FitForFreeNYC strikes again. This time, in a dance-cardio-sweat-my-butt-off-but-my-face-hurts-more-than-anything-from-smiling way. And it was my favorite price: FREE! BollyX is my new favorite thing. Read through and I will link you to more free classes popping up around NYC through the rest of the year!
Two weeks ago, after my experience with free yoga through FitForFree, I saw another free workout pop-up on Alexa’s instagram, BollyX, and I knew I had to go. When I signed up, I did not know much of what I was getting into, besides that it was a Bollywood-inspired dance cardio class, and that they were “celebrating body empowerment & self love.” I was game right away.
First of all, you guys know I am a wedding-guest-extraordinaire (7 in the past year). But absolutely nothing compares to the Indian wedding I attended four years ago. SHOUTOUT RIMA AND VARUN! They had a horse, the most beautiful bridesmaid saris, but best of all, the DANCING WAS AMAZING. I remember sweating up a storm on the dance floor, killin’ it at all of the moves I had practiced in my room ever since The Pussycat Dolls remade Jai Ho for the movie, Slumdog Millionaire. I have been cultivating my love for Bollywood for years.
Getting to Waterside Plaza was a pain and a half, involving a subway, a crosstown bus, and three queries to three separate security guards and a lifeguard. I felt like I was actually traveling to India. Or at least a quarter of a way across the globe. But ultimately, it was worth it. And I’d definitely do it again. In fact, I already signed up for 3 more classes!!
This class was everything I hoped for AND MORE. Meredith Higgins, a BollyX Global Community Manager, was subbing the class, and she was the BOMB. Check out her Instagram! According to her bio, her motto is “take life by the lady balls and ‘Get Shit Done!’” Hell yes.
It was like Zumba on crack, but with better music. It combined strength, dance, jumping, cardio, body rolls, smiles, and LOTS of shoulder shaking. According to their website, which I didn’t look at until this morning, it’s a high intensity cardio workout with “heart pumping beats of Bollywood,” that make you “feel that muscle burn and unleash your inner swagger.” Spot on. There were a lot of cardio songs, but there was also a song for lower body toning, and one for upper body toning. Those Bollywood stars must have some JACKED shoulders! On their “about” section of the BollyX website, it boasts a 500-800 calorie burn per session. According to my Fitbit, I only burned 415, but I feel like that can’t possibly be true. I was sweating like crazy! And more than anything it was SO FUN. My face hurt from smiling and laughing.
Toward the end of class, we broke into 2 groups and Meredith taught us a “performance” song, where it’s only 90 seconds of choreography, and you’re supposed to give it your all, like you’re leaving it all on the dance floor. We did the routine twice together, then she split us in two, and we performed for each other while clapping along for the other group. Meredith led each of our groups through it, and then we performed it facing the front! You can even see a clip of it in her video here. I, unfortunately, wore neon yellow so you can’t miss me messing up all the moves. But at least I was smiling the whole time! WHAT A BLAST. ABC News did a piece on it too, if you don’t want to watch me, specifically.
Luckily for you, there are pop-up FREE classes throughout the rest of October, November and December in New York and throughout the country! Go to Eventbrite and search for Free BollyX, or click here for the New York ones at Waterside Plaza, where I was!
Check out our awesome boomerang from after class with Meredith, I think we can now be considered BollyPros.
3 weeks ago I went to Florida to visit my friends. I left a part of my heart in South Florida, where I grew up, but I never seem to make it there to visit more than once a year. Ever since my family moved to Pennsylvania, I have felt a bit like a kid with separated parents – splitting my time and my holidays between my blood-family and my second-family, my Florida friends! I won’t recount my entire trip here because it would take forever, and also because it was mostly LOTS of drinking, but I will give you a list of some highlights:
Rosh Hashana dinner with my friend’s family at Seasons 52. If you don’t know what Seasons 52 is, it’s basically a calorie-conscious restaurant. This one happens to be in East Boca Raton, which means it’s the most calorie-conscious franchise around. The whole menu has the calories on it (luckily the cocktails don’t), and you’re likely to hear nobody order directly off of the menu. It’s more taboo to order something directly off the menu than it is to get a wedding dress off-the-rack. GASP. You absolutely must always use the menu only as a starting-off point, then make sure to make at least 4 substitutions, and order at least 2 of the 4 ingredients on the side. Light on the dressing. 3 drops, not 4. My friend ordered a Bourbon Bramble with Vodka, and apologized 3 times for the liquor substitution. Our server promptly told us that it was the simplest order he had all day.
The beach. I love the beach. Waves, warm water, sand in my butt. Ok, maybe not the last one.
Chivalry! I almost forgot the concept after living in Florida for so long. I think I may have touched on this in my blog about things I forgot about Florida, but I had to mention it again here. Actually, maybe I didn’t mention it. But you should still read that blog. There were so many chairs given up for me that I lost count. And not only are drinks drastically less expensive in Florida, but they are often free because guys buy them for you. What a fantastic world we live in.
Visiting a Rothschild mansion. One of my friend’s friends is the caretaker for an amazing mansion owned by the Rothschilds. They only rent it out 5 days/month, and the rest of the time it is hers! We went over there and got the grand tour. And took photos, because duh.
Bru’s Room.I freaking love that place. I dream about their mozzarella wedges. I’m actually surprised I didn’t take a photo of them. I’ll let you imagine them instead – picture this: Mozzarella Sticks, but larger, with more cheese, and stretchier. And then more delicious warm cheese. And did I mention that Bru’s Room also has $5 Skyy doubles? I think I made money just traveling to Florida.
Pollo Tropical (I love food, ok?). The main highlight of my trip (besides, of course, seeing my friends), was going to Pollo Tropical. Not just going, but bribing my Uber driver to take me there after a 5-hour-long Happy Hour. I told our nice driver that I would order him anything off the menu if he would take this detour for us. The max price on that menu is $7.99 so I was confident I’d come out on top for this deal. Sure enough, after ordering 4 TropiChops (the leftovers make for a FANTASTIC hungover breakfast), our Uber driver delivered us to our final destination. Best part??? Uber sent me an email the next morning, apologizing to me for my ride taking “longer than expected” and giving me $5 off my next ride!! That TropiChop paid for itself! God is good! And that curry mustard… y’all, I think there is crack in it. You heard it here first.
Watching Florida Football with Floridians. New Yorkers are a lot of things, but they are not big college football fans. They just don’t get it. We spent a full 12 hours eating and watching college football. There’s nothing like it!
Brunch: seeing my friends and their kids. It’s crazy to think that my partying friends now have little offspring running around depending on their parenting. But as it often is with kids, they grow up so much in so little time! It’s fun to see them grow up, and I always hope they remember who I am. I got to see everyone at a farewell brunch on the beach and it was amazing.
Randomly running into people from high school. Moving to a different state, it’s rare I run into people I have known for a long time. It does happen, though, this city is big, but it’s also small. Anyway, I went to a bar in Delray Beach and I happened to know both of the bartenders! One of them went to my high school, and our last names had us seated next to each other in almost every class. The other one was roommates with my first boyfriend when I was 19.
Speaking of boyfriends, the best part of my trip was having my emoji-faced bf surprise me by coming for a day and a half! I was hoping he’d be able to come to Florida to meet all of my friends, but he had been so busy with work, I didn’t think he’d be able to make the trip. Sure enough, the first morning I was in Florida, he told me he had a surprise for me, and told me to check his Google Calendar (yes, we share calendars, we are that couple). First, I thought he meant that he was getting the new iPhone (he had an appointment at the apple store), but then he said “no, look at Saturday!” and I saw that he was going to wake up at the crack of dawn to get in to Fort Lauderdale at 9:30 am. What a guy. I loved having him there, and I’m so glad he got to meet everyone from my formative years. He even got a taste of the South Florida club.
Visiting my best friend’s mom. Although some of my friends have left to different corners of the USA, some of their families still live in Florida. I always try to fit in a visit or two. This time, I got to see my bff from high school’s mom and she got to meet my emoji-bf for the first time! He even revealed his face to her. Unfort. you guys don’t get to see it here.
Every time I leave Florida, I feel nostalgic for the days when I went out every night to bars and of course, out dancing until dawn at the club – all those Fitbit steps before there was a such thing as a Fitbit! But my hangover on the last day of the trip proved to me that I may be a bit older than I was back then. It was nice to get back to New York and lay in bed for a week. That is, until my next trip/wedding in North Carolina this past weekend. Blog about that coming soon!
Beach Babes on the first day of Rosh Hashana.
The first of many trips to Bru’s Room.
Wawa is in Florida now, even on the beach!
Are we cute? Duh.
Rothschild Mansion posing. HUGE thighs.
Twinning in our rompers at the mansion.
You can ALWAYS find us in the club.
Yes, those were all for us.
Typical clubbing bathroom pic. Toilet and all.
Some snapchat filters for good measure, with my BFF.
Bru’s Room again, GO GATORS!
Football-watching. We roll deep!
COCOOOOO!
Cute ladies, even if Randa is wearing a horrific FSU shirt.
Emoji-Sunglasses-BF made an appearance!
Friends from elementary school – I grew a foot, she stayed the same size!
And surprise… BACK AT THE CLUB. Mocha, Chocolate and Vanilla.
My ex-bfs-roommate and my high school last name buddy!
Hangover recovery at brunch.
The most hilarious snapchat of he trip.
Cindy’s adorable cutie pie daughter.
The whole crew at farewell brunch.
ALL THE LADIES!
Best friend and bf meeting my other best friend’s mom!
You read a few weeks ago that I have almost 100K in student loans. How in the world am I going to pay them off, and will I ever? Listen, I am not a financial planner (go to myfedloan.org and see if you can figure any of that complicated website out), but I have learned a lot through years of experience, and daily conversations with my emoji-bf/in-house finance bro.
Read on, and you will see how I have enrolled in a combination of income-based repayment plans and public service loan forgiveness plans throughout the years. Also, see how I’m making good use of all of those spam credit card offers I get in the mail every day.
This is the last installment in the series, but I will probably write an additional post addressing questions and stories I’ve heard throughout the series. I promise not to use any names! If you have any other questions or anecdotes, please leave them as comments, and/or write me directly. I love hearing your stories and questions!
“I got 2 jobs really got on my grind, No time to whine I can’t ride my pine, In the game right now my time to shine, Started paying them loans back one at a time, got them down down down down down down down till I payed them all off. Peace sign.”
Here’s my story:
When I began working in 2013, I had to start paying off my seven different loans. Six direct subsidized and unsubsidized loans from FedLoan Servicing (one from each semester of law school), and a private loan from when I was studying for the Bar, because I was not technically a student (you graduate months before you take the Bar, making you ineligible for “student” loans from FedLoans).
Let’s start with my federal loans, weighing in at approximately 94 grand:
When I finished law school, I was automatically enrolled in a regular 10-year, monthly payment plan, and I was paying $1,200/month. Even at the law firm, that was a serious drain. I could barely pay my rent.
When I realized I was going to quit my job, and possibly never work in law again, I switched to a pay-as-you-earn, income-driven repayment plan, where my monthly payment was reduced to an amount intended to be affordable based on my salary. There are four different kinds of these. Honestly, I was overwhelmed and couldn’t choose, so I called FedLoans and asked their advice. Not a bad idea.
Income-driven plans are where you pay a percentage of your income to student loans, and some of them are designed so you never pay more than 10% of your income, before taxes. A bargain! After 20 years of on-time payments (240 payments), the balance is forgiven by the government. This is helpful since depending on the amount of your loans, sometimes your income-based payments barely cover the interest alone, so the principal continues to grow (DEPRESSING). I told you a few weeks ago about how in 4 years of payments I have not touched the principal. WOMPWOMP.
I knew I needed to build up some savings in case I was going to get less money at my next job, and then I realized I definitely needed to save because I was dangerously close to quitting with no job prospects at all because I was so miserable. By switching to the income-driven payment plan, I was able to cut my payments in half. When I switched plans, I started paying $600/month to the government, and $200 to my private loans. Still seems like a lot? It was. But it was an improvement.
But wait, there’s more. I actually did get a job, and better, it was with a non-profit organization. When I began working for a non-profit, I knew I should apply to the public service loan forgiveness (PSLF) plan I had sort of heard about, but I didn’t. This program forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you have made 120 qualifying monthly payments while working full-time for a qualifying employer. That is HALF of the payments than I would make otherwise. Thankfully, when I finally did apply, 8 months into my new job, they applied my previous 8 months of on-time payments as qualifying toward my 120 months of qualifying payments. If you work for a qualifying employer and you are currently on an income-based repayment plan, DO THIS NOW.
PSLF has very specific rules and you need to reapply each year to certify that your employer still qualifies. There are some sticky rules; I know a teacher in a public school who teaches special ed, but still does not qualify because her school receives a certain amount of federal funding and the school needs to be low-income. Seems unfair, she doesn’t receive the funding herself, the school does!!
Anyway, the PSLF plan applies to me (at least for now) because I work for a 501(C)(3) organization. However, there is a huge problem that has made front page New York Times news lately, about people detrimentally relying (look at my legal jargon) on this program, but then when they go to cash in on it, they were told it didn’t apply. The program began in 2007, so the 10-year forgiveness is just now up for those who began the program at its inception.
I have been on an income-driven, PSLF plan for 3 years now. At the current time, I pay $450 to the government and $200 still to my private loans per month. You, too, can pay less money in loans by making a much lower salary! Meanwhile, my principal continues to go up, and I’m basically screwed forever unless by some miracle, the PSLF program continues to exist. Then, I will be home free in 7 years, living the dream before I turn 37!
For now, I will just pray that Democrats get their sh*t together and don’t let the PSLF program get trashed by our Commander in Chief.
Now let’s look at my private loans, weighing in at about 6.5 grand:
This is where things get interesting, at least for finance people. For some of you, you’re already fast asleep.
I have more options available to me with my private loans, solely because there are less of them. I started with $12,000, and I have paid off more than 40% (pats self on back). My private loans have always been on the same payment plan; a standard 8-year repayment. On this plan, they would be paid off in January 2021.
This is embarrassing to admit, but my bf asked me my interest rate on my private loans (we talk about money a LOT), and I said I didn’t know. He couldn’t believe I didn’t know, but I said, “what does it matter? I pay what I can, they charge me as much as they f*cking want, and that’s the way the cookie crumbles.” Clearly, I have some major emotional baggage tied to these payments and I don’t love to talk about them (check out the first post in this series on the emotions attached to having loans).
Anyway, I honestly did not even know where to find my interest rate, but I started by logging into the website for my private loans. I hadn’t signed into the site in over a year. It’s on auto-pay, so why should I? More emotional baggage there; it’s easier to ignore and pretend it’s not there. In fact, it turns out I am not alone at all with this attitude, as more and more borrowers choose to remain ignorant of the details of their loans. According to a Citizens Bank survey and Forbes article:
45% of survey respondents didn’t know what percentage of their salary went to paying off their loans.
37% were unaware of the interest rate on their loans
A very oblivious 15% were even unaware of how much they owe.
But knowing your interest rate is especially important, because then you can look to see what you are paying toward your principal, and you can also see if there are better alternatives available. When I finally found my interest rate for my private loan, it turned out to be 8.49%. That’s pretty high. I pay $191/month in private loans, and at the time I looked, $41 of that went toward interest. That was 21% of my payment that did not even bring down my principal. That is $600 a year for INTEREST. WTF? Luckily for me, I have very good credit. Ok, it isn’t luck, it’s more like, “thanks to my dad opening credit cards for me since I was 6 months old, I have very good credit.” I have mentioned this before. Thanks again daddy!!
Thanks to this great credit score of mine, I get credit card offers in the mail daily. I am not exaggerating, I get one in the mail every single day. In the past, I threw them directly in the trash. Emoji-bf told me to start saving them. One month went by, and I had 30+ offers. We went through them and found a card offering a 21-month, interest-free, 3% balance transfer, with $0 annual fee, the Citi Diamond Preferred. That means I could transfer money to the card up to the credit limit, pay a one-time, 3% fee, and then not pay interest for almost 2 years. Emoji-face suggested that I transfer my student loans to the credit card. I did not know this was a thing. In fact, I asked him if he was f*cking with me. But no, it is a thing, and a really good thing, at that. You can transfer money from anywhere, including student loans! More math coming up, beware.
At the same time as I transferred my balance to a credit card, I opened an American Express high-yield savings account with 1.15% returns. Basically, since I was paying $41/month in interest, if I didn’t have to pay that for 21 months, I would save $840. That is $840 I could put in my savings account and ultimately pay toward the principal instead of throwing it down the drain. Not to mention the difference between my minimum credit card payments versus the minimum payment I was making on my loans. If I make minimum payments of $100/month to the credit card (it will actually go down over time), and take the $91 difference ($41 went to interest, $50 to principal) from my loan payment and instead put it in my savings account, by the end of the 21 months, I would have almost $2000. Plus, it’s earning something in the savings account.
The thing to remember here is, if you haven’t paid off your loan by the end of the no-interest period, you may be screwed by the interest rates that kick in. If you do this, make sure you have enough to pay it off by the end of that period. In my case, I have $6,713 in private loans, so I will need to make sure I save the difference, $2,689 (6,700- (191 x 21)) by the end of 21 months. If I can do that, my private loans will be paid off by May of 2019, instead of January of 2021, just by taking advantage of a credit card offer I was going to throw in the trash.
That seems like a LOTTT of money to save, but if you divide it up over 21 months, it’s only $126/month. Less than 3 extra spin classes to teach per month. Or one spin class and one less drunk brunch. That is doable. However, it is NOT doable if I go on vacation to exotic places.
The best part of transferring my private loans to the credit card? All of the notifications that my loan had been paid off. I got an email from mint.com, I got an email from Wells Fargo, I got a letter in the mail from them, AND I got a check because I somehow OVERPAID them ($6.27… every bit counts!). Imagine the feeling when I actually pay them off instead of just transfering them to a credit card! I bet it will feel even better. 20 months to go.
$6.27 from Wells Fargo to me for my overpayment!
Conclusion to this series, or VERY long story short: I sort of screwed myself by going to law school if I planned to be a world-traveler at a young age. But I am working on digging myself out. Working very hard, I might add. I’ve got my hustle, I’ve got my side hustles, I’m churning multiple credit cards, and I am learning to LOVE the taste of eggs ($1.99/dozen!). In the meantime, I will watch all of your beach vacations on Instagram from my incredibly overpriced, New York apartment.
I have been teaching Spinning classes for 11 years. During some parts of my life, I was teaching 4 classes/week on the bike. And I made the playlist for Every. Single. One. Y’all remember Kazaa? Napster? They were after people like me. JK. I downloaded allll of my music legally. Anyway, I digress. Monday, that all changed; I didn’t make the playlist, Tim did!
Tim has been attending my Spin classes religiously for a year. I thought it was longer, but it’s just because he never misses a class! When his sister was in town, he even brought her along for the ride. Literally. (I crack myself up.) Anyway, Tim had never made a playlist before, but after attending nearly 100 of my classes, he wanted to try it out. I had faith in his musical choices because he tends to win round after round of Name That Tune when I challenge the class. I figured if he could identify Taio Cruz with less than 1 second played, I was in good hands.
Sure enough, he pulled through. He sent me the full playlist on google play music, and I transferred it to Spotify, where I have an unlimited membership. See? I’ve transformed into a good, law-abiding citizen. Tim knows I love a good spattering of K-pop in my class, but unfortunately the only song he picked that I couldn’t find on Spotify was Energetic by BOA. Truly unfortunate because it is a JAM. Not to worry, I subbed in another K-Pop song in its place: New Face by Psy, the lyrical genius who brought us Gangnam Style.
The playlist featured some of my favorite artists including Busta Rhymes, Major Lazer and Ariana Grande. He also included some songs I had never heard of before by great artists, like Alphabeat by David Guetta. Tim told me the drills he thought would go best with half of the songs and left the other half to my spin drill expertise. I played the new songs through about 4 times until I felt comfortable cueing them, then I called it a day. So much less effort on my part.
We had a blast, and I had to do so much less work! Since I had been promoting the class for weeks on Instagram, I had to appease my followers. Accordinglyyyy, after class we took some awesome photos and boomerangs to commemorate the occasion and post on all the social meds. Duh.
If ANYONE wants to guest DJ in the future, send over your playlists! I even take requests for single songs. The only thing is, I always reserve the right to VETO. Maroon 5… never gonna happen.
This has been a hard week. And a tough month. Actually, it’s been a tough year since last November. I consider myself lucky that despite the fact that I know many people in Las Vegas, I didn’t personally know anyone at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. I am fortunate that despite my friends from all over the world, I don’t know anyone personally affected by the tragic hurricanes in the Caribbean. Despite living in New York, a virtual melting pot, I don’t know anyone by name who will be affected by the decision to repeal DACA. Despite being Jewish, I don’t know anyone who was in or around the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t affected.
It’s not easy living in this world. As a human being who has feelings, empathy, sympathy, all the things that our leader seems to be lacking, it’s not easy to wake up every day in these times. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we still have to keep doing it. It often feels like there’s not much we can do, but there are little things. No, I’m not talking about posting on Facebook about sending “thoughts and prayers.” But there are some easy things, like VOTING (COME ON PEOPLE, REGISTER!), or using and texting resistbot to contact your local Senators (TEXT “RESIST” to 50409). Sometimes, though, you don’t even feel like doing anything. You just want to wallow in your sorrows. I totally get that. Unfort., your job probably won’t allow a lifetime of mental health days. And meanwhile, if things aren’t getting better, what can you do to de-stress, simply so you feel like you can get out of bed?
I put together a list of a few things I do to try and forget the world we live in temporarily, just to keep my sanity.
Watch nice things on the internet.When I go on twitter, it is a sh*tstorm of terribles. It’s so bad. It’s so depressing. So sometimes I just seek out heartwarming things to watch. If I liked animals, it would be puppies. But I don’t like animals, so it’s Ellen. She recently did an 8-minute montage of nice, amazing humans, doing nice, amazing things. I only cried 6 times at my desk. But they were happy tears! There are good people out there!! **hits replay**
Watch YouTube tutorials about hair braiding and do my hair and my coworkers’ hair. This may not be for everyone, but it’s therapeutic for me. Plus, it’s nice to see your work actually amount to something beautiful. I talked about me braiding my hair for races before, but I have taken my skills to new levels!
I learned this 5 strand braid, check out my first attempt!
Work out. I will say, my workouts have now taken on a life of their own. My stats at Peloton have skyrocketed. I have so much stress and anxiety, that the best way for me to take it out is on my body and on the bike. The participants in my spin classes may not appreciate this new power from within, but they are reaping the benefits as well
Stay busy by finding fun, random things to do. The cheaper the better. I have been taking advantage of the random events New York has to offer. In the last few months, I have gone to a free Oktoberfest celebration, a free yoga class (also counts for my last bullet point), a $20 pumpkinfest, and a free bootcamp class on a roof deck. I have found that by forcing myself to keep busy, I can stay off of the internet and focus on uplifting things. I highly recommend grabbing a TimeOut NY if you live in New York to find events. Or follow FitForFree on Instagram; I’m going to a Bollywood class in 2 weeks! If you live outside New York, take advantage of Google! Use your internet time to search for offline things to do, instead of getting down the Twitter rabbit-hole-of-horribles.
Read.Uplifting things. Nothing heavy, just fun “beach reads.” Or even join a book club! P.S. I’m looking for a good one to join. Anyone out there? Bueller?
Go to the movies.Nothing takes your mind off of the here and now like escaping into a far away place. Or any place with a happy ending. Rom coms are the best for this. I know movies can be expensive, but there are ways around that. Join advancescreenings, like I mentioned in my first-ever blog post. Then you can even see movies before they come out! Or, join the AMC Stubs program. It’s $15 for the year, and they constantly have deals like right now, $5 ticket Tuesdays. Plus, you get points for even more rewards. And you can skip the line at the concession stand. Nothing takes your mind off of our current world like a handful of melted butter from popcorn. Which brings me to my next point.
Eat. Tina Fey caught a lot of backlash for her emotional eating/grassroots movement #SheetCaking.
And obesity isn’t always the answer. But there’s a time and a place for emotional eating, and sometimes a pint of Halo Top just hits the spot. Ok, two pints. If it makes you feel better, it’s #WorthIt. Everything in moderation. I’ve been to Halal Guys more in the past month than I choose to admit. I’m a #HalalVIP. I’ll stop with the hashtags now.
Guy in line behind me at @HalalGuys told me he was in line behind me last time he was there. Then he asked if I go every day#VIP #whitesauce
The whole point here is, do what makes you happy. Literally. In these times, I do not suggest that you sit back and do nothing, just the opposite. Volunteer if you can. Donate money. Donate blood. Get the word out. Speak up. But also, it’s important for your mental health to take a step back and smile every once in a while. And in the meantime, I’ll try and keep you entertained here. So subscribe!!
IT’S OCTOBER! The best month of the year for basic betches everywhere. It’s the month of the PSL, the month of the best holiday ever involving costumes and booze (more on that another time), the season of apple picking and other insagrammable white betch things, PLUS if you work for the Jews, it’s the month where we work half the time and get paid the same amount. That’s a win-win. But even more, it’s the month of PUMPKIN ERRTHING. Pumpkin candles. Pumpkin coffee creamer. Pumpkin cookies. Pumpkin-colored president. UGH.
Anyway, I’ve never met a pumpkin I didn’t love, besides the rotting ones in November. When my best friend sent me a link about something called “The Great Jack O’Lantern BLAZE” I was 100% in. Then I saw that NPH has been there with his twins, and I was 125% in. Did it live up to my expectations? HELL YES. Did I see NPH? Unfort no. I guess I’ll have to hang out in Harlem more.
Arguably the best thing about the BLAZE is their FAQ page, addressing incredibly pressing and hard-hitting questions like “what is a pumpkin?” and “It’s raining and I dress exclusively in suede. Can I get a refund or exchange my tickets?” and “Did I mention I’m studying for a certificate in Freudian analysis?” Answer: “Great, you might enjoy our installation of shrunken heads.”
Seriously, the FAQ page is legendary. But they also answer some of the questions you may actually be wondering about like how many pumpkins are involved and how long they’ve been doing it. Answers: 7,000+ hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns for 13 years running. Each BLAZE involves ordering more than 10,000 live pumpkins, because they don’t survive the whole time. This equals a total of more than 200,000 pounds of pumpkin!!! They start carving in JUNE and they are helped by more than 2,600 volunteers. The carvers are led by Creative Director Michael Natiello, who leads a team of Historic Hudson Valley staff and local artists.
The best news for you, it’s just begun!! It goes through November! The bad news is that a lot of the best tickets have ALREADY sold out! Click here to purchase them ($22/person, which may seem steep, or may seem like a BARGAIN depending on the strength of your pumpkin-love).
Being “real” New Yorkers, we didn’t have a car to drive to the BLAZE, but luckily for us, we have legs and unlimited metrocards. The only tickets left were for 9 pm, so we embarked on our Pumpkin Journey at 6:45 pm just to be safe. We took the 1 train to 225th street, then hopped on the MetroNorth for a 45-minute ride deep into the burbs, $11 round trip. Not bad! They didn’t even check our ticket on the way there. What a waste. Anyone want to go back? I’ve got a ticket!
One Subway down, one train to go!
Casual Sunday night in the Bronx.
2nd train. Worth it.
Anyway, after our journey, which included a 13-minute brisk walk along the highway, we found the entrance. They sold pumpkin EVERYTHING. From headbands with jack-o’-lantern antennae to pumpkin curry. Oh, and of course pumpkin pie. But before refreshments we had to walk through the jungle-o’-jack-o’-lanterns. Holy cow. You walk in and immediately see this massive bridge made of pumpkins, aptly named the Pumpkin-Zee Bridge, as well as a full-on Statue of Liberty (Statue of Pumpkin?). Van Cortland Manor was completely transformed with LED lights and thousands of intricately carved orange fruits. Yes, according to the FAQ page, they are fruits from the gourd family.
Pumpkin-Zee Bridge
Dragon-o-jack-o’-lanterns
Spider web of pumpkins and besties.
CHOO CHOOO! MORE PUMPKINS.
Spooky house with flash…
Spookier without.
More.
There is “spooky” music piped in throughout the manor, and the jack-o’-lanterns are organized by theme, from a huge spider web with spiders, to a walking dead/Sleepy Hollow graveyard. There are fish in the “water” on both sides of the Pumpkin-Zee Bridge, not to mention the many moving aspects. There’s a working grandfather clock made of pumpkins, as well as a fully functional carousel. Maybe not fully functional since we weren’t allowed to ride on it, but still. I was impressed.
Carousel a bit blurry because its MOVING.
Light show. Yes, those are all pumpkins.
Statue of Pumpkins.
That is a working grandfather clock.
Some of the pumpkins were super intricate. Especially the possums. I took so many photos my phone nearly died from pumpkin-overload.
Single pumpkin intricacy.
Look at those skills!
Multiple-pumpkin artistry.
After we made our way through the whole manor, we did some mandatory pumpkin-posing, as one does, and then we got some warm apple cider and a cider doughnut. TBH, this was 50% of the reason for going. Gotta get those cider doughnuts. It’s the official food of October! We made the long trek back to the city and arrived home after midnight. Some may say we are crazy, I just say we are incredibly passionate about the white betch cause. So was it worth it? You tell me!! How cute are my Instagram pics? These ones? How about this boomerang? #WorthIt.
The walking dead, and us. Dead in the eyes from the flash.
I am a workout fiend but there’s one workout I never do: YOGA. The reason being, I am one of the most inflexible people you will ever meet. I’m talking, I can barely touch my toes. However, with all of the running and spinning that I do, yoga is probably the one thing I need the most! So how did I end up reaching for my far-away-toes and attempting to contort my body into unheard-of poses on Tuesday night? Well mostly because it was my favorite price: FREE. I’m a sucker for a free workout, especially a free CLASS, which is why I started following the blog, Fit For Free months ago. The creator of the blog, Alexa Lippman, posts all different types of free and reduced-price workouts on her blog and Instagram, but for some reason, the mood struck me to try out some contortionism Tuesday.
First, a quick history of my yoga “practice” and inflexibility:
Flashback to college, when I started training to become a fitness instructor. They forced us to complete a fitness assessment with the trainers. I remember laying on my back as the trainer pushed my straight leg back as far as he could, measuring the angle. I remember him telling me to stop pushing back against him. I remember him laughing asking if I was trying to mess with him. I remember me adamantly saying, “no, I’m just that inflexible.” I remember him telling me he had never met anyone with as tight hamstrings as me. I remember trying out a yoga class that Friday, in an attempt to take the trainer’s suggestion to “stretch the f*ck out.” I remember laughing/falling on my face in yoga. I remember vowing to never return.
Flash-forward 9 years later, when I agreed to do a 20-minute yoga-for-runners class at lululemon after run club. SURPRISE! I was still inflexible and a complete yoga-dummy.
Flash-forward to receiving the email from Fit For Free about a free Lyons Den Power Yoga class at Athleta. There would be refreshing dandelion tea after class, and I am a sucker for free snacks and beverages. Plus, the email promised it would be ok for yogi-failures. Direct quote from the email:
Class is open to all levels – so whether you practice yoga everyday, or this is your very first time, everyone is welcome. Trust me, you will very likely see me fall out of tree pose, I am no pro. So don’t be intimidated if you’re not a regular yogi. This event is meant for everyone to have fun, take an awesome yoga class, and meet some new like-minded fitness friends.
Sounded legit. I like fitness friends! I figured that if Alexa, the creator of a fitness blog, was going to fall out of tree pose, I could fall out of tree pose with her! Not that I knew what “tree pose” even was…
I gathered all of my strength, literally and figurately, and I signed up. I got there early, so I could panic and talk myself out of leaving for a full 45 minutes, as one does. I watched all of these lithe females walk in with their own yoga mats, and proceeded to freak out a little more. Finally, we entered the room barefoot (good thing I got a pedicure!), grabbed a block, and picked a mat. Unluckily for everyone else, the back 4 rows were full. I was in the second row, in plain view for everyone to watch me make a fool of myself. NBD.
Me waiting for class to start. I wore the perfect shirt!
The MindBody board with upcoming classes.
You’re more likely to find me running from yoga, like these mannequins.
Descending to my yoga-death. #PowerToTheShe
We began with a meditation where we reflected and wrote on a post-it note something that was making us bitter recently so we could think about it and let go of it during class. Usually this inner-peace/reflection/contemplation/bogus is not my thing. But it has been SO DAMN HOT lately. And I was freaking bitter about it. So obvi I wrote “THE HEAT” in all capital letters. It actually made me feel better. We began to down dog, forward fold, crescent lunge, tadasana, rag doll. Not in that order. Also, I’m not gonna lie, I just googled “basic yoga poses” because I’m basic (in more ways than one), and because I didn’t remember any of the names. At one point, the amazing instructor, Christine Mahoney, said, “you don’t have to look around, everyone looks fantastic and is doing fine!” Little did she know, I was looking around because I had absolutely no idea what a “forward fold” was (and yes, in hindsight it really should have been self-explanatory).
Stolen from Alexa’s insta-story. Do I look legit?
Barely holding myself up on that block.
All the ladies (there was one guy, but he was photo-shy).
Alexa Lippman in the flesh! Follow her blog, Fit for Free!
Anyway, TBH it was a lot of fun. It was so different than running/spinning, but the “power” part of power yoga meant it was a fast-paced class and I wasn’t bored at all, which was my primary concern. Plus, I was super busy the whole class trying to look around and figure out what I was supposed to be doing, while simultaneously trying not to fall on my face. I didn’t get a single bruise! Also, I felt looser and less tense than I had in weeks. Possibly months. Ok, years.
I’d say it was an overall success. I don’t know if I’d ever pay to embarrass myself, but I would be down (down dog?) to try it again for no cost! I even found myself googling “free yoga NYC” this morning. And one thing’s for sure, I’ll def be following Fit for Free to see if any other free classes pop up! You should, too! And follow me, because I promise to repost
I lived in Florida for 13 years, and in the 7 years since I left, I forgot a few things. I was lucky enough to spend last weekend (and Rosh Hashanah) in Florida, like 7 million other old Jews, and it reminded me of these unique Floridian things:
Beach towels. Bring them everywhere. Do not fret if you forget them, every other person coming to the beach will have a few extras in the trunk of their car. Or an old sheet. You can see from the feature photo that we had enough towels for three of us to lay on. Miss you already, ladies!
Publix, Where Shopping is a Pleasure.They now have Wawa popping up all over Florida and you all know I have a special place in my heart for a hoagie. But absolutely nothing beats a Chicken Tender Pub Sub.
Publix bags. Everyone has them. Dog poop. Kitty litter. Sweaty clothes. Wet swimsuits. They are so multi-purpose. And you always knows where to find them. Under the sink! In every single house, without fail.
You can bet GOOD MONEY that every single person in Florida has @Publix bags for dirty clothes under their sink. #WhereShoppingIsAPleasure
Humidity. There’s no such thing as walking in Florida. It’s basically just swimming. Don’t even bother owning a blow-dryer or a straightening iron. Every minute you spend trying to do your hair is just another minute of your life you will never get back. And your hair will frizz out within 10 seconds of leaving the house anyway. Don’t bother.
Concealed carry. And I’m not even talking about guns, I’m talking about booze. Since everyone needs to drive to get places, they can’t drink til they get there! Gotta pack mini bottles of liquor in the purse. Then Uber home, of course. What did we do before Uber!?!
“Season.” If you are from South Florida, I don’t need to say any more. For you non-Floridians, no, I’m not talking about winter, spring, summer, or fall. One of my friends works at a country club, and she is off for 6 weeks right now, “between summer and season.” This is snowbird season. When the entire 70+ year-old-population of the northeast USA and Canada descends on Florida. This is also sometimes known as Q-tip season, so-named for the white puffy fluffy tops-of-heads you can see barely visible above the steering wheels. Wear your seat belt year-round, but DEF wear it from October-March.
The worst drivers in the world. I’m not just talking about the Q-Tips. Drivers in Florida are horrific. I mean, we don’t even have to parallel park to pass the driving test. And we get our licenses when we are 16. And keep them through death. Basically, anyone can pass the test. At least by the second time they take it (cough cough, me).
Bipolar weather. The weather in Florida is CRAZY. Unlike anywhere else. One may infer that by saying “bipolar,” I mean that it changes often. Perhaps I should call it multiple personality weather. Meaning it’s a million different things AT THE SAME DAMN TIME. Totally mind-blowing. I remember when I was growing up in Florida, sometimes it was raining in the front of the house but not in the back. I am not exaggerating. On my first day in Florida last weekend, we were driving to the beach and we got caught in a terrible rain storm. So bad that people were driving 15 MPH on I-95. It takes a pretty bad storm for Florida drivers to slow down. See above. Anyway, in any other place, you’d probably abandon your beach plans in this weather, but in Florida, we looked east and realized it was actually beautiful and sunny by the beach. Sure enough, when we got to the beach it was hot, sunny, and I got a great tan.
Font size on cell phones. This goes hand in hand with the median age in Florida. People cannot see. If they haven’t had cataracts surgery yet, they probably should. Absolutely nothing that people write on their cell phones is private in Florida, because it can be seen from a mile away. And this is coming from someone with -10 vision. I could read the old man’s text to his son from 4 seats down at the bar. He was wishing him a Happy New Year.
Shanah Tovah betches NEXT YEAR IN BOCA!! (and more about my trip later this week!)
“Everybody’s talking all this stuff about me, Why don’t they just let me live? I don’t need permission, make my own decisions, That’s my prerogative”
Here’s a scary statistic: according to the New York Times, “more than 1.1 million people in the federal direct student loan program defaulted in 2016 alone — a rate of about 3,000 per day.” Even scarier, federal student loan defaults drag down the economy, making it impossible for people to buy cars or homes, and follow people into old age, where their Social Security benefits are being garnished for loan payments.
What am I doing to make sure this doesn’t happen to me? Budgeting and planning. And hoping.
As the Instagram account @bored_teachers said a few weeks ago, “Can someone explain to me how some college students are traveling all over the world and I just used quarters for gas”?! The reality of having almost 6 figures of loans is, it affects every decision I make. Small and large.
Small Decisions:
I went from a twice daily Starbucks habit in law school, to now waiting for CVS 30% off coupons so I can buy bags of Starbucks coffee and make it at home. I wait on the edge of my seat on Thursdays, CVS coupon day, when I am almost out of ground coffee, and impatiently refresh my inbox to see if this lucky day will be my “30% off your total purchase” day. This is not an exaggeration. Two weeks ago, I got the long-awaited 30% coup and I bought 4 bags of coffee. That’s $7/bag, and a bag makes coffee for me for about a month. $7/month, as opposed to the previous $4/day.
But that is one of the easy small decisions. Skip Starbs, make it at home. Skip a cab, take the subway. Skip a dinner out, make ground turkey and eggs at home. What about the tough decisions? Kids? Homes? Do I skip those, too?
You guys know I have been avidly using mint.com to try and budget, but even then, these student loans hang over my head and I think to myself, “even if I skip going out to Starbucks for the next 10 years, does that add up to enough money for a down payment?” Probably not. And don’t even get me started on having a kid. And what about saving for retirement? I’m 30, that’s something I should be doing. I’ll tackle those three big decisions in turn.
3 BIG DECISIONS
Home-buying:I moved out of my parents’ house more than 12 years ago, and I am happy to say I have never moved back. That is not something a lot of people can say. StudentLoanHero writes about it all the time (great website). They have an article called, “Moving Back in With Your Parents: Financially Smart or Social Suicide?” I only skimmed the article, but my guess is, probably both. The Washington Post ran an article a few months ago encouraging parents to let their kids move home, “especially if parents allowed or encouraged a student to attend a college that necessitated some heavy borrowing.” But I am 30 now. I’m not trying to flee back to the nest. On the other hand, renting an apartment is expensive, especially in New York City! And forget renting for a second,what about buying? Thanks to my dad, and ironically, thanks to my student loans, I have amazing credit. So I could probably get a good mortgage. But where in the world am I supposed to find money for a down payment?
According to a Student Loan Hero survey, 41 percent of college-educated Americans with student loans have postponed buying a home because of their debt. At least I know I am not alone. An article on that same website offers some tips for how to get ready to buy a house when you have student loans: Improve your credit score, check your credit report, decrease your debt-to-income ratio, apply for pre-approval for a mortgage, consider down payment assistance programs.
Just reading those tips made me overwhelmed. Not to mention there are some things in that list that are impossible. Checking your credit report is easy, but how do I decrease my debt-to-income ratio when my loans are literally GOING UP? I think the answer here is: there’s no answer. And despite those great tips, as far as home-buying goes, I think my best bet is still to marry rich.
Children: I found a website where it lets you calculate how much it will cost to raise a child. I selected the Northeast region, and in an aspirational leap of faith, I selected that I was not single and that I was in the highest income category ($107K and above), which I am not, but with combined incomes (of my non-existent husband), let’s hope that I hit that minimum. The projected cost?? $496,830. GTFO. Really though, how does ANYONE afford that, nonetheless someone who is gushing money to the government every month? This is a huge topic, and a problem for the US in general since 70% of us have loans. In a recent article by StudentLoanHero, they told people not to let their loans get in the way of their aspirations of parenthood. However, in that article it was a double-income household, where they had a COMBINED $35,000 in loans. As you guys read two weeks ago, I have almost $100,000! What about then? As much as I try not to think about this (I have actively taken steps to ensure I am not getting pregnant anytime soon), it still gets into the back of my mind. I’m not saying I want to quit my job tomorrow and be a mom, but I know for SURE that I’d like to have children someday. It doesn’t seem fair that I made a mistake by going to law school, and for that reason I can’t procreate. Don’t get me wrong, I know plenty of poor people have kids all the time, so it can be done but I also want to be able to provide a child with the middle-class upbringing I had! I am only 30 years old and I may be getting ahead of myself, but here is why it has an impact on me and my choices right now.
I will be delving into the different repayment plans next week, but here are the basics relevant to my childbearing decisions: If I continue working in public service, and the public service loan repayment plan continues to exist, my loans will be forgiven in 7 years with no tax consequences. If I switch to non-public-service, or if the plan is discontinued by our (failure of a) commander in chief or his Cabinet, my loans will be forgiven in 17 years, AND with a massive tax consequence. In 7 years I will be 37. Still a totally acceptable time to have a kid. And/or buy a house. In 17 years I will be 47. As they say, tick tock, tick tock… TOO LATE. This has absolutely impacted my decisions about my career. The problem is, this 10 vs. 20 years thing is a huge gamble. The program could be thrown out by then! I wake up every day thankful that it is still around. And it’s looking like it might be discontinued soon. Even GQ wrote about it; so did NPR, so it’s probably a legit worry.
My savvy-emoji-live-in-financial-planner told me to not think so much about the amount of loans, but rather to think about it as the government owning 10% of my earnings for the foreseeable future. This is a bleak thought, but it does make me feel a little better about the fact that the principal of my loans continues to grow. It also affects my decisions, though. Should I forget completely about the public service program and just focus on making more money? (warning: math coming) If I make $50K now, the government takes $5K, I end up with $45K. If I make $100K, yes, the government gets twice as much, $10K, but I still make $90K, which still means I make $45K more! But I like my job! I already quit being a lawyer because I was miserable; should I go back to a job I hate so I can make more money so I can possibly have a kid (or 2?!) someday? There is no right answer to those questions, so I’ll just hop to the next big decision.
Retirement:Let’s say I never own a house and I never have kids. Those two things are choices and it’s possible they will never happen. But here’s an inevitable cost: retirement. I’m not saying I will retire at 65, almost no one does that anymore. Even Social Security started to raise the age to 67 lately. I told you in my very first installment that the only way to get your loans discharged is in death. But let’s say I unluckily live a very long life (knock on wood); I need money then, too! If I don’t start to save for retirement until my loans are discharged or paid off, I’m screwed. Because that time will never come. Or at least it won’t come until it’s too late.
I originally told you guys this would not be a financial advice blog, and so far I haven’t given you any, but here is your first tidbit: if your job has any sort of matching program, you absolutely must take advantage of it. Plain and simple: it’s free money. Matching basically means that for every dollar you put in, they will put in 100% of that amount into your retirement account, dollar for dollar up to the match. No matter the interest on your loans, it’s not 100%. I’m not telling you to default on your loans. But I am maybe telling you to make minimum payments on your credit cards if it means you can pay into a match program. The interest rate on your credit cards is probably 10-17% and the FREE MONEY from a match program is 100%! Small caveat here for if you have a massive amount of credit card debt, and in that case, look closer at the amount of interest you are paying, but in almost all cases, PUT MONEY INTO RETIREMENT IF YOUR COMPANY MATCHES.
I will admit, I was one of the people not taking advantage of this program at work because of my credit card debt for a full year. It was one of the first things that my emoji-bf absolutely would not budge or compromise on. He did not let me make it a choice. He told me it was mandatory. And he was right, I learned my lesson. I have never seen money increase in this way. Here’s the summary, guys: I’m still not rich. But I have been making my loan payments and hopefully I won’t be homeless when I turn 70.
Having a Savings Account:No. Just no. I am trying though, I really am! I already mentioned me laughing at my dad when he asked me about this. It is like a unicorn/phoenix/insert-other-mythical-creature in New York City.
Now that you read all of this hoping for advice on decision-making, I hope you aren’t depressed and pissed that I didn’t give you any. The real moral of this story is: there are no right decisions. Having thousands of dollars, or hundreds of thousands in my case, of loans is going to affect everything you do – every decision you make, from the ordinary errands to the big decisions like whether or not to have kids. Each person handles these decisions differently, and for the most part, there is no right answer (except not contributing to a matching retirement account). Whether or not it makes you feel any better, there are a lot of people struggling to make those decisions right along with you, including me!
Stay tuned in the next week or two for how I am handling my repayment, and which plans I have opted into and out of, in the four years since I graduated law school. Shana Tovah to all of my Tribe members out there (that’s for you, Mommy).
According to the almighty Wikipedia, Oktoberfest is the world’s largest Volksfest, aka beer festival and travelling funfair. Since I don’t love beer and barely ever drink it, I turned down an invitation to go to Munich with some friends a few years ago to experience it in all its glory. However, this year my friend told me about an Oktoberfest in NYC, and SURPRISE, it was FREE. My favorite price. Beer or no beer, I am all about the free entertainment. (Third installment about my student loans coming up this week).
Oktoberfest runs from mid-September to the first weekend in October. Yes, Oktoberfest is not really an OCTOBER-fest. Germans are strange. Anyway, there are still a few weekends left of the event so if my blog below sounds fun, check out the event for yourself! General admission is free, or you can choose to buy tickets that include two hours of beer tasting for $60. Since I don’t like beer, and since I am poor, I chose the free option, duh.
The weather in NYC has been pretty gross: 80-90% humidity and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. However, last Sunday it was at least sunny and there was beer to cool down with. They didn’t accept any cash inside the event, so you had to purchase tickets to buy beer and food. The tickets were $9/piece which is hefty, but at least the beers were sizeable. Also, they had a “buy 11 tickets, get 2 free” deal, which we found out about too late. Serves us right for not reading the signs and streamlining to the bar.
The event was outside at Pier 15, with awesome views of all of the bridges, and of a few military planes landing. Some people thought they carried the President, but I personally could not care less if he’s in town, if you catch my drift.
There were ping pong tables, corn hole games, multiple “head in hole” boards, aka Cutout Boards. I tried one of them out. Not as many as this guy with 2,400, but still. And I couldn’t resist, I had two beers. I didn’t love the taste, or the carbonation, but it was very refreshing! Did I mention they had bratwursts and pretzels the size of your head? They did. They also had chicken nuggets, although I’m not sure the German connection to those. The bartenders were all wearing traditional dirndls and lederhosen, as were some of the patrons. Some of them were Halloween-costume-style, and not “traditional,” per se, as noted by my friend who has been to the real Oktoberfest. They looked real to me. And silly. Clearly we had to take a pic with one of the guys.
Out table and our beers.
Pretzels the size of two heads!
You can see the beautiful view behind our wooden cutout.
We are so legit. Sexy lederhosen and sexy dirndl.
My favorite part of the day was when a member of the event staff began speaking in a terrible fake German accent and announcing a stein-holding competition. Guys, if you didn’t know about this before, there is literally a US Steinholding Association. They have official rules and FAQ’s like,
Q: How much does the stein weigh?
A: A full one-liter stein should weigh approximately 5.5 pounds.
Q: How do you practice for a competition?
A: Everyone is different, and being in good athletic condition helps, but to put it bluntly, you basically just practice holding a stein a lot.
Q: How long should a normal person expect to last in their first competition?
A: Your typical guy can usually last somewhere in the 3-5 minute range, with ladies lasting between 1-2 minutes. If you can go longer than that, following all of the rules, you should definitely find out where to compete in masskrugstemmen so you can take a shot at qualifying for a national level competition.
Q: What is the world record for steinholding?
A: There isn’t currently a world-level competition, so we don’t know of any official world record, but the US national record is currently 19 minutes, 15 seconds, set by Deryk Lindsey at the 2016 National Masskrugstemmen Championships at the Steuben Day Parade and New York City Oktoberfest.
Anyway, the gist is, you hold a very heavy and large glass that is filled with beer and you do not tip, spill or drop it. Longest holder wins. Everyone was video-ing and cheering and the event host was heckling the guys to try and make them drop the steins. I even got a photo with the winner while he was wearing his winning hat and holding his winning beer!
No girls participated, and in hindsight I should have entered, even if I only held it 20 seconds! FREE BEER. If only I liked beer. When is the Oktoberfest for vodka?
The steinholding winner with his winning stein in hand!
Anyway, I digress. Monday, that all changed; I didn’t make the playlist, Tim did!
