Pecuniary Associates 
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A friend of mine is in graduate school and was telling me about the horrible thing that happened to her friend.
“He got accussed of plagiarism!”
“Oh no! What kind of evidence do they have? Did he just phrase something a lot like a published piece?”
“No! He just put some quotes in his introduction that he found in this blog. It wasn’t like it was published in a book or anything.”
At this point, my sympathy for this guy vanished. “Did he cite his source?”
“No, it was just a blog. It’s not like he’s stealing from anyone.”
Except for the blogger, of course. Now, my friend doesn’t know about this blog. She knows I have a rarely updated running blog, but there’s definitely nothing theft worthy there. While I don’t make a fortune from this blog (with using half my revenue for Kiva loans, I don’t even cover my costs), some people do make a living from their blogs. Would this guy’s plagiarism have hurt the blogger? Probably not. If the paper were being submitted for an academic journal, I suppose it’s possible. If nothing else, a proper citation could lead to increased traffic for the blogger. Either way, the potential for harm isn’t the point. The point is that by this point, people should realize that the blog is a legitimate form of publication and should be taken seriously. There are ways to cite papers to websites. To do otherwise is just stealing.
I admit, I find bits and pieces from my blog on other websites and it is frustrating. Someday, I will put on my lawyer pants and write some cease and desist letters.
It looks like you are just as conflicted as I am with my wedding dilemma. I’m still debating. This friend is a good friend, but not a great friend. We live in the same city but only see each other occasionally, and have gone years without speaking (not for any reason other than distance). Really, I think if we weren’t living in the same city, we just wouldn’t be in touch. Don’t get me wrong, I really like her, and she’s a great person. But she’s not my best friend from forever. I agree though, if this were someone I was super super close to, I would be spending the money without question.
They are having a reception here later this summer for all their friends who couldn’t attend the wedding, so they clearly realize that not a lot of people will be able to attend.
A big part of it for me is also the time. I can’t get additional time off work, so it would be about 18 hours of travel total for not a whole lot of time there. I know that’s a bit selfish, but the idea of that much wasted time just makes me cringe.
Right now, there’s a chance I won’t be able to get that Friday off work (office policy change again), which would make the entire conversation moot. If I have to work all day Friday, there are no flights to get me there in time for the wedding on Saturday. It’s a little frustrating, but at the same time, it would solve my dilemma.
One of my very good friends is getting married in a few months. She’s having a very small wedding, and only a few of her friends from college were invited, myself included. Initially, I was very gung-ho about going. Then I started researching.
She’s getting married in a resort town over Memorial Day Weekend. The location was chosen because it’s a midpoint between her hometown and her fiance’s hometown. With layovers, the quickest trip for me will still be almost 8 hours. But that’s not the bad part. The bad part, as you can expect, is the price. After looking at the cost of flights and splitting a rental car (necessary in this town) and hotel room, and meals out, I’m looking at close to $1000.
I love my friend, but $1000 is a lot of money that could be spent elsewhere. I spent less than that for my entire trip to Hawaii last year (admittedly, I stayed with a friend, but still, it was a much longer trip).
Admittedly, a big part of my hesitation is also the travel time. Even if I go for a 4 day weekend, I’m still spending two of those days traveling.
I know that the couple understands the cost of the travel, and would understand if I backed out because of the price, but my friend has already asked me if I was coming, worrying that none of her friends would be able to make it. So I’m feeling a little bit obligated.
But $1000. I can technically afford it, but it puts a big dent in my budget.
She lives near me, so it’s not as if we never see each other. And only one of my other friends will be there, a friend who I will see many times throughout the year. So this isn’t one of those weddings that’s also a bit of a reunion.
I like her family a lot, and I’m sure the weekend would be fun, but right now, I’m really hesitating. What would you do?
Over the weekend, I read an article that discussed the possibility that the Fed might raise rates soon. (What does soon mean in this case? I don’t know.) The article was written with a sort of “Oh no, this is terrible!” sort of vibe, but as a saver, I was pleased to see this happening. Rising interest rates are always good for my savings account.
Now, I’m not entirely selfish here. There’s another big positive to rates rising. If the Fed is comfortable bringing rates up again, that means that they believe that the economy is finally moving in the right direction. That’s something I think we can all handle. It’s nice to not see all sorts of doom and gloom going on. Plus I like the idea that maybe my retirement accounts will finally start to show some real growth instead of loss.
Of course, I don’t want rates to skyrocket. That would be amazing for my savings account, but not so amazing for the day when I want to try to get a mortgage. But maybe we could have a nice balance.
So I haven’t even finished putting away my luggage from my last trip and I’m already making plans for the next one. Well, the next few. In the past few days, I have booked hotel rooms for three trips, registered for a race, and will probably register for another one soon.
The first trip planned is just a quick overnight stay. Since my half-marathon didn’t happen, I wanted to get one in before the summer so that I don’t end up with a mental stumbling block over the distance. I found one that’s fairly local and has great reviews, so I registered, and then, in the interest of not having to get up at 3am, decided to book a hotel room within walking distance of the start line for the night before. It will be a nice little treat for me.
The other two hotel stays are also for races – one in Florida and one in California. The California trip has been planned for months, my friend and I just didn’t have a hotel room yet. The Florida trip is a replacement for this most recent trip that turned out to be a bit of a bust. I haven’t registered for the Florida race yet, so for now, the trip is mostly refundable, though I really want to go. Next up will be looking for flights.
It feels like a lot of travel, and it is, but at the same time, it’s just a few weekend trips. It’s not cheap, but I do what I can to make the trips as cost effective as possible, and this is one of the reasons that I try to watch my spending in other categories. I would rather save on groceries and rent movies rather than go to the theater and then spend my money on fun trips. Other people don’t like to travel, so they splurge on fancy groceries or cute shoes. It’s all about the balance.
I kind of like the idea of traveling to run a race. It gives me an excuse to go to a new destination and something to do while I’m there. Plus it’s a good way to stay in shape. Never a bad thing.
Now to just kick the rest of this illness so I can get back to running this weekend!
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