How I Spent The Twelfth Week Of The Rest Of My Life

Taking pictures has never been so exhausting.  Along with packing up my first two boxes to move, I also took snapshots of all of the furniture that I'm trying to give away so I don't have to dispose of it any other way.  I knew I didn't have a lot of it, but uploading photos to Facebook has never been one of my favorite pastimes.

Here is the end result: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=10150181061592627&id=773162626&aid=366844

So far I have given away a bookcase, a blender, a toaster, and a frying pan.  The stuff that I really want to get rid of (like my computer desk and my kitchen table) have not been claimed yet.  I figure if no one wants my stereo or other small things, I can take those with me.  I half want to pawn my television, but I never want to buy it back so I don't think that's good business practices.  I basically want to start fresh in my new city of everything that isn't too expensive to replace.

At least I'm making a clean start in a lot of mental ways.  Three of the boxes that I sorted today were from my old work desk.  I threw out a lot of stuff.  In a new job, I don't want to carry remnants of the old one anymore that I want to carry remnants of my old apartment to a new one.

Three boxes fit into part of one.  I consider that a win.  Not like last week's spending.  I have been better this week since next week (unbelievably) is my trip to the Wisconsin Dells.  Though I did get enough done today (and will again on Monday) to feel like it is a justified reward.

Here's how I "spent" last week:

TUESDAY, MARCH 22 ($10.00)

• 6:55 p.m. McCormick Tribune YMCA - Free.  Even though I spent most of the day cleaning my apartment, which was a workout in itself, I decided to go to the gym anyway.
• 8:27 p.m. Marble - $10.00.  Having gone to this place on the bar crawl a few weeks before, I didn't have a chance to get food.  I wanted to go back and try it.  Tuesdays were listed on Foursquare as a veggie sloppy joe special.  It turned out they had discontinued it, but I ended up getting an amazing pizza, a beer, and some chips and salsa for under $10.00.  With tip, it was $10.00 even.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23 ($15.00)

• 10:49 a.m. Victory's Banner - $15.00.  This vegetarian brunch place had been on my list for a long time.  It took going with some meat eaters to finally cross it off.  I had always thought it was an elaborate place, but it turned out I could have gone by myself and no one would have noticed.  Now that I know it's casual, I might go back once more.
• 12:12 p.m. Toys 'R' Us - Free.  I tried to return an MP3 player I bought at Thanksgiving but no dice.  Not even a store credit.  But I'm not giving that away for free.  It's completely unopened!

THURSDAY, MARCH 24 ($14.00)

• 12:54 p.m. McCormick Tribune YMCA - Free.  Even though I'm still well on pace to reach 100 times at the gym before I move, when the temperatures dropped in Chicago, my desire to go did as well.
• 2:45 p.m. Conoce Mi Panama - $10.00.  Oh my goodness.  I don't know how I passed up this amazing restaurant for so long.  They have the best veggie protein beef chunks that I have ever had.  I actually still crave them typing this a week later.  And their $6.95 lunch special is incredible!
• 8:52 p.m. Logan Theater - $4.00.  After watching the first game of the evening in basketball, I decided to stop stressing (and not break my streak of going every week while I still live in Chicago) and go see a kid's movie - Gnomeo & Juliet.  It kind of sucked.  But while I was there, Arizona started beating Duke soundly, so I got home to good news.

FRIDAY, MARCH 25 ($10.00)

• 9:17 p.m. Philly's Best - $10.00.  During football season, I carry out from the hoagie place by my apartment a lot.  It tastes just as good during basketball season.  My refrigerator was completely empty, so I didn't have much choice.

SATURDAY, MARCH 26 ($33.00)

• 12:45 p.m. McCormick Tribune YMCA - Free.  I think I should never get a large hoagie from Philly's Best again.  There is too much stuff in it that my stomach doesn't like.  I woke up feeling like crap.  It took a trip to the gym to, mostly, piece myself back together.
• 2:44 p.m. Cafe Del Mundo - $5.00.  Meeting up with my peeps in Irving Park at 3:00 p.m. was kind of a weird time considering my food schedule.  Having not eaten breakfast because I felt like crap, I had to grab a grilled cheese sandwich since my blood sugar was running low even though we were driving to a restaurant in Brookfield.
• 4:46 p.m. La Cabanita - $9.00.  The Mexican place in Brookfield turned out to be pretty good.  They have great homemade tortillas.  Though I've had better chile rellenos other places.
• 5:12 p.m. Galloping Ghost Arcade - $15.00.  All you can play all day arcade games right off a Metra stop?  I'm glad I didn't discover this sooner!  They have every game that I could never play enough growing up because I always ran out of quarters.  The only thing I regret now playing was the four player D&D type arcade game they had since I could never round up four people to quest.
• 9:16 p.m. Brixie's - $4.00.  I had heard a lot about this place.  All of it good.  The name of the band playing that night which, thankfully, I didn't stay long enough to hear was named Bifunkal.  Right then I knew I would hate it.  That and there was a group of douchebags doing a bar crawl.  It wasn't terrible, but it did not live up to reputation.
• 10:42 p.m. Galloping Ghost Arcade - Free.  After numbing my wrist with beer, I felt well enough to play still more Q*Bert.  I played until almost midnight when I was going to take the Metra home.  Thankfully, I was offered a ride.

SUNDAY, MARCH 27 ($15.83)

• 11:48 a.m. McCormick Tribune YMCA - Free.  My wrists hurt a ton from all the video gaming of the night before.  I just used this as an excuse to stay off the elliptical.  Playing video games for six hours is almost like an actual physical activitiy!
• 6:31 p.m. Aldi - $15.83.  My basketball bracket went from high flying to dead in the course of two games (Kansas and North Carolina loses).  This made me lose my appetite.  I went grocery shopping anyway.

MONDAY, MARCH 28 ($120.36)

• 12:03 p.m. Cafe Con Leche - Free.  It makes me sad that this is probably the last time I will have my favorite chilaquiles in Chicago.  A friend of mine treated me to them which made this situation hurt a little bit less.
• 1:14 p.m. Target - $100.19.  Picking up my happy pills before I ran out of happy pills was a really odd situation for me.  Usually I'm out for a day or two.
• 2:11 p.m. Home Depot - $16.27.  I didn't want to use the boxes that I used for moving a couple of years ago because I had no idea of their structural integrity at this point, so I bought new moving boxes.  I had no idea how much they would cost because in the past, I had just used boxes from work.  They're really cheap.  I also had to buy a tape dispenser - which is why the total was so high.
• 6:25 p.m. Bubbleland - $3.90.  Washing socks has never been my favorite thing to do, but at least this load cleared out the bottom of my closet.

So that's $218.19.  Not a bad week without the meds.  Plus I just got my tax refund and my unemployment check so I'm at a good balance.  I have to make sure that I don't overspend in the Dells since I've already paid for hotel and train.  My total money spent while I've been unemployed is $1971.06.