Housing, plumbing and dress.

Lovelies, I’m slowing making my way through my stint with facial poison ivy. I did not see the doctor (sorry! – I just really don’t want to take steroids), but I did take the day off yesterday and most of the day off today and rested. I took a bunch of meetings today, but I did not turn on my camera and you won’t get to see how terribly bad it is, but I think the very worst is over, but man, it’s not fun.

Vince called a few days ago and told us that his housing for next year is secured – a room in a 4 bedroom apt on campus for $900 a month all utilities included. I think he was disappointed because it was the most expensive option he chose, preferring to probably pay about $600-$700 a month instead. I was like – that’s not bad, it’s less than you (I mean, I’m) paying now. And then slowly he asked if he could remain on the family cell phone plan to which the answer is yes. It was always going to be yes, regardless of the housing cost. I so clearly remember, you always hoping to pay a certain amount in rent, but you always end up paying more than you want to.

Speaking of paying, I paid my lovely plumber more than $1000 for this beautiful installation of my water main which was leaking. We also installed a smart water shut off valve just for funsies because as soon as I heard about it, I wanted it. Some women covet Jimmy Choo stilettos, I covet plumbing technology. But if it’s anything like any of our smart devices, it might be a miss since lights still turn on/off randomly in our house for no reason we can understand. Look at the beautiful shiney new copper! Look at the lovely crimped joints. No more soldering, just some magical crimping method.

Next is fashion. So, unbelievably, there is a ton of fashion videos which I’ve watched for a long, long time. Mostly “haul” videos of luxury purses which is interesting and mystifying to me at the same time. Tons of women with 25, 35, 45 purses worth more $4000 each. Like (besides the money) – how do you need so many purses? Where do you store all the purses? Can you possibly use all 45 purses?

But recently, two things! I’ve turned to fashion bloggers who talk about how to get dressed nicely and I’ve discovered ebay for thrifting. I’ve always hated the idea of a capsule wardrobe, where every piece is tan, black, beige or navy of very high quality and then you mix/match them. So boring! So repetitive. I can’t have 7,000 items in my closest and I don’t want to spend a ton of money on clothes, but I want to have fun. So since I’ve been renting clothes and listening to the videos and buying inexpensive, but nice clothing, I’m learning about fashion and what makes me feel good and look good for not a huge ton of money (because I’d rather spend the $ on plumbing). Really, I never thought I would do this! For example, look at this rocking outfit. The rule I’m following here is to only wear two colors – so I’m wearing red and black (there’s black in the dress and the grey is a tone of black) and the kicker is that my watch band even matches. I felt so good and so comfortable this day. And the cost breakdown is this: grey sweater – originally from Target, probably priced at $25 dollars, but I paid $5 at a thrift shop, red Rothy shoes – new would be $155, bought slightly used on ebay for $53, Mata Traders red dress – new approx $110, on ebay used for $21.50. (Disregard the dirty laundry and also you can see a bit of my eye swelling from the poison ivy). I wore this on a regular Saturday all day. Felt great.

Because I’m so embarrassed about my face, I missed Edda’s class year end picnic. Jeremy and Elka went in my stead. Jeremy brought me home Cheetos and a cookie. Lovely husband.