A sea of (potential) debt

Why are credit card companies so willing to just hand me thousands of dollars? I assume they must be banking on the notion that, as a young, impulsive, irresponsible student, I'll quickly rack up huge bills and end up paying the principle three times over in interest. If they've been paying much attention to me over the past four years (since I got my first Visa with a $1,000 limit), they'd know this isn't the case. I've never paid a dime in interest. So why am I so attractive to creditors?

I have barely worked in the past year (for money, anyway; school really kicked my butt). A four-week stint at BP over Christmas, a pool shift here and there and a handful of pennies from a handful of freelance gigs: that's it. I'm unemployed again, and what did I get in the mail today? Another credit card.

A couple weeks ago I was at Sears buying some dragon-print pjs for my nephew's first birthday. The clerk told me if I signed up for their Mastercard, I'd save $10 off the pjs, which were only $10 to begin with ($0.47 birthday present--don't tell my sister). I said, "Hell yes," and signed away, assuming I'd get maybe a $500 limit and planning to cancel it the second it came in the mail.

Au contraire. Sears Mastercard gave me a $5,000 limit. This little guy will join his older brothers in my wallet: a $5,000 Mastercard and a $2,500 Visa, and then the lesser-known $2,500 overdraft I have on my chequing account. (All four have a zero-balance, for the record.)

Until I cancel the card (I may decide not to and earn some nifty Sears points, dreaming of the day when I'll have more than 450 square feet to furnish and call my own), I, at 22 years old, currently have $15,000 worth of available credit.

It's a good thing I'm not the shopaholic kind.

In other news, my spider cat did this yesterday, and it was the highlight of my weekend.

Amateur of Cakes

My sister and I watched the Ace of Cakes crew make, among other awesome things, a cake in the form of a Scrabble board, completely functional and to scale. It. Was. Awesome.



It inspired the two of us--mostly her--to see what we could create with some rolled fondant and food colouring. The result:



OK, so it's not quite as fancy as the Scrabble board, but it was delicious nonetheless, and kept us entertained for a good two hours.

Unemployment. It's not for everyone.

There goes my plan of chronicling my road trip in real time, or at least with a 12-hour time delay to edit out horrible bus rides and sketchy accommodations. We got home in one piece a little over a month ago, and through some sort of miracle, Marie and I managed to 1) not get any speeding tickets and 2) not kill each other (though we did come close). On the homefront, the Camp M.W. kitten correspondent reported that the kitten survived her vacation with the grandparents, and only got sick once due to excessive treats (I said one per day...mom hear seven). I'm working on writing an update city-by-city of the road trip (complete with pictures!), so I'm hoping to get those up in the next little bit. I'm going to post them all together so it seems at least somewhat organized.

I still haven't managed to find a job (oh, how I've looked), which is starting to become quite disheartening. I'm getting turned down for jobs that I was overqualified for three years ago. I guess that's just the way it goes. I did, however, make the decision to sublet my apartment for the summer (to a lovely Vancouverite named David) and move back in with my parents, so at least if I'm not making money, I'm not spending a dime either.

I was pretty bummed about the job situation until I realized that between rent and groceries and going out (it's easy to stay in when surrounded by family...when it's just me and my cat in Toronto, I quickly start to go nuts), I'm saving over $3500, which makes me wonder why I choose to live in the city in the first place. That's only a little less than I could hope to make working full-time for minimum wage for those three months, and let's face it, where would I even get full time? That's making me freak out a little less. That, and the fact that Marie's dad has been really great about giving me some hours here and there with his pool business, even though I'm terrible at the job.

Otherwise, I have been spending my days sleeping in, job hunting, looking online at things I want but can't buy, watching crap television (have become addicted to Till Debt Do Us Part and Ace of Cakes), making sure my grandma eats lunch, keeping house and hanging out with my cat.

In fact, I got so bored last night that I did this:



If anyone has any project suggestions, please let me know. I haven't been unemployed or not in school working my ass off since I was 14. Slackers, tell me. What do you do all day?