I've Got A Bag Full of Money And You Don't

Actually, you may. I don't know.

But I do know that I do have a bag full of money, and it's really stressing me out. I had to walk home from the bank today with $500 in small bills and $300 in traveler's checks, and for someone who normally doesn't keep more than $40 in her wallet at a given time, it was anxiety-inducing. I don't know what I think is going to happen, but somehow I feel that it's taunting fate to walk around with a ridiculous stack of money on one's person.

I acquired the ridiculous money in preparation for Ecuador. We're hoping to avoid the Cambodian Dilemma, which was when we showed up to having minimized the number of dollars in our possession, only to discover a thriving underground dollar economy. We had to beg our hotel to change our remaining Thai bhat back into dollars, and the whole thing was very silly because it involved unnecessary middlemen. Actually, I think it is impossible to avoid feeling sheepish when you come up short of your own country's currency halfway around the world and have to ask a bunch of Cambodians to take your Thai money away and give you your own kind of money back in return. Ecuador uses the dollar officially, so it's not going to be exactly the same thing. But we didn't want to be caught short of funds, not when I love going to the markets so much.

I also deposited some savings bonds in my account. Thanks, Ladies of McKee, Gary and Joanne, and whoever else was behind that particular gift giving endeavor. Three $25s, two $50s, and one $100 back in 1976 (purchased in banks that have since merged with hundreds of other banks to form conglomerate banks, printed on punch cards that have long since been replaced by the outputs of sleeker and more graceful computers) = nearly $1500 new dollars into my account today. I took some time on my walk home to feel thankful for the stability of the US government, which held on for the 30 years necessary for my bonds to mature. Actually, it's only been 29 years, so there were two more accrual periods, but I thought that it was best to unload them now.