Friday, February 6, 2009

eating tacos in our underwear

All right, I'm writing this post for two reasons. The first is that I looked at my online checking account this morning and realized it hasn't been as low as it is now since July/August of 2007. And second, because I realized I go to Starbucks way too often.

Back when we first moved into the apartment we're living in now, Alicia and I (Hodges was gone for the summer, so basically it was the two of us that took on/took care of everything) had a really hard time finding a place to live (that was cheap enough for us). It was only a week before our lease ran out that we were able to find somewhere, and even though we knew about deposits and all of that sutff, I don't think we quite realized how much it was going to be, all of the deposits on top of all the bills. Because basically we had to empty our accounts.

Now I have two pretty distinct memories of this month or two when we really didn't have any money left. The first was the day when all Hodges' camp friends came down. Alicia and I had gone to the dollar store a few days before to get some things (cheap! yes!), and while we had a few cans of food in the house, there wasn't anything else. I remember sitting on the couch around six or so in the evening and it occured to me that the only thing I had eaten that day was the can of Pringles I'd been working on. And then later I went to bed with an indifferent sort of "huh"--thinking, well I ought to be hungry.

Except we weren't always so complacent about it. There was another time when the heat was just driving us crazy--remember, we were very poor so we couldn't turn on the air conditioning (actually we still don't do that, and it's something I directly attribute to these few months)--and I think we just kind of snapped. Imagine something along the lines of "I'm tired of this, it's hot and I'm hungry and baaaagghg I'm just tired of this, we're going to Taco Bell because I want to go and I'm tired of not being able to go! Let's go! Now!"

So we scraped up all the change we could all over the house and came up with just enough to buy us some Taco Bell. Now because it was dang hot, Alicia was wearing a tank top and these underwear that are long like compression shorts or boxer briefs, only shorter. And I was wearing a tank top (no bra!) and a pair of shorts I would never wear in public. And we marched straight out to her car dressed just like that, me with my bra in hand to be put on in the car. Basically we were being trashy, but I blame the heat.

And so we went through the drive-thru at Taco Bell just like that and then came back into our tiny hot apartment and sat on my bed with the fan blowing on us and watched a movie and that's about the best meal I think I've ever had. Wait, I mean party. It was party time for us in House that night.


This morning the guy at Starbucks knew my order before I told him, which means this: even though I just realized how little money I have in my account, we're not eating tacos in our underwear anymore. And while I love taking off my pants, that's a pretty neat thing.

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