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2 October 1998 |
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It's amazing to be looking at a website just as it is being updated. Reload, baby, reload. It's such a sense of connection with the author, knowing that person is sitting right there posting it as you are reading it. The mimeograph ink is cold and chemical smelling in your hands, the photocopy is still warm from the rollers. It's like that. I just wanna know WTF is floating frames? I pulled into the gas station yesterday. "I have such a big purchase," I told the guy. (There is no such thing as self service in New Jersey.) "I need $2 worth of regular." "Oooh wow, lemme see if I can handle it." A couple squeezes on the handle later, I handed over two quarters and fifteen dimes. "Hey, look!" I said. "You brought it all the way up to the 'E'!" "Have fun til the next gas station," he replied. This morning, finding more change at home, I bought some smokes. I been bumming past few days. This time, I didn't get menthol. Not that I believe that story about how menthol is so much worse than regular, that the menthe crystallizes in your lungs. It's just that so many people, all regular smokers, have been so kind as to share with me, I should have some of the same on hand to share as well. It's only right. This weekend I can finally close my bank account at NationsBank in Maryland. NB doesn't have any branches further north than Baltimore, so all my banking needs had to be met on the weekends I'd take the kids down to see the Huz. As banks go, NB has been just fine, but I do account-based economy very badly. Between my bad math, bank errors, and a plethora of service charges, my management of the various accounts over the years has led me to at least three financial disasters per year. I really hate that. The past few months, I haven't touched the NB account at all, have just taken my paycheck to the bank from which it's issued and lived entirely on cash. Now, admittedly, the past month was lean, though I do have some cash in reserve (at the bank!). But now at least I am living within my means, rather than mistakenly beyond them. I'd much rather dig for change than have a fraudulent check floating about somewhere, threatening to alight at the most inopportune moment. And I still have the credit cards for dire emergencies, but without the uncertainty of living from a bank account, the dire emergencies can be the legit kind, not the kind where the ATM tells me "insufficient funds." How do I pay my bills? The post office only charges $.75 per money order, as opposed to $1.50 or more elsewhere. This probably balances out the bank charges I used to amass for having less than $500 in my account, but the money order fee is paid right before my eyes, not at some mysterious time in the month and only witnessed in the monthly statement. Well, today is payday. Really, yesterday was payday, but I was far too busy feeling weird to go and cash the check. So I'm not destitute or anything. A handy skill: I often lose lighters and matches, but it's no big deal cuz my toaster is at work and I can light off the elements. I haven't burned my eyebrows off with this practice yet. --Spring
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