Greatest Shopping Day Ever!

My day out with Dad was a fun day of bargains. I mean, the lunch (Chinese food was great), then I needed some shorts because my size 4s are too BIG! Believe me, this is really crazy because I haven't been that small in a long time. BTW, I'm only 4'9", so it's not like I'm a stick or anything to get to that size. But, I don't think it really sank in until I was in the dressing room. Anyway, I didn't know where you could buy a size 2 where it wouldn't cost too much, so I was pretty much resigned to it being at least $25, but was hoping I could get them for less. Dad and I decided to try Old Navy. I know they have small sizes there. So, we parked in front of the store and as we were walking in, we saw they were having a HUGE sale, with things marked down to 50% OFF! Wow. It's not like they were hugely expensive to begin with, so we were happy. I was hoping they'd have some shorts on sale.

Sure enough, there were lots. I had my choice. The hardest part was finding a 2, but it was possible, and I found 4 pairs to try on. There were other 2s, but they were either way too short or way too long on me. Won't work. So anyway, I get into the dressing room, and I'm not looking forward to it, because I know I'm flabby. I'm not a model or anything. I don't like trying on clothes. But I didn't realize how bulky wearing a size too large can make you look. As soon as I took them off I was shocked. I hadn't seen myself in a mirror in a long time, not size I was buying clothes that were really big. I mean, I have a mirror at home, but it's not a full-length mirror. I hadn't really seen my body, you know? I was so happy I was literally jumping up and down in the dressing room. Yes, there was flab, but it was such an improvement I was happy anyway. AND, every pair of shorts I tried on fit me. Not like, some of them were tight and some of them fit. No. All of them fit. I just picked the ones I liked the best and went with it. It was just a bonus that they were only $8.49. : )

So then, we did our usual Walmart thing, but didn't get very much because I knew I had coupons that I wanted to use at HEB. Then, we got coffee. It was already about 4:30 by then since the Old Navy trip took a while. It was so hot and stuffy from all the rain we've had (no end in sight either--more on the way) that both of us wanted Frappuccinos. I had to choose between light and decaf, though. They don't have a decaf light Frappuccino. : ( Obviously, in the interest of weight loss, I got the caffeine and chose the light.

Later, at HEB, I knew I had some good coupons, but I didn't know how many of them we'd use. We didn't get our usual amount at Walmart, so that gave us some money to work with on the usual Walmart stuff that we were now going to get at HEB. I had a $5 off coupon for toilet paper. It was only $6.80 or something anyway for a 12 pack. I had a buy one get one free on my shampoo and conditioner. I had $1 off Dad's toothpaste. There was a store coupon by the cereal for $1 off, so I got $1 off my cereal that I didn't have a coupon for. There was more, but I don't remember them all, but it's not like you need an inventory of them anyway. By the time we got to the checkout line, we had $65 worth of stuff. But with the coupons, we had a $25 discount off of that and got it all for not much more than my usual grocery budget, and it will last a while with all the buy one get one free coupons. Won't be needing those for a while. It pretty much paid for my tank of gas, too. I was just shocked that we saved $25 with coupons. I mean, they're just coupons. Don't normally have enough good ones to take that much off the bill, you know?

So, we had a great time and saved a lot of money and we were both really happy. I suppose I shouldn't say it was the best shopping day EVER, because we had a great time one Christmas and got some amazing deals, including a $200 leather jacket for $50 and a shirt and earrings for sis R for only $3 for both with a coupon. Still, it's good to save money when you're broke, so I hope clipping coupons at least helps a little bit next week. We'll see. : )

Insert Un-clever Title Here

I feel pretty bad about this, but I had a really cute title planned when I was writing my blog entry in my head the other day and I've completely forgotten it. That's what happens when you're writing blog entries at 5 am when you've had no sleep for 2 days. Oh well.

R came down for the weekend. She said traffic was horrible and it took her forever to get here. So we didn't have time to do much on Friday. But we had a dinner with M&M. Nothing fancy, just Red Lobster. I don't think I could afford more than that, and that was pretty tight for me. But we had a great time, laughing a lot and probably driving other diners crazy. Mom was acting drunk even though she'd had nothing to drink. I guess she was just in a goofy mood. But it was a lot of fun. Then, sis M had to point out the waiter she thought looked like Keifer Sutherland. R didn't see him, but I did. He looked a lot like him, actually. So M took R back into the restaurant to look for him, probably looking like a bunch of crazy girls the way they were giggling. Finally they spotted him and R saw him this time. So they came out of the restaurant laughing again, about how everyone probably thought they were nuts.

Mom, R, and me went back to Mom's apartment after that, thinking M&M were going to meet us there, but they didn't come until about 2 1/2 hours later when we'd about decided they'd changed their minds. They brought this board game called Sequence, and I knew we were going to be staying up late that night, as usually happens when we're playing board games. They didn't get to the apartment until 9:00, so that was a sign. We weren't sure about the game, but M&M insisted it was fun, so we played that for a while, laughing and joking, generally cussing for the heck of it since R can't cuss at home with the baby. R and I ended up on a team together and beat everyone for the 1st 3 rounds. M&M were a team, but they decided to switch and sis M teamed up with Mom for the 4th round. They won, but I think it was because R and I were taking less time for our turn and not doing as much strategy. The last round ended in a draw with everyone tied and no winner. We talked for a little while longer, but at around 2 am, M&M left, and everyone got ready for bed.

The next day, R and I got together with Dad around 11:00 for an early lunch. Yummy Tex-Mex, where I found out that carne guisada isn't that many Weight Watchers points, considering, so yippee! : ) Then, we went shopping because Dad wanted to get stuff for R's birthday, which we didn't get to celebrate last month because she was way up in FW. So, she got some stuff at Bath and Body Works, some clothes at Ross, and a couple of things at Walmart. We still went to Starbucks and the grocery store, too, where I just picked up a couple of things. Then, around 5:30, we met H at Starbucks (2 trips in one day, woohoo!). We talked there for a while and then went to Hobby Lobby. R wanted a couple of things, but then, the store closed at 8:00, and we had to leave. So, we went to Dollar Tree, where we all picked up one or two things, and they closed on us, too. So, after that, we went back to my apartment and talked and we all had something to eat. We ended up staying up late that night, too. It must have been 1 am or so, maybe 2 am. Again, I still couldn't sleep that night either. So that was 3 nights in a row where I only fell lightly asleep after 5 or 6 am, and then still woke up a few times, so it wasn't deep sleep.

Yesterday, we all slept late, and R and all of us were sad that she had to leave. But what can you do? R and I made a quick Starbucks trip so she could get a coffee for the road. We were pretty tired, all of us, but she headed off around 4:30. Not long after, I fell asleep waiting for this program to come on Animal Planet called "Whales of the Midnight Sun" which I wanted to see, mainly for the coverage of narwhals. I've always found them fascinating because you don't hear much about them and they seem really bizarre, like something out of a fantasy book. When I was really young, I thought they were fictitious, actually. So, then I thought I'd catch the replay at 10, but again I fell asleep and didn't wake up until 3 am, when Bucky woke me up with an upset stomach. So, I missed the show, but I hope I'll catch it later. Hopefully they'll replay it. I didn't wake up this morning until 11. I'm still exhausted.

Oh well. I hope R got home okay. She was supposed to let me know when she got there, but I never heard anything. Hopefully I just slept through it and she really did call. Anyway, that's it for this post. Hope I have some stuff going on soon to write about. Take care everyone.

Does the rain like me, or not?

Job interview in Bulverde yesterday. I allowed some extra time on this one, too, because I don't recall ever going to Bulverde before. I didn't know how long it would take to get there. It was described in their directions as only being 10 miles north of 1604, but I've heard similar claims made when the actual distance was twice that or more. That, and it was near lunchtime, and it was raining. I allowed time for traffic. Well, it wasn't raining in the morning, but I knew it was a possibility. It didn't really start pouring down until I walked out the door and headed to the car in my nice suit and pumps. Really, against that kind of a downpour, an umbrella hardly makes any difference at all. I was soaked. I jumped in the car as fast as I could, but everything was wet. Yuck. So, now I have to drive all the way to Bulverde with wet stockings and a wet suit feeling really uncomfortable.

By the time I get in the car, however, the rain mysteriously stops, and I have great weather all the way to Bulverde. Traffic was bad in spots, but not so bad as to make me really far behind time-wise. I managed to make it there in 45 minutes, when I'd allowed an hour and 15 minutes. So, not bad. I get there and I'm looking like a drowned rat with no sign of rain anywhere. I didn't even bother with an explanation, but they saw me right away, even though I was early. The interview went well, I think, although they wanted me to fill out a questionnaire. I hate those kind of things, you know, "What are your best qualities?", "What are your worst qualities?" and your trying to make your worst qualities sound like they might be good things in disguise, like "I work too hard" or something along those lines. Hopefully I didn't make a fool of myself. They're doing another round of interviews before a decision is made, so it's hard to tell at this point really if I have a chance or not.

The rain came down pretty hard while I was in there filling the questionnaire out, but then it passed over. There was nothing but sunshine as I got in the car. Then, on 1604 on the way home, there was a torrent with lots of wind and very low visibility and everyone had to slow down to a near-stop. So, it took a really long time to get home. Then, I made the turn-off to get to the apartment, and the closer I got, the lighter the rain got, until there was hardly any rain at all as I got out and went inside. So, it rained enough to embarrass me at the interview and then let me get into the apartment when it didn't matter what I looked like at all. It did feel great to put some dry clothes on, though.

There's supposed to be rain all week, which is weird as we don't normally have this much rain in June. It just seems like it's been raining almost nonstop all month and you just feel like the little symbols on the weather report are stuck on the "storm" icon. H and I had to put off our day out last week, but we'll see if we can even do it tomorrow if it's still flooding. I'm so sick of the rain! I mean, the upside is that it's cooler and that's kind of a nice break from the heat, but really it's getting old. I'd like to get out of the house sometimes. : (

Double Surprise!

Surprise #1: Dad calls and wants to take me to lunch. I knew he was on vacation this week, but I thought he'd wait until Wednesday or so to call me. I thought he had a lot of stuff to do this week. Apparently, he called M and she was out with Mom, so he called me. Okay, no problem. I probably coulda used a shower, but he didn't complain, so that'll have to wait until tomorrow now. Then, we go to lunch, have a nice lunch of Tex-Mex (like what else do you eat in San Antonio?--Although our Chinese food rocks, too, I tell you). We decide to check Target for Dad's moisturizer cuz we can't find it anywhere anymore. I was starting to think they discontinued it, but we thought we'd check there cuz we always found it there before. Anyway, long-winded explanation for a quick trip to Target, but anyway--that's where I had Surprise #2: Mom and M were coming right out of the store at the same time we were going in! I called out "Hey!" over and over again. No words were forming in my mind at that point. They ignored us. Then, I'm yelling at Mom and M finally turns to see who the idiot is making a scene in the parking lot and sees us. So we chat a minute with them and she tells us all about the Hell that is the checkout lines. We had second thoughts about going in, but thought we might not buy anything anyway, so we went on in.

Sure enough, the moisturizer isn't there. It must be discontinued because we checked another store later at it wasn't there either. We stared longingly at the Dyson vacuums a while, and looked a little at furniture, but nothing really stands out to tell you about. We checked Bath and Body Works even, because the really awesome sale is on now and we thought maybe they'd have something for sensitive skin, but of course, one of my favorite lines there is about to be discontinued, too! I almost hate going there, because there's always some product I become really hooked on and feel like I can't live without, that later is discontinued. It happens a lot, actually. Some of my favorite products ever came from there and have been discontinued. I just hope they keep the True Blue Spa foot cream. I'd die without that. Anyway, after that, we just went to Starbucks and I had one of the best passion tea lemonades I've ever had. It was just the right amount of sweetness and sourness to make it perfect. I was sorry I drank it so fast.

Oh well. I guess I'm gonna watch TV here and try to get to bed early. I have another job interview tomorrow and it's in Bulverde. Not exactly near home, but I'm going to go to every single job interview I get called for. I need a job too badly not to. Hopefully one of these interviews will end up in a job offer, but I'm not holding my breath. I've had a lot of these recently and it's hard to be optimistic after all of them. I mean, I try to impress, but really there's only so much I can do. IP says a lot of it is political anyway. Like she heard of employers who tell the managers, "you're going to interview these people and hire this one" before the interviews have even taken place. Sometimes, the one that does the best in the interviews isn't the one that gets hired. You never know. It's just very discouraging.

Anyway, I guess I'd better go. I just feel like I'm just bumming myself out just thinking about job-hunting...