what it cost to be out on the town yesterday

9:42 a.m. 2 euros 10 to ride the bus into my 10 a.m. writing group, because my monthly pass only starts at 10 a.m. every day (21 euros cheaper per month; since I go early way fewer than 10 times a month it still makes sense)

10:15 a.m. 1 euro 50 for peppermint tea and a mini brownie (teeny tiny) - I think it was 1.50 - and then I put in maybe 20 cents for a tip

noon maybe 8 euros or 9 euros for soup (green beans with ham pieces or something, which I did not expect), salad (just green, with a balsamic vinaigrette), and a bottle of water (oh, and again I put something in for the tip)

twenty minutes later I can't remember, maybe a euro total, for 3 mini brownies to go

around 1:00 pharmacy, picked up some prescription stuff for a rash, but no money changed hands because I'd paid for it the day before

1:30 1 euro 50 for the peppermint tea I wrote about yesterday, and maybe again 20 or 30 cents for the tip that caused me all the extra trouble with blocking the door while I stood trying to fish out the change and my backpack jutting backwards (this whole episode was just because I wanted to write some postcards and I completely forgot to do them in coffeeshop number 1 where my writing group was, where I stayed and had lunch after the others left - it was so cold and grizzly sleety awful there was no way this could be done outside)

2:00 bought some tickets for sister-in-law and her man to go to the wonderful show hubby and I had gone to two weeks ago (or was it really just a week ago???) - I don't count that though in what it cost to be out and about

2:30-ish 21 euros at a big secondhand store for a poufy purple pair of workout pants and a button-down red skirt (tried on lots of things but only those fit) - I bumped into that store on my way to look for the internet store somebody had sent me to

3:00 1 euro to use the bathroom in the zoo train station - very fancy bathroom set up if I do say so but pricy, called McClean I believe

3:30 2 euros to use the internet at the internet cafe for an hour

4:30 bought Felix some fancy lime green shoes he has to have to wear to gym class at school (he's faked his way through it all year so far but somebody at school laid down the law) - again, I won't count this really in the cost of being downtown, I had to get those for him

5:00 walked home most of the way, talked on the phone to Sabine in the hospital post-knee operation, and briefly to Max if I remember correctly, and left phone messages for Alex and family - hopped on the 29 bus for a few stops along the way and then another ten-minute walk home but no money changed hands because my trusty bus pass worked then - tried to buy a raisin roll but no dice, they were out, so that didn't cost anything - I suppose strictly speaking the phone calls cost something but I wasn't laying out cash so I couldn't say (and come to think of it, the long one, with  Sabine, was on her nickel)

Very nice to be home at the end of the long day out! Somewhere along the way (actually, at the McClean place) I put a ten-euro bill into a wall change machine and got out lots of nice shiny 1- and 2-euro coins, which in turn had many adventures today, but we won't go into that.

Now it's time to run off and hang with the in-laws - my fath'r-in-law is in town for a few days, and I haven't seen the baby and her family for over a week - I'm going to have to stop calling her the baby soon I think she's growing all up.