Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

You know

I find it interesting that a person who lectured me on fiscal responsibility and even took over my finances for awhile at my request (it didn't work out; she micromanaged and there wasn't any real progress), by her own admission on her blog (the same forum where she ended our friendship by a scathing, psycho post in response to a rather innocuous comment), is spending great amounts of money on coffee, take out, and string. Yeah, you can call it yarn, but really, it's pretty string. Oh, and going all over creation to public libraries to hang out with 12-year-olds at Harry Potter parties and listen to 'wizard rock', dressed up in full garb. (Have I mentioned she's 30?) Doing the math just from what she says she spends means that unless they're living off their credit cards, I don't see how they stay in the piece-of-crap house they've managed to get. (I'm paraphrasing her, she complains about it a lot; they apparently bought a house in one of the shabbier areas of Lexington--the one with lots of illegal immigrants rather than the professors and UK employees she apparently expected--and didn't really check on how much needed repair.) What a frivolous cow. And she was so holier-than-thou with me.

What was it I was doing again? (she doesn't have it set up for linking to posts, so you'll have to look for January 2007 in the archives if you read this after it falls away from the main page).

Now, it's not really my business how much she makes or spends, or whether she's dug herself into beaucoup debt. But it maybe explains why things went so badly when she 'helped' me. She apparently didn't know what she was doing, but thought she did. By comparison, I have a really good role model now and am learning to do better in my own finances, although it's always a struggle. As far as I'm concerned, that person is the only one who has a right to lecture me about finances, because of competency and genuine affection. If you notice, I don't complain as much about my finances this day. There's a reason for that. They're not sorted out that well, but they're much better than they have been in awhile.

Granted, I'm still somewhat sore over our 'friendship' and how it ended, so maybe I'm biased. But really, if you read her blog (and ignore the knitting obsession), she just does and says the strangest things. Like plunking down $300 for a dog bed and house for a neighbour's dog. She doesn't even like dogs. Whenever I've seen her, she's been aggressively bitchy and acted afraid of them. She went on at great length about the evils of the neighbour's dog on the other side of the house. We never heard what the outcome of that one was, probably because most anyone receiving this bounty would have been offended that someone didn't think they were taking care of their dog. Oh, yes, thank you for the hideously expensive things that I couldn't provide my pet. No, that's not how people would react. Yet her 'friends' were leaving comments on her blog about what a wonderful person she was for doing that. Not one gave her a dose of reality. Oh, yeah, the ones that would do that were discarded years ago.

It's also a sore point for me because the one other person who has lectured me about fiscal responsibility is my grandmother, who 1) sent money to people who told her she'd won a lottery, 2) bought a new car when she had two in the garage in an impulse buy, and 3) had to change her bank account and phone number because people were debiting money from her account that had no right to, using information that she probably gave them. (My grandmother has lots of issues, although I doubt she realises it. She was the one who, when I explained I was studying mediaeval history, thought it wasn't true evil, just a little evil. Sigh.) I love her, but we clash in our ideas a lot.

What is it with people that they feel they can lecture someone as if they don't have any problems at all? Sane people recognise they have shortcomings and try to overcome them without striking out at others. But on the other hand, Liz also calls me the 'Crazy Librarian' and yet she is so off balance herself and has a pathological distrust of all things psychiatric, so I doubt she'll get the help she needs. She'll just keep going off at her 'friends' and driving them away when they don't tolerate her behaviour anymore. I don't think she much cares.

I don't know why I continue to read her blog. I have a perverse need to know where people who have wronged me or ones I love are, I suppose. I keep tabs on my father, my ex-husband, and Liz, and a few minor players when possible. You know, keep your friends close and your enemies closer and all that. I guess part of me would love to see them get their comeuppance. I'm starting to feel like Liz is headed for hers.

Okay, I've ranted bitchily. I feel better now.

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