Friday, December 01, 2006

The Almighty Green

As the holiday season approaches, the world is filled with many colors that help get us into the Christmas spirit. There’s the red and white striped candy canes, the multi-colored twinkling lights on trees and in yards, gaily wrapped gifts and fancy new holiday clothing for special occasions. All of which we are told that we need so we can celebrate.

But, in order to have all of these festive “must haves” there is one color you must have more of than anything else.

Green. As in cash. *Cue strains of “Money, money, money, money….MONEY!” from The Apprentice.

Yes, green seems to be the most popular color around this time of year, much to the delight of the store owners and the disdain of the consumers. We are trained to open our wallets and spend, spend, spend. And we do, sometimes begrudgingly, sometimes willingly, but all in the name of The Holiday Spirit.

Now don’t get me wrong. I loves me some shopping as much as the next girl, albeit not in the throes of The Last Minute Holiday Dash. But I got to thinking. Over the years, where has all my cashola come from? When I was younger, I loved the wads of bills that I collected for my holiday stash. Although nowadays I carry my debit card more often than the actual green stuff, what kinds of jobs have I had to make it appear in my bank account?

Over the years I have done many things for money. Many boring things. I’ve waited tables in many different establishments. I’ve delivered newspapers and flowers. I’ve done babysitting for kids, run a camp for kids, tutored kids and taught kids. I’ve dished yogurt at TCBY and sold books in a bookstore. I’ve washed cars and mowed lawns.

Yawn.

Unless you count the time I stapled my tongue for money at the request of a childhood friend (which, by the way, was so not worth the dollar I made doing it), or the time I posed semi-nude for a college art class, I played it safe.

People will do some wild things for money. All you have to do is watch reality TV to find some of them. They will eat all kinds of funky things that are not supposed to be eaten, swap wives, lose weight, perform dangerous stunts, persuade a bachelor into a proposal, or race around the world.

Would I do wild things for money? I took this test to see. I would like to say that I did something exciting in my lifetime for money, but I can’t. There were no Indecent Proposals for me. No earth shattering choices I had to make about what I would do or how badly I wanted or needed the money.

I earned no awards for being Miss I’ll Try Anything Once. I did, however, earn a lot of cash doing a lot of honest hard work. And I guess that’s something to be proud of, but not very exciting.

So I’ll take my wallet and my little safe self and head to the mall.

Right after I stop at the ATM.

***

Hi! I’m Kim. I am visiting today from In Full Bloom for December’s Blog Exchange. I spend my time there detailing some of the moments of my life, including my two kids and a wonderful husband. I also have a pet peeve or two!

Please visit ECR today at my place and be sure to visit the other members of this month’s Blog Exchange. If you would like to participate in next month's Blog Exchange, let Kristen
know. We’d love to have you!

10 comments:

Kate said...

Oy vey! It's all about money this time of year, isn't it?

Hmmm, posing semi-nude for an art class? You are waaaay more daring than me. I hardly pose nude for my husband with the lights out.

Binky said...

For some reason, posing semi nude doesn't shock me half as much as stapling your own tongue ;)

Allison said...

I, too, have done many many many things for money. But I can absolutely say that none of them were as exciting as posing nude, even if only semi-nude. I wonder if I could make money for that now.....it's worth a shot.

Her Bad Mother said...

I admire anyone who has enough confidence in their own form to pose for an art class - bravo!

Anonymous said...

I've done some pretty wild things for free and now that I think about it, perhaps I should have tried to get some cash out of it!

Heather said...

Yeah, I keep telling my husband when he calls to ask if we need anything on his way home from work: "A shoebox full of 50s".

Alas, he hasn't found one yet.

Mayberry said...

I don't know -- that stapler thing seems pretty bold!

Alex Elliot said...

I was very impressed with the stapler stunt and the fact that you only charged a dollar for it!

Anonymous said...

You stapled your tongue? You need to be on fear factor!

Wildefrost said...

I stapled my fingers together once. Probably not half as bad as a tongue staple, but it certainly hurt.