Gray skies always turn to blue, eventually....

Since I griped last week about how everything seemed to be going wrong, it only seems fair that I should post something on a day when things are going right. So here's a happy list:

• I picked up my new contacts today, which is always an exciting occasion. I think most of you have less than perfect vision, so you know what I mean when I say how exciting it is to see leaves on the trees absolutely sharp and clear, or to be able to read the channel guide on the TV or see the clock without squinting. And they were only $130, which is significantly less than I was anticipating!


• Then I bought gas on the way home, for only $3.47 a gallon. (It's kind of weird to think that a year ago I would have found that price outrageous, but after a summer of hovering in the high $3.80s it seems like a reason to celebrate. And, yes, I do realize that gas is much cheaper here than a lot of places, but I'm assuming that yours has come down as well...)


• And when I got home, a shipment of shoes from Zappos.com had arrived. I was a little nervous to order shoes online - of anything you might buy, that seems like the thing you would most want to try on first. But, since they offer free shipping on returns if you don't like something, and since I've spent most of the summer looking for new shoes without success (thanks to my not-so-endearingly chubby little feet), and since the matter is becoming somewhat desparate (my sandals have cracked across the entire sole so only the leather liner is holding the pieces together, my black shoes were originally a suede material and half of that has rubbed off, and last time I wore my brown shoes to church large pieces of the sole literally fell off as I was walking out to me car), I decided it was worth a try. The brown clogs didnt' fit, but I now have new sandals and new black shoes that fit and are reasonably comfortable. I wouldn't walk a 5K in them, especially the black ones, but they are more comfortable than many church shoes I've owned. The sandals I think will be really comfortable once broken in just a bit. Here are my new shoes, and also a photo of the new shirts that came a couple of weeks ago (I'm expanding on my usual sneakers and Old Navy t-shirts!):
  

And last of all, although this is more in news of the incredibly unexpected than the happy, I am 100% on schedule with preparing for my big exam on the 15th. One would think I would have procrastinated, per my usual course, but somehow I've managed to be very dedicated to the schedule I set up. I should finish up with going over new material by tomorrow night (just a couple of books to go), and then have a full week to go back over all my notes and (hopefully) really solidify all that information by exam time. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that they don't come up with some doozy of a question - last exam, one of the questions was "You've been hired to fix the criminal justice system. Provide a comprehensive plan to do so." Nasty, nasty question, particularly when the exam is only 6 hours and there are 2 other only marginally easier questions to answer as well!