Style over Substance... and things that annoy me.

In regards to style over substance I usually go with practical and utilitarian. Things should work well but not look awful if possible and if you can get practical for less you go for it. It might be the Midwest upbringing but you don't draw attention to yourself and you certainly don't "waste" money on unneeded flash (or style perhaps?). The reason I bring this up is I have the ultimate style vs. substance dilemma to resolve and it's not too late for me to change my mind.

I mentioned a few posts ago that my glasses broke. They were 4 years old and their time was probably up. Right now I'm wearing a retired pair that's close to 6 - 7 years old and they actually fit pretty well now that I'm readjusting to them. It helps that my prescription hasn't really changed in 12 years too. I did little research into my vision coverage and pretty much all the basics would be covered in the frames and lenses department. I've worn glasses for over 20 years now and I have a few things I like to do in terms of enhancements in the way of scratch proofing and anti-glare but for the most part I'm pretty run of the mill. This ties into the Midwest upbringing - you don't wear "weird" glasses and certainly not ones that draw attention to yourself.

Today on my way home, I stopped at a store that specializes in frames to check out some options and look at some unique or different frames. I must have misunderstood some details or wasn't paying very close attention at appropriate times but the moral of the story is I ended up with some frames that are MUCH MUCH more expensive than I was anticipating AND outside of my comfort zone in terms of style. My friend David asked if there was a TV installed when I told him the cost of my potential glasses. I could buy a decent TV but not great TV so I'll say more than $5 and less than $1000. I have to figure out what exactly the vision insurance will cover as this is out of network so they'll cover some of the cost but nowhere near all. I have two weeks to think about this decision so I'll poll the audience - do I go with the more expensive/stylish/daring pair of glasses that is slightly out of my comfort zone, or do I go with the traditional approach and get a plain(boring even?)/comfortable/less expensive pair of glasses?

Things that annoy me would be getting an email from the payroll department informing me I'm getting a "corrected" W2 because there were some sort of errors on the initial one as it related to my relocation. One one hand I'm really annoyed at this because it could be a huge pain in the butt, however because of the move I haven't actually done my taxes yet. Forwarding and address changes meant I didn't actually get all the tax documents until relatively recently so I won't have to redo my taxes but I'm still annoyed. This is the first year I'm not 100% confident I'm going to get money back. I expect that I will but with all the move related stuff plus filing in two states will add a layer of complexity and could make this more complicated, I still think I'm getting something back but it's more like 95% sure instead of 100%.

Another thing that annoys me is the Marquette basketball coach quitting and leaving for the Indiana job. I can't really fault him for leaving for IU. It's a great job and so on but I don't have to like it. I think MU is at a huge crossroads but I think we'll step up to the plate and swing for the fences. My friend David likes to reference Casey At the Bat and I feel that is where MU cannot go. I would hate to swing for the fences and miss terribly but MU cannot settle either. 1.8MM dollars is a lot of coin and should interest some serious candidates that would not have been available 9 years ago when this opportunity last presented itself. Having seen MU at the low point of missing the NIT though the high point of going to the Final Four I can tell you the latter is much preferred to the former. Normally, I tend to go off toward the deep end in regards to MU basketball but tonight I'm surprisingly OK, it might be some form of shock I suppose, but the next few days or weeks will certainly be interesting.