Trading Up

Yeah, so I missed a day or two. I retract my earlier decision about direction, and I am sick of the word direction, so let's just forget about it for awhile.

I looked at the stocks that I look at every couple of months since they are all on sale again. Per my spreadsheet, when I started looking @ AAPL (hey, I have an ipod and i really want a macbook...and that is EXACTLY the sort of logic I use when I look at stocks...please never, ever look for reason beyond the fluffiest fluff when I refer to the NYSE, my retirement account, or any other "investment" I have; the stock market is like my own personal Monopoly, and what I mean by that is that I take it as seriously as I took a childhood board game that I sucked at) it was at $89.32 per share (12/28/2008) and today it was at $257.08/share. WTF, world? (No, that's not a ticker, stop googling it). I want to have dolla dolla bills, y'all; let me play!

I also missed the boat on SFLY. I talked myself out of that one since my reasoning was shaky even for me ("OHMIGOD! You can order and edit pictures online and use coupon codes? Cute logo! I should give them money!"), but it was $7.14 and is presently $24.49. I like to see multipliers used when checking growth. 3x is a good one. I like those silly long shots that have nothing to do with solid histories or excellent balance sheets. Everyone teased me about that Ford (F), but it quadrupled since then, which constitutes success for my brand of trading.

Sooo...want to pretend trade? Try the Virtual Stock Exchange. It's fun.

If I had some cash today, though, I would buy me some XOM. Why? I don't know. Because they just picked up an energy company. Because even though BP is on clearance, I know St. Peter is shutting me out if I buy it. Because I think it will go higher than the $57.24 of today. Of course, I get C's in math (maybe). I just make up stories and buy stuff. I'm like Freakonomics but dumber. Unfortunately for this analogy, that guy had coherent ideas.

When I really do buy (and sell, and dream about understanding options), I use TradeKing. It's cheap ($5 per trade) and easy to use. There is lots of cool info on the site. They have seminars and scoreboards, etc. It's a great place to go if you're too embarrassed to tell an actual broker that you want to buy JCrew (JCG) because you would take a bullet for their driving mocs (guilty).

Later, my 7 gators.

Really, K? You Missed a Day ALREADY??

To be fair to myself, I was under duress. I mean, looming interviews pretty much make life obsolete. I needed time to focus on how unfocused I was. Which brings me to:

It went OK. Just OK. I thought there were going to be all these technical questions, so I kept waiting for them...and then there weren't. I didn't elaborate on what I should have because I was saving the big guns (i.e. lengthy answers) for voltage questions or pressure problems with over-tightened houses or how many pascals to calibrate a blower door to. So, I kind of sucked, and they only asked me about stuff I should have RULED at. Ridic. Fortunately, I don't actually hate my job or anything drastic, so I'm not exactly wounded over not being at the top of my game. Disappointed in myself, but I'm not crying. Or drinking.

What I did do this evening in lieu of crying/drinking: got a spray tan with S.M. in Grand Rapids. I don't know where you are, but it's raining here. Good thing I wore a sundress and she wore booty shorts. Spray tans + Rain drops = Cheetahs. In a weak attempt at to prevent morphing into another species, we tore garbage bags open and wore them home.

Then we realized we couldn't unroll the windows in the car without rain dripping in. Ordering at Caribou was a debacle of Guantanamo Bay proportions. Since I needed Darjeeling tea, it was a treat to watch S.M. try to articulate that through a one inch crack in her window. The end of that was kind of like this: "WHAT THE (bad word) DOES SHE THINK I'M SAYING??? DOES SOMETHING ELSE IN THE WORLD SOUND LIKE DARJEELING?"

We lived through that. We had another minor incident @ her dad's house when S.M. rolled down my window to yell to her pops while I screamed "SHUT MY WINDOW?? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" like a banshee. Nothing like spotty broads screaming at each other in a car. Welcome to Keewatin.

In the end, we won't know if we are girls or wild cats until tomorrow. I'll let you know.

*p.s.
a really great pic of S.M. and myself wearing garbage bags exists, and I am unhappy right now that I know that I would be skinned alive and said skin would be sold to Cruella DeVille or a devout Michael Jackson fan should I post it. Sadface.

BLOOOOOOG

I didn't forget you. 11:58 P.M. A was just here prepping me for my interview. With Mich Golden Light. And Marbs. Wish me luck.

xoxoxo

Direction??? and a shower.

I've been thinking (this never bodes well; you should be wary, now, and any time in the future that I use this phrase). I neeeed a direction. All these lovely blogs I've been reading always have a direction. So, I am considering having an EVERY SINGLE DAY blog blog. This gives me license to have absolutely NO direction while pretending that I do. I am also picturing being at one with my challenge...like hiking towards a signal (OH! WELL, THEN...I suppose this gives me license to need an iphone...in time for the new version. hmmm) because I'm on a mountain, camping (...).

Let's work with it.

Alice in Wonderland "the shower" was this past weekend. It was totally wonderful. It was intimate and comfortable and sweet. The decor was DIVINE (shoutout: SAMANTHA MOBERG...and a tip for my readers, both of them: should you need a party/wedding/house decorated, call this b*tch and hire her out. she loves it. it's weird and sick and AMAZING because she's soooo good).

I am waiting for the pics (taken by SUZY WIGSTADT) and will post at least the link to them later. Go to her link!! Her kiddie pics are to die for! (ok, they're all pretty fab ;) Suzy brought a cake that looked like one of those ridic reality tv cake decorating show cakes and cupcakes that were so adorbs it almost wasn't right.

**these are my pics, they don't do anything justice...but they can serve as a teaser for Suzy's :)


Check out the invitation (RENEE ANDERSON @ Express Print in Hibbing):


She also did the sickest signage and had a whole collection of vintage hats to be used with the decor...talk about stellar ladies to work with!

Mama Lizzy and baby Tessa were much loved by their lady friends on Saturday.

Then I got the flu. And lost two pounds. A very productive weekend, indeed.

Sell Hard: the K Ren Story

What is it about a job interview? It's the scariest situation that isn't actually life and death or sickness or health (or apparently, marriage vows?). I think about interviewing and I feel like I'm going to throw up. On myself. My hands get clammy and shake. My voice gets weird. It's so awkward to sit in front of someone(s) and sell your virtues and camouflage your flaws. Underselling is a no go, but selling too hard is worse. Sell juuuust hard enough. Also, seeming natural and calm is of the utmost importance, because you really don't want the interviewer(s) to be uncomfortable. That's your bag. Upchuck in it if you must.

These days you really have to have an arsenal of stories ready, too. It's always "Tell me about a situation in which..." What happened to the good old days of "What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?" That stuff you can prepare ahead of time and be safe (i.e. "Strengths? I'm a team player...Weaknesses? I forget to look out for myself because I'm such a team player." har he har har). Now you had better write a book about your life as a worker beforehand so you have ready material. Now the idiot with the big fish stories is a sought after commodity in the job market.

I have this interview (no! you don't say...). My qualifications are negotiable. Feel free to send me tips. Or any fishing stories you can part with. I will be planning to Sell Hard: the K Ren Story in the mean time.

Stayin' Strong...Day 2: Post 2

I'm keeping myself in check tonight by starting a post (with nothing in my mind)...I now know that I have had 2 readers!! Holler, Toni L & Tara O :) I love that you have visited, even if you never do again.

I am in the throes of baby shower planning today (which will occur this Saturday for my friend Liz)...it is "Alice in Wonderland" themed and my go-to color pro just stopped by to panic me about my palette. I am not allowed to be using the bright red rose garlands with the tea sets I've selected...oy vey. T minus 5 days, get it together, Kristin! I will be cleaning (and crying) and gardening (and crying) and decorating (and crying) till then. I'll try to post pictures if it comes out like I intend, and I'll pretend it never happened if it doesn't.

Since my blog is completely directionless and entirely selfish at this time, I thought I'd share weird things that I like when I think of them. Today I am sharing a clothing line I adore: ALLSAINTS Spitalfields. I can't handle the coolness, really. Which is fortunate, since I can't afford to be that cool, either. Someday, though, it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine:
Anyway, I think it is English, and they are opening a store in Boston, which I'm so fricking excited about (TJ's fam in Maine is about 3 hours from BOS).

Please note: I just made a link. That's a major coup in my blogging life.

Short and sweet for today, peeps. My husband looks really tired and obviously wants to rub my back (HA!).

Well, HELLO THERE!

I have just discovered that I can no longer use my facebook profile as a blog. What is this garbage?? Facebook, for god's sake, people want you to invade their privacy! They wouldn't be social networking otherwise. They want you to know that they are poor and getting divorced and that they have illegitimate children and have been feeling ill for days...I know because they, themselves elected to fill that information in that little status box. Anyway, I will maybe have to blog now...maybe.

I am at present drinking coffee, which makes me sick, and listening to torch songs on Pandora and reading an '09 issue of Harper's Bazaar that I keep in my desk. I am also making up stories in my head about imaginary people and am terribly pleased to have the solitude that this Saturday brings in which I may do that.


My last post mentions Dubai, which was marvelous beyond marvelous. Nothing will ever be as romantic to me as Arabic and Islam and desert. {That was one s, not two; I'm not terribly fond of sweets.} I hope I can go back someday...I am dreaming about exploring Morocco, too, where I'm being denied a vacation this year (I'm poor: see? I wanted you to know) even though a close, familial girlfriend will be there for months.


I also visited Switzerland last month to see my dear, dear sister and brother. I ate the most wonderful cheese and Elisabeth cut up a radish at one point, which we just...ate. I love travel eating. We had many nice conversations, many ridiculous conversations, and Erin and I also had many, many drinks. We sat in a park with real wine glasses until my fingers froze and eventually went to a club that was possibly a bunker (or, in my stupor, sure looked like one). In time, we ended the morning drinking Chartreuse (I think it was actually liquified pleutonium) whilst watching Tupac videos.

I have suddenly run short of (pertinent) thoughts. My mind is making fiction again. I think it best that I leave the ice to my blog broken and return to Wikipedia. Among other gems of useless knowledge, I've read about the making of "The Way We Were," Truman Capote (did you know he was childhood friends with Harper Lee? I did not.), Anais Nin, and The Cotton Club.