Nicole

The places you cherish from your childhood all close before you can get back…. RIP Hellas.

I just got a long-sleeve tee for $3.88! Go check it out!

It is sometimes forgotten that Crane wrote poetry–or anything other than The Red Badge of Courage, for that matter–and in his collection The Black Riders, from which this selection comes, he himself referred to them as “lines” and not poems.

XL.

And you love me

I love you.

You are, then, cold coward.

Aye; but, beloved,
When I strive to come to you,
Man’s opinions, a thousand thickets,
My interwoven existence,
My life,
Caught in the stubble of the world
Like a tender veil –
This stays me.
No strange move can I make
Without noise of tearing
I dare not.

If love loves,
There is no world
Nor word.
All is lost
Save thought of love
And place to dream.
You love me?

I love you.

You are, then, cold coward.

Aye; but, beloved –

So, I recently closed some store cards which I stupidly opened in my college days, to save that big deal 10%. Best Buy (actually this was my second credit card ever, when I was 18), Target, and Target Visa were long since closed due to inactivity. I closed my Kohl’s card. Good riddance. And my FICO score shot up 10 pts from last month, kinda like Lifehacker said it might. Not bad, eh? So today I remembered I had opened an Express card as well. That one was still open, though it had only been used once in 2005. I shut that sucka DOWN, and it feels good. Wondering if I have more of these out there somewhere…

You can get a free “Let’s Go Blue” ringtone at phonezoo.com. For my fellow Wolverines, you know this is huge. Usually you can find many permutations of “The Victors” but none of the other songs and ditties, many of which echo the fun and pride of Wolverine games just as much as hailin’ dem victors does.

(Tomorrow is Forever is a fantastic film starring my all-time favorite actor, Orson Welles. It is tragically not available on DVD, and VHS copies go for what now feels like a ridiculous price to pay for VHS.)

I don’t know if it’s optimism, Pollyannaism, or just laziness, but I seem to have a block when it comes to planning for the long-term future. I waited six months after starting my job to set up my retirement account. Even then, I left it for a year with employer-only contributions. I wonder what that $1300, with some modest growth, will buy in 2048…? Oh yeah, not much. Thanks, inflation!

So I finally got around to setting up a tax-deferred account (filling in that circle on the employee website was so labor-intensive!). Who knows, I might even start an IRA. Probably not before I turn 25 in August, but you never know. Tomorrow is another day.

Well, it took a bit of searching both online (about a dozen unfinished FatWallet cashback transactions) and in-store (ended up touring metro Boston by T), and finally ended up getting my FitFlops at Macy*s in Burlington. If you haven’t heard, they’re supposedly a current fitness craze in the UK: a sandal that tones your legs and hindquarters as you walk around. They’re really comfy, and make my achin’ back feel nice, so that alone is worth the $40. And if the claims are more than just hype, well, I won’t be complainin.’ (Once you start usin’ folksy talk, you just ain’t gon’ stop.)

Children’s Hospital of Michigan won!

“Voting has closed!

“Thanks for your support! We’re sending every participating hospital a Fun Center of their own.

“Congratulations to Children’s Hospital of Michigan, which had the most votes and will receive an additional Fun Center.

“We asked you to “Show the Love” by voting for a hospital to receive a Fun Center. The outpouring of support has been wonderful, and Colgate-Palmolive is awarding all nine participating hospitals a Fun Center!”