HOLY ROLLERCOASTER, BATMAN!

DAMN BABY, I have had a DAY!!!

It’s not all bad news. This won’t be me venting and complaining. At least, not fully.

In fact, upon further reflection, it’s almost all good?

First thing… While texting my kiddo before getting ready for work, I ducked back into my Amazon wishlist to just look at the extra-spiffy Lost Boys Blu-ray set I had been PINING over.

I noticed the 4K logo on the front, when I looked more closely at more of the photos in the listing.

At that point, I’m thinking, damn, I would need a 4K player to watch it.

Browsed 4K players to see how much they cost. Mkay, maybe. I could save up. I do have a 4K TV. Just not the player. Just a standard Blu-ray player and a region-free DVD player from when I was collecting movies by an American indie queer filmmaker and couldn’t get all of them in the US.

Then, I noticed The Lost Boys box set had been produced by Warner Brothers UK.

So, maybe I would need a region-free, Blu-ray player to watch it. Browsed THOSE. Minimum an extra $100. Went to work, thinking, well damn, now I have even MORE motivation to go to work today, beyond saving up to spoil kiddo. I’ll have to start saving toward THAT once she goes home.

The lower-end ones looked to be about $300.

Maybe not UBER pricey, but it’s a lot for me to drop on a non-necessity.

Came home from work. Work was good! I had a good day.

And corporate had given our boss money to stock us up on snacks and drinks and whatever, since we’d exceeded some goals. I nearly started CRYING when I saw the abundance of treats and drinks in the office/break room, after she’d made her snackie run and put everything away.

It’s SO NICE!!!

A massive bowl of granola and protein bars and candy.

Chips of more than one variety.

Cheese sticks and sausage in the fridge.

Possibly also carrots and dill dip?

She said she bought everything on our list. Those were on there too. I didn’t look for those.

Mixed nuts.

Zero sugar and regular soda 24 packs.

I don’t know if anyone other than me will drink the Zero. We do have 2 diabetics that I know of, but I’m not sure if they’re soda drinkers? I’d be happy to share, certainly. Not like I didn’t just buy a BUNCH of my own soda.

I had already used the rewards site from our company (for personal performance metrics) to buy a pile of books and that snazzy keyboard and mouse combo. I’ve discontinued using the headset because the headphone cord is problematic.

Unless that’s an issue with my tower? I don’t know. My existing headphones work with a USB cable, and those are working just fine. The newer ones used different connections. HOWEVER, the keyboard and mouse, I ADORE. And the mousepad is nice, too, even if it’s very big. Still a very worthy purchase, either way. And again, free.

This is jumping ahead a bit in our narrative of my day, but I went back onto the rewards site tonight and ordered (absolutely free– not even shipping charges), the Blade Runner sequel with Ryan Gosling, the novel that was the basis of the first one, and a cookbook of easy sheet pan dinners. And I had one point to spare. Pretty skippy!

The sad part of the day…I discovered once I was about to prep my frozen pizza, after coming home, that the freezer door had popped open while I was gone. It was ajar. Freezer burn galore, and my pizza box was downright floppy. I had meatballs in there, too. Both likely ruined, or would give me serious food poisoning, if refrozen and cooked.

I’m not very nice to myself when food is accidentally wasted. I go through a lot of self-blaming, and negative self-talk. But kiddo and long-distance bestie did their level best to cheer me up. Telling me it happens. It’s just an accident. Not a sign of a major character flaw.

Eventually, their consolations sunk in.

I splurged on delivery because I wasn’t up to prepping the chicken in the fridge. The restaurant forgot my fries, but I had ordered two things, so it was still filling. And I was issued a credit for the fries of $5 almost immediately after reporting it.

THE TOTS OMG!!!

Kiddo said tots make everything better, and I sent her a gif of Samwise from LOTR saying “Po-Tay-Toes.” BBQ sauce, ranch, cheese, I think braised beef… very very good. Better than the sandwich, actually. But both were tasty.

I had already ordered the Blu-ray of all three Lost Boys movies, this pay period, which was really inexpensive. Been wanting to watch the sequels again, even though I seem to remember they weren’t incredible. And the only options I could find were paying for a rental or purchase on Amazon Prime. AND I already wanted a better copy of the first one, anyway.

Came back home, determined once again to see if there wasn’t a US version of the very, very pretty box set, with its full-color art of stills from the film embedded in the packaging that houses the discs, blown up large.

I was showing everyone pics of the set all day, even my coworkers. And I showed bestie. She’d agreed it was very pretty and that if it had been Bram Stoker’s Dracula, she would’ve lost it.

I had gone so far as to make a first world problems post about the box set on tumblr, because who else would empathize better than a group of fellow fans?

(Have since “Edit to Add”-ed TWICE on that post, because THE SAGA CONTINUES)

I found a Walmart listing which appeared to be the same LB box set, although I wasn’t positive, because they didn’t include any pics of the inside, just the outer cover. That listing indicated it was an all-region product.

Now, we’re talkin!

I reached out to the Amazon seller to ask if it was, indeed, all-region (their listing was less expensive than Walmart’s). Still haven’t heard back, but it was late-ish by then. Not too surprised.

Did even MORE research, looking for alternate sellers, and found a listing on eBay cheaper than BOTH of those sites, brand new, WITH pics of the inside, showing all the art that had me DROOLING. AND their listing also said it was all-region.

AND… I was able to set up the purchase so that I would be billed in installments without interest and only pay $11 tonight (it was still about $40, or will be, once it’s all paid off). So, I ordered it. Still believing I would have to save up for at least a standard 4K player.

Then, I went back into my eBay purchase history in the app, to see the timeframes on the billing (still need to look at that again. I got distracted.) At THAT point, I found out the second disc in the set wasn’t special features. It was a standard Blu-ray edition.

SO… if I want to really max out my viewing experience, I can still save up for the 4K player.

But it can wait, indefinitely.

YAAAAAY.

What else… heard from my friend Neva.

We’d intended to attend a free concert together tomorrow.

I had told her multiple times that it starts at 5 PM. I’m not sure how that didn’t sink in? But the store where she works is open until 5 tomorrow. Then, she has to close. And she wanted me to meet her there at 5:15 or so, and ride with her back to her mom’s house to drop off her car, then ride BACK with another of her friends, and THEN go to the show.

It’s unclear if there will be an opening band, or if the headlining act will be playing the whole set. And there wasn’t any information about how long it’s going to last.

When she found out I had requested the whole day off, she said maybe I ought to go by myself and just get there early (the fenced off area for the concert outside will open at 3PM, but who knows if anyone will be filling up general parking around the stadium before then?). She also said if it’s anything like the other free concerts, there could be 20,000 people there.

Kiddo thinks that can’t possibly be right. “That’s like 10% of the population.” I’m assuming she meant just of this area. But who knows?

So I’m kinda worried about all of that. I really want to go to the show. I’m just very scared to go alone. I went to a NIN concert alone on a Valentine’s Day, years ago, and managed to find my car, and get in and out, without any help. And I don’t remember panicking, even though it was a big event, very full parking lot. But I wasn’t as anxious in those days.

My mom has also expressed interest in going back to the Wildlife Sanctuary sometime soon, AND there’s an event in a neighboring smallish town, which will include a pet parade of pets dressed up like aliens. The alien pets thing is ALSO tomorrow, but earlier in the day.

The sudden drop in temperature has me feeling weird in the sinuses. I don’t exactly feel like I’m getting sick, but I could definitely be feeling better than this. It fluctuates throughout the day. And I don’t know what I’ll have for energy tomorrow. BUT, I was DEBATING trying to hit both the alien pets thing and the concert, if I’m able. Or the wildlife sanctuary, since it’s closer.

Sunday, I just have to attend a meeting at work, after hours, which shouldn’t last long. We have a time budget to work with, because of payroll restrictions. Then, Monday, I’m off altogether. So I would definitely have time to recover, if I did go kinda all-out tomorrow.

Which probably means I should stock my water bottle with ice and head to bed.

BLAH though. What a DAY!!! ALL THE DRAMA!

But YAAAAY EXTRA PRETTY LOST BOYS SET!!!

AND the sequels.

AND Blade Runner 2049!

AND Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

AND a cookbook.

(Which reminds me, the Elvira cookbook I preordered is supposed to ship out this month.)

I’ll have to ease up on the spending big-time, telling myself that AGAIN, and watch all the financing purchases, since I have some debt to pay off, and need to take care of some things for the cat yet, and will be paying off kiddo’s plane ticket monthly for a LONG time.

I say on the one hand I need to save money, that I’m low on food, then I buy movies. And order kinda pricey delivery. But I put a lot into savings before I did all of this. And I will replace the pizza and meatballs, and maybe pick up bagged tea and shampoo and conditioner.

Well.

And I will keep putting a minimum of 10% of each paycheck into savings directly, even after kiddo is back home. Possibly more. But the 10% is what I have opted in, on Chime.

I guess it goes back to Bread and Roses. Necessity and luxury/the arts.

I need more Lost Boys in my life.

And I am a MASSIVE Blade Runner fan. Wrote a pretty decent paper on it, for a film class, in grad school. I’ve already read the book but don’t own it. I do, however, have the collector’s box set DVD with multiple versions of the film, all kinds of swag, and a case that looks like the one Harrison Ford carries around in the movie.

And the Elvira cookbook is already paid off. And the other stuff was 100% free.

Alright, I gotta wash my makeup off and call it.

What a ride!

Na-nites!