Happy New Year!

The year is over. It took long enough. So it's time for New Year's resolutions. I don't usually make them, cuz they usually just get broken two weeks into the year. But I'm going for it this year.

Here's my list:


1) Donate to charity.


I may not have a penny, but I have a ha'penny. With the economy as bad as it is, non profits really need help. I'm constantly receiving emails asking for donations. Of course I want to donate to them all, and it's actually stressful when I can't donate to every request. So this year I'm approaching it differently. If I can spend $20 a month on Netflix, then I should be able to spend $20 a month on donations. Every two weeks I'll pick a charity and donate $10. It's not much, but it gives me a chance to find several different charities that I like and hopefully narrow those down to one where I can volunteer.

2) Keep getting good grades. Duh.

3) Budget.

I'm tired of just paying tuition and bills and buying human and dog groceries, then more tuition and bills. Now that I'm in a cheaper place I'm going to set aside money for other things. Like working on my car and buying a laptop for school.

4) Keep the apartment clean and organized.

In Sense and Sensibility, the Dashwood women lose their house because of inheritance laws that ensure only a son inherits property. They are rendered penniless, especially in the eyes of male suitors, and relocate from the deceased Mr. Dashwood's estate to a cottage. Here they exist on 500 pounds a year, yet they still have a maid. Jane Austen herself lived in a similar straitened situation, especially after her father died. She eventually became able to provide income for her entirely female household (her mother, her sister Cassandra and sometimes a family friend, Marsha), but it definitely did not make her well off. The household still had a maid. The only way it would be possible is that the maids were paid some pitiful amount that is probably shocking. I did a little research, and found that servants were commonplace, worked incredibly long hours, and often slept in the attic. They were paid next to nothing, and if a maid was still considered an apprentice she was often paid nothing at all.

So I'm naming my "foundation" the Jane Austen Maids Foundation. Now if I win the lottery I already have a name, and I'll already have a list of charities.

I still don't have a maid though.