Randomness on a Tuesday Night

1. I'm called by my middle name. I love my name. I love being called Elisabeth. After 27 1/2 years of being called Elisabeth, it'd be weird if everyone called me by my first name. But sometimes it creates a bit of a "problem." Examples of this are:

• 1) When you move every couple years, like I did growing up, you're constantly having to tell teachers which name you prefer to go by. And every once in a while you get the teacher that refuses to call you by anything other than your given (first) name. (Yes, this happened a few times.) 

• 2) You buy a plane ticket and register yourself in your middle name and then realize you're going to have to go back and change it to your first name since that's the name on your passport. (By the way...this causes the airline to either give you a "stern" lecture or charge you a fee to change it - both of which have happened to me.)

• 3) Someone's calling roll for something (school, missions training meeting, doctor/dentist appointments, etc.) and call out your first name, to which you mistakingly ignore, waiting to hear your middle name. (This has happened sooooo many times. And yes, I get embarrassed each and every time it happens.)

2. Earlier today I was looking at flights from Birmingham to Atlanta, for a service I'll have this summer, thinking it'd be cheaper to fly rather than drive. Ha! The cheapest I could find was $299. Are you kidding me? A 57 minute flight costs that much? That's ridiculous! So now I'll say... Bring on the mini road trip :)

3. When I went grocery shopping this afternoon, I bought 7 tubes of toothpaste for an activity we're doing in Kids Club tomorrow. The cashier looked at me like I'd lost my mind. I prayed she wouldn't ask me why I bought so many since 1) I had no idea how to explain that in French, and 2) I'm pretty sure the concept of "wasting" toothpaste isn't one that'd go over well in this culture. (That'd be what brought on my major guilty conscience shortly thereafter.)

4. There is this woman that must know the guard of a building near my building. This woman hangs out with him 'til the wee hours of the morning. Why does this matter? Well, this woman has got to be the happiest woman alive. Why do I think that? Well she laughs LOUDLY for the majority of the time she's out there. Seriously... She does. The funny thing is, though, that now, it doesn't bug me anymore. It's actually pretty funny. It makes me laugh. See... I guess laughter is contagious after all. :)

5. I bought my tickets for my trip to the U.S. this summer. That includes a 3 1/2 day stop off to stay with family friends and explore a few big cities in my own home country that I've never been to before. Can we say EXCITED? :)