red wallets help you save money

*Photo Credit: LePolkaDotChic

According to Montenegrin culture, if you hold your money in a red wallet, you're more likely to save money because of who knows what.  I am a fan of this idea because I'm a fan of red first of all.  It's a passionate, happy color.  And perhaps if I carry a red wallet, I'd be passionate and happy just with the wallet, that I wouldn't have to spend those green pieces of paper that plague the universe.

Speaking of the universe, imagine there are dollar bills on other planets.  Imagine Neil Armstrong left a dollar bill on the moon.  Imagine us paying for trips to the moon and pulling out our wallets for a frozen cappuccino that we could ingest through a mighty cool tube attached to our oxygen mask or helmet or beret?

Anyhow, I saw this adorable wallet at Urban Outfitters last week during a tremendous thundershower when I should have been shopping for umbrellas.  Notice the polka dots on the front.  And then lo and behold, inside is red everything!

So do I want it because of the polka dots or do I like it because it's red inside?  Double-whammy!

The Moving Checklist

I feel like all my friends are moving out of their old homes into new apartments at the rate that the BP reputation has spiraled down. Only, moving into a new apartment is a...great...thing.

Maybe its because the rental index is up (because rent pricing is down) but moving is all we seem to talk about these days. Moving. Boys. Moving. Food. Moving. Clothes. Moving. Stocks. Moving. Fireworks at Coney Island. Moving. It's frightening and fearful. Sometimes it's a good move, sometimes it's a messy move, and other times it's incredibly troublesome. And most of my friends are in a...panic...time.

It isn't easy to move for many reasons especially if you are moving into your first apartment after your birthhome. But you should be fine if you have the following checklist below checked off.

1. Long days and nights on craiglist
2. Gmail all day to read and check potential apartment sellers and potential apartment seekers in the case that you're giving up your place as well
3. Calculator to see how poor you are
4. Picking up empty boxes from the street to pack up your crap
5. Asking useless friends to help you pack or move
6. Getting a rental truck that is 1,000x the size you needed
7. Getting a rental truck that breaks down midway into the move
8. Having the moving guys come 4 hours late so not only do you miss a half a day of work, but you miss a whole day of work
9. Forgetting to eat lunch because you're on gchat with a potential seller
10. Missing mom and dad before you even leave home
11. Fighting with your new roommates before you move in
12. Finding a place then having to give it up because the realtor lied about rent
13. Realizing that the place you moved into doesn't accept your dog and you have to move out immediately 
14. Realizing you can't even visit the place you want to move into because you're at work all day
15. Moving into the room with no windows
16. Moving into the smallest room
17. Moving into the room with the tiniest closet 
18. Moving into any of the above three and paying an equal portion of rent as the roommates with windows, large rooms, and/or big closets
19. Borrowing money from mom to eat lunch
20. Borrowing money from dad when you have a full-time job

*Photo Credit: LePolkaDotChic

I am looking into co-operatives myself right now. And this process started today with a letter to the holders of the co-ops I am looking into. I like this process. Letters are fun. I suppose because I haven't gotten to the moving checklist yet.

I want to stay in brooklyn. I'd like to rent a place either in williamsburg, or greenpoint. Maybe fort greene. Maybe ridgewood. Those are my spots. Speaking of spots, do you notice the spots of papered graffiti on the sign above? I took this photograph on my blackberry by kent ave and west street. My favorite spot by the east river. :)

in my polka dot dress

i dine with polka dots tonight

one's a charm
white on blue

and two - 

betta than any da'ling

betta than any da'ling, i dine with polka dots tonight

make the meal and open the terrace door to let the heat out

cause the oven's on

and he's here and

i can't wait 

for us to eat

for us to eat, i dine with polka dots tonight

mom just got home 

and is on farmville
clicking away

again

again, i dine with polka dots tonight

under the stars and under the rain

the freaken stars don't shine because of our lame over-excess of electric energy

though i love the view from my room
and that
even though the stars don't shine, i do
and i'm the only one that counts
fifteen flights up

fifteen flights up, i dine with polka dots tonight
me and you
in brooklyn

and i do it again and again

cause i love him

and them

- LePolkaDotChic

Sometimes I Wonder If I'm Too Cheap

I am a Disney fan.  Every since I was unborn, my mother would buy me a comfy new set of pajamas for Christmas (and I mean, every Christmas without fail) and it would always be a pair from the Disney store.  I was never one of the girls who recycled pajamas from old clothes though sometimes I do anyway.  I always have high-class, designer pajamas with all the characters that made our childhood magical.

Polka dots was something that I might have been obsessed with since the days of Minnie Mouse.  It might be a good curse.  But what's not a good curse is that I am cheap like a chicken.

*Photo Credit: Jairo Ortega

So I'm walking by Herald Square, the intersection of 34th Street and Broadway one Saturday two months ago, and then I heard it!  Minnie Mouse in her cute dress asked a European couple, new to the scene and excited to be shopping in one of the world's best, walking by: "Want a photo taken with Minnie?" And I froze.

I wanted one but then Minnie said, "Four dollars."

I know this is America and $4 is the least I could do for a fellow employee of this great country in time of economic need, but I couldn't.  I COULD NOT pay the $4.  Why?  Cause I'm cheap.

So I walked away.

Another Saturday came by, and I'm walking with my friend Jairo to see the Macy's Annual Flower Show on the last day, and I am posing for photos nearby before we go to the show since he's a photographer and low and behold, I check the camera at the end of the day, and look who's in one of my photographs!

I love free things; I totally didn't plan this one but I got it anyway.

Don't ask me why I posed by a phone; long story.  Anyway, I owe Minnie Mouse $4; it's the least I can do for my cute photo.

ModCloth.com

I am a fan of various online indie and vintage clothes shopping sites and ModCloth is one of them.  How can anyone not like this Powder Puff Polka Dot Dress?

I <3 this dress.

Polka Dot Garden in Hoboken

Where's the river? - Jessica's brother

On River St. - Jessica

True story.

Hoboken, New Jersey is a great spot for the quaint.  It's yuppie, young, and fun.  There's GreenRock, McSwiggans, and other cheap bars to watch the sports game and laugh the night off with friends.  I work in Hoboken, and I love everyday stepping off the Path train into beauty.

There was an article recently on www.nj.com that spoke about Hoboken ferry owners who want to cultivate a polka dot garden on the waterfront pier.  

Now, I don't know how tires look like polka dots but I guess if you're flying over the Hudson River, somehow, in some way, these tires would look like polka dots.