My Life

On the tail end of our vacation, we stayed with my parents in San Francisco. We had a day to relax in the city before flying home.


My sister and I have spoken once in the last 6 years or so. Apparently, my husband and I disrespected her and her husband. As such, I am NOT ALLOWED to have ANY contact with her monkeys (who are 16 and 18 - and who I helped raise since they spent many weekends with us as toddlers) and my sister doesn't have any contact with my monkeys. In fact, she hadn't seen my monkey's more than once or twice in the last 5 or 6 years.


On Tuesday, my sister tells my mom that she wants to see the monkeys'. She wants my mom to drive them to HER mother-in-laws house (who I actually have a GREAT relationship with) so that she can see them. Since I am the bigger and better person, I grip but decide to drive my mom and the monkeys. Two minutes after dropping them off I get a call to pick them back up. Why you ask???? Well, my brother in law decided to "run her errands" with her. She was going to have to sneak out to see her nieces?!?!?!?!

Thirty minutes later my mom asks me to drive them again - apparently she has lied to her husband and told him that she needed to go grocery shopping!

My monkey's finally got to "meet" their aunt - who showered them with kisses and affection. I guess it was worth it for my monkeys.

The things that suck about this:

• She's almost 8 years older than me - why should I have to be the bigger person?
• My husband and I didn't murder anyone - why are we persona-non-grata?
• If I allow her to see my monkeys, why can't I see her monkeys?
• Why would she allow her husband to dictate what family members she can and can't see?
• What could my brother in law POSSIBLY have against an innocent 5 and 6 year old?
• Why does my mother insist on blaming my brother in law, and not my sister?

I must breath deeply and remember that I am a good person, and she is a BITCH ;)

I will pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today...

I think that this was the line that Wimpy said in the Popeye cartoons.

This is a very typical mindset that many Americans, including myself, have come to resemble.

My parents came to this country with me, my sister, my grandmother, $500 and not a word of English in 1980. We did not go on welfare or accept charity. My parents, who were both professionals (architect and engineer) in the former USSR, went to work doing what ever they needed to take care of us. Within 5 years, we bought a house. Both my sister and I were put through college - and emerged with no debt. Thanks to my families frugality, my parents emerged, after raising two children, with no credit card debt and were able to pay off their house in 20 years. And FYI, neither of my parents had "high-paying" jobs. They were simply FRUGAL. Few dinners out, saving where they could. They had enough for the essentials and 2 frugal vacations a year. And you know what...I really didn't feel like I was missing out.

So, why didn't I pay more attention and inherent their frugality?? I've been using the "Wimpy" way of spending recently and with this economy I have had a reality check.

So....I will try to save more. And be accountable here. Maybe I can change my habits and save more than I spend, make a dent in my debt and save enough for a contingency plan that doesn't involve my 401(k) plan (at least in its' current state).

Today I brought my lunch and spent no cash. Stay tuned for tomorrow...