A couple of days ago, I finished the article I was working on for the writer, and e-mailed it to her to look over. I told the woman that I could shorten it or expand it to whatever she needed.I wanted her to be happy with what she got in our trade, so I asked her read it and report back if she wanted it changed in any way. She sent me an e-mail requesting I add a paragraph or two explaining what I had learned from the situation I had chose to write about. I spent the morning working on the article, and then sent it back for approval.
Sam was running low on dog food again, so I decided to post a wanted ad on craigslist. I posted a few small things to trade...a basketball, some books, and an old straightening iron. I decided instead of listing all of my books, I would just take a close-up picture of my bookcase to save time. I got a response almost immediately, from someone interested in my books and straightener. They seemed to think I was giving all my books away, so I clarified that I was willing to part with 2 or 3 along with my straightener for a small bag of dog food. I sent another picture of the straightener and informed the person that some of the paint was chipping off of the metal plates, but other than that it still worked great. I got the feeling this was a deal breaker for that person. The next message I received from them was a short and sweet "never mind". The good news is, I still had a few days left of dog food for Sam, so decided to start mixing it with some left over pieces of meat I had to stretch it a bit further. Sam thought this was the best idea I had had all month.
That night, I had plans to meet a woman at a gas station to trade my magazine holder for $15 of gas. It was getting late in the day, so I called her around 4:45 to see where exactly we could meet. I was looking forward to it as she had also promised to share some money saving tips with me upon trading, so when she didn't answer I got a little worried. My gas tank was a little below 1/4 tank and a good friend of mine had invited me out to a local comedy club that night(free on Thursdays). If the woman didn't come through, I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to meet up with him that night. A few minutes later I checked my phone and saw I had a missed call from the woman. In the voice mail she said
"fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, someone threw a magazine rack in my yard yesterday....so I no longer need to barter for yours".
That was pretty lucky for her, especially since she described herself as being extremely thrifty, but not so good for me. I had one too many magazine holders, and not enough gas to go out...so I texted my friend to explain the situation. A day earlier, I had walked on his back to relieve some tension. He suggested that if I had enough gas to get into the city, he would trade one more "back alignment" for a few bucks in gas to get me back home. I thought this was a pretty good trade, and a clever way to help me stay within my guidelines for the project, and so I accepted his offer. I was more than grateful for the opportunity to get out of my apartment and be social for a bit.
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