Trader Joe's is neat

I can't believe how cheap they are!! The QFC charges so much more for the same stuff. It's a pretty small store though, so they don't have a huge selection, especially of the soy-dairy stuff. Like they have lots of brands and flavors of milk yogurt but only one brand and three flavors of soy yogurt.

But their in house brands are very inexpensive, even compared to conventional grocery store prices. Like they have fennel flavored toothpaste for 1.99. You can't even get aqua fresh for 1.99. I am used to paying 5-6$ for Tom's of Maine. I'd been using the peppermint Tom's just because it was carried at the less expensive stores for 3 or 4 something and I had to get used to the baking soda taste of it. I bought a pint sized bucket of pectin fruit slices for 1.99 too. Those things are so freaking expensive elsewhere and they are about my most favorite candy ever. They have pints of sorbet for 1.99 too. The TJ is about ten blocks uphill so at least I get good exercise going there. It's probably a good thing I felt kind of sick today or I'd have bought a lot more candy and junk. :p

I gave the thumbs up to a recent Gladys Knight song on Pandora and now they keep putting Christian music in my lineup. It's ok, kind of funny but I don't care as long as it's good music. I like Gladys Knight. Joel said he had some Christian death metal come up in his playlist once and he thumbs downed it as soon as he realized it. :p I grew up with it so it doesn't offend me or anything. Music is music and I believe in religious freedom and the first amendment and am very respectful of others' beliefs even if I don't share them. It seems like a lot of people who grow up with Christianity and then later reject it tend to be sort of bitter Christian haters but that hasn't been the case with me. It was more of a gradual realization and I still believe in many of the tenets of Christianity (true Christianity, not what many people have made it about), just not the salvation part. I won't even say that I absolutely would never go back to it, but I admit it would take something pretty major to convince me. I've just never really felt it in my heart so I couldn't keep going on like I did. It wasn't genuine.