I surrendered my clutch.

 "You're wasting your money," they tell me.

It's because I've been living in hotels. 

It does add up. Whereas if I had a big house with high taxes, HOA, and country club fees, we'd think of it as being fiscally responsible.

We all have our leaks. Really what they mean is it blows their mind to not be a person who lives somewhere.

Try to buy a condo and it's bidding wars, which means you can't really focus on what you want. You just have to fire and try to get it. Fun for a minute but it's no way to live.

It's no way to plant roots.

Residence Inn by Marriott has become my best friend, and always feels like home. I try to keep my eye on all Marriott brandings (shoutout to Fairfield Inn and The Courtyard), and move as prices dictate me.

Hilton. Choice Hotels. La Quinta. I role with all of them. Where I draw a line is really only that I like to be in a building rather than facing the outside. A label from Marriott just tends to win out a lot of the time for me, in any given location, so it's what I focus on.

I like to pretend they've noticed and scheme where they want to try to send me. 

I'll also factor in location, proximity to supermarket and restaurants that I like, and how it combines with potential next upcoming moves. So they don't have full control and won't know all the elements of my decision making.

Rooms are often fully refundable up to the day prior, I started to notice. So I map it out and sit on bookings, and then cancel if plans change or I notice something better.

I was sitting on Residence Inn Foxboro for $119/night, and then surrendered it to fumble around with Residence Inn Andover, which confused me and turned out to not be refundable. But it was refundable for a higher price, so I booked it for that price, only because the mantra goes that it's better to sit on something than on nothing, but I had little intention to actually go.

And somewhere along the way I surrendered it. I cancelled and didn't make a corresponding booking to somewhere else.

I hold myself to an etiquette of not ever double-booking the same date. I don't sit on multiple reserves. Whether or not their algorithms would be bothered by it, it's one of those things where karma rewards me, as in I won't ever forget and pay the no-show fee.

But what did happen is in between cancelling and re-booking, I got distracted and was sitting on none.

By the time I realized what happened, prices had blossomed and Foxboro was $129, and I just couldn't do it.

I didn't even want to sit on it. I just hate doing things that are strictly worse than something you can retrace back to that you could have done instead. Even though it still can be the case that as it exists now you should do it, it's just so hard to be correct in those spots, and I'm fine missing it and exploring everything else.

I'll be in Dedham.