brace yourself...

I had an extreme amount of time to think over the weekend. I wasn’t thinking about anything that I don’t normally think about, just all over the place. I wonder why people make the decisions that they do. I wonder why people say they want things so badly and never do anything about it. I wonder why people spend money on things they don’t have. I understand putting things on credit cards in hard times, I see buying necessities, that I fully understand. What I don’t understand is redbox rentals, netflix, xbox live, hair dye, $200 trips to barnes and nobles, etc. I guess I don’t understand how a basic view of need and want differ to such an extreme. To me need entails something that you have to have to live. Want, to me, is something that you would like to have to make you more comfortable.

Need: food, a roof, clean clothes, my car, my phone, my job.

This is how I make these things into wants:

Want: take out, personal chef.. so on. My roof could turn into a 5 bedroom 3 bathroom home, clean clothes could go from basic clothing to $300 designer jeans. My cell phone is loaded with wants; texting and data. My car, as much of a need as it is, its also a want because it has more than what I really need to get by.

I suppose that the same logic can be reversed to make my wants into needs, as I often tend to do. I would like to think I’m getting a lot better. I know I just did a post about shopping a few days ago, but damn it, I had coupons! So really it was a responsible trip.

Bottom line, I worry about the people in my life. I often wonder if they make the right choices; if I make the right choices. I wonder how people that grew up with the same kind of parents, and were given the exact same things change into two different people with two different ideas of “need”. I wonder who, if anyone will come out ahead in all this. Will anyone ever get ahead, or will everyone be doomed to spend their way down an irresponsible path? I think I am the only 23 year old I know that is worried about how much money they will have their kids go to college, or when I’m 85.

Yesterday I had a day off work that I didn’t actually have to stay home and work at home. Work at home days are not days off work. To me cleaning, dishes, and laundry count as much as a job where you get a pay check. It was gorgeous outside. Just nice enough to wear a jacket, not a winter coat, a jacket! I spent the day with Mari walking/driving from store to store and talking about random things.

We started at Kohl’s and there really wasn’t a lot  there. I’m sort of surprised by that. I can normally find a zillion things I want, but I didn’t so I settled for jeans. I can’t say I’m not disappointed in the selection. I went in search of a certain top, which they didn’t have. But they did manage to have jeans with a zillion holes in them. Go figure. (No, I didn’t buy jeans full of holes).

After that we ended up in the mall and I went to extremely over priced Express. (I had a coupon!!!!) I was excited about that, and the buy one get one half off sale, and Mari was excited about the sales guy. He works at Express, so there is like an 80% chance he was gay. Mari says he isn’t, and besides, even if he was shes the Captain Planet of turning gay men straight. So we’re told. I pulled clothes off the rack for her to try on just so she could talk to him for a minute. It was hilarious.

More random shopping happened, more sales, more buy one thing get another half off, and so on. Making our way back to the car we ran into Cassi and her grandmother. I really don’t think either of us had seen Cassi in years. We did the usual talk for a minute, exchange numbers, and vow to hang out soon. We walk away and decide that we wish it wasn’t just small talk, and the standard niceties. But who knows, maybe we will get together, maybe we won’t. I think that is an only time will tell sort of thing.

Shopping lead to the need for food, which lead to Applebee’s. Then we ended up at Wal*Mart where we saw Brandy, and Dave. We planned to see Brandy, but Dave was a total surprise. He just got promoted, I think I was more enthusiastic about congratulating him than he was about actually being promoted.

All in all it was a good day, and I had left overs for lunch. Can’t get any better.

It’s my day off and I’m waiting for my friend to get back from a long awaited job interview, and for the dyer to stop spinning. I decide to not sit on my ass and be a bum and clean out the car.

While doing this I discover that I don’t have my insurance card where it should be. I’ll go ahead and admit that I used to carry it in my purse until I got my last card and Kris about had a stroke when he couldn’t find it in my car. After ripping apart the card and reliving the conversation stating the million reasons why the card should not be in my purse I text Kris to ask him where the card may be. After our conversation about the cards proper home to begin with and it left my purse I really haven’t seen it since. He goes off in a tangent about why it shouldn’t be in my purse… well no shit, but maybe it should be. I knew where it was at all times then. Now that it doesn’t live there I don’t. Instead of offering anything helpful for me to go by, like well I think I saw it here once I have to endure the lecture again, and the silence. Why are we rehasing a converstation from 2 months ago? Help me or leave me alone to figure this out. That is all I’m saying here.

I am somewhat responsible and did keep my actual policy in a place where I could find it, found the 1-800 number to call for a replacement card and they told me it would be up to 2 months before a replacement could be printed and shipped. Really? By then I’ll be getting a new one anyway. I went to their website and since I don’t remember what I put for my random security question “what was your favorite book when you were growing up?” I’m locked out of that. Did I tell you how awesome of a morning I’m having?

I called my agent, out to lunch.. at 10:30 in the morning?? Really? I left a message and also sent an email to see what my options are. Until then I’m just going to carry the first page of my policy that lists my number, name, address, policy period, my saturn and its info, and hope that works out for me. It looks just like my cards do, the only difference is its not shinny. I have a feeling if I do get pulled over, I’ll be given a hard time since its a whole page instead of index card sized, but I’m also pretty sure I’m not paying for rush printing and shipping. Also pretty sure that my policy will hold up in a Wilmington Court. (Maybe….)

I took an extremely insane amount of time off from this whole blogging ordeal. I wasn’t really sure of my url’s fate past February and I sort of figured I’d start to detach myself from it slowly in case it did, in fact meet a terrible end. But we have relocated from Wordpress to Tumblr, and I’m still getting used to the differences. Yes, Jeremy this is a basic editor, but its different and I’m not all about “change”. The only change I’m extremely fond of is the change in my pocket, when I have pockets.

I promise the crudness of this newly moved Carley Chronicles and w.riteon.me will turn into something pretty… someday. I also promise that I’ll be a better little blogger and add more things as time goes on. This should get much easier for me to do since I have a new Blackberry Tour and can email posts and pics from my phone directly to this new mysterious place.

Have something on your mind? Want to review a book, movie, tv show, etc? Submit your entry to w.riteon.me and it will be considered for publishing.

w.riteon.me has a new home; and Carley will be back on here soon (I hope.) I’ve transferred (rather crudely) the majority of the entries from the wordpress blog, and still have a few things to do. But until then, please check out the old entries and stick around for some new stuff. -Jeremy

Horoscope for Aries via MSN:

Intellect and feelings are totally joined today, Aries, especially when dealing with friends. Your basic understanding of others is also enhanced by a keener sense of intuition. You might become interested in a cause of some kind, perhaps metaphysical, social, ecological, or humanitarian in nature. There could well be more than one that you find appealing right now. Use your expanded mental and emotional capabilities to discern which are best for you. My day entailed me doing nothing of that nature. Long story short, a very very normal day. Better luck Friday? And yes I know I skipped a day. MSN won’t give me yesterday’s horoscope so I cannot recap it.

I think everyone needs a good fence, especially if you have neighbors. Mine keeps reminding me of this each and every day. As it stands now we have a privacy fence around our back yard and a portion of the front. We have a neighbor whose driveway is just about a yard or so away from ours. Needless to say we don’t have a fence to divide the front yards at this point, but thankfully we have one for the back yard. If we didn’t her dog would have destroyed everything back there too. I think everyone has a story like this, no matter if you live in a very small community and have an old wooden fence, or if you live in California and have a San Diego Fence Company fence.  Where I am from you get your fence from one of three places. You either make it yourself, or you fight with the installers from Lowes or Menards, and I really do mean fight. Sometimes they turn out pretty and sometimes they turn out ugly. I’ve seen my share of both. I have family members in California that say everything out there is a snap to do. Getting Vinyl Fencing In San Diego and Custom Gates San Diego are all beautiful. Here in the land of ice and snow we aren’t always so darn lucky. We deal with what we can get and hope that we can maintain something as beautiful.

My daily Aries Horoscope:

You may be wondering why everyone is getting so touchy when you see this as being just a normal day, Aries. Cut other people some slack when you think they aren’t wearing as big a smile as you are. If you want people to trust you, you need to prove that you can bring yourself to the same level that they’re on. Show a greater understanding of other people’s needs.

My Day: Today was actually pretty right on the money. It was a more than normal day for me. Nothing crazy happened, but people are still very touchy over previous events and new rulings- at home and work. I did end up fulfilling part of yesterdays horoscope today by reaching out to an old friend. This was only because something was needed, so I’m not sure if that really counts. I guess that means we are 1.5 for 2?

In order for this horoscope testing to work I feel that I need to stick with one site to get my horoscopes from. I’ve decided to go with MSN’s free daily horoscopes.

Today’s horoscope: Aries

Today, Aries, you might find yourself picking up uncanny telepathic messages from a friend who lives some distance from you. A telephone call might reveal that this person has just received some good news, and that they were just thinking of calling you! This probably won’t be the only ESP experience you have today. Your level of intuition is very high, so be prepared for some unusually strong psychic messages.

My Actual Day: Started out waking up late, getting to work early since I was rushing to make up my lost time. Had some Orange yogurt at my desk. The computers went down, and I spent my morning telling people to come back later. Went to lunch and enjoyed pancakes and some trash talking. Spent my afternoon catching up and helping clients. Mostly explaining that “no, I don’t do that, and no I don’t know why she did it for you.” and “If you want that done you’ll have to come back and see her”. Pretty standard. The snow made people drive extremely slow on the way home. For once Essex Rd was clear and people still wanted to go 15 mph. I haven’t heard anything entirely earth shattering today, nor have I thought I was “picking up on something”. So I think today’s horoscope was a bust. Better luck tomorrow?