Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Necessary Luxury

I've been dwelling on the nature of Christmas, about how it's a fuck of a lot of work for those of us in the sandwich generation. I feel this more and more with each passing year. By the time January arrives, one is tired from all of the responsibility. And, then, it's freakin' January...

So this year - and possibly for all the years to come - I've decided to make January the month of necessary luxury. December was all about everyone else. January's about me.

Alas, the weather is shit and the nights are long and the natural world, to the outward gaze, is temporarily dead.

Which is why "necessary luxury" is so readily achievable! In January, from pity or empathy, you wish me luck with all of my mini-lavishments and urge me on. In June, you secretly think I'm just a bit too spendy.

So here's how I'm improving the quality of my daily experience by spending money:
  • I've bought a metropass for the second month in a row (and I may choose to continue till March). A few months ago, I opted to walk only one leg of my work commute. I've found that I benefit from an hour's walk (to work and errands at lunch) but not 2 - especially if I want to have energy to do yoga thereafter. I can get home on the streetcar in 15 min. Or take the bus to the dentist when it's -13. Or share it with M on the weekends (it's transferable).  It costs $140 a month and one must use it 14 times in a week to break even on the single fare model. I'll likely not use it more than 8. But I don't care. It makes me feel like I can get on the subway at any time, even for a stop. It's liberating.
  • What is it with me and the juicing in January? I've built on last year's juice cleanse experience. This year, I've opted to drink some juice and eat some food and to benefit from their gracious coexistence! In January, I will order juice for delivery - whenever the fuck I feel like it. After all, I all-too-often buy it at the shops at the same price (minus delivery charge). Why shouldn't I have someone else bring the heavy bottles to me? It's a bit like having a milkman. True story: In today's delivery, an aloe juice shot arrived broken. (All of juices in that order froze on the doorstep as it's rather cold now, and the aloe, while expanding into ice, shattered its bottle.) You've gotta love an industry that caters so sincerely to entitled white women. I called the shop to let them know at 8 am and, within 30 minutes, I had a new bottle. (The shipping cost them more than the shot.) Plus they apologized profusely over the phone and then again via email. You'd have thought I was Madonna having a shit fit in 1990. (Seriously, it was a shot of juice and I swear I just politely requested a replacement.) But that's my kind of client service. It's why I'll go back again. Not to mention that I can place an order at 9pm and it'll arrive by 8am the next morning.  So it's instant, healthful, tasty gratification. For now, I'm sticking to the unsweetened vegetable juice, shots (concentrated immune boosters) and coconut milk/meat. No cashews for me...
  • I bought a new yoga prop I've been looking at forever: the Three Minute Egg. (Actually, I got two of them to facilitate Scott's and M's emergent practices. They've both decided to start doing yoga with me so, it seems, I've got constant company in the sewga room.) Interestingly, the Egg works best of all for me because, while all peeps can benefit from most props, this one (by its dimensions and application) is geared to a more experienced student. 
  • I'm spending with largesse on food. OK, you may wonder: How this is any different from regular Kristin? and, really, the answer is not very. But I'm putting the emphasis on elegant, appealing and healthful items that's good for managing inflammation. For example: Baked salmon and butternut squash with orzo chicken soup from Holt's. Yes I could make this but no I won't so it's good to know that I can have it regardless.
  • I added another subscription online yoga website to my cache. I've newly joined YogaDownload and I'm having tons of fun figuring out how it compares with Gaia (My Yoga Online), my old standard. I intend to do a post when I have a good grip on the similarities and differences between the two. Weirdly, I bought this new subscription via Groupon (for a disturbingly low cost) on Jan. 1 - the best day of the year to get a fitness deal. I've bought maybe 2 things on Groupon in the past: a manicure (my friend at work wanted to do this with me) and a 5-class pass to a local yoga studio I never went to (just a bit too far away). Don't worry, I gave the pass to a work friend and he used it happily.
So really, is this luxury? Or mood management necessity? I defer to you.

13 comments:

  1. I plan to spend my December Amazon blog earnings on small conveniences - a microfiber towel, a wet hair brush, new back of door towel hooks, and so on. To me those little things act like luxuries of a moment:). Similar approach to yours - just a slightly different focus;).

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    1. Great idea! And how wonderful to have blog earnings for this very reason.

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  2. All these expenditures sound reasonable to me. I was on the phone this afternoon with someone in Halifax. He told me about the weather there. Then he told me about weather in Toronto, where he lived for three years. OMG. Here in California, we wince when it drops to 30 degrees Fahrenheit at night, after highs in the 50s during the day. Anything you can do to nurture the will to live, Kristin, is exactly what you should do. Don't limit it to January, either. I suggest continuing these small support systems until the weather turns.

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    1. Ha! When it gets cold, it really goes for it. But all of the people in central and northern Canada think we're wusses :-) And I do tend to splurge in the winter. I think I'm going to start budgeting for it over the rest of the year!

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  3. I am so with you on the sandwich generation thing! I have a sister who doesn't do cooking and two brothers who live abroad, so only appear for holidays to visit my 96 year old mother. My daughter can't eat gluten or dairy products. The holiday 'siege' falls on me doing 12 hour shifts for a week in the kitchen. URRGH!

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    1. Lord! That's insane. (But of course you want for everyone to have a good time...) One day you will be the matriarch and everyone will cater to you :-)

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  4. Love good customer service. Can't believe how cold it is with you. Here it's just rain and there are still days when I can do the school run in loafers and a cardigan! I absolutely agree that January needs whatever it takes to get through it. Enjoy!

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    1. I know - service is king. Right about now I'd enjoy cardigan weather. But rain, I can never get with that.

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  5. Hahaha, this post cheered me. I am not doing any actual indulgences because the result of Christmas for me is being broke as %)*!--but I love the idea, because January is rough, so I will live vicariously through yours and supplement that with fantasy shopping and travel planning. I think I can swing the eating well (meaning deliciously) part, though, and I will!

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    1. Ah, that's an unfortunate side-effect of Xmas! You are very prudent and I'm sure that will stand you in good stead. And I love your idea of vicarious indulging. It's just as fun in its own way and it's not hard on the wallet. Do eat well though. That's medicine!

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  6. I believe that giving ourselves small luxuries is a wonderful way to go through life!!
    Thanks for reminding me to do it a bit more regularly.

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  7. Love this notion, although by the time I got back to comment you've written about 5000 words in 3 more posts! I can't keep up! Have I mentioned before that I have long felt, in some deep, atavistic, in-my-bones way that Winter is when people die. (Hear that intoned in some solemn Lorne Green-type voiceover!) So, you know, whatever it takes! Quotidian luxuries? Bring 'em on! Small pleasures, the extra sweet carrots that keep us donkeys moving forward. When still working, for me it was coffee and a brioche one or two mornings a week at a place in town where the really good pastry chef began spilling butter into the air by 5 in the morning. . .Apparently, judging from my wardrobe, I also bought a few too many pairs of shoes to make me feel better about having to walk out the door so many mornings each week, but I'm not sure that's the kind of luxury you mean...😉 really great-smelling bath stuff, though, that works, no?

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