Apparently my sister is not only my sister, but also an evil genius on par with all the worst comic book villains of all time in her ability to morph things in ways to get her intended purpose no matter what. I don’t date. It’s not that I think there is anything wrong with dating, it’s just that with my lifestyle, it’s not worth the time or effort. I am extremely happy with my life and lifestyle, and it just happens that the lifestyle that I lead isn’t very conducive for dating.
My sister, on the other hand, believes that nobody can truly be happy unless they are in a relationship. She has, therefore, been trying to get me to date any chance that she gets for far too long. She saw the perfect opportunity with the comment from secretarysaving who left a question asking me about dating and the minimum wage challenge: “Jeffrey – What about your personal life, any dates planned?”
Sister: You really can’t do this challenge without dating?
Me: Why not?
Sister: Because it’s something that everyone does, and if you leave it out, then you’re not giving a true representation of all the things that people normally do in life.
Me: I’m not trying to do that.
Sister: So, what you’re saying is that if you have to go on dates, then you would lose the challenge. Basically you’re afraid to lose so you won’t do it.
Me: No, that isn’t it at all.
Sister: I don’t believe you. Prove it to me.
Me: Fine. I’ll go on some random dates during the year just to prove you’re wrong.
Sister: But you can’t tell them that you’re doing this challenge. That would be cheating. You have to just go like it was a regular date.
Me: What?!
Sister: If you tell them that you’re doing the challenge, they will feel sorry for you and let a the date slide even when they aren’t having a good time. You can only tell them after the fifth date.
Me: What?!
Sister: And if you can’t get to a fifth date with anyone this year, you’ve basically proven that you lost the bet because you couldn’t find a dating partner that would be willing to date you while on a minimum wage budget.
Me: What?!
Sister: So it’s settled. You have to date and date one person at least five times or you lose the bet.
Me: What?!
And then she turned and walked away triumphantly, shouting over her shoulder that if I refused, then I’d just proved the point that I was chicken and couldn’t do it. Now, anyone who is aware of the Sibling Agreement on Records, Bets, Stunts and Streaks (SARBSS) code knows that all accusations of not fulfilling terms of a challenge because one is “chicken” must be proven false, no matter how ridiculous the accusations are, just to prove the point of how wrong the sibling who made the accusation in the first place was.
The problem is, I’m not even sure how to go about doing this (any suggestions would be greatly appreciated). It’s something that I’m now going to have to figure out how to do, and I have a feeling that it’s not going to end well.
Today I headed for the second house sitting gig of this year, this time in Santa Rosa, CA. It was about 100 mile drive north from my mom’s house which meant that I had to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. No matter how many times I cross that bridge, I’m always amazed at how spectacular it looks. On a day with blue skies, like today, there was really no doubt that I was going to stop to take a few photos of it:
I think that this house sitting job will be a little harder on my budget than the last one. Once again, I was told to eat whatever I wanted in the house, but this time there are far fewer perishables and leftovers in the fridge, although there is beer which should be nice (I think I’m going to have to be careful, because I might start losing house sitting jobs by showing the inside of everybody’s refrigerator where I house sit)
While there is enough food for part of my stay, I’ll probably have to go to the grocery store to supplement the food during this week. Unfortunately, I don’t have any coupon inserts with me so I’ll have to go and buy whatever I can find on discount. I think I should be able to come away under my $5 per day budget on food, but it won’t be quite as easy as the last house sitting job.
One positive of this house sitting job was that the owners felt bad that I was only charging them the cost for me to travel to and from their house, so they took me out to lunch before they left. This allowed me to have a quite nice lunch at no cost which consisted of a salad and enchilada (although it was the strangest enchilada I have ever eaten):
Since my transportation costs to the house were covered and the lunch was paid for by the home owners, I didn’t incur any other spending costs for the day.
Today’s Spending
Food: $0.00
Car: $0.00
Housing: $0.00
Travel: $0.00
Misc: $0.00
Total: $0.00
Total Spending
Food: $7.39
Car: $0.00
Housing: $0.00
Travel: $0.00
Misc: $16.15
Total: $23.54
Next article: Day 11: Failing to Think Creatively
Editors note: If you are reading this posting because you are actively looking for someone to date, join match.com. Match is a paid online dating service. Its members have to invest a monthly fee in meeting people, which means there is much less flaky behavior and better quality partners than free sites like Plenty of Fish, Tinder or Bumble. Match is also very popular because its mobile and desktop interfaces do better at facilitating communication than its competitors like eHarmony. Click here to join.
(Top photo courtesy of BrentOzar)
Jeffrey strain is a freelance author, his work has appeared at The Street.com and seekingalpha.com. In addition to having authored thousands of articles, Jeffrey is a former resident of Japan, former owner of Savingadvice.com and a professional digital nomad.
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