These are a few of my favorite things...

I have been planning this post for a long time, and I am glad that I can start putting a few of my favorite things up for you to appreciate.
This will be the first of several posts on this subject.
Item #1) My Hula Dancer wallet:

This baby has been with me since the tender age of 15. I got it for free at a yard sale that our local church had to raise money for the Boy Scouts. That was a very profitable yard sale as far as scoring sweet junk goes, but I'll have to list those things at a later date. This wallet is a tri-fold black beauty with features, as you can see, a pretty nifty stitching of a Hula dancer. One of my favorite features of this wallet is that inside it's dependable Velcro fold, there is a pocket with a ZIPPER so that you will never lose your loose change. I once tried a different wallet for a while, but it just wasn't the same. I hope to actually carry money around in this wallet someday...

Item #2) Pantech Jest cell phone:

This is a fairly recent acquisition (less than a year?) and I LOVE it. This phone is the culmination of everything I want in a cell phone. It is small and compact, which I like. It was a full keyboard which has made my texting a delightful and blessed event compared to what it used to be. There is a nice large display for the size of the phone, a decent camera, a track pad with really convenient access to my alarm clock, and some fun politonal ring-tones that I never hear because it is always on vibrate mode. But they are there if I want them. The name Jest is strange, but oddly fitting. All in all, I wish I had another one to replace this one when it reaches it's distant and inevitable demise.

Item #3) My "On a Mission" t-shirt:

My beloved sister, who used to like me more than everyone else (or so I'd like to think), was an amazing package sender when I was on my mission. This is truly one of her gifts, and I have her to thank for many a Soft Batch cookie and pop-tart. One of the reasons that mi hermana was so great a package sender was that she included lenghtly letters, (often super dated but awesome nonetheless) toys, (such as a lightsaber), and even clothes. And here we arrive at the favorite item: my 'On a Mission' T-shirt. I don't know where she found it, but it is splendid. I used to work at a Utah State Park, which requires employees to wear a brown uniform. At first I detested this. But over time, I found that I couldn't help myself and every subsequent clothing purchase (and lets be honest, there weren't many before I got married) involved accruing yet more brown attire. So the solid brown of the t-shirt spoke straight to my heart. Then there was the text, which thought was immensely cleaver because, ... well, ... you know. This t-shirt ranks in the top five of my all time favorite t-shirts, and has the distinction of being the only one that is still staving off a threadbare demise.

Item #4) My Lifeguard travel backpack:

THIS BACKPACK IS AWESOME!!!
Ask anybody.
I REALLY wish I had another one because all good things must come to an end and I will probably weep like a child when this article bites the dust.
I found this gem in Peru in what is called a 'Cachina'. Picture a yardsale/handicraft fair vomited choatically around a busy Peruvian street in the degraded sty that is Juliaca and you might have a fair idea of what a cachina is like. You can find all kinds of interesting stuff, but on this day I was determined to replace a backpack that I had purchased earlier at another cachina that had literally disintegrated. I vowed that I wasn't going to by one of the flashy looking cheaply made bags, but that I would hunt until I found something that would last. When I finally laid eyes on this baby, I was tired of looking and I figured that even a heavily used canvas backpack would be better than anything else I could find. After paying the roughly $4 that it cost, I launched into what was become a never-ending honeymoon with this backpack. Seriously, this thing is possibly bulletproof, holds a shocking amount of stuff thanks to the drawstring top, and is shabby enough looking that I never worried about attracting undue thief notice. I bought the patches of the Peru and Chile flags, and patches of the Punisher symbol and another of Darth Vader and paid a shoe repair guy (also found where ever there are cachinas) to use some hardcore thread to sew them on. That whole operation cost me about 12 bucks. Than I paid a seamstress in Arequipa to shore up the holes and worn spots for about 4 dollars. So for a grand total of $20 I have a faithful companion that has accompanied me to both of my subsequent returns to S. America and has more personality than I can describe. If Indiana Jones had a backpack, ... this would be better than his. This backpack could dodge a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick, it's that amazing.