things that make me smile | tuesday edition

* I’ve found a new favorite way to make money: research.  Not research as in go-give-your-life-away-to-a-white-lab-coat kind, but research as in “come participate in our study and fill out an online questionnaire and we’ll pay you!!”  It’s a beautiful thing.  $25 for 45 minutes is nothing to laugh at. 

* new ice skates.  I promise, I haven’t gone crazy.  I do tend to dive headlong into new interests I discover, but these are used skates and were a fantastic price and have the blades attached.  Apparently, you usually have to buy the boot and then spend another $80 on the blade.  I refuse to do that.  And these fit and are white and really pretty.  And considering the fact that my foot hasn’t grown in the last several years, they should last me a really long time. 

* a little girl named Amber.  Her mother was working at the sale (benefitting our figure skating club, which no, I haven’t joined), and this little two year old was a bundle of energy and cuteness.  Her favorite game was running around the small room and yelling “Hi Megan!” every time she passed me.  Man, I miss my own baby sister!

* spring break.  Next week.  Like, I get to go home Friday and actually sleep in for a whole week!  And go to dance class and see friends and eat my favorite foods and bring all my laundry home…truly, this is exciting.  Maybe the weather will even show some hints of spring!  That might be too good to be true, but I have been hearing a few brave birds chirp recently.  My meteorology professor decided to dampen our collective spring enthusiasm by informing us that the three biggest snowstorms for this area have all been in March, so not to get excited about spring yet.  I refuse to believe him or follow that advice.

* it’s my friend’s birthday today.  (happy birthday, Megan!)  We’re going to celebrate with smoothies or something after she’s survived a chemistry exam.

* and I’m not sure if this really counts as something that makes me smile, because when I get excited, I start bouncing and squeaking.  And there has been much of that lately, because of this:

Jessina is coming to visit!  Tomorrow!  We shall have such grand adventures together.  She promises to bring her camera, too, so there might be pictures.  At some point.

And I’ve been gone all day, so I should probably get some work done now.  And maybe clean up this tornado of a room a little bit, pretend that my desk isn’t usually full of scattered papers and my bed unmade…