Thursday, April 06, 2006

Just call me Fred Mertz

How cheap/broke am I?

Exhibit A: Last weekend, when I had to get to Denison but had no money, I sold my books to get gas money. I had been planning on taking them to Half Price Books to see how much I could get for them for a few weeks, so perhaps this story is not quite so pathetic, but it reminds me of Jo in Little Women. Sure, I'm selling books rather than my prized hair. And, sure, it's so I can go home rather than allowing my mother to go visit my father who was wounded in the Civil War. But it still sounds sad.

Exhibit B: While trying to find a parking space in a place that required metered parking, I drove around for about five minutes looking for a meter which someone had recently left, with time still on it. I only had enough change for 15 minutes and my errand was going to take at least 30.

Exhibit C: Just now, in the UTD computer lab--I'm printing off the final draft of my stratification paper to turn in tonight. I also have to print off one page with a critique of one of the readings. I only have $1.14 on my Comet Card. Printouts are .6 per page and my total has come up to $1.20. So I go back to the computer and fiddle with the margins on my paper to make it shorter.

I just realized that Fred Mertz isn't a good example for my title. It's not that I have money that I'm refusing to spend. It's that I simply don't have any money. On my Comet Card or in my pocket.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Don't worry, in six months when you no longer have any money issues you'll finally get the trip refunds :p By the way, I got three hours of sleep last night because we had to talk about unnamed concepts...I hope you're happy ('cause I'm giddy-caffiene...mmm).