The Power of Seeking Deals

I've never really been a big "coupon girl"...frankly i never had to be. But as "the economy" worsens and my life as an artist continues i realized that i should make friends with discounts and sales!

Now the past 2 years I've been in New York...having hardly any money, i would find deals sometimes, but for the most part just save enough to do something really special every once in a while. But looking at my week this week i've realized how much money i really do save now!

*Membership at NYSC: did the first week for free with Tenka, then 35 days for 35$ online-vs 69$

*since I applied for the Starbucks gold card i get a free drink every 15 stars! free coffee-Vs.5$

*Went to a really nice tanning salon and used a Tenka coupon spent $10-vs. $40

*Got a Bikini and leg wax for $45 going to a place that uses student discount- Vs. $50

*filled out online survey for free "O Coffee"-vs. 5$

*walked a few places vs. taking the subway (like 40 blocks)-Vs. 2.25 each time

>>>>>>>>>That was just this week and I could have spent=$171. 25!!!! But instead I spent:$90.00!!

(and of course I babysat 4 times this week so I wasn't just charging my life away...it's gotta go in the pocket if it's gonna come out)

The deals don't mean bad quality, they just mean smart buying

P.S. Also I would recommend having your own personal checkings acct. that you treat like a savings acct with some random bank. Since we are in college and are always switching money around it's better to have multiple checkings than savings if your going to be moving money a lot...like me. For example, I have 2 checkings with Chase. One for Rent money and One for my personal spending (food utilities movies etc...)

Then i also have a checking in Bank of America where money only goes in! My goal is to have my bottom line equivalent to 2months rent, 2 utilities and 2 groceries which is about $2,200. Then after that just continue putting a little in at a time, unless i have a salary of course. But i made it a checkings because you never know when an emergency is going to happen and need some extra cash but don't want to be charged a certain amount for pulling out of a savings and loosing interest. So instead...for now...I keep it as a checkings acct (that works for me as a savings acct.)

For us artists you never know what kind of jobs you'll be booking so i think it's super important to have a large savings at all times. My family and I lived off our savings for 10 years!!!! My mom was so good about saving! She must've had one heck of a savings to have a family of 5 live in LA off of it.... but who knows where we'd be if she didn't save?!?! She was one smart business woman and i will learn from her whatever I can :)

Believe like a child...

While I was babysitting this morning I was letting my Little boy, R, know we were going to the gymboree and his friends would be there! R, 2 years old, asked " is God gunna be there?"

thinking I mustve misheard him I said, "who?"

"GOD!" he exclaimed...

I said "well that's the funny thing about God... He's everywhere so yes he'll be there!"

We went to the table in front of their huge windows that look out into the courtyard and all of a sudden a crash oh thunder filled our ears. He ran out of his seat into my lap and said,"Is it gunna rain?" then it started pouring! He said "God must be really mad making loud thunder and booms!"

I wanted him not to be so scarred- he was shaking and couldn't stop starring outside. I told him. "God isn't making thunder cause he's angry, it's just an example of how powerful he is, but God isn't mad at you, he loves you! He loves when your laughing and filled with joy and having fun! Not when your scarred.."

He then asks, "but WHY does it rain?"

"Well... The birds need a bath and the trees and plants need food just like you and me. Rain is their food and rain is their shower". Then he says..."how do birds fly?" I told him,

"They have wings that keep them in the air" THEN he said,

"... like that man in front of the building right there?" I said "what? Where I don't see anything..."(we are 6 flights up after all...no man can just be infront of our building...so i'm looking for a window washer or something)

He said "right there in front of that house-that really big strong man with the big wings!"

I said "I don't see anyone. What color are his wings?" He said "big and white and he's flapping them really fast to stay up like a bird... "

Then he started talking to this man and told him to not have it Rain anymore... And it stopped raining...

I've never talked to him about angels... But what else could he have seen, right? Could heaven be closer than we think???

The Power of Love

There was a POW named Ernest Gordon
who was captured by the Japenese in WWII and
sent to a concentration camp that was known
to be the worst.

Here are some words of his: Towards the spring of 1943 our captors became increasingly nervous that the railway would not be finished on time, and they vented their anxiety on us. When we did not work fast enough to suit them---which was most of the time—they beat us mercilessly. Many did not have the stamina to endure. Many just slid to the ground and died. Human life was cheap—they could always bring more prisoners—so they didn’t care. I saw a guard, enraged over a trifle shriek and throw a hammer at a prisoner’s head. I saw one get guard get so angry at two prisoners making ready a dynamite charge that he walked to the detonator while they were still holding it and blew them to pieces. Death was everywhere—and as conditions worsened our lives became ponisoned by selfishness and hate and fear. Formerly we had huddled together out of fear, believing in safety in numbers. We had shown some consideration for one another natural. Now that was gone, swept away. Existence had become so miserable the odds so heavy against us, that nothing mattered except to survive. We lived by the rule of the jungle---the evolutionary law of the survival of the fittest. It was a cae of “I look out for myself and to hell with everyone else. Everyone was his own keeper—all the restraints of morality were gone..and then one afternoon something happened. A shovel was missing. The officer in charge became enraged. He demanded that the missing shovel be produced or else. When nobody in the squad budged, the offer go his gun and threatened to kill us all on the spot. Then on man stepped forward. The offer put away his gun. Picked up a shovel, and beat the man to death.

At the 2^nd tool check this time no shovel was missing—there had been a miscount at the first check point. The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp. An innocent man had been willing ot die to save others!!..The incident had a profound effect..The men began to treat each other like brothers. Another man was caught trading with the local people for medincines for a dying comrade and was sentenced to death. He submitted to it reading a little bible and then cheering up the chaplain right before his execution. Death was still with us—non doubt about that. But we wre being slowly freed from its destructive grip. We were seeing forces that make for like and those that make for death. Selfishness, hatred, jealously, and greed were all anit-life. Love self sacrifice, mercy on the other hand were the essence of life turing mere existence into living in its truest sense. These were gifts to us…

Embarrassing moment # 3

So it was my first year at AMDA. One night some friends and I went over to our friends appt. who lived in the same building as us. We went over because he said he got this new tea called "dieter's tea" that was supposed to make us skinny! Having no idea what exactly this "skinny tea" meant i had like 4 cups of it. THe next morning i felt a little weird but disregarded it. After my first class...i felt why it was called dieter's tea and was about to explode! I needed to find one of those you know SOLO bathrooms so I ran down the stairs where i knew there would be one open. At this point I was sprinting! THen at the bottom of the stairs was the boy my crush..
'Hey jillene how's it goin?"
SWEATING!!! Crossing my legs doing everything i can to keep it in...
"hahah heeeeeey...oh .....youknow...just chillin..."
Im trying so desperately to get away and inch towards the bathroom door.
"So what are you up to right now?" he said,
"oh actually im just" and then BOOM I SHIT MY PANTS!!!!
" Um i gotta go!!!!!!!!!!"
And i sprinted to the bathroom!!!!!!!

...I still had 3 periods to go to that day...pretty sure i smelt like a fart in every class....Oh brother.....

Embarrassing moment #2

It was Alexa's Dance party. I was in 8th grade the age when tweens are just getting into dance parties and learning to "freak dance". A very prestigious art form... It was the time when yoga pants were in style as regular pants one wears on the street...with a wife-beater. So I had just started dating my boyfriend the week of this party. Everyone was yelling at me to make out with him...but I'd never made out with a boy before!

So i was nervous and didn't want to...I was only 12 after all! I liked to DANCE!!

So resisting having to make out with my boyfriend, I was dancing with all the boys and girls at the party. It didn't matter if I was dancing with all the other guys because, as we always said, " it's just dancing!!" which by the way, are you kidding me? Just dancing?! there's no such thing. Our bodies are sexual things and there is no such thing as "just dancing" let's be real....

Anyway. As we've learned, I'm a shorty, so my yoga pants were a little long. I was dancing with Tommy Becker to some R&B song I'm sure when all of a sudden i had slipped on my pants since they were too long, and went flying backwards on to Tommy! IN FRONT OF EVERYONE!! i couldn't let them know i slipped! SO, in my panic i thought HOW THE HECK DO I COVER THIS AND STILL LOOK COOL?!?! So i thought I know pretend i fainted!!! So once i hit the floor(yes this was all going through my mind as i was falling) i shut my eyes and tried not to laugh or smile so they thought i really passed out! Then being the actress I am, i did the "i just woke up and don't know what's going on around me" wake up and apologized for falling on Tommy and thanked him for catching me[ batting my eyelids]. I was walked over to the couch, next to my boy friend.

My guy friends kept coming up to me and asking "did you make out with him yet" "did ya?" And now since no one would dance with me since they thought i passed out and should probably sit, i had no choice but to sit next to my boyfriend and feel the peer pressure of making out for the first time in my life in a public setting!! Just then a shout from alexa's mom " JIlleeeeeen your dad's outside"!

Knowing i had to make out with him or would never hear the end of it. I plunged towards his face,we made out really quick and fast for like 5 seconds, and i stormed out feeling so weird.

I hopped into my dad's car. My Dad looked at me and said,

"jillene are you okay your lips bleeding..."

"A.... yeah dad i just scratched it at the party..."

Yeah...8th graders have braces...and they slice your lips open if you don't know how to kiss yet....