Free Fit Fun

A while back, I bought BF at fitbit flex.  Fitbit flex is a pedometer type device that you wear on your wrist. I got it for him because I had read a bunch of reviews saying that it was waterproof.  He used to swim and always wondered how effective a workout it was, and so I thought this little gadget would help.  Turns out, it's actually water resistant, not water proof, so he ended up wearing it for a while and then giving it to me.

It's kind of ugly, but I also kind of like it.  It records all my steps for the day, alerts me when I've hit my daily goal (10,000), and I can enter in everything I eat. It's kind of funny though that the calorie tracker only seems to have data for fast and junk foods.  When I try to add fresh produce, it takes forever, but that's a minor complaint.

Since starting my now job, thanks to the fitbit, I have become incredibly aware of how my activity level has gone down.  When I was working at the public library, I was up and down stairs and getting up frequently to help people locate books, etc.  Even though it wasn't a large building, I still always got to 10,000 steps easily before the end of the work day.  Now, I'm lucky if I get 2,000, and that's really only if I park kind of far away.

Pair that with the fact that I've been worn out from the stress of starting a new job and the fact that I'm still adjusting to my new works schedule, and I am losing fitness at a rapid pace.

So, I made a resolution to do more exploring.

Usually, on my lunch break, I sit and read.  Usually, at the end of an hour of doing that, I am starting to nod off.  Plus, as I said before, the staff room at my new job is just awful.  So, I've been going for walks and I totally love it!  I always feel a little self-conscious walking by myself, but I'm starting to get used to that.

When I worked a shift at job #2 a couple weeks ago, I discovered that there is a gorgeous new bike path right behind the library.  And there is a scenic pond.  And the foliage was kick ass.  I came back from my break feeling rejuvenated, relaxed and slightly sunburned.  Considering the fact that I've worked at that library for nearly five years and had no idea there was a pond behind it, I felt like a bit of a failure as someone who likes to be called curious.

When I picked up a shift at job #3, I did the same thing.  I've heard that there are cross country trails somewhere, so I consulted a map.  I am not very good with maps, so I decided that I would try to head in the general direction of the trails, but also not be so focused as to not see the other potentially interesting things around me.  And you know what?  I realized that I've worked at that job for nearly four years and have rarely left the library except to go to two other buildings.  I found out where all the dorms are!

I found this dumpster full of old mattresses!

I found this quiet, tree-lined lane!


I also found that I was wandering pretty close to where the cross country trails are, so when I have another shift at that library in two weeks, I'll actually find them right away.

Free adventures + exercise = good stuff.

The City of Free Samples

Growing up in the Midwest, I spent a lot of time in Chicago.  It was in Chicago, particularly at the Museum of Science and Industry, where I first learned that one's feet can hurt in a way that is both alarming and hard to get rid of (I was 12).  My dad and brother loved Chicago, and managed to squeeze in a visit to the Windy City on seemingly every family vacation (we always did driving vacations) even if it was like five hours out of the way and all they wanted to do was visit the Hard Rock Cafe (why!?!?).  Being the snarky teen that I was, this made me hate Chicago, roll my eyes at the City by the Lake, and I haven't been there in probably eleven or so years.

But I realize that people like Chicago, often people who I respect the opinions of and therefore I shouldn't let some hurt feet keep me from the city with far too many nicknames.  Also, BF told me that his beloved Red Sox were playing the Chicago Cubs in historic Wrigley Field (I don't really care about that, but I do like drinking beer outside without fear of judgement) AND Stephen Merchant was doing standup as part of TBS's Just for Laughs Festival.  We weren't able to catch SM when he was in New York, and certainly didn't want to go to LA for it (no offense to people who live there, but I really hate LA--except the nice parts), so Chicago it was!

Some people, mostly him, say this man is not attractive-that's a lie

While I certainly do amend my previous opinion that Chicago is a jerk that I do not want to spend time with, the thing I was most surprised by (aside from the heat--my god!) was the fact that there were constantly people standing on street corners handing me free food!  I've mentioned extensively how I love a free meal, and I have come to Chicago with Larabars in tow to keep BF from insisting on breakfast every day, but people just kept giving me more and more free things!

First day, we went to get deep dish pizza, which was amazing and killed my interest in eating for nearly 12 hours, which must be some kind of record.  There were friendly people handing out Sabra hummus and pita chips!  Also coupons!  BF thought I was deranged, but I went and grabbed one, and then just shoved it in my purse for later.  It was sealed, didn't matter that I carried it around for the rest of the day, and then I had a lovely little snack later (two days later, our room had a fridge). Also, I later found a coupon on the ground that I also kept--$1 off!

Next day, two very friendly ladies were handing out Kind bars.  I've never bought these before, but now I know that I like them and BF's nut allergy meant that I got two without appearing to be greedy!

These varieties are more exotic than the one I got, but who cares.

 The day after that, we were leaving the Planetarium, and I had a hankering for some kind of frozen treat.  There were many options from little kiosks and such, but they were all ice cream which just sounded too heavy.  Lo and behold, a Whole Foods van pulled up, and some lady started handing out frozen fruit bars for free!  Exactly what I wanted, and something I would have willingly paid for (but I was happy to not have to)!

Lest you think that all I did in Chicago was eat free food, I do have to confess that we weren't super smart about being thrifty while we were there.  We did buy beer to consume back at the hotel, and we were so damned exhausted every day that we just went back to the room to watch tv rather than going out for drinks, but we spent gobs of money on the Shedd Aquarium and the Sears Tower, and we could have been a bit smarter about that. But, for those gobs of money, I got to hang out with some sea otters and whales and be terrified by those plexiglass boxes they have on the Sears Tower now.

These are strangers--reckless strangers

I kept seeing people with these Chicago City Passes, which let you into five attractions (that you would actually want to go to) for a deeply discounted price of $84/person.  Considering we paid $35 for two for the Sears Tower (I know it's the 'Willis" tower now, but I don't like that) and $69 for two for the aquarium, this city pass seems like a hella good deal.  If you plan to visit Chicago and hit up at least three of the five attractions--get one.  Next time I go to Chicago, however, I'm just going to focus on cramming as much pizza down my throat as I possibly can, or I'll just move there and spend my days walking around in search of free food.

Free Astronomical Phenomenon!

I don't think I've ever mentioned before, but BF is currently working on a Ph.D in Astrophysics.  That's right, I'm in love with a scientist, which is strange for me because I always dated 'creative types' before. But no matter, because I am dating a scientist, I know a hell of a lot about a super awesome even which is happening June 5-6 called The Transit of Venus.

Transits of Venus occur when the planet Venus actually passes in front of the the sun, making the whole planet look not like a blue dot, but like an orange ball.  These are particularly cool because they are the rarest astronomical event, occurring in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years.  The next Transit of Venus will be December 2117.

Venus--transiting in 2004.

What is also cool about this, as BF told me, is during the last major transit of Venus (not the 2004 one), scientists from all over the world tried to observe the phenomenon and take measurements, which can be used to determine the size of Venus and its distance from the Earth.  This was such a major event in my neighborhood in Providence that there are actually two streets named after it: Transit St. and Planet St.

Pretty much the whole world can see it--though it's supposed to be overcast here in Providence--damnit.  Since I've been regretting missing Halley's Comet when I was in 1st grade, I'm going to be front and center for this one.  Here's how to properly enjoy your Transit of Venus experience:

• Check with your local observatory as they certainly will have an opportunity for you to view it.
• Go to transitofvenus.org to find out what time you can witness the transit where you live, or, if it's cloudy, to watch streaming video
• Do not burn out your eyeballs by staring directly into the sun!  Eclipse viewers are cheap and should be available at any kind of science store/museum (BF tells me).  If you cannot secure eclipse viewers before the event, you can use a welder's mask (surely you have one of those), telescope or any of the other materials listed on this page.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime event, so get out there and enjoy the majesty and wonder of the universe.

The Danger of Free Food

As someone who loves saving money, I've always been very interested in finding free food whenever I can.  Usually when I encounter a free spread, I eat until I feel slightly sick, and I try to take home leftovers.  Unfortunately, overeating in these situations rarely results in me eating less or not eating later on, and I'm forced to realized that my love of free food may be just making me fat, rather than saving me the money I thought it would.

For instance, I used to work at a fancy membership library--those are the kind where people pay an annual fee to be a member, basically the country clubs of libraryland.  People belong to these kinds of libraries (I currently belong to one even though I work in a public library) because they often have historic buildings, unique collections and kick ass events.  The one I belong to was recently featured on NPR for being so awesome.  Anyway, working at a membership library equals tons of access to free food since the library would always buy more than it needed for a particular event.  I'd often take home bags of free cheese and crackers, and there was a time that my lunch at work consisted of only ice cream sandwiches and leftover chips from the children's picnic.

That last sentence probably tipped you off to what I'm going to say next--this free food, and my love (insatiable love!) is starting to make me fat, and probably makes me look very tacky.

Who can resist a cheese tray!  

But what to do?  Odds are good that I'm never going to stop loving a free lunch--who does, afterall?  And when I was in college and my parents were taking me out to dinner, I would often starve myself for 18 hours and then over order (and try to get them to take me to a place with a salad bar) so I'd have leftovers for at least two days, but perhaps I'm too grown up for that kind of behavior?

The free food thing is kind of like all of the other "adult" behaviors that I feel like I'm waiting for to kick in.  I assumed that once you reach the age of thirty, you stop being poor like a college student, and you stop exhibiting tacky behavior in public, but I just...haven't.  Now my 30+ waistline is starting to suffer, so maybe that was the linchpin all along?  Grownups acts like grownups in the presence of free food because they know all those cheese cubes will really stick to their ribs?

I'm going to try to be more mindful, but I don't think I'll be able to turn off the thrill that I get every time I see a buffet of free whatnot.

Anyone else have this problem?  I don't carry around containers to hoard the free food anymore, so that's progress, right?

Adventures in Cash

Adventures in Cash, of course

I don't spend a lot of time with cash.  I have a tendency to spend cash more easily that any other payment option, and since I don't bank locally, going to the ATM is a bit of a pain (though less than it used to be), and I'm just not in the habit.

This week, however, I have had a couple fun encounters with cash that were both completely random.

Last Saturday, one of our regular library patrons came up to the reference desk and asked if we had some headphones we could lend him. I told him that we don't have headphones to lend, but we do sell them for $1.50.*  He didn't have any money with him, so he asked if he could owe me.  Obviously, this is not a precedent I want to establish, but I've let regular patrons owe me for things in the past (one guy paid me back $.25/week for a fax I sent for him), so I decided to give this guy a break and some headphones.

I had him write me a IOU with him name, the date and what he owed, and I taped it to the counter.

He came back a few days later with the money he owed, and a special thank you treat in the form of an Israeli coin.

Apparently, and this is just information from the internet so it may be total garbage, this is an Israeli Lirot, which was issued on the 15th anniversary of the Bank of Isreal.  The three pomegranates are the symbol of Isreal, and someone is selling one on eBay for $.99!

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with this new treasure, but I do actually have a collection of international currency that I look at every now and then, so I guess this will just go in the pile.

My next adventure was not nearly as exotic, but much more practical.

At my library (and many other libraries), we have very little money and/or staff so we rely on volunteers to do most of our shelving.  One of our volunteers had noted that the shelves in one section of the library were pretty full, and she actually couldn't shelve any more books there without shifting things around.   Since I hadn't looked through that particular area in a while, I went to see if there was anything that wasn't really getting checked out that we could discard.

I found a few books that were falling apart, and in one of them I found $5!  The book hadn't been checked out in three years, so that money had been sitting there all that time just waiting for me to weed the collection (yet another reason to use your local library).  I'm going to spend it on a peanut butter and jelly cupcake from the place around the corner from my house, and then put the rest into my piggybank.

Maybe more than one....

*Other libraries I've worked at have lent headphones, which would often get stolen, break, we would have to spend time cleaning them (gross), etc.  Conclusion: not worth it and as much as I hate waste and cheap things, very few patrons can't afford $1.50 for something that they can keep.

Having Opinions Gets Me Free Stuff?

I've been using yelp.com for a couple years to decide on restaurants, hotels, attractions and the like.  It wasn't until I went to a restaurant and had a truly terrible experience that I started actually writing reviews as well.  I started to get into it.

At first, I just wrote negative reviews for all the places I hated the most.  It was incredibly cathartic.  You want to make me wait 20 minutes for a glass of water?  Boom: one star review beeyotch.

Then, like always happens with me, I started getting feedback from other users, and it went to my head.  Just like Pinterest, where I was completely disinterested until someone re-pinned something I pinned, and that feeling of specialness sent me into a pinning frenzy, likewise, someone on yelp called one of my reviews 'funny' or 'cool' and thus began reviewing madness.

I tried to boost the stars of the places I liked; I tried to downgrade the stars of the places I hated or found mediocre; and I started mentally evaluating every place I went.  I felt it was my duty to give an honest and well-written opinion of everywhere I went, and it seems to have paid off.

Two days ago, I got an email from the Providence yelp head honcho.  I don't know if she's someone who gets paid by yelp (she must), but she's certainly someone who reviews EVERYTHING.  Some of her most current reviews include Alamo Rent-a-Car and the Miami International Airport (which I've flown into and out of, and I was more unimpressed than her).  She said that she wanted to feature one of my reviews on the yelp homepage, but I needed to update my picture first.

Lovely foliage, but disappointing restaurant/coffee selection

Since I'm all about glory, I updated right away, and found out that not only would my review be featured on the homepage, but I was awarded elite status!  What that means, is that local business hold parties where they show off what they do, and they invite yelpers to come along so they'll give them (hopefully) favorable reviews.  There's one in April that's for yelp elite only and a +1, and it includes free feed and drink!

Similarly, the pizza place near my house that's always giving me free pizza, sent out an email recently asking people to review them on google reviews.  Everyone who did so, received a coupon code for free pizza.  You might think this a bit unethical, but certainly people on their email list were already fans, they just put it in writing.

All in all, it's not a bad racket.  I like writing, I like sharing my opinion, I like holding businesses accountable and I like helping consumers make an informed decision.  The fact that I'm now getting (potentially) free stuff, is just the icing on the cake.  Of course, these events may be very similar to those time-share seminars you get talked into at the airport in Orlando (note: even if they offer you $500 cash, do NOT waste your time with one of those things--just walk away).  If that's the case, I haven't really lost anything anyway.

My Weekly Frees

*Warning: This post may sound a bit braggy, but I hope that all will realize that it's in the spirit of celebrating AWESOME

A rather scruffy-looking hipster type came into my library the other day and asked me to hang a poster for him.  I said "of course!" and he informed me that he had already hung one in the bulletin board area, but also wanted to score the primo end of the bookcase poster real estate.  This vexed me because double-dipping like that is a bit selfish when we have so many other things hanging up, and the control freak librarian in me does not appreciate his just hanging things up willy-nilly.  I have a system for god's sake!

To throw him a bone though, I put the poster up in the coveted real estate, but didn't hang up the second one he had given me.  It's a compromise.

Since I didn't hang up the second one, it's been sitting on my desk for the past two weeks.  Even though I'm totally anal about the bulletin boards, my work space is a cluttered mess most of the time.  What happened though was because I hadn't hung up the poster, I actually read the damn thing, and found out that there is free acupuncture to be had in honor of the five-year anniversary of Providence Community Acupuncture!  Bonus: It's within walking distance of my house!

I'd never had acupuncture, but I've been having back pain and days long headaches, and my doctor (who I'm thinking of breaking up with) can't see me until April.  I'm more than willing to take a chance on Eastern medicine if it works. Plus, it's free!

In addition to free acupuncture this week, I also scored some more free theatre.  With that free theatre came three free beers, about three platefuls of free food and plenty of abs.

This guy barely wore a shirt--that's culture 

Seriously, I'm still not sure if I actually liked the play, but watching this guy walk around was like an anatomy lesson.  As my friend and fellow theatre-goer, Candace put it, "I didn't even know people had muscles there!"

Over the weekend, I visited a friend in Albany, NY, and we hit up the New York State Museum, which is not only a fantastic museum, but it's free!

I think it looks kind of like a Chinese pagoda--thoughts?

We also visited the Saratoga National Historic Park, a free day trip and the site of a major historic battle that partially determined the outcome of the Revolutionary War--important stuff.

While in Albany, I also attended the 3rd annual Mac & Cheese Bowl, which was not free, but for the low-low price of $15, I got to sample 32 types of mac & cheese from restuarants all over the New York capital region.  Well, I would have sampled 32 varieties, but about half had meat in them. No matter, I got seconds from the ones that didn't!  By the end of about an hour of near-constant cheesy pasta eating, I was feeling a bit sick, but also quite happy.

All in all, a successful, frugal and adventurous week!

What a Lovely Life

This is not my library, but it's awfully pretty

I think I'm actually jealous of one of the patrons who uses my library.

A bit of background: We hired a new programs librarian a while back.  He's a great guy (Male librarian! Those are rare!), and the programs he's been planning are awesome--interesting, educational but not in a boring way, just all around good stuff.  We have a patron who comes in daily, plays computer games for her allotted four hours, then goes to one of the library programs at 7pm.

The other night, on her way to the program room, she stopped at my desk and asked, "What am I learning about tonight?"

I checked the schedule and told her, "tonight, you're learning about climbing Mt. Everest."

Then she started raving about the previous week's program on beekeeping and how amazing bees are.  All I could think was I want to know about bees too!

Buzz buzz--we are fascinating!

For a while, I actually harbored the dream of being a beekeeper.  But that was only because I had a BA in English, wanted to be a writer, and I saw a job ad offering $30,000/year plus free housing as a beekeeper and that seemed like a good way to actually afford to become a writer.  I didn't apply for that job though, hence the reason I'm a librarian not a beekeeper.

Talking to her got me thinking how rad library programs are, especially the ones we're doing.  It also reminded me that I want to climb Mt. Everest and travel to Antarctica... You can come to the library, and learn interesting stuff from experts for free!  The only problem, in my case, is by the time these programs roll around, I've already been at the library for eight hours, and all I want is to go home.  I have no idea what this woman's life is like outside of the library, but it seems quite enjoyable to play Bejeweled Blitz for four hours, go to an educational program, and then go home (I'm just assuming she goes straight home, but maybe she has something else planned--who knows!).

Maybe I'll start going to other libraries after work, just for a change of atmosphere...