Temptation
The city of Los Angeles can be a veritible sea of temptation. Financially responsible women have to be clever to avoid the areas populated by the ubiquitous “cute store.” However, when you WORK in such a neighborhood, temptation poses a great financial risk. The neighborhood where I now work is one such place; a paradise of “cute stores” and pituitary gland stimulating coffee shops. Going on lunch breaks is now an exercise in desire management.
First of all, we’ll start with the small stuff…coffee. I work one block from five coffee shops, including the grand-daddy coffee house, Peet’s Coffee. Due to urinary tract issues (read blogs below), I cannot drink coffee for at least three months. So, every morning is a slight torture curbed only by the occasional danish.
Now let’s get down to the main issues, the cute store factor. It’s killing me…
Despite the fact that most of the items in these store cost the equivalent of my monthly grocery allowance and the fact that some of the items are a little ridiculous (like tops that have some weird piece of fabric dangling awkardly down the side…), I’m attracted to these bastions of color and price tags like a moth to the flame. ACROSS THE STREET from me is the Michael Star store (while I’m currently in detox, I have been known to consume an unbalanced quantity of these shirts). On the other side of the street are two of the most fabulous stores in Los Angeles. Not to mention that up the street are a couple of skin-care stores where I could easily spend the equivalent of my car-insurance premium on exfoliation, and all around me are restaurants where I can spend a lot of money eating out.
Just for today, I can hang tight to my spending plan.