baseball, babe…you know i love you dearly, and i won’t ever give up on you, no matter how hard the world tries to tarnish you.
but i’m sorry, this article just doesn’t do it for me. to all you young players like jay gibbons (mentioned in the afore-mentioned article) who are making “only” $200,000 a year, i have this to say: suck it up and deal. if you insist on striking, so be it, that’s your choice. there’s nothing i can do to stop you. but i’m not going to ever feel sorry for you because you’re losing a few months out of your 6-, 7- or 8-figure salaries. at minimum, you get $16500 every month. and you’re complaining that if you miss a few months of salary, you’ll be on your way to the poorhouse, eating from taco bell and giving up your baltimore apartment??
give me a break! i’m a staff engineer working for the government and earning barely a fourth of your minimum salary. civil service is not the way to get rich, i know, but it’s what i do anyway. with the money i make–a downright measly sum next to your riches–i can do the following things (and this is just what i can think of off the top of my head) in one month’s time:
- save/invest 15-20%
- pay the rent on a very nice apartment
- buy groceries
- pay my phone, cell phone, electricity, dsl, cable, credit card, and car, health and renters insurance bills
- keep my car well-maintained and full of gas
- make a payment on my student loan
- go out to eat 3-5 times a week
- buy a coke every afternoon at work
- see 4-5 movies
- buy a couple new shirts, a skirt, and a pair of pants
- pay the entry fee for two road races
- buy a plane ticket (not every month, but a few times a year)
- and between april and september/october, see 3 baseball games that pay your salary!!
so forgive if i don’t quite feel your pain, mr. baseball player.
{sigh} anyway. despite that little rant, i’m looking forward to my weekend plans which involve a glorious three baseball games where i get to watch my braves play the astros. tonight i’m going with james, chrissy, liz, jason, and nacho–a mixed georgia tech/nasa group. tomorrow leila and brian are coming to town with their group for the game and other houston fun. then sunday is nasa day at the ballpark, and i’m going with becca, nick, rich, and a bunch of other people from our branch. i hope to see the braves win at least 2 of 3. 🙂
last night i hung a new picture in my apartment, with much help from nick because it was in an awkward spot–on the stairwell wall, but high enough to be visible through the cutout in the living room wall. nick ended up having to stand on the ledge of the cutout and lean across the three-foot-wide staircase to get the nail into the wall, because it was too high to reach while standing on the stairs. but he did it! he is so helpful!
also, i found a coffee table. hooray! after work yesterday i rushed a few exits south on i-45 to this sussan furniture place that had been recommended to me. it was rather sketchy looking on the outside, but inside it was ok. not very organized, but then again, it was a discount furniture store, not a showroom. anyway, i walked around and looked at all the coffee tables and finally spotted one that was perfect! upon closer inspection, i realized it was the exact same coffee table i’d seen wednesday night at star furniture–the one that was an insane $450. only at this sussan place, it was $229! still more than i wanted to spend, but hell, i bought it anyway. after looking at 4 different stores in person and another 3 stores online, finding nothing i liked at 5 of those stores and then picking out the same table at the other two, i figured i should just splurge and get it. so i did. i’ll have it on monday. 🙂
