Chicago: When Someone Rides Free We All Pay!!!!!!!!!

When I got a salaried job (after years of scraping by), I took my folks out to a few fancy dinners in CA. It was a time when I was thinking that they didn't know much about what I was doing in Chicago, or didn't understand the creative stuff I was doing, or whatever, but, in a superficial way, if friends of theirs asked them what they were up to they could say "Well, Eric took us to the French Laundry."

Only trouble was that the dinner ended up being talking about the cost of it much of the time.

Suit

Gifts for girlfriends, definitely more.

Anyway, I'm sorry I went off on the school loan thing. I know I'm just jealous.

John, I don't think you're cheap.

xpost: And shit, I spent a couple hundred bucks on those pearls last year for my gf for xmas, and look where that got me... :(

I was used to that label in high school but thought I had moved beyond it, and certainly in the last few years I haven't worried about money all that much, but if I keep up my extravagant ways, I'm going to be in a lot of trouble soon. Three years ago, I had more than twice as much money in the bank as I do now.

xpost, flowers OTM

This is the first time I remember noticing John say the sort of phrase that people who imitate John always say! But I can't tell how ironic it is.

Things I have gotten for my mother that cost over $65:

* Painting
* Dinner + night at opera

Those were both in the $150 area. But in many ways those presents have come during especially flush years (not that they were THAT flush, but flush enough) and were somewhat in thanks for years when I was totally broke and couldn't do anything.

this thread reminded me i forgot to schedule my loan payment last month. Then I accidently scheduled a payment for tomorrow for both this month and last, meaning i'm about to drop a bunch of cash i don't really have! And once again i scrape by to the next paycheck.

Anyway, I don't think I've ever spent a huge amount on gifts but I've never really had the money to (until...well, not now, but after the next paycheck, maybe). By brother and sister's birthday is in a couple weeks and so far all I've got is a $6.99 copy of the Wang Chung soundtrack to To Live and Die in LA

if anyone has any gift suggestions for two 21 year olds that don't involve corny booze-themed concepts let me have them.

I'm a big cheapo too, but I think (for me) part of showing my parents that I'm a Big Girl Grownup was taking them out to dinner for the first time. Picking up that tab made me feel like I was finally an adult. It seems silly, but it's a symbolic way to show that while I may not be at their level of wealth yet and won't be ever, but I'm doing OK and making good enough decisions to be able to take my parents out. I guess it's my way of saying "Look! I'm not a fuckup anymore!"

No. I celebrated a couple of birthdays and Christmases with Kelsey, but we were both in college or just out of it, so neither of us had that much money to fling around. I think I bought her a PJ Harvey CD for her birthday in 2000. I don't know how much the John Cage box-thing she bought me cost. Otherwise, we made each other stuff, did nice things for each other.

I didn't celebrate anything with Renee.

For Kr's birthday this year, I bought her a new hardcover book she'd been wanting. And we went to Ravinia. Tickets were free via a friend of hers, but she'd been talking about wanting to go.

On the last several birthdays and Mother's Days, I've made my mom a mix CD -- which cost me, what, a dollar for the blank CD? -- and she's said they're among the best presents she's ever gotten. I would've done the same this year, but I thought it was becoming predictable.

the correct answer is hookers and blow.

It's different with parents. Also, when you routinely make shit, buying a fancy present sends a different message. It means "I sacrificed something for myself because I wanted you to have this" and it's not the money, it's not the present, it's the fact that you sacrificed in order to get it without having been expected to or asked to or anything. See?

John, maybe it just depends on the parents. My mom goes on and on about how she loves it when we make her things. My sisters tend to do artsier stuff, like making collages and painting planters.

I wonder why I live alone here
I wonder why we spend these nights together
Is this the room I'll live my life forever
I wonder why in LA
To live and die in LA

(xpost) Yeah, I agree, Sarah.

another thing: my dad's the kind of guy who, if he wants/needs something, will just go ahead and get it. he's impossible to shop for. my mom, on the other hand, will forego getting things just so the rest of us can "find out" that she wants/needs it.

i just tell her that her grey hair looks distinguished

I love the knit scarves my sister Leslie and Nick's sister have made for me. I tried to learn how to do it myself for my own gifts but failed miserably.

In other news, who wants to guest on my Christmas album? Jooohhhhnnn? You could play some nice bell-sounding keyboards. I think I'll do the whole thing in Garage Band, with a mix of original and traditional songs.

I don't have enough time to do it up right as a FF album. Plus, Ben would have to pull a Streisand.

not me man, barring the inexplicable this will be the first year since 96 or 97 without a girlfriend at xmas. my sisters and i don't spend a lot of money on each other, we much rather prefer to get one another something completely rediculous (like the rooster shaped alarm clock that cock-a-doodle-doo's when the alarm goes off) to anything practical. shopping for my folks is hard because i don't talk to them often enough to know what they want or need.