Confessions of a Nouveau Mooch
Sitting at Rojo for dinner tonight, I got a text from Elisa: "I just got a ticket."
Ordinarily, I'd be a little bummed. Elisa's my friend, and getting pulled over sucks (especially because I'm pretty sure she hasn't renewed her tag this year). Today was different. I threw my phone back into my bag with a smile on my face. "Elisa got a ticket!" I told Emily and Becky, a big smile on my face.
We high fived. We rejoiced in Elisa's misfortune. We toasted her bad luck as I pulled ahead as the cheapest woman of the day.
In light of the ticket incident (which puts Elisa behind in our contest), I contributed $10 to the day's festivities. Make no mistake, I'm still mooching off Becky and Emily quite a bit: Becky bought me a Tofu dog at Bottletree (one of the cheapest things on the menu, and I got it with water ... if I'd paid it would've been chips and salsa for $3) and Emily bought us all a pitcher of margaritas at Rojo. When we ordered food, I went for guacamole, but I ate so much of Becky's nachos and Emily's burrito that I should've chipped in more to clear my conscience.
But I'm changing my ways. Gone are the days of feeling sorry for Elisa. Gone are the meals when I felt ashamed of being a mooch. I want to be a cheap woman, and that takes some sacrifice. And if sacrifice involves free pitchers of margaritas ... well, I'm ready to be a martyr.
I mentioned my guilt to Emily and Becky, who brushed it off because they are amazing friends (and because this "cheap women" contest is new and not as annoying as I'm sure it will soon become). Becky (who lives in New York) explained it like this: If she (Becky) lived here (Birmingham), than she and I (Carrie) would go out to dinner often, since Becky is awesome and I enjoy being with her. At these dinners, we would both spend money. They would happen often. This could get expensive, for Becky as well as for me. Becky reasons that it's actually much cheaper to buy me some food and a pitcher of margaritas at Rojo (yeah we got two pitchers ... what?) than it would be to maintain a short-distance friendship. Since she lives in New York, we can stay friends and still save money. It's very "cheap women" of us.
Of course, this is a special brand of rationalization. It's very familiar to me, and it's made me very poor. But I think what Becky really meant was that friendship is more important than money, and that it's worth a few extra dollars to build a relationship. With that I completely agree. Where the balance between generosity and poverty falls, I'm not sure. But I'm in this to find out.
Ordinarily, I'd be a little bummed. Elisa's my friend, and getting pulled over sucks (especially because I'm pretty sure she hasn't renewed her tag this year). Today was different. I threw my phone back into my bag with a smile on my face. "Elisa got a ticket!" I told Emily and Becky, a big smile on my face.
We high fived. We rejoiced in Elisa's misfortune. We toasted her bad luck as I pulled ahead as the cheapest woman of the day.
In light of the ticket incident (which puts Elisa behind in our contest), I contributed $10 to the day's festivities. Make no mistake, I'm still mooching off Becky and Emily quite a bit: Becky bought me a Tofu dog at Bottletree (one of the cheapest things on the menu, and I got it with water ... if I'd paid it would've been chips and salsa for $3) and Emily bought us all a pitcher of margaritas at Rojo. When we ordered food, I went for guacamole, but I ate so much of Becky's nachos and Emily's burrito that I should've chipped in more to clear my conscience.
But I'm changing my ways. Gone are the days of feeling sorry for Elisa. Gone are the meals when I felt ashamed of being a mooch. I want to be a cheap woman, and that takes some sacrifice. And if sacrifice involves free pitchers of margaritas ... well, I'm ready to be a martyr.
I mentioned my guilt to Emily and Becky, who brushed it off because they are amazing friends (and because this "cheap women" contest is new and not as annoying as I'm sure it will soon become). Becky (who lives in New York) explained it like this: If she (Becky) lived here (Birmingham), than she and I (Carrie) would go out to dinner often, since Becky is awesome and I enjoy being with her. At these dinners, we would both spend money. They would happen often. This could get expensive, for Becky as well as for me. Becky reasons that it's actually much cheaper to buy me some food and a pitcher of margaritas at Rojo (yeah we got two pitchers ... what?) than it would be to maintain a short-distance friendship. Since she lives in New York, we can stay friends and still save money. It's very "cheap women" of us.
Of course, this is a special brand of rationalization. It's very familiar to me, and it's made me very poor. But I think what Becky really meant was that friendship is more important than money, and that it's worth a few extra dollars to build a relationship. With that I completely agree. Where the balance between generosity and poverty falls, I'm not sure. But I'm in this to find out.
2 Comments:
im so close to making this thing working how i want it but blogger's damned templates are more complicated than runes on easter island.
cb
ps i kind of dont think there were runes on easter island, but i do feel like there is a language there that no one knows anything about. but runes? were they called runes? no idea.
i feel confident there must be runes, even if we don't know about them. by the way, there's a facinating chapter on easter island in the book Collapse (by the guy who wrote Guns Germs and Steel). i'm listening to it on audio and i like it a lot. want to borrow?
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