Just Chilling

I’m going to have to turn the A/C on. I was trying to fight it but it has come to the point that it needs to be done, the breaking point was, as it is yearly, when my lipsticks turn into lip puddles. I’m going to have to close all the windows, lecture Dogger on the importance of not having to open and close the doors as often as well as retrain both of us in the use of the basement door as a point of egress.

To keep my mind of the heat and the animals’ pleadings (“even our lips have fur!!!”) and my melting make up, I spent yesterday evening researching my various subscription renewals. I get entirely too many magazines. I get Entertainment Weekly and Us which is like getting the same magazine twice – the only difference between the two on a weekly bases is that one will feature Jessica Simpson on the cover and the other will have Paris Hilton. Inside they are the same magazine – except that Us seems to use more paparazzi shots then Entertainment Weekly - and that alone should be an easy choice - I should ditch Us. And I’m going to, at least I tried. I wrote them a little email and told them to get stuffed more or less but maybe something a little more polite, but I told them I could no long afford them and goodbye. I also ended up with Movieline – Hollywood Life, which is confusing because I never ordered Hollywood Life. It just showed up. I did order Movieline years ago, which magically stopped somewhere along the line and they started to send Hollywood Life in its stead. And I’m pretty sure that they are not the same magazine – because you can subscribe to HL for $1.50 and Movieline is at least $6.

About a year a go I learned that I do not need to pay full price for a subscription. (Insert Singing of Angels, Mozart music and general hosannas) I had been going through the publishers every year like a good little subscriber, for years and years and years and by this time, hundreds and hundreds of dollars ordering my magazines from my magazines. This is stupid. This is also expensive. While it is less expensive then say, buying from the newsstand, it is still very expensive and unnecessary. And stupid and why didn’t anyone mention this to me years ago? I don’t know but they suck and they should have.

Learn from me. Go to Ebay.com or Amazon and enter “magazine subscription” or “magazine subscriptions” or even better, go to Google and enter the same thing and don’t forget to check out the sponsored links as well. Search for your favorite magazine and then kick yourself when you see the prices. Almost everything, including weeklies can be found for much, much, much less then you are paying them now. I got a year of Movieline for $6, I got a year of Texas Monthly for $9, I got Entertainement Weekly for $25 – although, I am pretty sure I paid less last year, the asking price for a year through the publisher is $55! I am still debating Us because even through the discounters is like $35 and I don’t like the magazine that much. I don’t even remember ordering in the first time around but I think I got it as part of a deal, because Movieline also just appeared one day too. I had to move fast on them because they conveniently reup themselves every year with out my participation and it cost a fortune. I get my VISA bill and there is this huge payment and I’m always shocked and wonder what the hell I charged. I wanted to not be shocked this year. I’m not going to be thrilled with all the magazine subscriptions showing up as it is, but they are all, added together are less then the price of just one of those same subscriptions had I gone through the publisher to get them.

I know it’s wrong and kills trees and adds to my mail carriers bad back but I really, really, really like having stuff around to read. Right now, I’m trying to decided if I want to replace Us with The New Yorker, I have many, many, many choices.