My cheap $197.50 weekend

The plan this weekend was to save money and start living like the starving student I now am. I had an amazing plan, stay in Friday night, bypass the Modest Mouse show in favor of the free Brooklyn Block Party featuring Talib Kweli, then a free "interpretive dance" performance on Sunday and watching the VMAs on Sunday night. ALL FREE SHIT, right? WRONG. Here's how I spent $197.50 in two days.

Saturday-Decided to spend the morning studying at my favorite coffee shop (I just read a review of it that said "every time I come to the Outpost I see someone famous, like M.I.A. , who lives in the neighborhood". Seriously? M.I.A? That rules!) which also meant spending $15 on two iced coffees plus breakfast and lunch (stupid stupid, and never saw anyone famous). Next came $12.50 on cleaning shit for the apartment so my roommate doesn't start to hate me. Next came $5 on a dress that I bought in a panic after being invited to a fancy fashion designer party (yeah, $5, and that's rounding up. I love my neighborhood).

Next stop, block party! Here I was pretty good (hard to spend too much at a free block party) UNTIL we got bored waiting for Talib Kweli. (local acts came first, including the all white reggae band and the woman who kept infusing her songs with public service announcements like 'remember to fill out your w2s!' and 'teach your kids to spell!') so I spent $27 at the bar next to the park. (hey, guys, I'll get this round!)

Next stop, swanky party. Yeah! Also free, right? WRONG! In order to impress the guy who called me Melissa all night the last time I met him, I decided the nice thing to do would be to bring him a $30 bottle of vodka (his birthday after all), which I mostly drank myself because I felt so weirdly out of place at the party (and he still didn't remember my name). Also, did not wear the $5 dress, which may have been a mistake. Also, according to the receipts and a vague memory of eating potato chips on the train, I bought some food after the party ($9).

Sunday-All aboard express train to hangover-ville. Dragged myself out of bed (people are dragged, right? like hanged?) to obligatory hangover brunch ($15) then to hangover movie ($11) and hangover getting-duped-out-of-$7-by-con-artist/fellow-human-in-need/homeless-man. ($7). Then, $20 for new shoes after mine literally fell apart in the west village and I hobbled into the nearest overpriced shoe store and bought the cheapest ones. Then, wine and dessert ($20) to impress my new friend d at her tv watching party. THEN, $20 on a cab home that should have cost $6 because the driver got lost and I was too tired to argue.

Oh yeah, almost forgot the $76 subway pass I bought. Plus a ton of coffee. Which brings us up to the grand total of $197.50

Man, so, the theme is a) I spend money on stupid shit and b) I spend money on stupid stuff trying to impress people. Luckily for you guys, you may be the next person I buy stupid stuff for in order to impress.

Not as scary as a revolving door but...

There are a few things that I’m pretty afraid of. Marriage, revolving doors, and death by an intruder are up there at the top of the list, but a close runner up is the fear that I’ll become an insomniac.

I love sleeping of all kind (going to bed early, sleeping in, cat naps, power naps, napping at lunch time, napping at night before going out late, etc.) and I’m miserable when I don’t do enough of it. The idea that I might have the opportunity and desire to sleep but simply not be able to is for some reason horrifying. (watching the insomnia scenes in Fight Club is painful)

So the fact that for the past month or so I’ve had only 1-2 nights of good uninterrupted sleep is a little worrisome.

Here’s a list of absolutely true things that have kept me awake or woken me in the middle of the night, from the past 30 days. Let me know what you think. I've only got 22, probably because I left out the best ones ;)

1. Contacts were in plastic cups next to the bed and I was afraid I’d knock them over and be blinded and useless
2. Cell phone was dead and there were no other clocks, so I was afraid of oversleeping
3. Suddenly terrified of becoming a “bad person”
4. Good book
5. School
6. Work
7. Working while in school
8. Simply too drunk to sleep well
9. Number 8 again, a few times
10. Moving to NY
11. Leaving Denver (slight permutation on 10)
12. Sharing bed with snorer
13. Sharing bed with blanket hog
14. Sharing bed with unintentional spooner (Lindsay, I’m calling you out on this one)
15. No bed at all
16. Afraid of falling in love
17. Afraid of not falling in love
18. Too hot
19. Too cold
20. Thunderstorm
21. Cats using bed to stage ultimate feline fighting championship