Don't Take Candy from Strangers . . .

. . . but listen to their advice-- at least for entertainment purposes.





I really, honestly, and truly LOVE it when strangers offer me unsolicited advice as to how to live my life. This probably sounds sarcastic, but I swear to you, I am being absolutely genuine. I love it because I find it so amusing. Especially when they start advising me on major life decisions.

For a while, my hairdresser would offer such advice. I never get my hair cut very often, so once every few months, he would tell me how I should get an MBA and get a "real job," and play the cello for " 'walking around' money," or how I should finish my degree before I go on a mission (he's not LDS, and I wasn't considering a mission), or any number of things about my love life. He was my fount of everlasting knowledge.

There have been others in my life, and I'm sure, in yours as well. Those who tell you where to live, where to apply to school, what kind of job you should get, etc.

Today, I had another experience. I introduced myself to a lady at work today, who began interviewing me, and upon discovering I was a newlywed, began sharing with me her wisdom. This was quite extensive, covering such topics as fashion, menu planning, raising children, personal finances, health, beauty, recreation, religion, the in-laws, and more. Perhaps the most remarkable part of it was that she kept producing these pearls with little reaction or encouragement from me. I must say, I really loved it. I went into the office and jotted down what I could remember.

Anyway, if you see me rushing out right now to have children, growing my hair out, or seasoning my food sparingly, you can thank my friend at work.

Blog Race

I'm having a blog race with my husband right now, in celebration of the fact that we now (thanks to the best landlords in the history of time) have high-speed wireless internet in our apartment. This means we can both blog simultaneously!

I'm going to win, because he just found out that I'm doing it. He's getting wise.

I'd better post.

La Feria Estatal de Texas 2009

When Rachel recently told me she'd never been to the State Fair of Texas, deciding how to spend date night this month was easy. We went yesterday evening, which left us just enough time to experience the highlights of the fair experience: over-the-top Texas expositions, animal races, the rides and games of the midway, the car show, and fried food galore. We had a good time, not always because of something we planned.

I'll skip to my favorite part. About 15 minutes before we started to make our way to the train stop, I made one final attempt to win a prize for Rachel at a ring toss booth. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, the object of the game is to throw a small, plastic ring around the neck of one of about one hundred glass bottles. To give you an idea of how unlikely one is to be successful at winning, they usually give you about thirty throws. It looks about like this:



The guy working the booth is what made the evening. Frustrated by seeing so many lose at this game throughout the day, he did his best to help increase my chances of winning. Every time I would throw a ring, he would replace it with a handful more. By the end, I must have gone through close to a hundred.

The poor guy was visibly disappointed that his good will didn't result in my winning. In some ways, its just as well. I mean, what would we do with a giant, plush bear anyway? Yet what this guy doesn't know is that his kindness and goodwill made our evening more memorable that any prize could.