Chicago: Totally hands-free!!!

Sarah, I think the boots are sensible and handsome. A v solid investment -- are they pricey?

yes, those are the cat boots, and i've been really happy with them. (it's like caterpillar construction stuff)

FUCK. we're going to new york this weekend. staying with one set of friends two nights and in a hotel the other. hotels in new york are stupid expensive so we'd thought about a private room in a youth hostel. but then at 1am i found a cute little hotel, with private bathrooms for only like $20 more than the hostels. sent an email to toby who was asleep, rather than booking it straight away and now it's all booked up. fuck.

"unisex" my ass

Jesse you could do so much better than that.

Actually, Jesse, that bike is a mixte frame, so it's less girly than the "swan"-type women's frames, and will be a little stiffer/more stable, too. A decent choice if you must.

Laurel - $150, which is what I paid for my last pair of tall boots.
But I SUPPOSE that once I save for them, I should check out DSW first just in case.

Oh, sorry, Sarah, I didn't see the top pair of boots...which predictably I don't like as much as the bottom ones! They're almost deffo more practical for, like, icy roads, but you trade off dressiness/formality/refinement, which doesn't work for me. I don't live in Chicago, though!

xp $150 is pretty not-bad! It's a lot of money, but not for tall leather boots.

I just want a CHEAP bike soon, and this one seems pretty sturdy-looking. Maybe not. It's the best I saw in my price range, so thought I would look.

I know, and I would be saving up for them. NO more credit card charges for me! (enter Jesse's 'no' song)
I wasn't saying I was thinking about buying the top boots. Those were ones Colette posted on an old boots thread, and I was surprised at how similar the syles were. That's all.

Colette- this is not a good week for you! :-(

Ah, I must have missed that boot detail. Ach well.

The parking situation at my work is balls insane, with the only spaces being metered spaces or two-hour limit spaces. So basically I have to go out and move my car every two hours, starting at 11 a.m. (usually twice a day). It didn't used to be a big deal, but now there's all this construction taking up almost all the parking spaces, and there are serious bitter battles over the few 2-hour spaces on our block. I now have the option to buy a four month parking pass for the lot next to the office, but it costs $115! That's a lot of dough for something lame like a work parking space. But every time I have to move the car I get stressed out and angry because I am just wasting time. Probably won't buy the pass though.

Oh, those precious, precious secret spots that got eaten up by construction...

Yes I found exactly three spots with no time limitations or meters and I was parking there for a couple of weeks but then a construction crew left all their junk in the spaces.

I take it parking somewhere 4-5 blocks away isn't an option?

How much do you spend on meters Nick?

If you are putting in $1 every 2 hours (9, 11, 1, 3), that's $80 a month, right? And that's getting off cheap.

xpost -- Oh. I thought you usually used metered spots.

is it $115 a month, or for all four months?

(It was all 4 total)

Hey, it looks like it might thunderstorm any second.

hmm, considering that 2 of the next 4 months are december and january, i'd probably think about paying for the spot since it can really suck to be looking for spots in deep snow. you'd be paying for lowering your stress, or something.

I guess that would be something like $1.50 a day? Not too bad, but I get the sense it's more the principle of the thing.

and that you have to pay up front i guess?

While I'm sitting here, slammed busy and hopped up on coffee and goofballs, the Villalobos Fabric mix is climbing steadily in my estimation. And it did not start at the bottom.

one of our board members just brought in a watch for our gala's silent auction. as far as i can tell, this watch is worth somewhere between $8,000 and $15,000. like, worth a car. i have no idea what his hook up is, he's a retired member of the clergy.

Wau, K. I've tried on jewelry that could make the down payment on a house, yeah. It's awfully weird.

I'll give you $52 for it.

dan, you should bid on it and pay the price (our donors usually don't go over a thousand on silent auction stuff), and then sell it and pocket the difference

ARGH I just got ANOTHER incorrect parking ticket. This one was given to me 20 minutes ahead of my 2-hour limit. Given that this is the second time this has happened in the past three weeks, how snarky should I be in my ticket contestation?

On the positive side: I knew that I got an extra week of vacation time when I got married. However, my boss just asked me if I wanted to get that as extra vacation days, or as an extra week's worth of pay? I assumed that I had already used it when we went on honeymoon, but maybe I had accumulated so much vacation time that I didn't need it? In that case, I might just take the $$$$$.

There's an extra week of vacation awarded for getting married??? Wowowow, no wonder the gays are jealous....

There is at my work. I've never heard of it anywhere else.

That is pretty awesome, I've never heard of it.

xpost

TAKE THE MONIES@!!!!! WHOOW HOW WHOOOOO!!! Then you can go buy the guitar you want. :-D

Oh, that was mosly disingenuous. I happen to know that my employer presents cash awards for getting married and for having children, which would never in a million years have occurred to me until one of my colleagues got hitched and it came up in conversation. I tend to think it's bullshit, although someday I do hope to get hitched my own self and then I guess I'll have to decide whether to make a big fuss by declining etc etc -- I mean, I totally understand how those events are important and money-sucking, so every bit is appreciated! But on the other hand, it's a bit too "positive reinforcement of status quo" on a corporate level for me to feel really comfortable.

Discuss!

I want a cash award for putting up with months and months of stifling managerial doublespeak.

I do not turn down presents.

So, for the record, I don't turn down:
* offers to help me carry things
* presents

I totally get what you're saying though, Laurel.

Hahha, exactly, Dan. Even funnier, when it happened at my office it was TWO employees of the company marrying each other, and people were actually defending the idea that they should get paid TWICE?? WTF DUDES, I am several thousand dollars underpaid for my title, fuck all you.

Sarah, I'm sorry, I don't mean to nitpick -- am just v suspicious of authority structures patting on the head for behavioral choices blah blah blah

I thought it was just five extra days of vacation, which makes a little sense, because it's like "here, go on a honeymoon without worrying about using up your regular vacation time." But offering it as extra $$$ kind of makes things blurrier. It's more like a reward.

Man, I seriously doubt I'll get more than a "okay, have fun" from my place of employment when I get married.

I'm liking this Supermayer record.

Hmm... I guess I don't see it as a reward, more of a present. People get presents when they have babies too. It's true that society as a whole tends to support certain life decisions like that, but I don't think N's boss is consciously trying to hold back gay rights or anything.

Also, I mean to say that it isn't always so much of supporting as a decision as it is a celebration.

Laurel, I'm 100% with you on this. What about people who choose not to get married or have kids? Or people that are trying desperately to get pregnant and can't. Figure out a diff't way to reward your employees. This is also why I think bridal showers, etc. are kind of bullshit. Everyone should just get a 25th Birthday Welcome To Adulthood and Having Your Own Place shower.

People have housewarming parties, graduation parties, sweet 16s...

single people be bitter

I see where you're coming from S, but when it's within the workplace and the currency is specifically related to the workplace (extra vacation, $$, etc.), then a power dynamic comes into play that's mostly absent in social settings. I.e. if the boss wants to buy me a $800 stroller for my new baby, fine. But $800 in cash would be a little different. And since it's not like it's performance related, I think you'd have to find a way to even the playing field for people who aren't having kids, getting married, etc.

I totally don't think anyone in any comparable situation is trying to suppress gay rights or anything else. I just think it's a crappy tradition that makes a lot of potentially stifling assumptions about what behaviors are desirable from their employees and by extension the wider public.

Aha! But Sarah, those things are personal -- what I object to is the corporate participation. And ditto re bridal showers, altho I give a pass on baby showers because you don't HAVE that stuff until you have a baby, logically speaking.

how about getting fake married in order to get a free week's vacation?

Thanks for reminding me to listen to that, Jon. It's on Luisterpaal, but the site was being wonky yesterday.

I know it isn't fair though. My dentist, whom I really like, was telling me once that graduating from dental school was a huge event in her life, but when she told her friends/family, they were all like, "Uh huh, that's nice... Anyway, GUESS WHO'S HAVING A BABY/GETTING MARRIED???etc etc"

note: i'm not saying extra vacation is not a lovely thing to get from an employer. only that it shouldn't preclude others from getting similar rewards. also, the single people are bitter thing is played out. unless, of course, you're not serious.

lol, dentists are lame

Am I serious?

y/n