because 18 months ago I wondered not just whether I could sustain a personal website, but whether anyone would care if I did.
If writers are the most insecure people on Earth, bloggers are proof that self-doubt has a sub-basement. Like the 2 a.m. disc jockey a whole lot of us wonder, “Is anyone even listening?”
I’m so tired. Madeline Kahn said it much more melodically as Lili von Schtupp in “Blazing Saddles,” but all I can do is say it outright.
I’d planned to stay in New York City (at a hostel, of course) for several days after SaveUp 2011. But I cut the trip short when I realized that I was dangerously tired.
Can’t-remember-things tired. Bumping-into-stuff tired. Tired past the point where sleep rests me. My brain feels like a glacier: cold and sluggish and with chunks calving off.
Lately I’ve felt unable to do what I consider good work on Surviving and Thriving. It’s taken everything I’ve got just to meet deadlines for the other three sites for which I write.
In fact, some days I feel like crying when I sit down at the computer. Not a good sign.
Four of us will be sharing our stories today at the SaveUp 2011 conference. Well, parts of our stories – we’re limited to 12 minutes apiece.
Our fellow DealPros voted the four of us having the tales they most wanted to hear. We’ll be talking via live stream, and you’re invited: If you RSVP and then “attend,” your name will be entered into a drawing for an iPad 2.