Of Toms and Abes

I spent all of the $2 bills that I got. Most of them seemed to go under the register or the tray, much as I expected. $2 bills just don’t seem to be that popular. I’m not sure if they ever were, though. Stores generally don’t have a place for them in the register. They’re not printed as often as other bills. I’m not sure if there was some shift in public thinking that caused that or if that’s the way it always was.


It seems that I am finding a lot of markings on my bills these days. I found this on a five-dollar bill. I got it from the casino in Hallandale Beach. I’m going to keep it separated from the others so that I can be careful when I spend it. I may separate it permanently because I’m not sure how people would react to seeing it.

It’s kind of interesting, though, seeing all of the markings on bills. I seem to be more aware of it because I’m stamping bills front and back. I get a nice, close look at all of the bills. I wonder if anyone actually takes many of the markings seriously. Many of mine seem to go unnoticed.

More Toms

I got some more $2 bills. I only got about fifteen, six of which I kept. (Four were consecutive 2003-series bills.) I’ve spent two of them so far, but it doesn’t look promising. One got put the bottom of the singles pile and the other got put under the register tray.

Speaking of Where’s George, I got no reaction from the Where’s George shirt, although I plan to wear it again next week. I don’t really know what I was expecting.

I have been getting a lot of new counties and even a new state. I’ve been wondering what the best way to go about getting new states would be. It’s a shame that I didn’t know about the site when I went to my brother’s graduation. With all of the people gathered in one place and likely to soon spread out, it would have been perfect.

I’ve been wondering where the best place to find a marked bill would be. Banks would be the obvious choice, but I have to think in terms of bill density. If I’m going to break a twenty or a fifty, which place would most likely give me a bill as change?

I got one at a Chili’s recently. When paying with a twenty, I got eleven singles back, one of which was marked. I’d think that restaurants are a good bet. Places where employees get cash tips seem to attract a lot of marked bills. The thing is that I can’t really just go in there and ask for bills as change. If I ever go back by myself, I have to make it a point to pay with a large bill.

I found a rather interesting bill the other day. Someone apparently saw fit to make a funny face on the portrait of George Washington. I don’t know who did it or why, but this is the sort of thing you come across when you pay attention to the bills. Mostly, it’s people writing random numbers or letters on the bills, but occasionally, you find interesting stuff.

I once saw a bill with something like, “I found Jesus” on it. I don’t really understand what they hoped to accomplish. I’ve never heard of anyone finding Jesus through a message on a bill. It’s also a little disturbing to think that people are trying to use currency to convert people to their religion.

My brother and his wife got me a Where’s George? shirt for Christmas. I’ll actually be wearing it for the first time today. I want to see what kind of reaction I get to it. I’m not sure if a lot of people will stop me and say that they’re users, also. I expect to get a few questions about the site, but I get that occasionally because of the marked bills.

As for right now, I have some cleaning to do. In the rush of getting stuff moved into my new room, my brother had to move a lot of things into boxes. I’m now going through those boxes to see what I want to keep.

Happy New Year

So, it’s a new year. I never really understood why it was such a big deal. Ok. So it’s time to break out a new calendar and we have to remember to write a different number on checks, but what is the big deal?

The thing I never got was the whole resolution thing. We make these promises to ourselves that we know we’ll break by the end of the month like it’s something special. If you’re serious about it, just do it.

They’re also usually the same three or four resolutions: Lose weight, get a new job, find a boyfriend/girlfriend, etc. I’ve never heard any interesting ones. I’d like to hear someone resolve that they’ll finally move all the dead bodies in their back yard or they’ll finally convert their Italian lira to Euro. Perhaps if I heard someone resolve to do something unusual, I might take more interest in doing it myself.