I'm back home now from taking my mom to the airport today.
We had a good visit together. We did some shopping, we rode the bus and took a tour of the bus station where I work, made eggplant parmesean at my house, ate out twice with NE, etc.
One of the places we ate at is the vegan restaurant which Ceejay recommended a long time ago. Overall I'd say it was a good place, and that some of the food was pretty good. The atmosphere was WAY noisy though (especially this one lady who did not understand how to keep her noise level to inside levels ...)
Friday afternoon my mom and I had a really interesting experience. She and I were sitting in a booth at a downtown Casey's store (gas station.) An older lady came in and was trying to get someone to come be a witness to her wedding - she was willing to pay $10.
I was kind of wondering if she was trying some sort of scam, but when she got to us I decided to go with it and see what happened. My mom agreed.
So we followed the lady outside to where her fiancee' and another person who'd agreed to be a witness were standing. Apparently both of their witnesses had flaked out (decided to go get drunk instead of coming to their wedding ... a daughter and son.)
We headed over to city hall where we stood waiting for about ten minutes while the lady chain smoked and gabbed about many way too personal details to tell strangers.
Finally we headed inside where we had to go through a metal detector and went into a courtroom. The judge met us there and explained what was going to happen. He seemed like a really nice guy, very easy going with a good sense of humor.
After putting on his robe, he conducted the ceremony. It really was quite beautiful for a courtroom ceremony.
At the end I had to sign my name and write my address on two documents (as a witness.) Both I and the other lady refused the $10 when offered. Then before leaving gave the bride a hug and good wishes.
(She and the new husband had been together for 19 years - had been homeless, drug addicts, etc., but now she is on disability and he is a truck driver. She recently bought a house on her credit, and insisted on "making it official.")
All in all ... an interesting experience.
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The Walk Through ... got a voice mail Thursday night from property manager. Said "Your place looks like a million bucks. I am so impressed. Thank you."
Ugh. At least it's over now.
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Now that my mom is gone I am going to be putting myself on a Spending Reduction.
This means that I can only spend $20 per week on anything outside of gas for my car, regular bills/contributions, October trip with NE, October restaurant w/NE, and the mani/pedi which I still haven't done! I also may add in there the registration fee(s) for a Sabbath School workshop and a fundraiser 5k I might participate in during October.
Yikes .. lots of exceptions. But even with them, I think it will help me get my spending muscles back into check after the spendalooza that has been August and September so far.
This spending reduction is in effect until November 19 (before I go out to CA for Thanksgiving.)
I'm going to be entering all my receipts, etc. into YNAB tomorrow night and see how much damage has been done ...
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Extras:
$200 account bonus from Nationwide
$200 from mom for her part of the hotel, other stuff we did together
Have enough SBs to cash out for a $25 PayPal, but am waiting for the next Swagup to come available.
Mom's Visit, Walk Through, Restaraunt, Spending Reduction
September 22nd, 2015 at 02:09 am
September 22nd, 2015 at 07:09 am 1442905760
September 22nd, 2015 at 07:51 am 1442908302
September 22nd, 2015 at 10:46 am 1442918802
September 22nd, 2015 at 12:51 pm 1442926304
September 22nd, 2015 at 03:01 pm 1442934114
September 22nd, 2015 at 06:03 pm 1442945021
I agreed to do it and went to a homeful of very nice strangers! I performed the weddding, and like you, I refused any pay. I have always wondered what happened to that couple? Glad you enjoyed your mom's visit.