4/12/06 - a better way to budget

April 12, 2006 - Wednesday

6:57 PM - a better way to budget If I had really, really wanted to walk in the May 13th graduate school graduation ceremony, I would have had to pay a $50 late fee, plus nearly a hundred dollars' worth of cap and gown accessories. The honors tassel cost more but would be such a nice token--that is, if I could manage to hold onto it instead of plopping it into the "Return Your Tassels Here" bin that is for the rental tassels and not the superspecial ones. (This is what I did the day I graduated from NYU; ended up with that flimsy purple one with the sharp tin that had " '98" stamped into it. Don't know where that is now... And I would have paid nearly $500 to register a bit late (okay, REALLY late) for my applied project course; then, of course, I'd have to do the applied project. So we're looking at $600-700 of my own money, plus lots of hours, just to walk in the graduation I didn't want to walk in. Left the option open for my parents to demand it of me, but, as it turns out, they said the choice was mine--I'm not surprised, of course. My mom, plagued with stress-related chronic illness like her younger daughter, missed my high school graduation and could barely see me during my Neil Diamond-infused college graduation since Washington Square was so packed with people. So I thought I'd offer up the chance to let them see me in some sort of red robe/Dawg gear. They're awful proud, all right, but don't care if I walk down the aisle or not. (I meant the graduation aisle, but it's also true that they don't give a sh*t if I ever get married, either...) Point is, I decided to throw all caution to the wind and take a chance on doing the Master's comps instead of the applied project. Decided not to walk in graduation, so it felt as if I had earned money. Which brings me to this: I have so many adventures coming up that I'd rather spend money on!!! 1.. My mama is coming to visit next-next weekend. 2. April 29th is Matt McBee's wedding in TN--I'm going with George & Alvino Tinto, which will be a blast. Dr. Hebert is convinced we're going to jitterbug everyone else to shame; can't break the news to him just yet that this will never happen. A man must dream.... 3. May 3 - 14th I'm going to L.A.!! 4. June 2nd Liz is coming! 5. June 3rd or so we're going on a road trip to Nashville, Indianapolis, Chicago, and Milwaukee! 6. After two days in Milwaukee with my sister & sister and law, we're going to my cousin Jessica's HUGE extravaganza-of-a-family-reunion wedding in Pittsburgh, one of my favorite places ever. (And my family is the most hilarious bunch of humans on earth, if you can believe it.) 7. I may go to CO with my dad as we "escort" my cousin Ryss to the swim camp I used to attend back when I was a supastah. 8. In July, we have our Geddis family reunion in Geneva, OH!!! As you can guess, I'm pretty chipper about all this. And I'm damn proud of having spent my money on visiting friends & family instead of a three-hour ceremony where I'll know no one. 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Joe

It is universally acknowledged that one's graduate "graduation" does not count as a real graduation. There's a reason we're called graduate students...we already went through that shit. As a sign of solidarity with you, Janet, I also will not walk at my graduation this year. I wasn't going to do it anyway, but whatever, now I'm not going to do it in solidarity with you. Posted by Joe on April 12, 2006 - Wednesday at 9:02 PM