not-so-happy meal

my new resolution is never to engage in retail therapy again. while living in EBF i found it refreshingly easy to go without a single gratuitous purchase for weeks on end. but now that i'm working i get the urge to shop more often than ever, as if to validate the hours i spend in lab by purchasing a little me-time on credit. lately my hours have skyrocketed from a regular full-time week to 50-60 hours on average without extra pay. accordingly, lately my spending rivals the US government's.

is anyone else having issues? or should i stop bitching about my adult life?

i get home from work and i think, "i'm too tired to read. my eyes hurt. and it's too late to go to the beach. may as well buy a navy blue t-shirt." shopping is at once immediately gratifying and only as time consuming as you want it to be. how a 20-minute trip to target can be almost as refreshing as a day from work, i have no idea.

meanwhile i go back and forth from being suprisingly good at managing finances to sucking at life. occasionally, bank of america helps me out a little bit with the latter. i have paid out enough money in overdraft charges to feed a small country, partly because i'm a sexy renegade who doesn't conform to any pesky "terms of agreement," but mainly because my bank has the brilliant policy of issuing fees PER TRANSACTION and not per diem. what's up with that? well ms. attitude customer service lady is saying, i can overdraw by $800 and pay a one-time $35 penalty... OR i could buy a few value meals before my paycheck clears (whoops!) and be out $100 in fees.

so in an attempt to curb a potentially diagnosable habit, i picked up a hobby. starting yesterday i began a running regimen, with an end goal of 10-mile runs by the end of November. finally, something that both costs nothing and gives me something to do with my body other than drape it in isaac mizrahi collection not-so-spare time.

*manda