Diamonds are forever . . . . and so are mortgages.

It's come to my attention that despite my constant effort to remain infantile, I'm growing up. And buy 'growing up' I mean I'm still far too dependant on my parents but am becoming increasingly (and somewhat disturbingly) comfortable without the presence of a consistent male in my life. And by presence, I mean the financial and domestic aid of a male, you know, like women had in the 50's. Women back then had someone (read: a husband) to pick up the marshmallows for the ambrosia or to tie their apron strings. I however find myself in the bitter reality of the 21st century, and for things like buying a home or say diamonds, I'm relying on myself. I'm not the only one either, the same goes for for a handful of other girls too. For those of you who are paying attention, I bought an apartment in the summer. A few days ago I unwittingly bought diamonds. Yeah, with all that spare cash I have from missed mortgage payments, and unpaid cable bills. Actually I got a bit of money for my birthday. And despite my better judgement, which was to save for the aforementioned bills etc. my Mum who has an equally materialistic personality, and a penchant for pretty and useless things, urged me to get something nice. That something nice was a ring in my favorite shop that I've had my eye on for about a year. It wasn't going to buy itself. I was chatting with said shop's proprietor, and asked if the twinkly bits in the ring were crystal. She said, "diamonds actually." This was when the gears began turning, and I started tallying my independent female friends. Friends that have (even if some of us are unemployed) accomplished things that up until recently we'd have needed a fella to help us with. Despite being a little sad that ones first diamonds and house are a single venture, I guess it could be worse. The silver lining is that I'm not "expecting" and/or divorced. To sum up: I'm proud of my friends for the things they do (careers), chances they take (relationships) and crap they've bought (homes). So way to go us!

Well, it's February 14th in a few painfully quick hours, so I guess I should get a move on and buy myself a frilly pink heart shaped box of chocolates. Siiiiiiiiiiigh* Tune in next week when I have a nasty case of diabetes and acne.

Heads up.

My excuse would have been the 2 pitchers of Mimosas I had that afternoon, which I had conveniently forgot about. Sara did not have such an excuse. We'll just chalk it up to general clumsiness and a dash of oblivion. After a perfectly delightful evening of chatting and light imbibing it was time to vacate our pleasantly prohibition-esque environment and call it a night. Sara had already tipped her glass over and deposited a small puddle of beer on the table. That was one. Two was four minutes later, when she knocked the salt shaker off the table. She was about to carelessly continue to put her jacket on and leave, when I said she should root around under our table and fetch the shaker. Then like any self respecting superstition non-believer, she should toss some salt over her left shoulder. I think I suggested this asinine behaviour because of something my friend, let's call her Katie, said to me the day before. We were sitting in a cafe, and I had just pulled apart the scone I had chosen for breakfast. As I loaded my knife with the butter I planned on covering my scone with, Katie very casually said:

K: "Using a knife on on Chinese New Year is bad luck."

Me: blinking . . . .then putting knife down. "Oh yeah?"

K: " Families often prep their food the day before, because using a knife on the day cuts your luck in half for the coming year."

Me: picking knife up and continuing to butter my scone.

Ladies and gentlemen, my friend Katie. *applause* She couldn't have either said this before I used the knife, she couldn't have just not said anything. No, she chose to tell me mid-slather. So with this recent conversation in the back of my head, I suggested to Sara (before it was too late) to use preventative measures with her salt. She poured a small amount into her palm and tossed it gracefully over her shoulder. The salt then proceeded to gracefully rain on the girl sitting directly behind her, as well happily sail into her date's eye.

Lesson learned.