delight in life

somehow i always end up with wet clothes and no quarters right before i travel.

But I'm off anyway, hoping my jeans will dry before 5 am tomorrow, when I'm leaving for bright & colorful Laredo!

Happy weekend, everybody!

15 days.

brings a little tear to my eye.

have i ever told you how much i like to get things for free?

There is not a lot I won't do to get something for free. Actually, before you go getting ideas of me as some looney girl who ran off to college and lost her morals, let me tell you that was a statement intentionally exaggerated for effect.

Two summers ago I applied for over 20 jobs at various places around town and did not get called in for one interview. One night while making a frozen pizza to soothe my depressed, self-pitying soul, I entered the online sweepstakes on the back of the pizza box and won a hundred dollars. For serious! I just WON a hundred dollars! Well, it was actually a gift card. But it was a gift card to the Apple Store! That's serious business, people.

So I decided that since I was apparently unemployable but totally lucky, I would make sweepstakes my job that summer. And boy did I. I spent two hours every morning entering sweepstakes. I had a big complicated Excel spreadsheet keeping me organized. My grand total that summer:

• $100 giftcard to the Apple Store
• $20 giftcard to Toys R Us
• 1 package of Kryptonite Silly Putty
• $150 of scrapbooking goodies from scrapsupply.com
• 1 totally sweet tan from spending all summer by the pool and not working in some lame store

It turned out to be a pretty cool summer.

The point of all this is that I found this picture of me from last August with a giant plant that I got for free.

I went to the flower store and they said if I signed up for their customer rewards program I could have my pick of any of the plants on the wagon right there. I'm pretty sure all I heard was "blah blah blah free plant." So I signed up. And I took this glorious, gigantic, hot pink TWENTY DOLLAR PLANT home with me, even though there were some others that might have actually had a chance at living inside my cave of an apartment. And then I had Chris take a picture so I could show Mom my sweet spoils.

my camera deserves an award for not crapping out on me in the face of overwhelming wetness.

The week before I ventured into The Land of No Internet, I kept meaning to use one of my 8.5 free minutes to write about our blizzard, but it's awfully hard to think about cold, wet snow when it's 85 and sunny outside.

It may even be a moot point by now, but I like the pictures, so you have to look at them. Or skip over them. Whichever.

Roommates are good because you instantly have someone to play in the snow with.

White car, white snow.

Favorite picture of the whole day:

We gave up on these snow blobs immediately after this picture. We'd been working on them for two hours and didn't have the energy to continue.

Then we went inside and ate nachos. They were delicious.

one thing i didn't do is take many pictures.

Well, I'm back. I know you missed me. It's been a while, but I just spent a week in The Land of No Internet. It will take me one more week just to get caught up on everything The Internet did in my absence.

This  week was a much needed & well appreciated break. Here's what I did:

• I read three wonderful books. 
• I slept a lot. 
• I watched a fabulous speech. 
• I played some cards. 
• I babysat some cool kids. 
• Grannie and I went shopping once. When we came back we were so tired we took a nap. (But while we were at the mall, we saw a REAL LIVE TIGER, two baby black bears, a kangaroo, and some timberwolf puppies. So the nap was well deserved.)

and that's about it.

Good week. Exactly what I needed.

snow dance, part 3.

Ok, so the other night when it snowed? We still had school the next day. It all melted by about 2 am.

A month-ish ago, when I could practically taste the snow, I wanted it so bad? Didn't happen.

But now. But now. THIS IS IT PEOPLE.

If I had a farm, I'd bet it. So it's probably a good thing I don't have a farm. The closest thing I've got to a farm are the two papers and a test tomorrow. I'd really like to bet them, but the house always wins, right?

OKAY PEOPLE. While I was writing that last sentence, I looked up and the sky was THROWING SNOWBALLS DOWN. Seriously. Snowing HARD.

So Alisha and I stood outside and watched it forever and then we went and walked around in it. That was an hour ago and it's STILL GOING.

I think this is it for real. For realsies.

I am so excited I can't stand it. I LOVE SNOW.

EVERYONE SCHOOL HAS JUST BEEN CANCELED FOR THE DAY. I HAVE TO GO. PICTURES LATER.

in the interest of public knowledge and safety.

I received this email from Chris today:

Hey babe, I found a good quiz to help keep us alive.  Don't feel bad if you do poorly at first, afterwards they'll tell you the best answers and why.  It judges your physical and emotional as well as your general knowledge of zombies and firearms. 

Just to let you know I got an overall rating of Z+.  That means physically and mentally, my will to survive is unstoppable.  It would take a holocaust to stop me, and Zombies don't have a chance.  It's probably best if you do it without sound so you don't get scared by the music.  Love you.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/425802

Good advice for us all.

I got a B. "As long as you remain vigilant and calculating,  you will most likely live to tell your tale." I attribute all of my zombie knowledge to Chris's dedicated instruction. How's your zombie knowledge?

seriously, guys. texas weather is weird.

Saturday it was eighty degrees outside. The most beautiful weather I've seen in quite a while.  The tree on our corner decided it was finally springtime and bloomed, quite beautifully. Last night, we were under tornado watch. Right now, it is snowing. A lot. We're supposed to get three inches tonight. If you live in the north you are no doubt laughing at that, but people. It was eighty degrees forty eight hours ago.

The poor tree is so confused.

I am so excited.