Better than Botox you say?

I've been in such a sleep-deprived daze lately, I haven't been able to think let alone write.

The good news is that I'm FINALLY back to a regular gym routine...I haven't had that in months since my mom came and visited...Amazing how it takes a year to look somewhat decent, and only a few months of slacking to turn into a sack of lard.

Right now I'm undertaking my own science experiment...I ordered a sample of Hydroderm, aka Better Than Botox...dang they send you a bunch of shee-at with that stuff! I got like a thousand pamphlets, the box itself was large enough to hold a small child, and even the little sample is pretty big (I'm pretty sure it'll last me more than 2 weeks).

My original strategy was to slather it all over my face and neck 2x a day, but I realized that I would run out before I could fully observe the results, so i'm sticking to just putting it around my eyes and all over my forehead...i've got 1 semi-deep wrinkle and 2 sorta wrinkles that i'm keeping my eye on. This stuff better effing work. Otherwise I really will get the real Botox...this wrinkle situtation will get out of control before I know it.

On the same note, I had also bought some L'Oreal collagen line filler thing and then an Olay line filler thingy...so if Hydroderm doesn't work, it's back to that stuff, until I can splurge on the good stuff from Caudalie.

So that's pretty much my boring blurb for today...other than my internal dialog that's telling me to return one if not both of the jackets I bought from Old Navy last night...one is their "sateen blazer", the other is their brown cord jacket...the problem is that their both puff-sleeved, which I'm pretty sure will look pretty dated by next year...and the brown cord one makes me look like a frickin' linebacker, but then again what do I know because my shoulders are ill-proportioned (they're so small that most purses barely stay on...i'm a mutant...my upper body is tiny, my lower body is abnormally larger), so maybe it's a good thing. And the sateen blazer, realistically, if i do wash it by hand, with Woolite for Darks, hang to dry, i'm sure it'll still fade and i hate the look of faded black.

The engineers here have a Furby and when they turn it on, it sings randomly...and then for the rest of the day I can't get it's "la la LAAAA...la la LAAAA" out of my head. Stupid Furby.

Comic Con

Once again, it's been awhile since I've written.

I've been pretty much in a sleep-denied haze during the day, thanks to my two cats.

And then this past weekend I went to Comic Con, aka The Biggest Nerd Slash Dork Fest In The World Located In San Diego.

So just a few random thoughts from the weekend:

Charlize Theron was there promoting Aeon Flux...that woman is GORGEOUS in real life. She looks older than me though, even though she's my age...but either way, she's like a real life Goddess.

At the Simpsons panel they talked a bit about the movie...basically in between the Futurama "straight to DVD" movie and all the season DVD releases (I guess it takes 6 months to make all the commentary for each DVD), they've barely been working on the Simpsons movie, they made a wisecrack that they had like 14 minutes of it done.

I attended some Ray Bradbury panel (only because I wanted to get a good seat for the Simpsons panel), I haven't read Farenheit 451 (or whatever it's all) but all i gotta say is that the people on that panel were OLD! They did some major dissing of Michael Moore, because he ripped off the title for Farenheit 911 and didn't give any credit to Ray Bradbury. Did I mention these guys were OLD?! Like ancient old.

I saw that Kenny Baker guy (the dude who plays R2-D2), and then this kid was all "Hey what's your name? Do you know who this guy is? That's Kenny Baker! He's R2-D2" and I didn't know who this kid was and I was like "crap crap don't get me sucked into your booth because I"m not paying $20 for R2D2's signature" and then my husband looks at the kid and goes "OMG...you're Boba Fett!"...

And then I look down at the pics (purchasable with an autograph for $20 of course) and was like, "wow...what's it like to be part of movie history" and the kid was like "I dunno...kinda cool" and i'm like "pfft you're so young you don't know what it's like WITHOUT star wars" (not that i would know...i was born in aug 1977 which is right when Star Wars came out)...and the dude kissed my hand after he made the introduction and told my husband he was very lucky, which basically means this kid was a total skeezebag charmer in the making (he's like, 15) and that he wanted someone to pay for his stupid autograph.

Saw the cast of Buffy sans Sarah Michelle...I didn't know the one guy had a twin.

Saw a bunch of people from 60's and 70's TV shows and I honestly have no idea who any of them were.

Stood in line to see the chick who plays Elvira (Cassandra Peterson or whatever) NOT for her autograph...but because I wanted to know what moisturizer she uses.

Attended the panel for Threshold (only because i wanted to get good seats for the 4400 panel), and um...not much i can say about that. It'll be on TV this fall.

Attended the panel for the 4400...the main investigator chick is actually Australian and has a thick accent...the Kyle guy is WAY thinner and shorter in real life...the main investigator guy looks much older in real life.

Okay that's pretty much all that's on my brain right now, too tired to think.

Moolah indeed

Amazingly, for someone who can gripe at the drop of a hat, I haven't had much to say lately.

I did get busted going to Costco using my friend's Nicole's card...but that's another rant for another time (and i'm still not over the humiliation of that one).

Nay, today's gripe is about money.

Or my lack of it.

I've always been a master saver. My parents are hands-down the biggest tightwads on the planet, and I learned from the best. They used to do the "do you see a money tree in the backyard" schpiel, which I never fully understood because in Canada our money isn't green so I didn't get money = green = leaves.

My mother used to WASH AND SAVE the straws from McDonald's. What's even worse, she'd try to deny it...uh Mom, you can't buy yellow and white striped straws.

My mother also used to wrap up extra slices of pizza from the Pizza Hut buffet with a napkin to take home, and made sure that each of us kids ate way beyond the point of stuff-ness. Little did I know when I was a kid that the Pizza Hut buffet is only $4.95!!!

I understand where my parents were coming from...my parents paid off their 30 year loan in 10 years, and those 10 years were brutal. I remember the day the loan was paid off...for that ONE day, my mother looked 20 years younger. All the wrinkles were gone. And then right after that they started dropping cash on redoing the floors, the cabinets, the bathrooms, and the wrinkles came back.

My mother always worked odd jobs to help support the family, but really we were a 1-income household. Well...unless you count my mother's odd jobs, and me and my brother's jobs, so I guess that makes it 4-income (but it's not like I contributed to the groceries or anything).

Now let's start with the first-time owners of California. Um yeah there's no way I'll be able to pay off this home loan in 30 years, let alone 10. Unless I start praying to the Lords of the Lottery.

So I've been reading a ton of financial books and I'm going through all the stuff that you're supposed to do...talking to a lawyer about wills/trusts/living-wills/whatever, getting quotes for additional life insurance, got a bigger safe deposit box at the bank, all that crap. Transfered my 6-month savings to a money market account that gives a higher rate. Researching more where my 401K funds are going. Even bought some stocks (yeah $200 in stocks doesn't get you too far, esp. after the stupid service charges).

And then last night I picked up yet another financial book, The Millionaire Next Door.

Riiggghhhttt....

Granted I'm reading an older edition, from like 1996 or something ancient like that. But I want to hurl myself in traffic. The statistics are unreal. LIke apparently a good number of people in America who are millionaires (well, in 1996 anyway), are AUCTIONEERS. WTF. And alot of them are men who have stay-at-home-wives. WTF.

Anyway the key to that book is that most millionaires are quite frugal. That most of them have boatloads in equity but they bought their homes for around $325K and have lived there for upwards to 20 years.

TWENTY YEARS.

Yes, my parents were able to do that. But...they have a DRIVEWAY. And a BACKYARD. And a BASEMENT for 20 years' of CRAP.

Nothing that new homes in california have.

And $325K will buy you a condo, so you're lucky if you even get a single garage, no backyard and no basement.

I'm a frugal person. Really, I am. Right now this second my top was given to me by my boss ($0), my bra is from Walmart ($5), my underwear is Hanes Her Way from Target (like $1.50 per underwear), jeans are from Old Navy ($30), socks i've had since high school ($0 based on depreciation), and boots from Payless that desperately need to be replaced ($16).

I'm a cheap bastard.

And I'm STILL scrounging to get ahead. Maybe I'm just too impatient. Or maybe I just live in a way overpriced part of the US (however one can argue that if i move to No Man's Land for cheap, I won't be able to find a job).

I just want MONEY. Badly.

That's my rant for today.