The Care and Feeding of Parents

My parents came up for a visit last week. Naturally, things didn’t go quite to plan.

“So,” Mom asks. “What time should be aim for to avoid rush hour traffic?”

“Four,” I say. “Which means you need to leave by around 12:30 or so. Call me when you’re on the road, and then call Erin [my sister] when you get to Macon.” (So she’d know to leave work and head home to meet them.)

“Okay!”

I held out until 1:30 before I called.

“Yesssss?” Dad answers.

“Um, are you on the way?”

“Oh, yeah. We’re just leaving Ashburn [three hours away]. We stopped for lunch. Hang on.” He hands the phone to Mom.

“You were supposed to call me when you left,” I remind her.

“Well, I called Erin!”

I refrain from headdesking, but barely. “You were supposed to call me when you left home, Mom. And then call Erin from Macon.”

Insert long, convoluted rambling about the route they plan to take to get from Atlanta to Kansas (where they were headed to visit friends), while I try to interrupt because, hey, at work here, and you pretty much have a microcosm of my parents.

Gotta love ’em. Because it’s either that or shoot ’em. Or myself.

Pomp & Circumstances

My sister in her master's degree garb!! Tuesday, May 11, 2010, Kennesaw State University.

Buying Happiness

Many years ago, when I had no money (and I mean NO money), I promised myself that I'd clean up my financial house and get into a position where I actually had disposable income. And when I did, I'd spend that money doing things that I really, really want to do.

I'm finally at a point where I can make good on that promise.

Last month, I took the longest vacation in my life (11 days), a cross-country extravaganza including a cruise to Mexico (never cruised before, never been to Mexico), a long weekend in New York, and meetups and visits with a huge list of friends and family. I had the time of my LIFE. And in the process, I spent around $3,000. Probably closer to $3,500, actually, if I sat down and did all the math.

It was the best money I've ever spent.

I'm about to take another trip. My sister just finished her master's degree, so I'm taking her back to New York for Memorial Day weekend. Her flight, half the hotel, and a ticket to see Avenue Q will be her graduation gift. That trip will cost me around $1,500 total, counting my share of everything.

Again: money well spent.

Later this year, I'll be attending Dragon*Con, an event in Chicago, and (I hope) an event in Boston. Once it's all over, I will have spent more money on "fun stuff" in a single year than I ever have in my life. Heck, I may end up spending more total than I earned my first year at my first "real" job.

And I don't regret a bit of it.

For a long time, I had terrible anxiety whenever I spent a significant amount of money. Even when I knew I could afford it, even when it was a necessity, I'd come down with a huge case of buyer's remorse. I still have a little of that from time to time (ask the friends I angsted to after booking the cruise), but I'm trying to get past it. No, I can't spend money without thought. But I'm in a good place financially, with a job that pays well and that's about as secure as jobs come (especially considering the current economic climate), and I have savings to fall back on in an emergency.

Even better than being able to spend money on myself, though, has been being able to help out friends. People helped me out back when I was struggling, so it feels good to be able to pay that forward. I was able to help out a couple of friends on the trip with cash flow issues, and I donated to support a related project I believe in. I've been helping support my sister through graduate school.

And truthfully, that's all I've really wanted out of life. To be in a place where I can do things that make me happy. Travel makes me happy. Visiting friends makes me happy. Helping people out makes me happy. Supporting causes I believe in makes me happy.

I guess the point is that, sometimes, money can buy happiness. It just depends on how you're spending it.