hey, please don't kick me...I'm already down

I spend the morning re-doing my resume and writing a custom cover letter for a job I find online. I doubt I will get a response but I give it my best shot anyway.

Later, two friends come over to watch a movie.  I put out some magazines (PEOPLE, Entertainment Weekly, and NY Magazine).  I find it hard to just sit and watch a movie at home, and usually like to catch up on mindless-reading simultaneously.  I assume others feel the same way.

My friends arrive.  One is not interested in celebrity gossip.  She looks at the magazines and says, “I assume these weren’t taken from a doctor’s offices.”  “No they weren’t,“ I tell her, knowing where this is heading.  She continues. “You actually pay for these?”  “Yes,” I say.  And then she proceeds to criticize me for spending money on trashy magazines that I really don’t need.  However, she loves the istara cheese I serve.  At $21/pound, it’s expensive.  I feel obliged to tell her it was a gift (which it was; someone brought it over during the holidays), even though she doesn’t ask.

After my friends leave, I am curious and check the costs of these magazines.

$30 for 104 issues (2 years) of Entertainment Weekly

$44.97 for 84 issues (2 issues) of New York Magazine

$133.50 for 150 issues (3 years) of People

I calculate the weekly cost of all three magazines: $1.71.  I know, I know, it all adds up and every little bit counts.  But do I really need to give up a guilty pleasure that provides hours of entertainment and makes me feel connected to a media world I was once part of?

I know my friend is well intentioned.  I know her heart is in the right place.  But criticizing me for buying magazines doesn’t help; it just makes me feel worse.

My friends leave and I watch the Patriots lose to Baltimore.  Now they won't be playing in the Superbowl.  Poor Tom.  But like poor Ben, he still has a lot to be grateful for.  And so do I.