A Package and a Dilemma

Yesterday I came home with a note from the post office that they had a package to deliver to me. I wondered what could be waiting for me. Was it the pair of shoes I left in Chicago? Was it a coffeemaker a friend of mine told me she would send?

At work today we ended the half day with a company luncheon at the Bryant Park Grill behind the big central library, you know with the lions. And even though they say there's no such thing this free lunch was actually really great with oysters on the halfshell and a lobster burger. The place looks like they should shoot a movie in there.

After getting home from lunch, I took a walk in the hot, hot sun down to Tito Puente Way (aka E 110th St) and gathered my parcel. It was of course in the post office, and the line was filled with older something women, which is weird because every post office line I've ever been in has a line comprised mostly of older women, as if super models never have to mail packages or pick them up for that matter. The post office was kind enough to provide entertainment and I watched Robin Williams and Robert di Nero in Awakenings, the fun part of the movie, after the tennis ball and before the return to catatonia.

But the fun couldn't last forever and I when I got to the window I traded my notification slip for a manilla folder. It was from my mother, which helps explain the presence of older women, they're shipping stuff to their children. Mom had shipped some mail that had arrived at the family estate and was addressed to me. In it she included an article about how the new Thor comic will be set near Oklahoma City, which could be promising, depending on how Oklahomans are portrayed. Hopefully he won't be confused with Dr. Ann Thor, a pathologist already working in OKC. Mom also sent another article about a writer from Oklahoma.

And clipped to both with a note reading "a donation to the cause" was $40. And here is the dilemma. How do we define "the cause?" If the cause is paying off my credit card bill than the money should go there. If the cause is surviving on $10 a day then the cash should go to my daily budget. I keep track of the daily balances to give people an idea of how well I'm doing. A negative balance means I'm overspending. But this sort of mana from the gods could fall under the "In" heading changing the whole nature of the balance. But I don't shine to the idea of not buying anything for the next 3 days just so I can run a positive. Keep in mind I haven't been to the grocery store for 2 weeks and that was to pick up my measly rations for the Food Stamp challenge. So I decided that this cash would be used to reduce the negative of my daily balance. Anyone else thrown off by the phrase, "reduce the negative?"

I went directly across the street to the NY Public library to check it out and if there was a book there to pay enough fines to check the book out. But they didn't have the book so I walked home, stopping to buy a mint plant, that will join the basil plant on my fire escape garden. I hope the $3 investment will save me money down the line on mint. I like to use mint in cooking, and mint juleps, or mojitos. I also gave 18 pounds of laundry to the laundro-mat. I should do my own for about half that much but I was too lazy. Finally I bought some Chinese dumplings for dinner. Not the most frugal day.

But let's break it down anyway.

Starting Balance: -$36.25

In: $10
$40 from Mom. Awww.

Out:
Mint: $3
Laundry: $13.25
Steamed dumplings: $3.75

Balance: -$6.25

Tossing Salad on Governor's Island

Today I set off alone for Governor's Island. A small patch of land south of Manhattan. This place was once used as a munitions depot for the US Army. Now it looks like a deserted antebellum neighborhood. It's a bit weird. And even weirder today as it was host to "Figment." Try saying it with all the artsy pretense you can muster, "Figment!" That was fun, huh? And you get a sense of what goes on at such an event. It was a sort of free form festival with events like drum circles, art instillations, medieval weapons booth and, notably, women painted in gold and silver running around half naked. I was told it was very similar to "Burning Man," only this was less.

It was one of those events full of people who make it difficult for me not to judge them. I was aware, almost immediately, of what a square I am. The women in superhero outfits were a clear indication that this wasn't so much my gig. Looking over the roster of events, I skipped the group building games, and getting my picture taken in a bath tub and decided that it would be the nature walk for me: Mr. Excitement.

After walking around looking for a sign that said, "Nature Walk" I asked the booth and found that it would be conducted by a man in a red cowboy hat. Without him in sight I took a rest and waited. Then a strange music filled the air and women in long skirts and very short shirts began to dance. It was a group of belly dancers. I'm a sucker for skilled hips and here were four sets of them. I'm pretty sure I'm in love with at least one of them. After this closed I spotted a group of people around a man wearing a red cowboy hat. It turns out that this particular nature hike featured edible plants. Which is great for the Gotham Frugal, because now I can wander into a vacant lot and walk out with a salad. The guide also was happy to point out those plants around us that had psychoactive properties. Who knew you could get high from actual weeds? The walk concluded with us eating a salad made from the various plants we encountered, topped with some tasty homemade walnut mustard vinaigrette of the guide's own preparation. My favorite edible plant was the daylily, which had a very buttery taste to it and was bright orange, breaking up the green of the salad.

Afterwards I bought a $2 12 ounce can of coke and felt like an ass for doing so. This was from a street cart, one of two on the Island. That's the power of supply and demand peoples. Back in the Barrio I did my own laundry for the first time in 4 or 5 months. I'm so used to just handing the people my bag and walking away. The laundry mat is so close I was able to cook some grub for the week while doing the laundry.

Not a bad Sunday, and for the first time since this experiment began, I have a positive balance. So on to the ....

Daily Breakdown

Starting Balance -$0.25

IN: $10

OUT:
Coke: $2
Laundry: $4.50

Balance: $3.25