#soblessed

Before we leave the holiday of gratitude behind and look forward to the season of joy and 24/7 gas from various candies and chocolates, I would like to give thanks for the fact that I almost had to publish this post with the title, "A Moment of Mourning, Please," but now I get to publish it with the title "#soblessed."

Two months ago, when I realized that I would be needing more swimming suits in my life, I did a rather lengthy search of the internet for the most fabulous one-piece swimwear I could find at affordable prices. I fell head-over-heals mad in love with this magical swimsuit by MinkPink:

Gah, isn't it wonderful?? It cost a wee bit more than what I normally like to spend on swimwear, but I batted my eyelashes at my mom and said, "Give me this for Christmas?" And she said, "Welllll, ok."

So I ordered the thing, and a week later it arrived at my parents' house in Utah. I was Skyping with my mom one day and she said, "It came!" And, always one to spoil my own Christmas presents, I demanded, "Let me see!" So she opened it, and it was,

it was,

it was . . .

the wrong swimsuit!

It was this hot pink meshy thing that just would not do. My mom sent the suit back, but unfortunately, when I had originally ordered it, it was the last of its kind available. So I cried for three days that it was gone forever and I couldn't replace it (you guys, I feel like I need to tell you that when I say on my blog that "I cried," it's only for dramatic effect--I don't actually cry five times a day), and then I got over it and moved on and found a swimsuit I liked just as well. I ordered that one in its place (it was the light greenish-blue suit you've seen in recent posts, with boylegs and a gorgeous flower print). I shipped it to my mom-in-law in Washington and she brought it to me on our Disney trip, because it was an expensive enough purchase that if it didn't fit, I'd want to send it back before the return policy expired.

Well, a few weeks ago I searched out the tiger swimsuit one more time, for fun. And lo and behold, I found it! There were two left in existence, one my size and one not, but they were in Great Britain. I lusted after it for a while, but I had already gotten my other new swimming suit, and wasn't willing to pay the price for the suit again plus shipping. I clicked out of my browser before I could do something I'd regret, and got to work editing papers.

Fast-forward to yesterday. Good old Black Friday. When I found a free minute between researching laptops and editing dissertations, I somehow wound up back on the tiger suit website. And whaddaya know, apparently in the past month no one had bought the suit (why? why does not everyone in the world want this suit in their life??) and it was at half price! One left--in my size! So I slyly mentioned it to Jared while we were eating lunch together, and fortunately he appreciated the fact that this thing that me and the tiger suit have . . . it's obviously something special. And then when the laptop I bought wound up being $300 less than I was planning for, that was it. And the rest . . . well, I guess we'll find out what happens next together.