Its 1997 all over again..

New job.... new glasses...... and now, a new car. And yes, I actually bought another red Subaru Impreza Outback Sport Wagon! A reprise from 1997 all over again, yeehaa! Hmm, maybe I'll dig out the little 3x5 photo of my early 20-something self with that car, or save myself the embarrassment, and just show you where I got my new one:
  

Quirk Works Subaru- on the south shore

Please have yourself a little treat and click on tha little video link- I bought my "cahw" from him! And at the 50 second mark, I think, there's my cahw!

Student Fashion Show Weekend

This past weekend I attended two student fashion shows, for Mass Art and Mount Ida College. Fabulous work(for the most part)! There are some really hard working students out there, amazing sewing and construction feats by Mass art students, and quite a few Mt. Ida students willing to put together (or alas, deconstruct) some pretty bold and wacky color combinations. (Pictures to come later!)

Supervision no more

So the fabulous new exhibit has come to a close at the ICA, Supervision is no more! No more making tour groups walk around stainless steel objects (by Jeff Koons and Anish Kapoor), no more sticking my hands in the James Turrell (New Light) and watching people gasp, no more physicists trying to figure out the refraction index of the Josiah McElheny -- oh wait, maybe so, because it will be part of the permanent collection--- Anyways, the tour guides hosted a lovely wake at a nice restaurant named Sonsie, and here are two of our lovely guides in proper wake attire:

Test Driving

Happy Earf Day, Everybody!
This April and May is the month that we all are reminded by all of our magazine and media sources about how to save the earth by conserving engergy and recycling, and wearing used or organic clothing, blah blah blah. Even the fashion industry paper, Women's Wear Daily, has put out a green issue about sustainable textiles and sustainable designers, because it all trendy and fashionable to do things green, like drive a Toyota Prius!
1. This week I test drove a Toyota Prius, it was really fun! Whenever you want to start the car, park or drive, you have to press a button, it's like deprogramming yourself to grab that stick thingy in the middle before you drive. And because it's a hybrid, that means fewer trips to the gas station (my commute is 22 miles each way to work, in reverse traffic. But unfortunately, even though it feels like a faster driving car than Tomato, the Toyota Corrolla I currently am borrowing, it has an even floatier baby cradle-like ride suspension than tomato. I really care about how the car feels on the road, and during the test drive, we went over some small windy curves that literally made me nauseous! So after that experience, I'm not entirely sure getting a hybrid makes the most sense right now---- maybe if the Prius comes with sport suspension?

Toyota Prius Hybrid vehicle link

2. So I finally read that one green issue of WWD, and it's quite interesting, however it's laced with small little articles by an entity called Cotton, Inc. (you know, the "Fabric of our lives" commercial?) They support Conventional Cotton! There is one article inparticular about how educated the consumer is about organic cotton, and the facts and figures basically claim that the comsumer populace is uneducated and ignorant, and won't pay more for organic cotton clothing. They don't mention in the article when this little survey was done- I suspect it is the same research I fell upon at least 5 years ago when I was studying my thesis at Cornell. I think it's absolutely weird how Cotton Inc. feels so "threatened" by sustainable textiles!

Womens' Wear Daily reported on by Treehugger




Subaru Impreza 2008 -Conflicts in My Head

Aaccck! So I need to get a new car, I have literally not owned one/borrowed other people's cars since 2002, a whole five years, but soon I will actually have to own one, or else I won't be able to get to work! So, some of you might remember that last car was a 1997 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport Wagon, in red with the fake hood scoop that eventually got taped up inside! And I sort of want another one. At the 2007 New York Auto Show last week, they unveiled a TOTAL REDESIGN of the Impreza, and now I'm not sure what to think! From the outside, it looks like all of the other hatchbacks now, except for the AWD and hoodscoop! Ergh. It's a shrinky dinked version of the Tribeca, which had to be redesigned after only being a year on the market! ha!
However, the interior of the new Impreza WRX (the performance version) is super nice, and hence, the inner conflict- should I get a 2007 or wait until August for the new one? Will I like how the exterior looks by August? Will I want to trade in a brand new 2007 just because the new one is so much nicer? (sniff)

2008 Subaru Impreza WRX




Kimmie!!!

Have you ever heard of this TV show on FX called "The Riches"? It stars Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver, who are speaking in Southern accents (!) and my friend Teresa Huang is in the cast, in her first recurring TV role-her name is Kimmee! Yippee!!! It's on late Mondays on FX.
   

"The Riches" Monday nights on FX

Celebrity Personal Finance Gurus!

Check it out! Getting Suze Orman to sign her new book for my boss. I was all excited and nervous and afterwards, I had a celebrity high that you get from meeting someone you admire. She had a really fun 1 hour talk, that is pretty much all about her new book, "Women and Money" She yelled at a single woman w/o dependents for buying term life insurance. Public humiliation! She answered a question about the dollar value of taking care of kids at home. But basically, all the people in the audience were already on the "Suze Boat" and from what she was saying about how women like to take care of other people with their money before they take care of themselves, it was pretty obvious that those women who REALLY needed Suze's book the most were not in the audience, and and may never know to read her book in order to fix their lives up.
Anyway, check out the TD Ameritrade Save yourself plan offer in her book! It's so cool! I'm so excited about applying for this Money market account!
 

Suze the Life Changing Financial Guru Lady