February Madness is now March Madness

I went to a Japanese novel reading last night--Rieko Matsuura's THE APPRENTICESHIP OF BIG TOE P (and in case you were wondering, the P stands for penis (and fyi, the Japanese word for big toe-penis is oyayubi no penisu)) about a girl who wakes up one afternoon and her big toe has turned into a penis. Recommended reading, that one. Also the event was very good, especially since the book translator was there and we all know how I feel about people who translate Asian literature (hint: they are awesome).

But that is not the point of this post, actually. I met a friend of mine there and for whatever reason we started talking about budgets, and food, and I had to admit that I've been very bad about budgeting myself this month. I blame the blizzard for preventing me from easy grocery shopping excursions! But really, it's very easy to slip into a pattern of, Oh I'll just buy something to eat, I don't have time/am too lazy to cook something. Plus I've been meeting up with people after work and that is not very conducive to cooking, either for that night or for lunch the next day.

My friend told me that her first year out of college she put herself on a $5 a day budget for food (she also works in the publishing industry, thus the budgeting). $5!! (That meant: two meals of oatmeal and Chinese take out for dinner. Nice). Now she's moved up to $10 a day, which, actually the more that I thought about it, is pretty reasonable. I try to only eat out once or twice during the week and allot myself a coffee or two, and then expect to eat out Friday and Saturday nights, plus get drinks.

The problem with actually having money in my bank account now is that it seems much easier to spend a little here and there. But actually, the only reason I have money now is because I've been budgeting! Once you let that budgeting slip, that money disappears realllll fast and then you have to start all over again with the rigorous budgeting and being that friend who's like "I dunno about tonight, I can't spend any more money this week..." etc etc. SO March is going to be different. No more wantonly spending 8 dollars on a salad for lunch from Pret! No more ordering drinks with dinner! Although my new found love for happy hour specials might still need to be indulged once a week...

Back to books: Am currently almost done with SONS AND OTHER FLAMMABLE OBJECTS and still have to read KITCHEN, BECAUSE SHE CAN, and I LOVED I LOST I MADE SPAGHETTI before they are overdue at the library and J gets fined because she checked them out for me. Fingers crossed tomorrow is a snow day (hah, not likely) and I can stay home and read.

Neglectful, I am

It's a new year already, and yet no new posts. Well, happy year of the Tiger everyone, and I have been quite busy lately, with some changes afoot. Basically I have become a busy person! Working and socializing (reconnecting!) and reading and writing and all that. Oh, and eating. And figuring out the wonderfulness of my new Blackberry. So, because I have become too lazy to upload pictures from my actual camera, here are some pictures from my Tour to tide you over until I get around to crafting an actual post:

We made leather necklace things at Bloomingdales because we are crafty people.


Ok you can't see it so well since the pic is so small, but yay for riding the Q train late at night! Everyone is thrilled.


Finally we got ourselves a room at Bar 675. And proceeded to watching a riveting Curling match (bout? set? game? round?).