Luxury: Scents and sensibility

Yesterday a package arrived in the mail for me. I've gotten caught up and actually ahead with ThereBucks sales (finally) so I have a little bit of discretionary income to spend and I bought myself a bottle of chanel No 5. I had been reading a book called "Deluxe; How Luxury Lost Its Luster", which talks about the history of luxury and designer brands and how they've changed (or in a very few cases, not changed) over the years. Probably the biggest takeaway message of the whole book is that you should be an informed consumer...you can't just buy a certain brand, whether it's jeans, cars or ketchup and just assume that because you have always purchased that brand and it was up to a certain quality standard before that it still will be or that just because some rap star sings about how they've got so much money and that's what they spend it on, it must be great. Not that I'm aware of any rap stars singing about their favorite brands of ketchup. Maybe Shonen Knife should do a rap album. Most brands compromise the their quality and trade off the reputation they've built eventually...even if the company founder is against it, eventually someone new is head of the company or there is a board of shareholders demanding greater quarterly profits or they feel the need to get their foot in the door at Walmart. More and more these days I think companies don't even have to change and grow to "sell out", these days many of them plan it that way right from the start.

So why did I buy a bottle of Chanel No 5 eau de parfum? The book talks about how No 5 was created and how it is now the standard against which all others are judged and how they still use natural ingredients still grown in the same region of France where they have been since the perfumes inception. I guess I just felt the need to own that standard against which all other perfumes are judged. Which is not to say that perfumes aspire to BE LIKE Chanel No. 5. Actually, smelling Chanel No. 5, with its notes of jasmine, rose and aldehydes, I wouldn't say it's a classic so much as really old fashioned...like your 80 yr old grandmother who doesn't think you should go out on a date without a chaperone and calls you "dearie". Some say it's too mature for anyone under the age of 25 to wear, but I'm an ancient old 40 yrs old and I think it's too mature for me.

I usually wear Bond No. 9's "Chinatown". I'm a little obsessed with perfume. It took me quite a few bottles of things I didn't really like to find Chinatown, and I can't help but wonder sometimes if there is another perfume (maybe another Bond No. 9) that is even more "me". While sampling different perfumes, I purchased many decants from eBay. These were little samples that ebay sellers took from full size bottles of perfume and put into a smaller roll-on or spray bottle so that the buyer could try stuff without buying a whole bottle and the seller could offset the cost of their own bottles. This was great...I mean a lot of perfumes are only available if you are in New York or in Paris or you know, they aren't just in every KMart store, you have to go to the actual store that sells that perfume (often in conjunction with a clothing line, a handbag line, a luggage line, etc.) and then spend $250 or more on a bottle. (This is considered "entry level" luxury...you get to buy in to a brand name without spending $25,000 on a couture dress. Hey, you can't afford the Christian Dior dress you saw on style.com but at least you have the Dior perfume! Actually, I have Miss Dior Cherie and it's not bad. I do wear it once in a while.) So, the decants are a great way to see if you like something.

After buying a whole crapload of decants, I thought "hey, *I* should sell decants on eBay!" I mean, I had also purchased a few full size bottles and it's an expensive habit. Not like I thought I could make money selling decants, but I thought I could maybe offset the cost of trying new fragrances. So, I read loads of perfume blogs and perfume websites, I ordered books on perfume and the history of perfume from Amazon, I ordered loads of decanting supplies (spray bottles, roll on bottles, padded envelopes, cute tissue paper, mailing labels, a usb postage scale, photo studio in a box, etc...etc...) and of course I started ordering a lot of full size bottles of perfume (and cologne). What a great excuse to order a bunch of full size bottles of perfume! The only thing is, I found I was too lazy to actually do it. I've sold stuff on eBay before, but I have other things to do with my time and the idea of photographing everything, writing up listing descriptions, pricing everything, researching what decants have sold for in the past, and worst of all...packing up and actually MAILING stuff just seemed totally not worth it. Maybe I'm spoiled by selling virtual goods most of the time, but I could just not get excited about printing out mailing labels and contacting the USPS or UPS or possibly having to actually GO TO the post office...ugh.

So now I have all this perfume STUFF. It's been sitting around for a while now. Not just perfumes I don't care for or colognes I have no use for, but all the packaging and such for decanting and mailing. *sigh* And...I'm looking around the other day to order my bottle of Chanel No. 5, and I get a little interested in some Hermes cologne that I'm wondering if my bf would like so I think "maybe I can find a decant of it on eBay". Not only did I NOT find a decant of it on eBay, but I couldn't find a decant of ANYTHING on eBay. It was actually rather strange. I did a little investigating and I found that apparently, due to some pressure from some large corporations, including some that also have filed lawsuits against eBay for refusing to take responsibility for all the counterfeit goods sold on their auction site, eBay has prohibited the sale of decanted perfumes. People who like to sell and exchange perfume decants have now moved to sites like Perfume of Life where you need to be a paid, premium member to access the private section of their forums where you can connect with others looking to sell or trade decants and/or full and partial bottles of all sorts of perfumes. Perhaps that will be a suitable place to sell my rather expensive box/bottle of limited edition Fleur d'Oranger 2005 Vergers de Nabeul Eau de Parfum from L'Artisan Parfumeur.

Ebay's stance on decants along with the pending (I think they're still pending anyway) lawsuits should be very interesting to anyone freaking out about IMVU and their apathy wrt music rings, those small objects some imvu developers create to enable the owner to play a full song by a music artist without actually having any rights to that song. IMVU's attitude seems to be "well, we'll deal with those when the music companies and artists actually come and file a dmca takedown notice and/or threaten to sue us". Until that time, developers can steal and redistribute all the music they want, it seems. Perhaps some of them don't even feel it's wrong...especially depending on what country they are from. I've had people say to me about piracy "well, it's not illegal in my country". I don't even know if that's true, but I think just because maybe the police won't prosecute you for doing it in your country, it's still illegal under international copyright law. But anyway, I suppose eventually music companies and artists will start filing lawsuits and dmca takedowns...and then IMVU will probably take some drastic measures to eliminate this stuff quickly...something that also ends up removing a bunch of legal content. Now, how they will deal with lawsuits against allowing people to use trademarked stuff on avatar clothing and stickers and such seems a bit trickier...who is going to go through millions of items to find that stuff? Well, maybe that day will coincide with the day that some big company wants to buy IMVU for megabucks to use for their own purposes, and this big company will just pretty much discard the whole dev program or severely restrict the whole thing because it's not what they want the chat program for and THEN IMVU will have nothing to worry about. (OR, perhaps the pending lawsuits will prevent a sale instead...)

Okay...backing up from that tangent and coming back to perfume...

My bf and I had gone to brunch and then wine tasting in Livermore one Sunday. (I know, I know...who names a city Livermore? Great place to go for wine, though.) Afterwards we stopped at a mall...him to buy a new suit jacket and me, I wanted to stop by Sephora for some Frederick Fekkai Glossing Cream. That stuff is so awesome. I hope they don't decide to ever ever change the formula to please some shareholders board. It's the stuff that turns my hair from a rats nest to smooth and manageable. Of course, a little goes a long way and my bf bought me a large tube of it that will probably last about two years, so I could imagine that the shareholders board would be quite tempted to try and make some change that would force me back into Sephora to buy more creme brilliante on a more consistent basis.

While at Sephora, my bf decided he also wanted to buy me some perfume. We tried a bunch and finally picked out Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle. I don't know if après wine tasting is the best time to pick out a new perfume. It's very nice...you don't have to be 105 to be mature enough to wear it. However, it's no Chinatown, with its notes of peony, gardenia, peach blossom, patchouli and cardamom. After a few months of vainly TRYING to wear it, I went back to my beloved Chinatown and am currently plotting to buy their Bon Bon collection...and I'll have to be sure and judge each one against the bottle of Chanel No 5. It's funny how I just read this whole book on the homogenization of luxury brands and how we are first lured into the dream and the promise of these things with gateway items such as perfume, and yet here I am...pickier than ever, but still obsessed.

Ten reasons you should make me your IMVU buddy

1. I'll add you back. No fear of rejection! (If I haven't added you within a few days, send a new request...I swear it's not me, it's IMVU being weird...buddy add pages keep hanging.)

2. You can see when I have developed new items

3. I can see when you have developed new items

4. If I'm adding you as a buddy and your page really catches my eye, you never know...I might send you a gift.

5. Let's see if maybe adding too many buddies can break IMVU!

6. Adding people back gives me something to do when I drink my morning coffee

7. It makes me happy to know you want to be my buddy!

8. To get updates on what I am up to

9. You can't think of a good reason not to

10. You made it all the way to my home page or my blog AND to the end of this list so I mean...why not???

(Hey...feel free to leave a blog comment if you can think of any other reasons!)

My cat is now safe from gonorrhea AND malaria!

Yep, that's right. Little China Kitty (not so little since she's been taking Pepcid AC and has gained a pound and a half) now has some new raspberry-apple flavored liquid medicine that fights off bacterial infections INCLUDING malaria! I hope she likes raspberry-apple flavor better than the cherry flavored liquid she had last year that is also prescribed to treat gonorrhea. Too bad she is much feistier and stronger than she was back then (not easy to get a cat to swallow sticky sweet fruit flavored liquid.)

I can't believe how expensive a week's worth of medication is. If she has to take it for a second week or more (they have to weigh the benefits against the possible esophageal damage) I'm going to get the prescription refilled at Costco and see if it's any cheaper. I just hate going to Long's Drugs anyway. Although...it is educational. They make you queue up along side the adult diaper section and I never knew how many styles of those existed, many of them gender specific! It's so ridiculous...they have you queue up a ways back from the actual pharmacy counter for the privacy of people having their prescriptions filled. But...what about the privacy of the people who have to go "excuse me, pardon me...just trying to grab a pack of the super-size g-string style male adult diapers..."

China has to have this new med twice a day, so I guess there goes our overnight wine tasting trip to Santa Rosa on Sunday :( Oh well...she finishes cancer treatments in July and although she'll probably still be oozing and flinging snot all over everything, I won't have to put ointment in her eyes all the time, give her antacid medication or steroids or...her least favorite...cart her around to the vet every four weeks for chemo. Five more visits to go...woohoo!

I am so damn romantic!

Valentines Day is yet another holiday that annoys me. All those cheap, sub-standard roses, the massive amounts of manipulative diamond ads, trying to convince women that if their guy really loved them, he'd get them a diamond ring/pendant/toilet scrubber and letting guys know they better step up and be muy romantico by spending some cash.

I once broke up with a guy on Valentine's Day. Or tried to. It's just that the "holiday" made me reflect on our relationship and where it was going and what we were even doing together. He was sooooo pissed off that I did that. I was informed that you DO NOT break up with someone on Valentine's Day. Bad, bad...naughty Jinx. So, we limped along for another six months, going through the motions of a relationship until he met someone I suppose he thought wouldn't break up with him on February 14th, and then I was finally released from relationship prison. Of course they didn't even last until Valentine's Day...but I think he eventually found his non-Valentines Day breaking up sweetie and is so far living happily ever after, with maybe just a tiny bit of extra baggage from that long ago faux pas of mine.

Heck, breaking up on Valentine's Day is nothing. I went to high school with a girl who's father killed himself on that romantic date. I guess he was pining away for his ex-wife. I imagine him getting some satisfaction, before he died, knowing that his ex would never, ever be able to have a totally "normal" Valentines again. For the rest of HER life, every time she saw a heart shaped box of chocolates or one of those extremely stupid talking stuffed animals that Hallmark puts out, she'd be thinking of him. Clever, really.

Does anybody NOT have issues with Valentine's Day? You're either thinking about how you don't have a valentine while you cry in your pint of Ben and Jerry's or wondering if you're going to get that reservation at the city's best restaurant or watching your coworkers get flowers delivered while nothing arrives for you or wondering if she'll be mad you got her chocolates when you KNOW she's on a diet or whatever...what a damn stressful holiday.

My bf and I are lucky in a way. We met a few days before Valentine's Day last year. I had a date on Valentine's Day with someone else. A first date that wasn't at all romantic and then I went and bought a pair of salsa dancing shoes for going dancing with my not-yet-at-the-time bf and that was my day. No worries about expectations or anything. Things can get a lot more complicated if you've been together a few months, but we got to skip pretty much straight to the one year mark.

So this year, we'd just celebrated knowing each other for a whole year and I think he was concerned about doing the "right" thing for Valentine's Day. Wanting to please me and yet at the same time resenting the obligation of this silly holiday, which I'm sure he has his own issues about. I assured him I don't care about the day. He asked me what I wanted to do. "That's Thursday, so we're going to the gym, right?" I say. Ut-oh...the problem here is that while I say I just want to go to the gym...is that what I REALLY want? Are we going to go to the gym and then I'll be mad or sad or something that he didn't get me a stupid talking stuffed animal?

So, just to hedge his bets maybe, or perhaps because my bf actually cares a bit more about February 14th than I do or perhaps simply because we don't always get to spend as much time together as we'd like, we ended up going out to lunch at our favorite Redwood City bistro, which is located inside and out back of an antique store. I didn't realize what regulars we've become there. Not only does the waiter hug us, but now the owner does, too! Either they are strange and extra friendly people or you know you're a regular when the people there are always trying to hug you. We had such a nice time and toward the end, an elderly woman got up from her table and came over to talk to us. She wanted to tell us how much she likes the bistro and how they have open mic night on Tuesdays and last time she was dancing with her friend's husband, AND she wanted to let us know we were the perfect Valentine's Day couple and how sweet she thought we were together.

She must have seen the present I gave my bf. It was a one pound jar of Sweet Smoked Paprika. It's so romantic, I know! I even tied a pink ribbon around it because THAT is how romantic I am! My bf is romantic, too. He got me a membership to Costco! That's because he's afraid to get me flowers because he thinks I'm picky (which is true) but he DOES listen and he knows I am obsessed with the flower selection at Costco even though I can't normally go there since I am not a member and the door Nazis won't let me in :( So now, I will be able to take a nice walk to Costco, get some exercise and buy MYSELF whatever flowers I LIKE, thanks to him! I think that's MUY ROMANTICO.

...we now return to my regularly scheduled Threadless addiction...

I love Threadless, the idea of it, the way the site is set up. If I had to find one find fault with it, I just think that the people who design the shirts should not only get a lump payment for having their design printed, they should get a percentage of each sale, too...AND they should get paid again when their design is reprinted. But...overall...the whole design and implementation of a mob designed/manufactured tshirt website is just awesome. The shirts are clever, too.

I just purchased this one today for my bf:

That is my Threadless shirt love du jour. It's cute and funny and my bf was the devil for Halloween (and I was an angel...I know, I know, it was like this role reversal thing) and he was pretty scary looking, but in reality if he were the/a devil, he would be this adorable one, playing around making snow angels. So, I'm feeding my Theadless addiction, but at least today I'm not buying yet one more shirt for myself.

Another IMVU comment...

Okee dokee, I've already found another comment on my home page on IMVU that I want to answer. Geez, there are probably gazillions of these questions all the time and I'm missing out because I miss a lot of my messages! Marcus at IMVU gave me the link to view all of my messages once, but that was about two years ago and I'm afraid that my web browser would balk at displaying them all at this point.

So, the question is...

Aren't you a little old to hang out on IMVU? I mean, I could see if you were 20 or something but 40????

Geez, again with the 40 thing. I never realized before that you are actually aging 10 years in a single day when you turn 40. You do know that I am only two years older than Gwen Stefani, right?

Anyway, on to answering the question.

I'm not sure it's accurate to say I "hang out" on IMVU. I develop 3d content for IMVU, I sell credits on IMVU (that's how I make my living, selling credits for IMVU and ThereBucks for There) and I do maintain a homepage on IMVU which I try to keep somewhat fresh and where I do sometimes read the comments. You will rarely find me actually using IMVU to "chat" with people of whatever age (although I have noticed that there are plenty of people of all ages on IMVU, otherwise why would there even be such a thing as an access pass?) Yes, IMVU is something like 80% below the age of 20, but you might be surprised how many people that remaining 20% actually is. IMVU has had something like 22 million sign-ups since the beginning. 20% of that would be something like 4.4 million. I've read the human brain just isn't wired to properly appreciate numbers above 20,000, that's why people are so enticed by playing the lottery...they truly can't comprehend how bad the odds are. Maybe this will put it in perspective: The number of users of IMVU that are over the age of 20 is equal to the entire population of Los Angeles. Yep, just imagine the entire population of Los Angeles had signed up for IMVU and they were all over the age of 20...that's how many people it is.

But really, chatting online is not my thing. I loved it when I was oh...I dunno...30? I probably would have outgrown it long before that, but ten years ago when I was 30 was really when I started using the computer as we know it today, with Windows and the Internet and all that stuff. I was a flight attendant and I had actually managed to meet a guy who lived in my same town, and used chat to keep in touch with him, no matter where in the world I was.

These days, Instead of chatting online I like to; create 3d models, read and listen to audio books, go to the gym (preferably with my bf, and before that with my personal trainer, because I find the gym a bit intimidating), try to find the ultimate bottle of pinot noir or perhaps malbec, search out and try the best restaurants (easy to do in Northern California), take cooking lessons with my bf and try to perfect our recipe for "almost perfect chicago deep dish style pizza", garden (or trying to garden, we're just learning.) Ummm...I'm a bit of a movie buff, don't watch much television, I'm totally obsessed with books and with the warehouse studio loft I want to move into. I try to stay away from craigslist, because I'll be doing something virtuous like trying to help my bf find a desk set for his house and instead I'll find some wonderful, unique furniture stuff for ME that is just way too big and maybe way too expensive but I'm determined to get it anyway.

Honestly, I don't think people 20 yrs old and under should be spending all their time chatting online, either.

I should approve some more buddy requests and go to bed and for all I know the person asking this is the same person who said "stay away from my man", but my point is...no I don't really hang out in chat rooms on IMVU but heck, I own stock in the company and I've done contract work for them...they are part of the reason I moved to California in the first place. You know those zodiac symbols that IMVU gives out when you first create your account? I've noticed a lot of people do have those displayed on their home pages. Well, just so you know, *I* made those, and you might be surprised at what else I've made. In the end I guess I should just not care that people want to make such a big issue about how old I am and what I should or should not be doing at this grand old age. I plan to live to at least 120, and I can only imagine what people will say then.

Adding IMVU Buddies

A funny thing happened last November 7th, I started getting email requests for people that wanted to be my buddy on IMVU. There were a bunch of them that first day so I made a gmail filter to file them all away under a label called "imvu buddy requests" or something creative like that and then promptly forgot about them.

So, a few days ago I remembered that folder, checked it, and holy moly I had nearly 4000 buddy requests! I decided I'd been rather rude and should accept them but I couldn't figure out how. I did a search in IMVU's help documentation and it told me how to arrange my top 12 buddies and how to delete a buddy, but nothing on accepting a request. Finally, I actually READ ALL THE TEXT...you know, all those words and sentences and stuff in the invite email. The email says just click on the link included in the email which will open a person's profile, then click add.

Oh.

Duhhhh.

It seems like a pretty inefficient way to accept buddy requests, clicking, waiting for the page to load and then clicking and having another page load in. On the bright side, I actually get to see the home pages of all these people and there are some really awesome ones out there. Awesome, funny, weird, etc. I'm about 2/3 of the way through accepting all the requests, and I WILL FINISH!

Meanwhile, I also updated my profile pic, and it's been interesting to read some of the comments I've gotten since then. Here are some comments/answers to the messages I have been getting...

Is that really you in your profile pic? (or "if that's really you"):
Yes, it's really me. My bf took that picture a couple of months ago when we were staying in a hotel in Sonoma. He's actually in the picture, too, that's why my head is crooked to the side, I'm leaning in towards him. I cropped him out to respect his privacy.

Nice pic but what does your avatar look like?
I suppose the message here is that this is an avatar chat, so why am I posting a picture of my real self and not my avie self? I had to give this one some thought to decide if maybe they were right that I should be posting an avie pic. I have posted lots of avie pics over the last several years, but the beauty of IMVU is you can be anything you want, so my avie and my IMVU inventory is just a huge hodge podge of stuff, unlike the real me that spends most of the time just looking like...well...me. Maybe later I'll use an avie pic again, if I end up taking another one I especially like.

From your picture, you don't look like you're 40
Well, I don't feel 40 either. Could you fill me in on what 40 is SUPPOSED to look like? (Your mom, maybe?) I've spent a lot of time dating people that are younger than me and being pleased when I get carded and they don't and being obsessed with keeping my skin looking young and stuff like that. Now, I finally feel pretty comfortable with my age and am actually dating someone three whole years older than I am, but it is a little weird to suddenly be lumped in with "the people who are in their 40s" instead of "the people who are in their 30s". What a difference a day makes!

Stay away from my man!
Heheh, cute. Erm...I've no idea who your man is...probably I was just responding to his buddy request???

If you have any other questions or comments, you can leave them on my IMVU homepage if you like, and perhaps I will respond to them in my blog one day. Otherwise, if you want to contact me directly, don't forget my email is jinx.tv@gmail.com.

Curses, foiled again!

Well, my mom emailed me after yesterday's blog entry to mention that this is a leap year and so there are actually 29 days in February. That's good, I guess, because that will give me one more day in which to earn the money to pay the $100 my rent is going up starting in March.

You know, that really annoys me...this whole raising of the rent thing. Is my apartment somehow better than it was before? No. The building as a whole? No...in fact it's getting worse. My building has 100 one-bedroom units and when I moved in three years ago (and no, this isn't my first rent increase in three years) most apartments had just one person living in them. Since then, many more apartments have a couple or several people living in them...sometimes whole families. There is one very small child that runs up and down the hallway on my floor SCREAMING numerous times a day. In one way, I admire her because she seems to be screaming with complete abandon and joy, and I kind of want to be that little girl yelling for the sheer pleasure of it as she sprints to her apartment or the elevator. On the other hand, it is freaking loud and annoying, and who let's their child do that in the hallway with NO REGARD for the other residents??? I just don't get it. Also, because so many more people now live in the building and most adults own at least one car, there is now a parking shortage and I have had a bunch of problems with people parking in my space. Oh well, if they want to get towed I'm happy to oblige them.

Also of note: the new building manager took down all the framed artwork hanging in the hallways when replacing the hallway carpet and never put it back up. She also had the stairway carpeting ripped up and just never replaced it...had the stairs painted instead but they look horrible. Also, I think many people are too cheap to pay a $50 deposit to get more than one front door key, so the doors are propped open ALL THE TIME. Other people are always trying to sneak in behind you when you go in the door. Seriously, my building sucks now.

And while I'm sounding all cranky, I must admit I have another reason to actually want an extra day in February and I'll tell you why...

Normally, whatever day Christmas Eve and Christmas day fall on, which happen to be the same days of the week that New years Eve and New Years Day fall on a week later, will happen a day later the next year. So for instance, this past holiday Christmas and New Years fell on a Tuesday, so most of the time the next one would be on a Wednesday, which in my opinion sucks because it totally messes up the week. Once you start sticking those holidays in the middle of the week, people start taking the entire week of Christmas and the entire week of New Years off. Which is just wayyyyy too much disruptive "holiday season" for me. Plus, it just means more work later. Sorry I sound like a scrooge but I really just don't enjoy the holidays on so many different levels, and it's not like I have some nine to five job that gives me a bunch of time off around then, I just take time off whenever I want...or don't take time off, more like I do at least some work every day even if I'm away for the weekend or...well, I wouldn't be away for the WHOLE weekend because I have a cat that needs medication every day. Yeah so, holidays shmolidays, bah humbug, they're just irritating.

Speaking of irritating, my bf's schedule says he will fly home this afternoon and then try to rush home to catch the Super Bowl, or at least part of it, and then finally Monday evening we are supposed to go to the gym together. So last night I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. He was in Guadalahara all day Saturday in meetings and then he didn't even call me in the evening like he always does. Since he's been out of the country, only ONE text from him had come through and he wasn't really calling in the afternoons as per usual, only in the evening...then by the time 11 pm came and went and midnight as well, I realized I wasn't going to get ANY call from him. Probably out to a really late dinner for his last night and forgot all about me!

Then, at 1am, I received a text from him asking if I was still awake. What the heck? I thought of picking up the phone and calling him immediately, but I didn't know if the text had just been sent or finally came through from a few days ago, since I know he sent a few that I never received. If he didn't just send it and it's 1am here, I think that makes it 3am in Guadalahara. I don't think he'd like a 3am phonecall! So I just text him back that I am awake. A minute later, my phone rings. It turns out the reason that he didn't call me like he usually does is he was on a flight home. He skipped dinner with his business colleagues and came home early and according to him he couldn't care less about the Super Bowl and we're having brunch in just over an hour so ah...I should get off my butt and take a shower or something right now!

Geez, here I am trying to be mad at him for being away and not even calling me and wanting to go home and watch the Super Bowl on Sunday INSTEAD of seeing me and what does he do? He shows up back in the country early, missing me like crazy. Curses, foiled again!

My bf is hanging out with Monique all week :(

I think I'm going to start advertising 5 minute ThereBucks sales instead of ten. or at least maybe six or seven minutes, to be on the safe side. I've been watching my transactions carefully, and I haven't found one that has taken more than five minutes (assuming that There is open and the person has already joined jinx_tv_tbux club). In fact, they usually take about two minutes.

I'm really, actually caught up with ThereBucks sales...woohoo, now there's something to love about February. Unlike the fact that I always feel like I'm getting a bit cheated that month...having to pay the same amount of rent, the same phone and cable bill amount, even though there are only 28 flipping days in the month! You MIGHT say it all works out in the end or I should look at it as getting a great deal the other 11 months of the year, but I DON'T see it that way. February is such a ripoff! Why don't they just add a day from January and one from March? Then things would be nice and even. Basically you just have three less day to get ready to pay rent/bills again.

My bf called last night, exhausted but happy. I try to be annoyed at the fact that I'm pining away for him while he's just...totally jazzed by all the stuff he's getting done. Then he tells me about how he told the business partner who has been monopolizing his time all week, and whom I've never met, that I call him "Monique". Geez, I never thought he'd tell the guy that! It's just that he will get calls from this guy...well, ignore calls from this guy...all the time when we're together and he'll say "it's Carlos" and since the only Carlos I've ever really known was a guy I worked at Denny's with many moons ago, who used to do this whole drag show lip synch thing under the stage name "Monique", well, I call this business partner Monique and have even gotten my bf to sometimes look at his phone and go "oh, Monique is trying to get ahold of me" and then feel a bit deviant and naughty for calling a business partner that. Now I guess he doesn't have to/get to feel naughty about it any more.

Is it weird for me to find it sweet that he told his business partner I refer to him as Monique (the drag queen)? Hey, at least he's talking about me, so I know he remembers I exist...and even showing cellphone pictures of me. Speaking of pictures, I dug in my old photos today and found this pic...

12 things to do when your boyfriend is out of the country on business

This week my bf is out of the country on business. I guess we both slacked off a bit last year work-wise and are paying for it by having to work extra hard now. Okay, he's having to work extra hard and I'm having to work a kind of normal amount instead of being a slacker. Anyway, I started off the week all motivated and okay about it, and with three days left to go I am slowly dissolving into a puddle of pity and ennui.

So, here is my list of things to do when your boyfriend is out of the country on business:

1. Tell yourself you are going to learn CSS and XHTML frontwards and backwards in the next week. Maybe php, too! And AJAX! And Python! Get really psyched about it and get through almost 300 pages of CSS/XHTML book in a day and a half.

2. Realize that what you wanted to DO with your new web coding 2.0 skillzzzz is going to be harder than you thought. Start stressing about it a bit. Text bf several times even though you know he won't actually receive your text for about five days.

3. Wake up one morning to find out that you NO LONGER OWE ANYONE ANY MONEY FOR THEREBUCKS...it's been five weeks but you are all caught up in paying everyone. Be thrilled about this for about an hour until another large order comes in and you start worrying about the fact that part of your capital is actually your rent money.

4. Solicit more sellers anyway, enticing them with the promise of banner ads on your "new site", which it looks like is going to be delayed.

5. Go to two different stores and actually buy enough food that you won't have to open and reopen your cupboard and refrigerator doors a dozen times wondering what you could maybe eat and having to get all creative about it. This includes buying crapples, which are a bit expensive but seem pretty exotic and worth it until you realize the reason their grape flavor tastes so much like those freeze pops you used to have as a kid is that they are not genetic freaks but regular old apples injected with "natural and artificial flavors". Blech.

6. Find out wine is 20% off at Grocery Outlet this week. Woohoo! Just what you need when you are bored and missing your bf and not getting your work done...discount wine!

7. Call bf's cell phone to hear his voice, then remember his answering service doesn't actually have his voice on it. What's up with that? Leave him a message that includes you trying not to break down halfway through while you try to explain that you just wanted to say "hi" and are now going to go listen to his old voice messages to you. Feel like a sap.

8. Delay doing laundry for as long as possible in order to avoid having to interact with any of your building's tenants.


9. Become obsessed with an old cotton mill in Oakland that has been converted into live/work spaces for artists. Find out that it would actually be in your price range to live there, and would only take your bf 19 minutes to get to from where he lives instead of the 38 minutes it takes him to get to your place now. Realize it is actually the same building you pass by on the freeway all the time. The one that makes you turn to your bf every time and say "that's where I should live". Use Google Maps to find out it is only a mile and a half from your favorite movie theater. Also note it is much closer to the kitty oncologist and only a mile from a store devoted to cheese. Convince yourself it is your destiny to live there.

10. Waste WAYYYY too much time in the IMVU forums reading up on new gateway percentage fee. Spend way too much time in general on IMVU including reading home page messages including one that says "Hey Oldylocks, don't visit my page, only under 30 allowed" from some 17 yr old kid. Okay whatever, kidlet. Idly wonder if he came up with "Oldylocks" all by himself or if it is some pop culture reference. Do a google search and decide that he definitely didn't come up with it himself.

11. Become obsessed with phone. Where you used to forget it when you went to run an errand, now make sure it is never a few feet from you. Get call from bf and get really happy about it, but then feel even sadder than before. Because connection is not that great, feel a bit unsure about whether bf actually misses you as much as you miss him. He mostly just sounds tired.

12. Try and force self to get back to work and recapture the enthusiasm of earlier in the week. le sigh.

What the heck is wrong with me?