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Thursday, February 13, 2020

The Day I Became Persona Non Grata with the Girl Scouts

The year was 1997 or 98, I had graduated from college with an Associates in Industrial Design from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and no one would hire me.  There were no interviews.  I was surviving on temp agency assignments, face painting, coffee barista, dish washing, etc.  My goal was to save enough money to move to Florida to continue my degree with the eventual hope of getting a job in my chosen field.

AIP had a book filled with art commissions, people from the local community would call in when they needed an artist for face painting and such.  I pounced on the girl scout lead with much excitement.  They were planning an event at a local school gymnasium for all Pittsburgh girl scout chapters.  It was to be a day of festivities that included face painting.  They needed two so I quickly found a partner and committed to the date.  Prior to this I had been face painting at the Pittsburgh Pirates Stadium so I felt sufficiently ready to take on the girls.

Nothing could have prepared me for the energy and deafening noise.  There must have been over two hundred girls - and two face painters!  Every one of them wanted to be painted and they were - I hate to say it, kinda bratty.  It didn't matter, we pressed on until every last girl was painted.  There were no breaks.  No lunch.  Just non stop painting.  They were relentless.  No one came to check on us until the very end when checks were handed out.  We were asked if we'd ever like to do this again and of course we said yes.

Suddenly the girl scouts disappeared and there was only leaders left to clean up the carnage.  We noticed a giant balloon display and asked if we could take it home.  They said yes.  We took it down the hill to our car but it wouldn't fit, so we had the sudden inspiration to let it go!  Just as we were about to let the giant balloon bunch fly free, a women came running down the hill screaming at us to NOT LET THE BALLOONS GO, something about killing animals, death to the environment, etc.  Shamefaced, we lugged the balloons back up the hill and into the gymnasium.

We were never invited back.

PS:
Dear Girl Scout Leaders,
I still buy your cookies and I've never released a balloon, on purpose, ever again!  Also, I'm kinda glad you never called back.  My head still hurts from all the noise.

Saturday, February 01, 2020

Frugal Living - Investing Year 1

2019 was our first year to to invest in the stock market.  Prior to this year we had never had significant funds to invest.  In 2018 we held money in a money market account for down payment on our house.  Prior years money was tied up in a renovation house that was not meant to be, but once this was sold, we were happy to finally try our hand in the stock market.  Despite dour warnings at the end of 2018, we jumped in with much excitement.  We invested with Vanguard and put 30% in energy bonds and 70% in high earning ETF's.  It was surprisingly addictive.  At first I checked our accounts daily, by mid-year it was once a week and by now a few times a month.  

The biggest mistake we made was putting all our reserve funds into ETF's.  We got a little carried away with the idea that all available money must be working money and when there were times that we had to pay off a big bill for vehicle repairs, it was a hassle to sell funds and move it around.  This year I plan to keep our reserve account separate so it's available when needed.  

We've set up money market accounts for our kids since they were born and they were earning pennies each year.  We put all their money into separate accounts in Vanguard and invested each into ETF's.  It was really fun to watch their money grow throughout the year and I've been working with the two oldest to teach them investing basics.  If they can learn at a young age they could be set for life.  This year I want to put money into each account for their birthdays in addition to whatever presents they get.  I think that could be a good tradition.