You can bank on it.

I'm having kind of a craptastic morning already, so I thought I'd blog to get my mind off of things.

A few years ago, I found myself in a pretty sticky financial situation. Lots of debt, lots of things that just weren't going right. As a result, I've lived the past 2-3 years without a bank account of any kind. It was cash or GTFO. [Or Mom's credit card on occasion, which she gave to me for emergencies.] And surprisingly, that worked pretty well. It's so easy to use a credit card, or a debit card, and you don't even think about it. With cash, you have that moment of "Do I really want to fork over $40.17 for lotion? That's two $20s...or FOUR $10s! And a dime! And some pennies! Whatever, I have lotion at home."

But, this online thing...gosh, who knew the internet would still be around right? [I'm totally kidding.] Sometimes you need at least a debit card to purchase things online that can't be bought anywhere else. And that's what's happened to me.

You see, the local gym, LA Fitness, is running an online special. $8.95 per week, no initiation fee, no long term contracts. And you know, if they'd let me just come into the gym and plunk down $10 a week, I'd be on that like a fat girl on cake. But, alas, no. Online only. And I really want to join this gym. My best friend and I used to go there, but I was never a member, I was always just on the guest pass. She was a returning member, and she'd gotten a 6 month guest pass as a perk. I was going to take advantage of that perk! Unfortunately, she got really busy with her kids, her husband, her job, going back to school, the holidays...etc etc, you get the picture. If she wasn't with me, I couldn't go. I don't blame her for stopping or anything. Although it was awesome when we could go together, I could have continued working out here at home without her.

But, there lies the problem. I have a HORRIBLE time working out here at home! We have an amazing treadmill, I own at least 20 different exercise videos, there's parks nearby for walking, and we live in a neighborhood that has sidewalks all over the place. But I just. Can't. Do. It. I always find something better to do than exercising. And I think maybe it's because I get super bored exercising here at home. At the gym, there's lots of stuff to use, and people to look at. I really want to go to the gym. It's close to my house, it's clean, it's big, it will rarely be super busy when I go because I'll probably go early in the day [even when we used to go around 6 on weeknights, it wasn't outrageously busy, except on Mondays], the staff there is really nice, the locker room is big enough that you don't have to see someone's flab in your face, and they have a juice/snack type bar. Not that I'll need snacks. But you know, it's nice to be offered.

All of this sounds great, but then I hit the problem. Do I ask my Mom, who is trying to keep their bills low and save money for movement to a retirement village within the next few months, if I can use her credit card for the gym? Do I ask Mr. D if he can maybe pay for my gym membership, even though he spent $1000 on the super fancy, blows air in my face, can hold my fat ass treadmill? Or do I bite the bullet and rejoin the banking world?

Yesterday found me sitting in the chair in front of a nice girl named Jennifer while she ran my credit to see if I qualified for a checking account. Now, in what world does this make sense, REALLY? If I'm there with money to put into an account, ostensibly to pay my bills, why can't I just put it in there? But no worries. Jennifer said the magic words. "You have nothing negative against you."

Damn right.

Lots of information and a $200 deposit later, and I'm out the door with my new checkbook, which I will most likely never use. Hey look at me, all growed up! *insert goofy face here*

I'm waiting for Mr. D to get off the phone so he can tell me [again] how to hook my computer up to the printer, and then I'm heading over to LA Fitness.com to sign up for my new membership. I'm hoping to get into the gym tonight, but my mom is having yet another crisis, so who knows. I think she has some special mom-sense that tells her when I'm just about to do something for myself and she pulls me back to remind me that it's not about me all the time. Or even half of the time.

That's another story for another day, though.