Chuck's Splurge-o-Rama.

A couple of days ago, my sister sent me a little "Get 30% Off at the Gap August 4-7th cards". And, well, since I've been hampered by the wanton destruction of several of my favorite pairs of pants recently, I figured that it was high time I took a trip up the 5 and stopped off at the Carlsbad Premium Outlet mall. Now, this card is supposed to work at Gap Outlet stores, too, so I figured what the hell. I'll try to bilk every penny I can out of the consumerist reward system.

So I took the approximately 20-minute drive up there today, all ready to do some serious pants-replacement, when, as I was pulling into the place, I realized that I had forgotten the card. That really pissed me off for a while, until I realized that there was only one thing that wasn't horrendously ugly at the Gap Outlet, and the card would have saved me a scant $2. No big whoop. But I did end up spending in the vicinity of $65, getting a new pair of brown linen pants, a new pair of jeans, a shirt, a pair of blue socks, and a kitchen dishrag from the Crate and Barrell outlet.

I splurged a little.

It was probably a little irresponsible, considering that a) I'm a graduate student and b) graduate students make no money during the school year and c) it's the summer and d) graduate students make even less during the summer. But dang it, I needed pants. And a dishrag. The socks were free. I didn't really need them. But who argues with socks gratis?

In addition to it being irresponsible for the above reason, I also might have to replace one of them rubber strip-dohickeys that run between the roof of my car and the passenger-side doors. Something must have happened while I was getting my car washed this morning, because as soon as I hit the 52, there was a giant THWAK! coming from the back window. Apparently this rubber thing was flailing around in the wind aimlessly, held on by God knows what. I was able to reattach it with no further mishaps, but it scared the pants off me while I was driving at like 80 or so.