the everyday adventures of sabrina

for the last few months, i’ve been noodling over whether or not to stay in this apartment. it’s not a bad place. i get great television reception (important for my no-comcast lifestyle). i’m half a mile from the blue line, and two blocks from the #72 and X9 busses and a block from the #9. i’m walking distance from a jewel, a staples, a k-mart, a decent supermercado, and a little bit further on, a home depot, a great fresh produce market, and my mechanic (which i love). my polling place is about 100 yards down the block. my new tiny local bank was chosen partly because it’s three blocks away from me. and, since it’s wicker park, there are innumerable bars and restaurants of every stripe all around. there’s free street parking, for a $35 resident sticker. my block is relatively quiet most of the time, and it’s pretty low crime (and most of what there is is, apparently, according to the CAPS web site, prostitution). as for the apartment itself — it’s probably about 850 square feet, which is a good size. it has a tiny office, so i can sequester my computer away. it’s a third-floor walk-up, with hardwood floors and a dishwasher, and laundry in the basement for when i don’t want to use the magic laundry fairies. i’ve got it all painted in colors i like, and i’m pretty happy with my commute. a couple weeks ago, i decided i’d stick it out for another year and decide then.

that said, i don’t think i care for the management that much. there’s been a couple of times lately i’ve had to call in for help, and they’re not very responsive. about two months ago, woke up on a saturday morning and it smelled like someone downstairs had burned toast. after a while, we realized that it no longer merely smelled like burned toast, but you could see smoke in the apartment — it was hazy and foglike in the apartment. i knocked on my downstairs neighbor’s door to ask if he had burned something, and he said he was just about to come upstairs to ask me the same thing. we knocked on the first-floor neighbor’s apartment, and got no answer. we tried calling the caretaker, but he didn’t want to come out — he encouraged us to simply call the fire department and have them start breaking down doors to investigate. we insisted he come over, and in the meantime, started investigating on our own. it turns out that the guy in the garden apartment had burned something — i mean, he put breakfast on and then went for a (cough) nap (cough). the smoke had simply made its way up through the first, second, and third floor apartments through the walls. he had no smoke detector. nice.

so this past weekend, when i went to las vegas, i left my downstairs neighbor a note saying i was going out of town, and leaving my phone number, in case (ha ha) the garden apartment guy tried to burn the place down again, please tell the fire department to rescue my cat. fortunately, he did not, but there was another crisis instead — on monday morning, my cleaning service came by, and she called me to let me know that the carbon monoxide detector was going off, and though she tried to air it out a little, it was still going off. so i tried calling the caretaker again. i got his voice mail. then i tried calling the landlord and got a really snotty woman yelling at me that he was on vacation and i should call the caretaker. when i said i had, and it was an emergency, and i needed someone with keys, she reluctantly gave me another phone number — which led to another woman, who complained that she “certainly [couldn't] go over” because she had to go to work. fast forward a couple of hours, i’m frantic in my hotel room imagining poor kiyoshi taking a nap from which he might not wake up, and finally the caretaker calls me back, saying he unplugged the CO detector and plugged it back in, and when it didn’t go off again, he left. i spent the entire morning alternately wishing i’d boarded both cats (i had only boarded tiger, because he has to have his shots, because of the expense, but i thought kiyoshi would be OK for a few days with someone to check in on him), and wishing i still lived in a high-rise with 24×7 staff on site. (sure, the wolin-levin idiots in printer’s square entered my apartment illegally one time over labor day weekend and locked my cats out of the closet where their litter box was, but at least that was not life-threatening.)

(by the way, D. went to heroic cat-rescue measures, and kiyoshi was just fine, if a little bit traumatized by the beeping and the parade of freaky strangers after having been all alone for two days.)

this on top of one time last fall or so when the caretaker went on vacation and left instructions to call the landlord only in an emergency — and a lockout was explicitly not an emergency. i found that a little obnoxious — i’m sorry, if i’m locked out of my house, i’m fucking calling someone about it, okay? much like the few times i’ve called the caretaker to have some problem fixed, and he’s complained to me about not being able to call me back (on my mobile, which i use as my only phone — i never answer my landline; i use it for ordering delivery) because he doesn’t have long-distance service on his phone so can’t call my 847 area-code mobile for free. this is the sort of issue that makes me automatically mentally respond, “as though that is even remotely my problem.”

anyways. the CO detector incident was just way too much stress. i could understand if i had to page the caretaker and wait for a response, but little old ladies chewing me out because the landlord is on vacation (LISTEN UP, LADY, SO WAS I) while i worried my poor terrified cat was asphyxiating, and then having nobody except one guy, who’s unreachable, who has keys … no, i guess i just don’t find that acceptable. what if it had been something like my furnace, and there was a gas leak or something? or say, WHAT IF MY CAT DIED. i mean, really. so i think i’ve changed my mind, and i’m going to move. the furnace noise and the extreme draftiness, i can cope with; the lack of central air was mitigated with window units; everything else was okay. but i have to know if i need someone because the building is on fire or something, someone’s gonna freaking be there.

i’m not thrilled about the prospect of moving. frankly, i wasn’t planning to budget for it — it’ll probably be at least a grand for movers, and another (or maybe more) for a security deposit. and packing is a pain in the ass. i really didn’t want to paint again. i am pretty comfy here. but, it’ll be worth it, if i can find another place where i know the owner gives a damn about his building, if not about me or my cats. at least i’m not tied to a lease; i’ve been month-to-month since my last lease expired, so i can pick up and go more or less whenever i please. i looked over my calendar, and i’m thinking i’ll shoot for june or july. it’ll be summer, which sucks, but at least it shouldn’t be rainy, and it’s many months to plan and apartment-hunt and save and pack. also, my tax refund this year should be a quite pleasant $2500, so although i did have other plans for that, at least i won’t be in the same financial position i was last time i moved (namely, charging my groceries so i could afford to pay the movers in cash).

damn, i really didn’t want to move, though!

sit down and shut the fuck up.

sincerely,
–sabrina.

so this article, There’s No Shame In Not Being Able to Afford It from I’ve Paid for This Twice Already, is a nice reminder for me at the moment.

this is not my first time being in las vegas, but it is my first time “going to vegas” — last time i was here for DefCon in, what, ‘05 or something, and so i spent my time working on my computer or hanging out at the conference, or i walked around doing some sightseeing. i only went into a casino to get access to the monorail — because, dude, monorail. this time, however, i am staying on the strip, at the IP (my opinion: a little divey. i want a coffeemaker in my room, dammit. but my third and fourth nights cost me about $57 apiece, so i guess i can’t complain too much.), and i’m here with friends, most of whom are gambling, somewhat experienced at doing so, and nearly all of whom are spending money relatively freely. i, on the other hand, stopped at the bank on my way to the L on friday to catch my flight, and withdrew $400, all of which was strictly budgeted for my trip — food, transit, tchotchkes, and gambling.

it’s a little lonely being budget girl, and — limited to $90 in cash most days — not able to just go plug in $100 to a machine and goof off with everybody. i don’t know how to play poker well, so i’ve stayed away from those tables; craps still confuses me, and roulette just seems … like roulette. except for blowing some cash on the Wheel of Fortune quarter machines, mostly i’ve stuck to video poker, at which i was pretty bad at first because i didn’t know the rules, but once i got it figured out, i got it so i could run the machine for a while and drag $20 out for quite some time. still, i feel a little bit left out since i can’t go spending money without putting thought into it. and i’ve totally been feeling the lure of the ATM: come on, it’s your last day, it’ll be good, have some fun!

and so, here i am now, chilling in my hotel room (quiet! oh god, i’ve come to the conclusion that the casino floor is what hell must be like for epileptics. flashy flashy blinky blinky BOOP BOOP CH-CH-CHING blinky WHEEL! OF! FORTUNE! blink!), being sort of sulky in my room when other folks are off playing poker tournaments. and then i stumbled across that blog post, which is a helpful reminder for me right about now.

I refuse to be ashamed about the fact that I don’t intend to go into more debt to fund this.
Sadly, the reality is, I still feel embarrassed about it in my head. … there is no shame in the truth, and the truth is – we have to budget and save over time to make this work. I get so hung up on “appearances” and the idea that money would cause me to put this off makes me feel like I can’t keep up the appearance that we’re doing just fine.

although the author is talking about having to save up to be able to have her wisdom teeth out, and so my silly las vegas spending money worries are a little bit frivolous in comparison, it’s still nice to read something that someone else feels the same way. even though i know all my friends here would love me all the same if i spent $400 in vegas or $4000, i still feel a little pressure to go hit the magic money machine and spend a little more time downstairs at the machines. (i’m sure the casino people work long and hard hours to make me feel that pressure.) frankly, i’m sort of shit at the whole gambling thing — cut me some slack, i’m a first timer! — and i don’t want to waste more money, but i am still feeling a little tug to go downstairs and try my luck. but, i budgeted what i could afford this month, and i’m down to $42, and that has to get me to the airport tomorrow and buy me a book to read and something to eat for lunch on the plane. so, no more gambling for money for me. i can’t afford it. and that’s, deep breath, okay.

Please stop confusing “principle” for “principal,” and vice-versa. Also ‘capital’ and ‘capitol.’ Especially if you hold one, are one, have some, or work in one.

no love,
–sabrina.

and now i flee; from chicago to sunny las vegas nevada, where i am probably not going to gamble very much at all (though please feel free to encourage me not to lose too much money anyways), but wish me luck in making it out of the las vegas airport alive without smashing any WHEEL! OF! FORTUNE! slot machines, as i so desperately wanted to do last time i was trapped there due to flight delays.

see you next week!

so i got a ping yesterday from my mortgage broker at my local bank — several months ago i approached my bank and, because i was curious what my financial situation would look like if i wanted to buy a condo, i went through the mortgage financing process without having (much, if any) intent to buy a place to live. i did learn some interesting stuff from the process. first, i got access to my credit report as the bank gets it — i authorized a “hard pull” (the kind that gets noted down, and can lower your overall credit rating if you do it too often, because it proves you are a “credit seeker”), but i think it was totally worth it because it showed much more information than the free credit reports (you’d think they’d show us the same thing, but you’d be naive and wrong!). also, i got access to my numeric FICO score, which was interesting because FICO is such a vague cloud of uncertainty. of course with FICO 2008, who knows what it is now, but it was nice to see that number just so i had some sort of idea what my credit rating was. (low 700s; not great, not terribly awful.) plus, they cited on there the things that had brought it down, which was nice because now i know exactly what to work on (i started with the bogus entry that Cingular/ATT had put on there for the phone-that-wasn’t — i disputed that with experian and they finally took it off, about two months ago! yay!). you know that previous post where i referenced late payments to my utilities (the gas company, evidently)? well, they’re hanging on out there on this report. it’s fun. you know. i wave to them when i go by — hi, reminders of my misspent youth! in 3 more years, you’ll be gone forever!

i also discovered that, despite my personal situation (single, single income, no investments, no savings, an existing mortgage on an “investment property,” and $10k of credit card debt), they were more than happy to offer me a loan. a pretty big one, actually, to my perspective — $325k, with 5% down (money which we assumed i would make up through 401(k) loans and personal savings, after my cards were paid off). the monthly payment for this largess would be only around $2500! the very matter-of-factness and encouraging attitude of the broker is part of what sealed the deal on not wanting to have anything to do with a home purchase. i mean, not that she was mean or pushy or anything; she was actually very nice and good to work with. but the idea that they thought it was a good idea for me to extend myself with a monthly housing payment that was more than half my monthly take-home, before my other obligations, freaked me right the hell out. i pretty much said “wow! thanks. i think i’m not going to buy a condo right now.” it helped that this exercise was in july/august, right when the subprimes started to melt down.

so that’s the tinted lenses with which i’m looking at the entire economic situation as regards the mortgage mess. i find it entirely believable that smart people got in over their heads as easily as stupid people. if mortgagors are willing to let you hang yourself, of course people are going to take them up on it. i do blame the consumers to a certain extent — hey, man, i ran screaming, you could have too — but i think most of the blame is on the lenders. the lenders made bad loans, full stop. whether they snookered borrowers in or whether they simply systematically used bad judgment is not my prime concern (although i have my suspicions it was a lot of both columns); that they couldn’t do math is. i mean, for pete’s sake, how frigging difficult is it to realize that someone with a $50k annual income is going to default on a $500k mortgage when her payment shoots up to more than her take-home pay? DUH. the borrower trusts the lender to, at some point, make a decision in his, the lender’s, own best interests; it is in the lender’s best interests that the borrower continue to make her payments. so of course borrowers should have done the math for themselves instead of being blindly trusting, but at the same time, the lenders should have been at least somewhat trustworthy.

so that’s why i’m so cranky about the whole situation. i see the lenders getting bailed out or bought out — okay, not all of them, admittedly — and nobody fusses about it because, hey, that’s just wall street. but the consumers getting bailed out — now that’s unreasonable! they are stupid! they don’t deserve it!

i think it’s fairly unquestionable at this point that all parties adjacent to these bad deals were, maliciously or unknowingly, stupid. but i think it’s unfair to put the entire burden on the consumers and then willfully deny the possibilities of fallout across the spectrum. do i want a tax increase to help pay for some sort of subsidy or concessions allowing these bad decisionmakers to have their bad decisions facilitated, at the cost of a market reset which might make it possible for me to own a place of my own? ridiculous question, of course i don’t. i am cheering for the free market to take over at this point, and lower real estate prices to something less absurd than $350k for a 1br with a dishwasher and a parking space. but the free market isn’t really getting a shot at it, with interventionary action from the fed every other damn day (WTF, you guys couldn’t wait ONE WEEK for the meeting? jesus wept.), and nobody letting the companies which should fail do so. and of course i don’t want the people who got into these bad deals to lose everything — for starters, everyone losing their homes will make rental cost more due to increased demand, and also, empty houses are ugly and permit an increase of criminal activity, which personally and materially affects me. also, i do feel bad for people, and sympathetically speaking, i think something could be done to cushion the blow of losing homes because many people were lied to, sometimes with knowing intent to mislead.

i don’t know what the answer is. i’m just getting really tired of reading articles assigning blame entirely to the consumers, and reading people’s bitchy comments about how the morons should have known better. i think it would be nice if people realized that the lenders weren’t exactly acting like altruistic priests, and quit bitching about how floundering borrowers should just take their foreclosures like men and shut the hell up about it… and it would be nice if people realized that a lot of people getting foreclosed on is going to affect the personal bottom lines they’re so damn protective of. self-centered tunnel vision, not so helpful, people.

and i also wish ben bernanke would, like, take a vacation. ben, sweetie, i’m a tax-and-spend big government democrat; when i’m calling for the federal government to quit intervening in economic matters and keep its muddy hands off the damn market, it’s unusual. okay? so go book yourself a nice flight to someplace with no internet access and no cable TV for a couple weeks, go chill out and leave us alone for a little while.

we now continue our previously scheduled splah.

of course, i wound up quitting that job. entailed with the job switch was a switch from driving to using cta rapid transit to get to work, a $75/month pass (bought eventually, after i got over my hangup about the CIA being able to track my daily movements; at first, i paid for transit cards with cash in order to thwart the man. and also because it took effort to sign up for a Chicago Card) instead of several $30+ fillups/month + $30/mo parking to drive. sadly, my employer doesn’t offer transit checks, so this is not a pre-tax deduction (yes, i ask about it semi-regularly! niqui want transit benefits!). also, there was a not-insubstantial pay change, though that didn’t take effect until 2007. in 2006, my effective pay remained the same from the university to the new gig. in 2007, however, someone decided to give me a Very Large Hat, and apparently that pays pretty well. i took advantage of that to send more money to the credit cards, and it’s true that that’s not a very helpful hint to give anyone who needs to get out of debt: hey, go get a higher-paying job! preferably one that doesn’t give you medical problems related to stress and anxiety, like clinical depression, because the workplace is so completely fucked up! (thanks for that, by the way, NSIT.) that said, if it’s an option, maybe you should look into it.

i also took advantage of my changed personal situation — once i was in better working circumstances, suddenly pretty much everything was better, regardless of whether or not it actually had to do with work — to spend a lot more time focusing on my credit card debt elimination goals. so this is sort of a little rundown of what worked for me.
continue reading…

so, recently i managed to finally get myself out of credit card debt. about 7 years ago, i took on two major expenses — i bought a new 2001.5 Volkswagen Passat GLS sedan, and i bought my mother a house in rural texas. then about a year later, my personal circumstances dramatically changed and, suddenly, i no longer had piles upon piles of spending money. this did not stop me from spending money, especially since i had a new apartment with very little in the way of pots, pans, dishes, or bath towels in it. courtesy of ikea, bed bath and beyond, and the like, within a year, my credit cards, which i had always scrupulously paid off at the end of each month, had a scary balance. i was so broke, in fact, that despite the fact that i knew, within six months of moving in, that my new apartment was both (a) too big and (b) too expensive, i couldn’t afford to move because i didn’t have the money for a security deposit, much less movers. it took me another year of money manipulation to come up with that cash, and in that time, i wound up cashing out both my (small) Roth IRA and my (larger) 401(k) from a former employer, taking huge hits on early withdrawal penalties and also losing out on years worth of appreciation. six years later, i’m out of credit card debt and have only recently managed to save as much for retirement as i had back then. so, this is my story.

continue reading…

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WHEN DO PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT?????? GAH.
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stupid january. you are the longest month.

that was anticlimactic.

so, watched the NH debates last night, natch. (OT: “1 Night 2 Parties” thing, too close to “2 Girls 1 Cup.” more internet-savvy proofreaders for you guys, ABC!)

tuned in a bit late to watch all of the republican debate, but got in most of it. damn, everybody is on the “smack down romney” train now, aren’t they? i think they were all just waiting for the moderators to turn their backs so they could leap over their desks and eat him. (well, except fred thompson, who appeared to be stoned and/or asleep at at least a couple of junctures. i keep reading comments in which people say “wow, he did well last night!” and i have to wonder if that was in the first half of the debate, which i missed, because in the parts that i watched, he was all short answers and hardly spoke up at all. in fact, there was one part where i cracked up because someone asked him a direct question about the profits of oil companies and he just said, “Well, I take note of those profits, and I take note of the losses when they’ve had them,” and immediately clammed up again for a couple of seconds before someone prompted him some more.) and except ron paul, who was rather agilely avoiding direct attacks at people and was instead ripping apart policy. i have to say, i quite enjoyed when paul went off on the whole “tamperproof ID for illegals” issue. he really hasn’t got a prayer (pun! ha! i so funny.) but it’s nice to see someone out there espousing reasonably civil-libertarian views. the problem with paul is, as D. pointed out, he sits there and points out the problems, especially with what his opponents are proposing, but says very little as to how he would solve them. john mccain did better than i had expected from him — having been expecting him to have a whole crazy breakdown for a while, i was disappointed when i only got a few mad cackles about Mittens. actually, there was a lot of cackling at Mittens. it must suck to be up there at a podium and not only half the country doesn’t wanna listen to you, but your compadres are all one-upping each other on who can oh snap! you best. if he weren’t so smug, i’d almost feel sorry for him.

side note: i want a nickel for every time any candidate said something about what “voters right here in new hampshire!!” want. dude, there are 14 people who live in new hampshire, and the only reason the rest of us let them hold first-in-the-nation primaries is because it’s frigging cold there and we don’t want to have to live next door to police standoffs with the crazy tax evaders. (p.s. i’ve been to your state. it’s very nice. you should pay your taxes so it continues to be so; otherwise, you will end up with michigan. thxu!)

i went into debate overload at some point during an edwards response in the second half of the democratic debate, and had to make the nice tivo save the rest of it for me to watch later. (haven’t yet. but: YAY TIVO. 8-second rewind, best thing ever for live debates!) damn, john edwards gets a fire lit under his ass sometimes, doesn’t he? dude was pissed about people working hard, sacrificing for their kids, and not having health insurance. (strategic cuts to elizabeth, in the audience, not looking so well, as can be expected. sad. :( ) also, just as it was “beat up on Mittens” night at the GOP table, it was pretty “IDK, my BFF John?” night on the Dem side. everybody was all “i love john edwards and we have cosy fireside chats ALL THE TIME!” were they going to do yearbook autographs after it was over? obama seemed a little off his game, he was answering well but some of the polish was off. not sure what was up with that; perhaps he was tired. whatever, he’s dreamy enough that it only makes us love him all the more. hillary was alternating between defensive and attacking, with very little middle ground, though her remark about “well, that kind of hurts my feelings” when asked how she would overcome her perceived unlikeability problem was, i thought, rather charming and humorous instead of coming off as pitiful or offended, so that was a win for her.

also, fyi charlie gibson: at a table with three senators and one governor, you need to stop calling on individuals with just the word “Senator,” ‘cos nobody knows which one you are talking to.

i did like the relative hawkishness on the Dem side on the idea of nuclear proliferation. richardson was pretty typically “diplomacy first, bitches!” which was nice to hear as well, but everybody seemed pretty much “you don’t get to have nukes if you are crazy and either harbor or are bad people, for we are still big and powerful and will take you out.” i was a little surprised it got as much of the conversation as it did, actually, since i don’t think “how will you militarily take down baddies” is a traditionally Democratic callout. and i think everyone did pretty well with the “you guys all said ‘no surge,’ yet violence is down, so you were totally wrong, weren’t you?” responses. violence down == good, still stuck there == bad. other than that, it seemed a lot like “my change is changier than yours!” i wasn’t really inclined to change any of my support, though i was reminded of why i like bill richardson.

so, in summary: republicans want to either throw mexicans out of the country or charge them rent, give us spiffy national ID cards, cut taxes, eat Mittens; democrats want to go get bin laden, change things up, and make us all get health care in one way or another. nobody wants to touch social security with a ten-foot pole. cast your votes now — time is running out!

in response to a copy of this email which i received this evening, i finally had enough of the forwarded, no research, slanderous, nasty and small-minded political crap (think: HILLARY IS GOING TO MAKE US ALL LESBIAN COMMIES!!!!!!!) that my family sees fit to fling at me. it’s rare for me to fling back Christian rhetoric at someone, not least because i consider myself agnostic, but dammit, this shit really pisses me off, especially when it’s done in the name of Christ, who sounds like he could have been a pretty nice guy, all things considered.

Actually, Obama’s middle name is Hussein, not Mohammed; he’s Christian, not Muslim; the church web site clearly says that “It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people” and that is why they celebrate a shared black background, not that white (or purple or pink) people are not allowed; the web site further states (at http://www.tucc.org/talking_points.htm, in direct response to the Hannity and Colmes show) that “African-centered thought, unlike Eurocentrism, does not assume superiority and look at everyone else as being inferior” which rules out that claim that the church is racist; I worked for the same University he taught at and lived in the same Chicago south side community, Hyde Park, he lives in, we probably even shopped at the same grocery store because there was only one in Hyde Park, and he had a good reputation as a kind man; and for the record, I plan to vote for him.

As for the middle name issue. Barack Obama’s middle name being Mohammed, or Hussein, or Fredericka De Ville is about as relevant to the Presidency of the United States of America as my cat’s name. My middle name is Lee, but that doesn’t mean I support Robert E. Lee and want the Confederate States of America to rise again. A name is just something our parents stuck us with.

I find this sort of message to be not just personally depressing but un-Christian in its judgmentalism and untruth, and I think if you re-read it you might see why I feel that way. It’s not up to us to judge. XXX, I love you, but please don’t forward me emails about politicians anymore. It upsets me to read messages like this from people I love and respect. I am basing my support of candidates on what I see and hear them say directly, not something I get third-hand from some author on the Internet somewhere who is too frightened to sign his own name to it. And one of the reasons I’m voting for Obama is because he’s not spreading malicious lies about the other candidates, and is genuinely turning the other cheek.

–sabrina

this is after i sat through watching Mike Huckabee tonight, whining about how Mitt Romney is mean and horrible and so on and so forth, and yesterday watched both Huckabee and Obama on “Face the Nation” from the other day — a broadcast in which every single damn time the interview tried to get Obama to say something nasty about Hillary Clinton, he not only did not do so but talked about his platform in the context of the question and how he would improve things.

for all the focus on christianity and religion it has, i think this election cycle could use a little less christianism and a little more Christlike behavior.

so yesterday i submitted two online payments to my citibank mastercard for the last $2202.10 of my credit card debt. it’s, like, paid off now, and shit. and then i did my 2008 budget and flung some at Médecins Sans Frontières, because i am a wild woman and you cannot stop the crazy when i get my party on.

and then i spent my christmas gift from my dad (cash) on a shiny new set of knitting needles i’ve been dying to get my paws on for months, but could never justify actually buying, what with the trying to pay off my credit card debt and all. i can’t wait for them to arrive! i’m so excited, i’m going to use them to knit Donna (which i already cast on and knit about 1 inch of, but then decided i didn’t want to knit it on straights and would prefer to knit it in the round as much as i can, and so i chose to splurge on the Options rather than buying another ordinary circ).

take that, looming recession! (and someone just shoot me in the head if i get in credit card debt again, please.)