"that'll be three galleons."

the other night, i babysat for the first time in many, many months, and i totally lost control of the six kids i was watching. they were insanely wired and also excited to see me (as i am the most amazing babysitter in the entire world), and i realized very early in the evening that any attempts to reign them in would most likely result in a terrible child revolt. therefore, when they wanted to mix butter and cocoa powder and bottled lemon juice to make butter beer (see "harry potter"), or run around screaming the latin equivalent to "i've killed you!" (again, see "harry potter," i think), i let them. they were crazed. they had fun, and so did i. at one point, after chasing four kids around downstairs and telling the youngest that their butter beer had to be made over the sink, i snuck into a room where one of the boys was half-finished writing the name of his wand shop in green marker on a small white blanket. i then said, "i think maybe you guys should use paper instead," and when that didn't register, i went back downstairs to make sure that no one was cooking their beer over an open flame.

he finished making the sign on the blanket.

at the end of the night, i was commissioned to tell them all a story, which is my babysitting speciality, and one of the conflicts i chose was giving the princess two different colored eyes, about which the subjects of the kingdom teased her mercilessly. upon hearing this, one of the boys said, "um, why didn't she just wear giant black sunglasses?" touche, ten-year-old, touche. i saved by a little five-year-old voice that countered, "they weren't invented yet." (the thing i love most about telling these kids stories is that they don't realize how much of the plots they're creating themselves. also, i like to think i'm inspiring them to keep doing it. i'm really important and have always been a pretty fantastic role model.)

in other news, i've stopped spending outrageous amounts of money. andy didn't think i could do it (because the last time i made this resolution, i then went to the mall with him and did some damage), but i'm actually doing really well. i'm doing so well that i didn't even buy a copy of "psychology today," which, though a magazine, is a psychology publication, making it a little more legit. basically, i grew self-control, and that's exciting.

oh! something else. i've stopped using concealer, which is a super huge thing for me, as i have been painting my face for several years (what with the leprosy and everything). i'm done now, though, because i essentially look the same anyway, and it was just a time-consuming security blanket. also, i figure that the residual scarring will fade faster if it isn't always covered with some terrible animal fat concoction.

i'm going to go use the new papaya shampoo i managed to get my mom to buy for me. i just realized that i won't feel ready for this day until i'm clean.