what's it worth to ya'?

the other day, for some reason, i found myself sitting on the floor rolling coins. no, brett and i are not THAT desperate for money...yet. but, i noticed that our coin jar was starting to overflow and since i've got nothing to do at the moment i decided that it was my immediate duty to roll those coins. $12 dollars later i came across an odd looking coin. i tossed it aside, adding it to the growing pile of foreign currency at my side. when you travel you always end up with the odd coin here and there and it seems shameful to just throw it away. some day one of my nieces will probably get these coins as a gift. i'm the "cheap" aunt...

back to the odd coin.

later when i was returning the remaining change to the jar i came across this odd coin for the second time. this time i took the time to look at it a little more closely to see which country it was from. it was hard to tell at first. the coin looked OLD. i could see that it was a penny, but my buddy Abe was nowhere to be found. i checked the date. 1919. is that normal? have i ever seen a coin that old before? i tried to remember when the production of coins started but then quit when i couldn't even remember how old our country is. turns out this was not an american coin as the picture on the back was of George V. what IS this strange coin, i thought.

i began my google search with "one penny, 1919." many things came up about lincoln pennies. one link said, " something something $17,000!!!" i started to get excited! i refined my search. "one penny, 1919, coin, george v." what i found was not as exciting as $17,000 but as exciting as $2!!! my penny is worth $2 to collectors on ebay!

turns out brett's uncle slipped him this coin on our wedding day. a good luck charm? i'm not sure. at any rate he told brett it was from the "old country." brett had since forgotten about the coin and somehow it ended up in our change jar. while it is just a penny, now worth 2 bucks, it was worth a whole afternoon of fun for me! -sn

tag

back in the days when i got to go out for recess (why don't college students get recess?) tag was THE game...mostly because it involved boys chasing girls and girls chasing boys. in the third grade i guess you could consider this a form of "dating" since you really only went after the people you liked. my favorite game of tag involved tracking a large wheel shape into the snow. the rules were that you could not run outside of lines. this made it harder for the "it" person to tag you since they were confined to the lines of the wheel as well. running outside of the lines was punishable by banishment from the game.

nowadays people tag me on this computer. my friend lorraine just tagged me to write 8 unusual things about myself, things that perhaps the rest of you don't know. so...here goes, but i don't really think that i'm all that interesting.

1. i'm more anal than people think that i am. i think that it is generally assumed that me and my better half are super laid back. i won't speak for brett (but give that guy a paint brush sometime and be amazed at how anal he his about straight lines...) but i really like things in order. i keep a very strict budget. i know where every penny goes. i work hard for good grades. i make flashcards. i like a clean house. i can't study until the dishes are clean otherwise i have to study somewhere else. and i like to be on time. my mom usually assumes that i will be late. but really, it's more likely that i was given the wrong time...or not given the time at all. i'm really actually very timely. so, there you go. i'm anal.

2. i do not like sweets. this presents quite a conundrum for me. when i decline sweets people think that it is because I am watching my weight. this is not true at all. i do not even own a scale. also, i decline sweets because i do not like them, not because i do not like you. this is a very hairy area, especially at christmas. but, offer me some chips and some salsa and i will eat the whole bag.

3. i have an obsession with watching things grow. if i have planted something i will check on its progress at least once a day, sometimes twice. once something starts to grow i will immediately find brett and make him look at it with me. this year was quite exciting as we were given some perennials that we were unfamiliar with. it was like christmas when those plants started to bloom. one of them, the hybiscus, has red flowers as big as my head. you can just imagine how many times i've checked on that thing!

4. i ride my bike every day to and from school and to church and back and i've even started riding my bike to the grocery store (it just takes a little more planning) i do not drive unless it is raining, like today, or if i have to drive somewhere that is too far away.

5. i love to cook. this is a growing hobby of mine. i'm not boasting any talent here, i just really like cooking. i love trying new recipes and i love eating those new recipes. brett and i joined a farm this year. every week we receive our "share" of fresh, organice produce. yum! it has been quite a challenge keeping up with all that food before it dies in my fridge. but, we've been stretched to find ways to cook things like swiss chard (lots of it), kale (oh my gosh, stop giving me kale), ochra (still don't really know what it is), eggplant (bake it in oil with fresh basil and your mouth will sing), carrots, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, etc... i've found that most things go well in soup, if you're desperate...

6. i have weird things happen to my body. first of all, i have a very sensitive gag reflex. second, i get a small cut on my nose all of the time and i don't know why. and third, a long time ago i got this weird infection on the toe next to my pinky toe. the skin on the top of the toe kept peeling off. that was about 6 years ago. today that toe itches like crazy, one of those unitchable itches. the itch is on the top of the toe near the base. there are no signs of infection or fungus. it is not athlete's foot. it is just a mysterious ever-present itch.

7. i love watching tennis

8. i will be on a three week vacation at 6pm tonight. just one more exam and presentation to go!! (i guess that is not so strange and unusual, but considering my life the last few months, me not sitting in a desk at school for hours upon hours every day will be unusual...)