livin' la vida nicoloff...

it's super extra ironic because... i work for that retail mega-chain: Gap, Inc.  yep.  it's true.  i work for the online division.  great employer, btw.  love my job and my co-workers.  i actually have very little to do with the clothing... because i'm a product manager over our data warehouse.  but, that i work for the gap AND have decided i need to cut out my shopping habit is, if you ask me, pretty ironic.  or, at least, comical.

...starting March 1st, 2008, I'm officially going to swear off buying new or used clothing and shoes for one calendar year.  i'm not the first person, nor the last person, to ever take on this kind of a challenge--but i invite YOU to give it a go along with me and chronicle what ensues.

so, like any challenge, i need a few rules, besides the obvious.  here's what i'm doing:

1. no purchasing of new or used clothing with the exception of socks and underwear (thanks Carla and others) from any source (fairs, retail stores, websites, etc.)
2. buying fabric and sewing my own clothing is a-okay... but, see, i don't actually own a sewing machine, so that's a whole extra layer of complexity and fun to add into the equation.
3. the shopping embargo is limited (personally, anyways) to stuff i can wear.
4. 'renting' special occasion clothing is a-okay as well... (but i'm guessing pretty unlikely.)
5. borrowing or trading clothing with girlfriends is absolutely sanctioned.
6. alterations, dry cleaning, and shoe repair are highly encouraged.

yep.  that's it.  not too tough.  but none the less, it means giving up something that is, frankly, a big ol' habit for me.  it's unnecessary.  it's, more often than not, frivolous.  it's one of the many things that's preventing me from actually SAVING money. 

my husband and i want to buy a house.  we live in San Francisco, and it's expensive.  we really want to stay here and try and buy something, and we know we could in fact afford a pretty solid monthly payment.  yet we've been thus far entirely unable to buckle down and save.  now, i know that simply not buying clothing is not going to solve the problem.  there are a number of steps i/we can take to change our spending and saving habits, and i kinda see this as a HUGE symbolic step towards breaking my poor spending habits and making some serious change in the management of our collective finances.

this challenge, as you can see, is not entirely about pulling a nancy regan and 'just saying no' to retail therapy (my favorite anti-depressant).  it's about becoming--and staying--keenly aware of where my money goes every month.  retail therapy is only part of the problem.  but, it's probably the key contributor to my lacksidasical attitude about spending.  retail therapy always occurs in small, manageable doses that ultimately add up to a big lump of cash that i could have used for a down payment on a condo in sf for me, my husband, and my dog.

so, bit o' a.m.-bus-riding brainstorming lead me to an idea: could i actually go for an entire year without buying any new (or used) clothing for myself?  could i commit to that?  could i simply borrow dresses (if needed) from friends for special occasions?  just repair any older clothing that needs some love?  alter existing clothes that perhaps need a face lift?

entirely possible.  i need to noodle on this a bit more to decide if i want to commit.  hmmm...

my friend john needs a blog.  he's quite the social butterfly and seemingly the center of his social universe.  he hosts a monthly pool night at a bar of his liking every month and has done so nearly non-stop for the past 10 years.  he's prone to sending large emails out to large groups of friends with what's going on in his world, when the next pool night is, etc.  honestly, i do appreciate seeing his name in my inbox--but it sure seems like if he had a blog that he would get PLENTY of readership. anyways... his most recent email was GREAT.  why, you ask?  it was so darn USEFUL!

so, on his behalf... i present... your useful tip of the day:

To: Pool Night list

This is a PSA (Public Service Announcement) unrelated to Pool night.
(The next pool night will probably be the first week of March.)

The ability to quickly get off the ValPak coupon mailing list and
similar seems so useful, that I thought I would share this website
with y'all:

http://stopjunkmail.org/resident2.htm

We've recently been on a kick of calling catalogs and getting off the
list, and it has reduced the amount of wastage that we recycle
tremendously. The concept here is that it takes trees to make junk
mail and gasoline to deliver it, and even if you recycle, only a
percentage is recaptured. Better to stop the junk mail altogether,
and it makes your life less aggravating to boot!

--John

holy purty and light bike, batman!  i just heard of this guy and the nifty bamboo and hemp bikes he builds.  dreamy!  see here:

Oh, and in case you haven't seen 'em yet: TONS of photos... http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/jenandjaykona.  I can not believe we're up to over 600 photos tagged with our super mega special wedding week tag.  That doesn't include the 600+ that our photographer took.  Most. Well. Documented. Wedding. EVAR.

OMG, if I ingest another calorie, I'll VOMIT! Wedding week is over. So. A. Mazing. So fat. Back on Weight Watchers tomorrow!

Ouch!

Do you believe there is intelligent life on other planets?

ha.  i totally don't have time to be screwing around at work and answering this... but it made me laugh... here's why:

i dated this guy years ago that proposed to me over the phone after only one month of dating long distance.  i said yes.  that was the dumbest thing EVAR.  EVAR!!!  anyhoo, turns out, he's bi-polar.  no, literally, bi-polar.  diagnosed.  he has a family history of schizophrenia.  oh lord.  that was nuts.  anyways, we were talking one day on a long drive and he stops me in the middle of our conversation and says "okay, i need to ask you a really serious question."  i say, "uh, okay, sure."  he says "if this is going to work out between us, i need to know that when aliens come to earth and ask us if we will come back to their planet with them that you will agree to go."  this was before i fully understood that he was crazy.  at that point, i thought to myself "uh, wow, uh, ohmygod, he can't be serious."  but he was.  seriously.  i so don't believe in aliens i truly was speechless.  that was just one of many clues that i should have seen and acknowledged about where our relationship was going...

so, the answer to the question is NO.  i don't believe in aliens.  i do believe that somewhere outside of our known universe there's gotta be some other life forms elsewhere.  but there is no way i believe that any aliens will ever come to earth anytime in my lifetime and ask if i want to join them on their planet. 

btw, the relationship with psycho crazy asshole ended with a really awful painful 1.5 week roadtrip from philly to san francisco where i was emotionally abused and made to feel like i was the most awful person on earth (and probably in his imaginary universe.)  we got back to sf and i had no job, no car, no stuff, and STILL walked away knowing anything was better than being with him.  emotional abuse is a crazy, crazy thing.

freakiest jerry springer moment (okay, 4 months) of my life.  i can't articulate exactly what i learned from the experience--but needless to say i'd like to think i'm now a better judge of character.

now this is something i've never seen before... i get off the bus at market and spear today, and look across the street, and there's an all male dance team dressed in matching outfits, each carrying a big yellow suitcase with an expedia.com logo on it.  hmmmm... there was music and they were doing a lovely coordinated dance routine, akin to something you might see at super bowl half time.  this photo doesn't even begin to do it justice.  they had just plopped down on the suitcases for a short break... but i was slacking so badly in getting to work this morning, it was already 9:30.  anyways--always great to start your workday off with completely random street scenes.