A Simpler Life is Not For Everyone

To answer my woes of the stress of living with family, I posted an ad on Craigslist in mid-July offering dog and housesitting as a service. I received a request from a lovely girl that is living in Southern RI with her fiance. They needed someone to watch their very sweet dog Tika. So voila, here I am. I've been here five days, and I have to say I am starting to feel like my old self again being by myself, buying my own food, and controlling my own temperature (for the most part-New England had a heat wave last week).
The house here is a sort of cottage that is quaint, pretty, architectural and interesting. It's in a quiet wooded area, and it's very peaceful. The first night I thought I was going to be attacked by the 750,000 different bugs that come to life after dusk. By the fifth day, I'm used to the sounds and actually find them very relaxing.
The couple that lives here live very simply. I've not grown used to this, and have decided this type of life is not for everyone. I don't consider myself overly materialistic or high maintenance. But I did feel greedy when I first arrived. There is no television. I've gone without cable, but not without television. I've found I don't mind it due to having online viewing via my Netflix account. Which means I don't think I could go without tv.
It's not just the absence of tv that makes me feel this is simple living. It's basic furniture, basic cleaning and makeup items, and very basic clutter. There is one knife for use in the kitchen. There is one baking pan. The bed is from Ikea. There is something comforting in it all, but I find I miss my things even more this week. I stored the majority of my things in storage while residing with my family. Now, if the storage place burned down, or if I had to move suddenly without getting my things out, I would be ok. But I am also looking forward to getting my things out. I think it will feel like I went shopping or got lots of presents. Maybe others would look at my things as simple, I don't know. But we all have our space, our items, and we enjoy them however simple or not-so-simple they may be.

One very simple thing I've enjoyed the past two days-the ocean is a cool fifteen minutes away. It is one simple thing in life I can always find joy in.

I May Be Over My Writer's Block...

I had a momentary lapse of writers block last week. My family had gone away for a week, and after their return it bummed me out a little. I felt guilty for this, but the time spent alone reminded me of how much I missed it. Not that I want to live entirely alone, but living with family is very different than a roommate or a signifigant other that we enjoy and also that respects our space.
With this in mind I've determined to find my own space again, before I am driven to madness. Last week I felt slightly down at their return, this week I feel downright on edge. Do you ever have those moments when you're looking at yourself from above, and you're completely feeling like you're in the Twilight Zone? Ahhhhh! Yes, I felt that when we had a family discussion-slash-slight intervention about the refridgerator and leaving ceiling fans on. This is what it's like when you live with someone who is elderly. So if you're contemplating it, just picture coming home to an 80 degree home and when you comment on it, you are given the reply, "Why, is it hot out?" Yeah. Anyways.
I have such a hard time with the expectations I've had on what I expected for my life. The storybook sort of situation I anticipated for so long while growing up is so far fetched now, it really bums me out and I have to stop thinking about it. I actually had to delete someone I knew on Facebook who provides a daily update of how loved she feels from her husband and how much fun she has with her kids. Sometimes we have to realize what brings us down and we have to take control over it. I battle feeling bad for feeling envious of this, because I am happy for anyone who has a good home and good situation. There are far too many people that do not, so anyone who does, I smile for you and pray I will have a little of that normalcy someday. But that is what is normal to me, and not everyone wants that. So whatever you want, I hope you receive it. Even if it means you want to live with grandma.

Watching the Wants

Things we want are way too convenient and available in this day and age. The mentality of my generation and credit card use has engineered a group that quickly buys new hair products, makeup, clothing, and many many accessories. I once saw a blip on the news about the amount of coffee a Generation X female bought in a week. She bought two in the morning, one with her daily $7.00 lunch. The total spent every week was approximately $90 a week, and this didn't include the weekend!

I am not always the money savvy chick I'd like to be, I'll admit. It's all too easy for me to be at Target and easily spend fifty dollars, go home, and wonder what I bought. Often it's new lotions, new underwear, new cleaning products, new hair gel. But when I get home, I have nearly full bottles on the shelf already! When's the last time you actually had one bottle of hair gel, squeezed out the last bit, and didn't have another bottle waiting? Even the Depression girl, my grandmother, has multiple giant sizes of mouthwash. How much will she ever use?

I can proudly say I think I've become a little better over the years. For example, all the way to work this morning I wanted a low-fat turkey bacon at Starbucks. Instead of meditatively thinking about joys in my life or the tasks I needed to do today at work, I went back and forth about eight times on whether I should get a Cafe Mocha and my sandwich. In the last ten seconds before taking the left to work told myself to go have cereal from my stash at work. I was proud of myself.

Also, at the beginning of the summer I bought a trial kit of spf face lotions for $20. I thought it was a great deal. It came with fifteen small size lotions, and I've found they lasted about three weeks each. I'm still using the remaining few, and have saved myself from buying a $45 bottle I didn't really care for since it's given me the chance to try brands I've always wanted to.

I haven't been able to master this with shoes, but I've been pretty good this summer. It's unbelievable how quickly we spend our hard earned money. The credit world has created some ugly spending monsters. I've noticed if I carry cash, I spend it much more frugally than even using instant cash from a debit card. It's small progress, but I'm really trying to work on watching the wants.