simple minds, simple pleasures

i found a dollar in the garden in front of my house. and then i went to the 7-eleven :)

i see you're available. . .

at work my friend andy got a promotion and a brand new cubicle right next to mine. as part of his promotion, he gets to see who's on the phone and who's available to take another phone call. so this morning, right as i hung up from a phone call he says through the wall, "so, lizzie, i see you're available. would you like me to give your number to some people?" and i said, "um, yeah. but be smart about it." nothing, of course, will come of it because andy is convinced that i'll end up married to one of my students. he asks me every week if i think any of them are cute. sure, they're cute. like, you were in middle school when i graduated from COLLEGE, cute. yeah, i'll pass on that one. . .

free is better than not free

so i checked my mailbox at school to find my long-awaited letter telling me how awesome the department thinks i am and how they would love nothing more than to give me lots and lots of money. yes, it was none other than my award letter for next year's teaching assistantship. hooray for me!! another year of free school!! and i'm getting a raise, too. 10% to be exact. this year i got free tuition and a $10,000 stipend. next year i get free tuition and an $11,000 stipend. that's like $25 more every week. they love me, what can i say?

thoughts on wyoming

• loaf-n-jug. i think it's a funny name for a convenience store, even if it is very descriptive. it just sounds a little off, i think.
• drive-thru liquor stores. i know they don't serve open beverages, but it's really just begging for trouble.
• along the lines of the liquor stores, the liquor store-pharmacy combo is especially ironic. just think about it.
• more thoughts on convenience stores. i stopped at the flying-j in evanston to get a drink and some cheeto puffs. problem #1-no mint tea. problem #2-no cheeto puffs. but i could have purchased any number of items that would appeal strongly to professional truckers, such as motivational books on cd, big gaudy fake rings that look like class rings, and any other number of western paraphenalia that can only be found in a quasi-truck stop. so in my opinion, the flying-j is more of an inconvenience store, not quite to the degree of gary larson, but close.
• across from the flying-j there's a little porn shop that advertizes the following: magazines, videos, novelties, arcade. what kind of arcade is it?! i probably shouldn't even ask. and then the sign says it's an adult shoppe. yes, that's how they spell it, as if that somehow makes it less sleazy if they add the extra "pe".

i realize that this whole thing has been about stores. convenience, liquor, adult. i guess that's my entire impression of wyoming between the border and exit 91.

spring fever

it's officially almost spring, and it even almost feels like it sometimes. this is what i like about spring

• how 40 degree weather no longer warrants a coat
• first car wash that doesn't freeze your doors shut
• crocuses peeking through the snow.
• spring break (even if i still have to work every day)
• getting really great parking spots at school because more people are walking
• the urge to go hiking, camping, be outdoors in general
• cadbury creme eggs
• daylight savings (mixed feelings here really. this year's okay. i have 1:00 church)

my list was much longer and better earlier, but i'm now sitting in my basement and it's gone now.

mission story # 2668

i think it's about time for another mission story. it's been a while. i don't know why i was thinking about this the other day, but it always makes me laugh. so at all of the churches in ecuador, they are surrounded by big fences with padlocked gates. my companion and i (it was hna moss at the time) were at the church waiting for something. we were inside the gate with the ward mission leader and some other people. we may have been there for a baptism interview or something, but i forget. anyway, we locked the gate behind us. the zone leader elder dannelley was on splits with elder molyneux (we were in the mtc together). the other zone leader had the keys to the church, so they couldn't get in. no one moved immediately to let them in, and louise just looked at them and said, "foolish, foolish virgins." to which elder molyneux, age 24, replied, "how do you know?" and we were just trying to make a simple scriptural reference. i couldn't really laugh at the moment because there's no telling how honest he was being, but now i laugh every time i think about it. hope i didn't butcher it too much. maybe it was just a you-had-to-be-there moment.

retail therapy

one might ask why i could possibly need another pair of heels when i already had this many


the answer to that question is that i didn't have a pair of these before

that's right, yellow shoes. and not just yellow shoes, but patent yellow shoes. they were so so cute that they demanded to come home with me, even though i could think of nothing off the top of my head that i could wear them with. irrelevant. i've figured it out. wore them to church today. so sometime in the middle of sacrament meeting i got a little note from a girl sitting a few seats down on my row. i couldn't even tell you her name, but she is an architect and always looks super super cute. this is what the note said, "cute CUTE yellow shoes! don't forget to thank Heavenly Father for giving you amazing taste! :) Have a good day!" and how could i not after a note like that? it almost goes without saying that i love my ward a lot.

i, of course, couldn't let the yellow shoes come home all alone. it can be lonely being the only new pair of shoes in the closet. so i found this cute pair of chuck taylors on the clearance rack. only $20, i might add. (i'm not telling how much the other ones cost. i will just say that sometimes it's good to be single and not have to account for my purchases to anyone but me. i will say that i got all of the shoes at DSW, which has everything on sale all of the time.)

and finally, the shoes that i actually intended to buy. a nice pair of not too casual, not too dressy black shoes. kenneth cole reaction. super comfy shoes. the last pair of heels from the first picture are also kenneth cole reaction. they are by far the most comfy heels i've ever worn. kudos to kenneth cole.

this round of retail therapy has, unfortunately, delayed my next planned purchase (tent and camp stove) for a week or two, but kirkhams doesn't get their spring/summer stock for a few more weeks anyway, so i'm totally good.