Monday, December 20, 2010

Prioritizing My Future Finances

Once I was at Barnes and Noble, and I saw a tote for sale. On this tote, there was a quote (that rhyme was completley unintentional) that said something along the lines of, "I spend the little money I earn on books first, and then the rest on food and clothing." But obviously the quote was in more sophisticated language. Anyway, I've always associated myself wait that quote. Considering I prefer to buy books over going to libraries, I expect to accumulate many volumes over my lifetime, and eventually I will have quite a bit of money spent on books. I bet I currently have a least $2000 worth of books in my room, probably more than $2500. Basically, buying new books is more important than buying things like new clothes (don't get me wrong, I LOVE new clothes) or health food or gas or things like that.

But the thing is, it's not just books. Let's say, hypothetically, I'm living in New York as a young adult. I assume my job wouldn't be the best paying, and rent would be killer in addition to starting to pay off student loans. Oh, and food. But besides my weekly trips to Barnes and Noble, I'll also have access to the nearly fifty Broadway theatres, countless off and off-off Broadway shows, concerts, ballets, operas, symphonies, museums, and all the other amazing things the city has to offer. How will I be able to resist spending an insane amount of money appreciating these things and contributing to feeding the mouths of struggling artists? Obviously I will take advantage of the many wonderful free displays of art, and I'll enter the lottos for Broadway shows, but I just don't see myself getting around being an avid patron of the arts when living in a city like New York or LA or anywhere along those lines.

If you're wondering what brought this one, I have three reasons.
1: Seeing Arielle and Lyla dance in The Nutcracker with my sister; I have a great appreciation for ballet, among other forms of dance.
2: Spending time at the Music Center Plaze, due to my new position on the Center Theatre Group's Student Advisory Committee. I'll give you more details on that later, but I'm spending a lot of time around other artists and performance centers and it's all just great. And CULTURED.
3. The lack of culture in a certain city in a certain Midwestern sate I am currently staying in. No offense to my best friend Jordan, but she has a lack of understanding of the arts. I love the girl like no other, but I need my theatre kids. Or at least my kids with an appreciation of theatre.

The only reason I'm even awake right now is because there's supposed to be a lunar eclipse tonight. Everyone else went to bed and set their alarms. Come on? Don't people know how to stay up late anymore?

Happy birthday on December 21 to Thomas Becket (we literally just turned in our Canterbury Tales essays in English...), Jane Fonda (I'm helping CTG promote a play she's in), Samuel Jackson (I'm running out of things worthy of being put in parentheses), Jeffery Katzenberg, Ray Romano, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jackson Rathbone.

Please ignore any spelling or grammatical errors in this post. I hate writing on other peoples computers, so I have no desire to go back and check anything over. Thanks!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

i agree, dude. luckily, you will have me to manage your finances..... oh who am i kidding?.... luckily, you will have me to hire someone to manage your finances.