Money Matters

Saturday started well. I woke in plenty of time to do my morning pages (brain dump) and make it to a local community yard sale. (Once a month in the summer, elementary school parking lot, not usually great things but who knows?) Anyway, second spot was a nice, older woman selling off fabulous shoes and so-so jewelry, but one little (seriously tiny) thing caught my eye. I thought it was a stray earring, but it was a very small lapel pin (or tie tack?), in the shape of a bee. It's cute. I asked "how much," and she said, "ah, take it, from me to you." I thanked her enthusiastically (did I mention it's cute?) and helped her finish setting up. I looked for something else to buy, but the shoes were all size 8 - my Xena-Bunny boats are almost 10's. Ah well. Slipped the bee-thingie into my coin slot (empty) and moved on.

One sterling bracelet (for Head Trip's boyfriend) and a milk glass water dispenser (from a set) later, I headed to the car. Before I left, however, I pulled out my loupe and took another look at the bee. In baby letters, on the tiny stem, was "14K."

Uh-oh. I should pay, right? I should at least go back and tell her. But then what? How much? What was the weight? The aesthetic value? Neither of us even knew what it was (tack or pin?). Should I ... could I ... simply accept the gift?

Yeah, it's true what they say - Lutherans own guilt; Catholic and Jewish people just rent it. It took me two hours to first justify (it's not more than a dollar or two, anything I offer her now would be a cheat) then excuse (well, it's not as if it would pay the rent) and then, finally, accept what had been given to me freely, a magical gift of hope. My glimmer was now a full-blown anticipation-storm, and I asked Mama Angel to hang around the nice lady for awhile and let others see how special she - and her things - could be. (Yes, they really were fabulous shoes!)

The rest of the day went well. I ran across a scientific scale ($7) that weighs in just about any measure known to man (still haven't set it up), and, better, I found a woman selling off odds and ends from a failed shop, some of which was gold jewelry. The jury's still out on this stuff, especially since something in the cache turned the ammonia cleaning water yellow, but if it's all okay I spent $40 for about 7 grams of 14K (not counting the bee) - more singles than pairs (for the Big Lug), and lots of clutch-backs for spares. If it's not, well then, I've learned something - either way, I'm planning a trip to my jeweler friend to see if (if) I can get some extra cash for my trip to FL next month.

It says something about my new level of money maturity that I thanked my angel anyway, for either a $40 triple windfall or a $40 lesson. (Very Lutheran, huh?) But it says more that within a few hours I realized the Big Lug's wonderful plan to help stimulate the economy (since we have money and so many others don't) might be getting a little excessive, but I wouldn't know since I hadn't balanced the checkbook in over a week so I didn't know just how stimulating he'd been. (Breathe!) So, this morning, I spent my cereal time entering receipts ... add here, subtract there, is that a six or a zero? ... and let's just say I've not been terribly careful with the money this summer. Not in trouble, or anything, but not exactly ... plump in the pocket.

Money matters. Keeping track of things seems so boring, but it's necessary, for mental health if nothing else. And, truthfully, money matters. It might be just a stream of electrons in a computer, not really anything solid but simply a transfer device, but it's important and should be treated with the respect it deserves - on some level because it can make or break us, but mostly because, well, I'm having too much fun with it.

I really don't want to stop.

But maybe I do need to ... yield a bit more often.

Especially since ... did I mention finding my first solid gold watch on Friday? ...