How to Spend Money

Like most Americans, you have a lot of extra money to spend.  If you're like me, you get paid way too much money for the work you put in at the office (or restaurant or coal mine or cruise ship or wherever you actually do work).  You've probably also found that the cost of living is incredibly low nowadays.  Mortgage and rent payments are practically nonexistent.  Healthcare is nearly free.  Groceries almost pay you to take food off the shelves.

Or maybe not any of those things.  But maybe you have a few extra dollars to put toward a good cause anyway?  I, for one, am a sucker for a good cause.  Show me 30 seconds of sad cat and dog faces set to sad Sarah McLachlan music and my wallet practically opens itself.  Allow me to present you with a good cause:  The A-T Children's Project.  I'm running a couple back-to-back races in August (a 10k on Saturday and half marathon on Sunday) in partnership with the organization and have committed to raising money to support research and the search for a cure for ataxia-telangiectasia.

Perhaps you're not convinced that you should put your hard earned dough towards this endeavor.  Well, my friend, I scoured the internet today and have compiled a list of things that you could buy that are worse than donating to charity.  Without further ado:

1.  Baby Mop
2.  Crafting with Cat Hair
3.  Canned Unicorn Meat
4.  Mildew Perfume
5.  Tortoise Cozy

It's not that I disagree in theory with putting your baby to work or making sure your turtle is ensconced in something that does not look like a turtle.  It's just that I think you can put those things on a birthday wish list or christmas list so your loved ones know what to get you on those special days.

On a more serious note, if you're still unconvinced, take a second to peruse these blogs.  They are written by parents of children with A-T.  It's an illness that few people have heard of so if you are interested in connecting with the cause, I'd urge you to read a little so you know what the kiddos (and their families) are dealing with.  It's a pretty raw deal.  Your donations would mean a lot.  The blogs I've linked to below are not affiliated with A-T Children's Project, which is the charity I'm supporting via your donations.  I'm just including them because they helped me put faces on a disease I had never heard of before partnering with A-T Children's Project for my races.

Bradenwinks
Ameliasproject
Jillshope

Here's one last link and it's an important one... the link to my fundraising page.  I appreciate anything and everything.  I'm hoping to raise quite a bit of money and am pretty far from my goal but I'm still optimistic.  Click here to go to Erica's A-T Children's Project Personal Fundraising Page.

Peas and Love,

Erica

For Rent

I'm moving in two months.  Where to has yet to be decided so I turned to the only safe place I know of for an answer to that question.  Craigslist.

Typically, I only use Craigslist to post in the Missed Encounters section.  For example... "You were working the drive-thru at McDonalds.  When I pulled up to pay, you said I had pretty eyes.  Then you gave me two free apple pies.  "Pies for eyes" is what you said.  If you're still interested in these eyes, we should hook up sometime."

But recently, I've also been using it to look at apartments in different areas to figure out what might work for me.  Over the past week or so, I've developed some thoughts and I'm going to share them with you.

First, I'm curious about my ability to live comfortably in a studio apartment the size of a shoebox.  I fear that my stuff will cause the walls to burst at the seams and overflow out of the windows, much like Fish's fur and muscle used to do when he sat inside of a shoebox.  I have a lot of stuff.  None of it is worth anything though, Potential Robbers, so don't even think about it.  I do have an owl-shaped vase that's pretty cute though.  Anyways, it'd be great if I could pay less rent and utilities and a shoebox studio appears to be the only way to do it.  The upside of this is that I like cooking and I like laying on my bed and in this scenario, I'd be able to do both at the same time b/c my bed will basically be in the kitchen.  Convenience!

Second, where should I go?  I adore Soulard but it's not convenient to any single important thing/person in my life... not work, not school, not family, not friends, not boyfriend, etc.  I heart Tower Grove but that's not exactly much closer.  It is, however, convenient to my new favorite dessert from Treehouse, and that ranks pretty high.  I probably need to eat the Lemon Rhubarb Parfait every day of my life so accessibility to it is fairly important.  U. City and the Delmar Loop is probably my favorite portion of the city so maybe I could go back there?  For the third time?  Last time I moved out of U. City, my mattress flew out of the back of my Dad's truck on Delmar so perhaps we could reenact the whole scenario, only coming back in?  Decisions, decisions.

Today though, in an effort to keep an open mind about all of my options, I decided to look in the rooms for rent section.  Maybe I could live with a roommate again?  Let me tell you... some human beings are diamonds and Craigslist is a diamond mine.  Here are my favorite options that I'm considering:

The first one I clicked on had "FREE WEEKLY BINGO" in the headline.  I'm in!  I LOVE Bingo!  B12!  N32!  I could practically hear it in my head.  I'm just not sure how to get past the age 62+ requirement.  If I go to a tanning bed every day for the next two months, do you think I can get my skin leathery-looking enough to pass for a tiny bit more than twice my age?

One guy is "seeking female to to a beach area (midwest)".  This one caught my eye b/c Midwest beaches are the best.  His ad was a little confusing though b/c he's never met a punctuation mark that he liked, I guess.  I'd say it was one run-on sentence but it didn't appear to be a sentence so much as just words typed one after another.  But I saw "beach", "movie location", and "I need you to have a vehicle" so that's pretty much all I needed to know.  I sent that link to my boyfriend to see what he thought and I'm pretty sure he wants me to keep looking.  I don't know why.  The man looked very trustworthy (if a little rage-full) in the included picture.

Lots of male posters seemed to be looking for a housekeeper, among other things.  "Will lower rent if you clean and provide female companionship" and "Looking for a friends with benefits type of situation" were fairly common.  Unfortunately, I don't really like to clean.  I would however go halfsies on a Roomba if you want!  Let the robot clean.  But still cut my rent in half please.  As far as female companionship goes, we can name the Roomba "Sally" or "Trixie" if you want.  And I'm not sure what to do about the friends with benefits proposition.  Presumably, this guy is looking for health benefits, right?  I might be able to kick in on that but not dental and definitely not vision.  I've never heard of a friendship requiring those things but I don't know what else he could mean.

There was one female poster who was looking for a roommate and a friend.  I want to be her friend!  Should I send her an email asking to meet?  We could rent a movie, like "Single White Female" and learn all about each other.

Lastly, some places don't allow pets.  I already have a cat named Chips and she's nonnegotiable.  If I put a sweater and a hat and glasses on her, do you think I could pass her off as a baby?  People might think it's a weird-looking baby but if there's one thing I know about humanity, it's that a person will never tell a mom that her baby is ugly or weird-looking.  At least not to her face.

Peas and Love, Movers and Shakers

P.S.  I called you Movers and Shakers b/c I want all of you to help me move my crap in two months so I thought you should get used to the term "Movers".  I only used "Shakers" b/c it's catchy.  I do not want you to shake my stuff.

My Best Friend

Eight and a half years ago, I adopted my best friend... my favorite little companion... my best decision ever... my Fish.  I am heartbroken as I write this because he is no longer with me.  I type freely on this laptop keyboard without him climbing on top of it and sitting in front of the screen demanding the attention that he deserves and I hate it.

Fish did not like the show "Supernatural" but he did love me so he put up with it.

I rescued him from a horrible state-run facility in the city when he was a kitten.  I remember every detail of that day, the bars on the windows, the gloomy weather.  I remember seeing him sitting in his cage, with dogs barking all around, so tiny and scared.  And I remember falling in love with him in an instant.  I filled out the adoption paperwork that day.  A few days later, I was able to pick him up from the vet where he was neutered and vaccinated to take him home.  When the vet brought him out to me, she remarked that she had never seen such a handsome little guy, all fluffy gray fur with perfect white lining around his eyes and a white puff at the tip of his tail.  I agreed happily.  She said that he was handsome enough to be a cat model.  He was adorable enough to be on the cover of a cat magazine or at least on those Cuddly Cuties folders that little girls get for school.  I laughed and agreed again.  Well I never got him into modeling and so to make up for it, I'm going to share some pictures and memories with all of you instead.

Fish liked to take up as much room on the bed as kittenly possible.  This was a trend that never stopped.  And he deserved every inch of space he wanted.

My tiny baby.  This was before he started growing his massive bones.

 When I adopted my little babers, I didn't have a name picked out yet.  A friend of mine at work, Scott, suggested Fish.  See, the landlord of the apartment I was renting with two of my sorority sisters didn't allow any pets, except for fish.  I went ahead and got the kitten anyway b/c we all agreed we needed some furry love in our lives.  And then, by naming him Fish, if the landlords ever asked if we got any pets, I could answer "Fish" and not be lying.  Unfortunately our trickery was uncovered a week or two after getting the little guy when the landlord stopped by unexpectedly to check batteries in the fire detectors.  I put Fish in my closet and asked him politely but frantically to be quiet while he was there.  I guess Fish didn't understand plain English (I don't hold it against him) because he started scratching at the door and meowing.  Luckily, the guy took one look at Fish's adorable mug and agreed to let me keep him as long as I didn't tell his wife.

One of my sorority sisters got me this turtle raft (the turtle was DZ's mascot) and Fish LOVED it.  He loved it to death when his claws poked many holes into the poor turtle's back.  But it was too funny walking into the room and seeing him jumping around on it or taking a nap.

The fur around Fish's mouth was white.  My sister and I used to joke that he ate a lot of powdered sugar donuts to keep it that way.  She would tell me, in the deep voice we gave to him, that he had several boxes delivered that day.

This is one of my favorite pics.  Such a personality.

He helped me with laundry.

Fish was definitely a playful guy as a kitten.  In that first apartment, we had a long hallway with wooden floors.  He'd start at one end of the hallway, sprint down it and slide into the wall at the other end.  His toy of choice was sparkly balls, though any balled up piece of paper would do in a pinch.  I'd throw them down the steps or into another room and he'd chase after them and bring them back.  It was not uncommon for him to put them in his water dish either.  I thought it was very responsible of him to clean his toys.  I appreciated it less though when he would put it in his water, take it out of his water and leave it in my bed.

His favorite possession of all time though (besides my heart) was his pole toy.  It was a pole with two cords dangling off of it and at the end of each cord was a sparkly ball with a reindeer on it.  Technically, this toy was given to my family's cat Puck for Christmas one year but Fish sort of commandeered it.  Puck was kind enough to let him have it without a fight.  Fish would pick up one of the sparkly balls in his mouth and drag that pole around behind him.  He'd meow and drag it up and down the steps, through the different rooms of my house, onto my bed, etc.  That toy was like his safety blanket.  Eventually one ball fell off and the other had to be sewn on several times.  He had that pole toy until the very end and it is now one of my favorite possessions.

Fish walked through the handle of this bag and it got caught around his stomach.  When he realized he was stuck, he tore through the apartment like his tail was on fire.  I think his biggest aggravation was at being laughed at when Cassie and I untangled him.  No one laughs at Fish (in Fish's opinion).

This was his bag swing.  He climbed inside and when Cassie picked it up by the handles, he popped his head out.  She swung him back and forth and he seemed to enjoy it.  I actually have a video of this that I just watched and, as with many things Fish did, I laughed hysterically.

As a kitten, Fish was a narrow size 5...

As an adult, he was more like a size 9, wide...

But I tell you what... if every box of Puma shoes actually had this guy inside, I bet they'd sell a lot more shoes.

One time, when I was living at my parents' house, I looked out on the porch and saw a gray cat.  I thought it was Fish and freaked b/c he was an indoor cat and wasn't allowed outdoors.  I went outside to get him and the cat tore down the sidewalk and up the street.  I ran inside frantically, calling to my sister Emily to get flashlights.  My dad woke up and asked what was wrong.  I explained that Fish had run away so he put his shoes on and was going to get in the car to drive around and look for him.  I was crying, Emily was freaking out.  I turned around and looked up the steps (inside the house) and Fish was standing right there, staring at me.  You could tell he was wondering what all the fuss was about.  I started laughing, I was so relieved.  Turns out, the neighbors had a gray outdoors cat.  I'd see him from time to time and always laugh at the memory.

I love this face.

Fish supported my veganism by playing with this catnip carrot.  He loved this carrot.

In the picture above, you might be thinking, "Wow, that is one portly cat.".  But you would be wrong.  He was not fat or chubby.  He was big-boned.  He had a large frame.  And really fluffy fur.  And sometimes the combination of those things made him seem fat.  But he wasn't.

But he did love treats.  Man, oh man, did he love treats.  Anytime I went in the kitchen, he'd trot along beside me, or ahead of me, and he'd stare at the drawer I kept his treats in until he had a pile of them to enjoy.  And it was impossible to deny the little guy his treats when he looked up at you with his big green eyes.  Even my boyfriend, who was never a "cat person" gave in to him and would get the treats out within minutes of being at my place.  Fish had everyone wrapped around his massive paw.  He was that fantastic.

Fish LOVED being under the Christmas tree when I plugged the lights in.  It has been one of my favorite parts of the holiday for years.

And so that's a little glimpse at my little guy.  Just a few of the memories we've had over the past eight and a half years.  It's hard to imagine not having him around.  Every time I walk into my apartment, I want to see him there, waiting for me at the door like he did every single day, without fail.  And I know I won't and that's not fair.  But at least I got to have him for the short time I did.  And I hope that he knows I loved him every single second that he was here.  Every. Single. Second.

There was no better feeling that having him curl up on my chest when I was laying down.  He'd purr and his eyes would close and I'd know that he was content.  And so I was content.  He will always be my Babers, my Bommers, my Fisherman, my Fishcakes, my buddy and piece of my heart.  I'll never replace him and I'll never forget him.  I love you Fish.

They Say It's Your Birthday

Twenty-something years ago, one of my favorite people ever was born.  It's been pointed out by multiple people that I throw the word "favorite" around willy-nilly but I really mean it in this context.  It's my sister Emily's birthday today and I want to take a second to wish her a good one and to let you all know why she's the best.

I am the Sil(ly) to her Bil(ly) and there are few people that make me laugh as much as this girl.  Her sense of humor is beyond and laughing with her about random things is one of my favorite pastimes.  Once, when we were in Chicago, we were on one of the Lake Michigan beaches.  There was this seagull walking past us and for whatever reason, we both decided to take a picture.  But then we couldn't stop taking pictures. We were laughing hysterically and telling the seagull to pose for us as though we were professional photographers.  Who tells a seagull to "Work it, Baby!" except the two of us?  And who actually thinks it's hilarious enough to recount every year when we see more seagulls?

In fairness though, we scouted a pretty good-looking bird, right?  This gull is the next Karlie Kloss of the bird modeling world.

But she's not just hilarious.  She's loyal and loving and smart and witty and creative and beautiful (even more beautiful than that gull).

And I'm lucky that she's not just my sister but one of my closest friends.  

So here's to you, Bil.  May your day and year be filled to the brim with all good things.  You deserve all of them and more.

Peas and Love Birdies,

Erica

New Year's Wishes for You

I'm not really a huge New Year's celebrating kind of girl.  I mean, I like any excuse to wear sparkly clothes and be with people I love (mostly the sparkly clothes thing though) but New Year's just isn't my thing.  Plus, I HATE the song Auld Lang Syne.

That being said, I do hope that each and every one of you has a SAFE and wonderful evening and that your new year is full of glorious things.  But rather than wish for you the typical generic things (health, wealth, happiness, blah, blah, blah), I hope that your 2013 is filled to the brim with the following:

• The occasional lazy Sunday morning spent lounging in bed, only eventually getting up to eat pancakes or waffles drenched in maple syrup
• The ability to find a working pen in that moment when you need one
• Dry socks and shoes even when it's raining or snowing and you walk through a ginormous puddle (because if you're anything like me, ginormous puddles leap into your path and are unavoidable)
• Friends who will eat large amounts of unhealthy chinese food with you when you are sad
• Friends who curse the name of the person or event that made you sad in the first place (EDITOR'S NOTE: Evidently this worried a few people.  This was a general statement of things my friends have done for me in the past, not a current thing.  No need to break out the chopsticks or curse anyone's name in the current moment.  I am currently a very, very happy girl.)
• A perfect night of sleep on freshly laundered sheets and pillowcases that still smell like detergent and fabric softeners.
• That when you turn on the TV to a repeat of your favorite old television show (Friends maybe?  Or perhaps Full House?), it's one of your absolute favorite episodes.
• Laughter so intense that you can't breathe or you get tears in your eyes.  It doesn't matter if you can't remember what was so funny when you think about it a few days later.  It matters that you remember that feeling of pure joy and that you seek it out on a daily basis.
• Mail that is not bills, catalogs or junk
• That on one of these snowy days, you walk out to your car to find that someone mysteriously cleared the snow/ice off for you.  I hope you pass along the good deed to someone else too.
• Family members who know all of the silly and ridiculous things you've done and still love you anyways (or maybe even more so b/c of those things).
• The feeling of accomplishment when you reach your goal
• A year without a single paper cut
• Kisses and cuddles from a furry friend
• The perfect reply when someone says something infuriating to you
• Flowers given to you for no reason.  And if you're a guy, instead of flowers, maybe tools or video games or something.  And if you're a girl and you'd rather have tools, then that's great too.
• Cupcakes with a lot of frosting on them... but not that crappy whipped cream frosting.  
• So much love and happiness in your life that you wake up on a daily basis and think about how lucky you are to be you.

Thank you all for filling my 2012 with good things.  The best I could ever hope to do is to return the favor to you in 2013.

Peas and Love Firecrackers!

Erica

Ewww... So Gross!

Mostly, I think this world is full of beautiful things.  I know that sounds corny, but it’s true.  Unfortunately, those beautiful things that make me smile are not what I’m writing about today.  Today, I want to tell you about the things that I think are gross.

• Bugs/Spiders.  I especially detest cockroaches, daddy long-legs, crickets and grasshoppers.  They terrify me and I will run in the opposite direction if I see one (or if it, god forbid, is in my apartment, I’ll trap it under a container and call someone to dispose of it).  But if you look at them, even if you’re not scared, from an objective point of view, they are gross.  Of course, I realize that I can’t actually use the word “objective” here because I am anything but, but c’mon.  I’m right, right?  And why do you need such long legs anyways, Spider?  You look stupid and gangly.  Do you think you’re a model?  Do you think that other spiders will be attracted to you because you have such long legs?  No, they are not.  They think you look ridiculous.  Of course, they aren’t anything to write home to mom about either, but you’re the worst of the worst.  I’m sorry if that sounds mean*.
•          * I'm not.

• The Situation from Jersey Shore.  Now I really try not to be judgmental (about people… I still judge spiders), but he really creeps me out.  I understand that he works out all the time, but why does he have to lift his shirt up all the time and point to his abs?  It’s weird and gross.  I think I have a pretty decent set of peepers, but do I point to my eyes all the time?  No, I do not.  I’m normal.  And most of the time, when he opens his mouth and words come out, my ears are grossed out.  They wish they could un-hear everything that was just said.  They wish they could hear gross crickets chirping instead.  They wish for anything that is not related to The Situation.

• Talking about bodily functions.  I know that bodily functions are a natural part of life, but why do we have to talk about them?  Why do we have to announce certain things to the general public in detail?  Why can’t we pretend like these things don’t happen?  That’s the kind of world I want to live in.  I guess my Mom never read this book  to me as a child and quite frankly, I’m okay with that.  

•  On a semi-related note, I just read on another blog that when you flush the toilet, some particles are ejected through the air in your bathroom.  Obviously they have to land somewhere.  So now, I have to get one of those fancy schmancy toothbrush cleaners that cleans it with supersonic waves or something.  In the meantime,  I’m now going to store my toothbrush in a case or in my cabinet.  It’s the only way.

• Food in containers that I forget about in the back of my fridge.  This one is my own fault.  I realize that.  But sometimes, I don’t remember that I have a leftover bowl of soup or a smoothie in my to-go cup.  And then, when I do remember, I’m too scared to touch it, so I ignore it for another week.  But the offending container never removes itself from my fridge, so I am forced to reckon with it.  But I am still a coward, so regardless of how much I like that Tupperware container or insulated bottle, it’s going in the trash.  I’m not even going to take the lid off to look inside.  It’s a terrible habit but one that will likely never change, unless I start putting all of my leftovers in gold-plated bowls and diamond encrusted cups.  The value of that might be worth hiring someone to come over and rinse it out for me.  Plus, while that person is there, they can kill that cricket that’s trapped under that box.

• Spitting.  This is probably a really common thing to be grossed out by.  Actually, I think every human being should have this on their list, but clearly they don’t because it still happens.  My question is this… Do you just have so much saliva in your mouth that you can’t contain it anymore and you therefore must spit, right there in the Target parking lot?  Is that really what happens?  Are you going to choke on it if you don’t get it out immediately?  Unacceptable.

So that's it for now.  I'm posting this at about 9 in the morning.  Is there a better way to have started your day than by reading a blog about blech kind of things?  Answer:  No.  No, there is not.

Peas and Love my Guys and Dolls,

Erica

Walking Disaster

I have an uncanny knack for attracting calamities.  Things happen to me that would never happen to the average person.  The upside is that I've developed an excellent sense of humor and ability to (usually) roll with the punches.  Typically, I can laugh things off and find the funny in the awkward, stressful, or just plain weird moments that find me.  As my Thanksgiving gift to you, dear readers, let give you an account of two such instances that happened yesterday.

My family has a tradition of going to the St. Louis Zoo on Thanksgiving morning.  My Grandpa used to take my Dad and his brothers and sister every year and it's something that my Dad started doing with me and my sisters.  I was lucky enough to be off work this year to partake in the tradition.  I love going because there's always so much laughing and if you know me, you know that laughing is one of my favorite things.  So I spent two hours wandering the zoo and it was awesome.  As an aside, have you guys been to the new sea lion habitat?  It's pretty fantastic.  I was going to dive into the pool with them because my sister assured me that you could but I accidently forgot to wear my swimming suit that day, which is weird b/c I almost always wear it under my clothes.  You never know when a swim will sound refreshing and it's always good to be prepared.

This Sea Lion looks suspicious to me.  The way he's looking at me out of the corner of his eye like that makes me think he's guilty.  Something is definitely fishy here, besides his breakfast.

They were playing with frisbees that had a marriage proposal on them.  How cute is that?  No word yet as to whether the sea lions were then invited to the wedding.

I want to challenge these sea lions to a swim race.

But I digress... So I parted ways with my family around 11 and was walking through the Living World when I reached in my pocket to get my keys and only pulled out one keychain, no keys.  So I calmly speed-walked to the penguin habitat where my family was and asked them not to leave, just in case I couldn't find my keys, though in that moment, I was pretty confident that I knew where they were.  I'm going to try to explain this next part to you while still maintaining some level of dignity but it's going to be hard.

At one point, while in the sea lion area, my dad took a picture of me and my sisters imitating sea lions.  That's not the embarrassing part.  He then sent the picture to one of my uncles who replied, "Now you just have to get one of them to roll down the hill."  Evidently, when my dad and uncles and aunt were little, they would log roll down the hill near the big cats area.  So after he got that text, he read it out loud and (now I don't know what this says about me) but he and my two sisters all immediately said I would probably do it.  The even sadder part is that I was thinking internally that I would do it.  Have I no shame?  So then, of course, I had to do it.  I laid down on the ground at the top of the hill, while two employees looked on in wonderment.  This is what happened next...

This was even more fun than it looks.  That's a promise.  It's hard to roll in a straight line though.

As a personal trainer, I'm actually pretty proud of this picture.  I have clients do a movement similar to this to gain core strength.  Nailed it!

I'm sure you're shaking your head right now, in dismay and sadness, at the things I do, but I think it's important to note that those two employees said that seeing this made working on a holiday worth it.  Like I said on Facebook, I like to brighten people's days, one log roll at a time.

But I digress again... As it relates to the original story, I assumed that my keys fell out of my pocket while I was doing this.  So I calmly ran to that hill and searched up and down and along the sides, but to no avail.  No keys.  At that point, I started to freak out b/c it was 11:20a and I had to be in St. Charles by 1:45 at the latest.  To add a little extra pressure to the situation, my Thanksgiving plans included meeting the boyfriend's family for the first time.  Nothing like making a great first impression by either:

A)  Being two hours late
OR
B)  Showing up unshowered, in a sweatshirt and jeans and possibly with leaves in your hair from rolling down hills like a small child.

So when I didn't see them there, I ran to the other spot in the zoo where I got a little rambunctious... The Children's Zoo.  See below.

This dude is definitely a hungry, hungry hippo.

A friend told me after I posted this on Facebook that Hippos are the leading cause of animal-related deaths in Africa.  She described it as a fun fact and we later decided it seemed weird to consider anything about murderous hippos being fun.  Although, I do look happy enough to be eaten by this guy.

 I thought maybe that when I was climbing in and out of this Hippo's mouth (like any 29 year old woman does inside a CHILDREN'S zoo), my keys fell out of my pocket.  Alas, no such luck.  No keys.

At this point, it was about 11:40a or so and I was a mess.  The zoo Rangers hadn't had anything turned in, so we left and I rode home with my family to get my spare car key from their house and my spare apartment key from my friend.  I'll spare you the rest of the details because this is getting long and I'm tired of typing.  Needless to say, the boyfriend was so awesome about the whole thing.  Unfortunately for him, this kind of weirdness happens on an almost daily basis to me so he should prepare for future shenanigans.  No need to tell him that though.

The story ends with me eventually ending up at his family's house (only one hour late!) and I hopefully made up for my tardiness with my charm or more likely, my homemade peanut butter cups.  As a bonus, my keys were turned in which makes me happy b/c I really like the heart keychain that I had on there.

The second shenanigan of the day was on my way back to my apartment in the evening.  I'll attempt to make this story shorter since this is turning into an epic novel of a blog post.  Earlier in the day, at the zoo, I left my purse in the car and just stuck my keys, debit card and phone in my pocket.  When I got home from the zoo, I forgot to take my debit card out of my jeans to put back in my wallet.  So on the way home from the boyfriend's family yesterday evening, I needed to stop for gas.  I pulled up to the pump, opened my wallet and only then remembered that I didn't have my debit card with me.  I also didn't have my checkbook, credit card and I don't ever carry cash.  I literally had maybe a quarter of a tank of gas left and there was no way I'd make it home without putting anything in.  I managed to scrounge up $1.55 in change from my car and the bottom of my purse.

So I went in to pay before I pumped that gas.  I felt like I owed the cashier an explanation as to why I was dumping all of this change on the counter to I told her what happened.  For grins, and to give context as to the kind of day I was having, I also explained the key story from earlier in the day.  She was not so amused but the gentleman next to me in line was delighted by the story and took pity on me.  He offered to put a little gas in my car, which I declined.  He then more authoritatively told the cashier to put $10 on the pump that I was at when I didn't accept his original offer.  He said it would make him feel better knowing that I'd definitely be able to get home.  This my friends, is a good guy.  This is exactly the type of thing that makes the world a better place.  I'm always inspired when people perform random acts of kindness for strangers.  That is what life is about.  So now, I'm inspired to pass it on.  I try to do good things and spread kindness anyways but I could be better.  You never know how much one little thing can mean to someone.  So do me a favor and pass it on too?

So that was a little glimpse into part of my Thanksgiving.  I'm a very lucky, blessed, happy girl.  I hope you all enjoyed your holiday as well.

Peas and Love Pilgrims,

Erica