1800 Contacts: We deliver. You save.

I just came from a speech by Freakonomics author Steven Levitt. In his pretty awesome talk, he spoke some about altruism. On the walk back from Tech, Marcy and I discussed to what degree altruism exists, and if we're just doing it for the reward. When I returned home I was reminded that altruism pays off.

A few weeks ago, I ordered contacts on 1-800Contacts. I find myself to be an extremely annoying customer, constantly changing my order and verifying that I got the best price. The woman on the other end though was extremely nice and helpful (I've now learned 1800contacts is based in Utah) . She also was from this country, which probably added to my happiness with customer service. Since I was in a good mood myself, I asked to speak to her manager to compliment her on a good job. Her manager was also very sweet and appreciative since, she said, "we only hear when things go wrong, not when things go right."

I received my contacts and thought my interactions with 1-800Contacts would be put on hiatus for the next six or so months. Until tonight that is. My roommate informed me I received a package. From whom, I wondered, with no expected packages from Amazon, ebay or my mother.
Lo and behold it was a t-shirt! from 1-800 contacts! It is ginormous and ugly, but it is the thought that counts.(picture of me wearing said shirt to come next week!)

Also included was a fawning letter from none other than Joshua Neilson, 1-800Contacts Customer Care Manager. He "was delighted to read" my "positive feedback regarding the pleasant experience (I) had." And 1-800CONTACTS looks forward to serving me for many years to come!

I look forward to it too, Mr. Neilson, me too.

Overheard at the organic coffee shop

I'm sitting at Wild Tree, this cute progressive/organic/I think vegan coffee shop that also sells vegetables. It's perfect since 1) it's close, 2) free wireless, 3) good food 4) un-Northwesterny.

But like any cute progressive/organic/I think vegan coffee shop that sells vegetables and is far enough from campus to not be completely student-filled, it attracts its share of nut jobs.

Case in point:

Crazy middle aged woman who is apparently a regular comes in, out from the snow. She doesn't buy anything and asks the owner:
I have a question, I 've been trying to grow my hair out, and I'm wondering is it even?

Owner and I make eye contact and laugh, me on the outside, her on the inside. Owner says she can't see hair, because woman is wearing a hood. Woman takes hood off. Owner assures crazy woman her hair is even. Then crazy woman leaves.

read at your own boredom

So tonight I'm taking a break from being the social butterfly that I am this quarter. Seriously. This quarter has been so much fun, all my favorite parts of school (friends, learning) minus the crappy parts (midterms, stress). I went out SIX out of the last EIGHT nights. If wine tasting counts + four second guest appearance at hundo counts. And if hanging at Bat 17 counts. and if DM trivia counts. Well, at least boystown for rob's bday fo sho counts since we had to take the L in order to get dollar drinks. And there was dancing. And the president's day party where I was dressed as Monica Lewinsky fo sho counts. So it depends on what your definition of out is. I remember when I first went to college I was so confused what "going out" meant. I'm still confused. If there is not drinking or dancing is that going out? If there is no alcohol being served at the establishment? If there are less than eight people?
hmmmm.

Anyway I am in on this fine Friday night to work on my fiction story. And if that failed I was going to clean my room. Duh I'm doing neither. Duh you don't care. But actually you sort of do if you're reading this. And it's your choice to stop if you get bored. Sooooo i'm finally blogging. Good story I know.

And with t minus three weeks left of being a student I'm totally getting nostalgic, even though I'll be back for a month in May. But still. That's just the declining action. I'm basically done with college. And, as per my blog title, I'm getting nostalgic already. My college happiness definitely increased each year (except the awfulness of spring sophomore year)

Ok, that is all for now. Goodnight.

"I should have taken more picture"--avenue q

The above images are of someone smoking on the porch during a President's Day birthday party and petit fours I decorated during my adorable roommate's petit four decorating party.

But what makes this pictures different than other pictures? I took them.

I love looking at pictures (just not of scenery). And I even like taking pictures (just not organizing them, yuck).. But I'm not a picture taker by nature. I was raised in a family where my parents didn't even bring a camera to my high school graduation. While I had the foresight to bring a disposable to capture this once in a lifetime moment, my mom didn't even think it was weird not to have a camera. At my brother's graduation, no one brought a camera. But we couldn't count on my brother who didn't take one picture during his two weeks in Israel. But I only took about 30 when I was there, so I really can't judge.

Needless to say, I don't come from picture takers. I took about eight pictures my entire summer in manhattan, and maybe 30 in San Francisco. I've probably taken 100 pictures during my 3+ years of college. But anyway, I got a supercute new fast digital camera for Chanukah, which I finally set up so I'm trying to take more pictures to document my quickly ending college career and my trip to South Africa in a month.

So this weekend I was the girl with the camera. I felt pride when at a party a mutual friend was dancing on the table and Daniella told me to take a picture. I was the person with the camera. And I'm going to try to be that girl for the rest of my college career + South Africa. The only problem is I think I'm a bad picture-taker. I am trying to work on this skill.

Maybe I will post more pictures in the future. But I find it sortof-innappropriate/creepy to post pictures of people without thier permission, because what if one of those people in this pictures wanders onto my blog. Although I have no similar qualms about posting pictures on facebook, so maybe I need to rethink this line in the sand I just drew.

But let me know if in the future I have your consent for sharing my masterpieces of you.

I cut class to do laundry

Just wanted to put that out there.

In other news, happy valentine's day.