When growing up...

it's a fine line between taking initiative and missing the boat because one didn't ask for help. My daughter is up at school but comes home weekends until she gets here work bonus from the zoo.
During the last week, she had a bit of a mishap and took out the sidewall of her tire. She was able to put on the spare and then went to the nearest tire store to get a replacement. She was so proud of herself for negotiating the price down to $70.

That's when her Dad informed her that if she had called home, he would have instructed her to go to a different tire store since she has a road-hazard warranty on her tires and they would have replaced it free. To top it off, the tire she bought is a bottom of the line tire that should have cost about $50.

Well, being my mother's daughter, I knew this wasn't the end. I instructed her to take the warranty papers into the store, explain what happened and see what they could do. So today she goes into Les Schwab and they honor the warranty on the tire but they did charge her for rotating the tires and stiping the new one (if she could have proved that the damaged one was stiped like the other three that would have been free too). All in all - $115 isn't bad for a life lesson learned. In the future, she'll put together the plan, and maybe call for advice.

An indulgence to unpack emotional baggage

Once upon a time, school rings were an important fashion accessory. It meant something to have the heavy band and colored stone. It identified you as someone with a connection to a history and traditions, if you were a girl with a guy’s school ring it announced that you were dating a college age guy.
I couldn’t wait to get my school ring, it meant I would be a graduate and ready to move on to college. However, when I brought home the packet with all the graduation accessories and showed my dad the ring I had selected, he told me that I didn’t need a colored stone. After all in a few years, I would have a diamond when I got married.
A few years later, I did have a diamond but I also wanted a college ring. After all, my husband had this beautiful ring with a red stone that had USMC on the band.
I missed graduation because I gave birth the day after the ceremony. And since I wasn’t walking, I didn’t send out announcements and I didn’t buy any of the graduation accouterments so I didn’t get my ring or a tassel for that matter.

So this time around when I got the graduation package with all the stuff I could buy, I went straight for the ring. It was expensive but I knew that this was one piece of emotional baggage that I could not afford to bypass. I’ve always regretted not getting either the high school or the college ring – I wasn’t going to spend any time regretting this one. Oh, and I did negotiate a price lower than the one in the package and the one on the website. Never pay retail, baby!!