Every year for the past 5 years around Thanksgiving, I've made a list of 50 things that I am truly, madly, deeply grateful for. Things that are unique to me, tender little mercies that I can tend to forget about in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I find that it's these little things that really make life worthwhile. I would suggest making your own list and sharing it with those closest to you. For the first time ever, I'm sharing mine.
1. Christmas lights
2. New guitar strings
3. The nearest Chipotle
4. Earplugs on weekend nights
5. Second chances
6. Walt Disney
7. People that let me pet their dogs
8. Farmers markets
9. Modern Family
10. Ghiradelli hot chocolate
11. Full gas tanks
12. Comfortable high heels
13. Family photo albums
14. Down comforters
15. iPhone maps app
16. Warm towels straight from the dryer
17. Restaurants that remember to leave the onions off
18. Letting go
19. Pinterest wedding boards
20. Head massages
21. Boys' sweatshirts
22. Beach bonfires
23. Waterproof mascara
24. Sundays I get to go to church
25. Taylor Swift music videos
26. Days with no traffic on the 5
27. Unbelievably cheap Jack in the Box tacos
28. Undiscovered tidepools
29. Little black dresses
30. Egg nog
31. Andrew Lloyd Webber
32. Forgiveness
33. Sleep without nightmares
34. Buses that come on time
35. Nights when you can see the stars
36. Wildflowers
37. Good advice
38. Fireworks
39. Elton John
40. Adventures at D.I.
41. Nonjudgmental friends
42. Magic
43. Family games of nubs
44. Long, quiet evening walks
45. Handwritten letters
46. Sleeping in
47. Beach cruisers
48. Visiting the snow but not actually having to live in it
49. Clean sheets
50. Love.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Sunday, November 18, 2012
On the Nature of Time
Lesson learned this week:
Change the clock in your car immediately for Daylight Savings Time. Otherwise, you will:
a. End up yelling at your roommate for pretending like you're going to make it to your tour of Walt's apartment in 20 minutes. You're not because you're stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the 5 and you think she's completely delusional, when in reality you're the only one in the car who doesn't realize that you actually have 80 minutes, not 20 OR
b. Go out to run errands, decide you'll allow traffic time to pick up your roommate at the airport and end up there what you THINK is one hour early but is actually 2 and have to go find a mall in Newport Beach and spend all of your money at Forever 21 OR
c. Both.
Go ahead. Laugh away.
:)
Change the clock in your car immediately for Daylight Savings Time. Otherwise, you will:
a. End up yelling at your roommate for pretending like you're going to make it to your tour of Walt's apartment in 20 minutes. You're not because you're stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the 5 and you think she's completely delusional, when in reality you're the only one in the car who doesn't realize that you actually have 80 minutes, not 20 OR
b. Go out to run errands, decide you'll allow traffic time to pick up your roommate at the airport and end up there what you THINK is one hour early but is actually 2 and have to go find a mall in Newport Beach and spend all of your money at Forever 21 OR
c. Both.
Go ahead. Laugh away.
:)
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Recovering
1. Here's something to chew on: imagine riding the Tower of Terror WITH ALL THE LIGHTS OUT. No dialogue, no ghosts, no "wave goodbye to the real world", no key phrase to listen for because you know that's when the drop comes. Nothing but darkness and everyone around you going into cardiac arrest, by the sound of it. Yep. The advantages of working at Disneyland.
2. Something I hate that people close to me do: chain smoking. Is there any easier way to passive-aggressively kill yourself?
3. One of the best ways to heal a broken heart is trying on dresses you could never afford in a two-story Anthropologie on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
4. I've played Taylor Swift's new album so many times this week and so loudly that I'm pretty sure my neighbors are filing a petition to get me kicked out of my apartment.
5. Something really cool: when the cashier in the Sprinkles in Beverly Hills RECOGNIZES YOU, asks if you're from Modesto, and tells you she used to go to church with you. Four years ago. And you actually remember her! It's a small world after all (I am SO SORRY)
6. I hate to get political. I didn't even vote ( I KNOW, the shame, please forward all hate mail to my home address). But I was really, really disappointed by the blatant displays of racism, ignorance and pure hatred I saw on social media after the presidential election results were released. American politics are just turning into another poorly rated, pointlessly conflict-fueled reality TV show. Let's have some dignity and some patriotism. A real American who cares about our country will stand by our president, whether he (or she) is black or white, gay or straight, Mormon or atheist, REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT. The future rests on all of our shoulders, guys, not just one person's.
7. This week has been rough. I'm not going to lie. As Michael Scott so eloquently put it, "It feels like somebody took my heart and dropped it into a bucket of boiling tears. And, at the same time, somebody else is hitting my soul in the crotch with a frozen sledgehammer. And then a third guy walks in and starts punching me in the grief bone."
Love sucks, you guys.
But it's funny how, when you're walking through the Christmas decorations on Disneyland's Main St. in the pouring rain with Ghiradelli peppermint hot chocolate in your hand and your best friend by your side, that you find yourself again.
Isn't it nice to know that the lining is silver?
2. Something I hate that people close to me do: chain smoking. Is there any easier way to passive-aggressively kill yourself?
3. One of the best ways to heal a broken heart is trying on dresses you could never afford in a two-story Anthropologie on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
4. I've played Taylor Swift's new album so many times this week and so loudly that I'm pretty sure my neighbors are filing a petition to get me kicked out of my apartment.
5. Something really cool: when the cashier in the Sprinkles in Beverly Hills RECOGNIZES YOU, asks if you're from Modesto, and tells you she used to go to church with you. Four years ago. And you actually remember her! It's a small world after all (I am SO SORRY)
6. I hate to get political. I didn't even vote ( I KNOW, the shame, please forward all hate mail to my home address). But I was really, really disappointed by the blatant displays of racism, ignorance and pure hatred I saw on social media after the presidential election results were released. American politics are just turning into another poorly rated, pointlessly conflict-fueled reality TV show. Let's have some dignity and some patriotism. A real American who cares about our country will stand by our president, whether he (or she) is black or white, gay or straight, Mormon or atheist, REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT. The future rests on all of our shoulders, guys, not just one person's.
7. This week has been rough. I'm not going to lie. As Michael Scott so eloquently put it, "It feels like somebody took my heart and dropped it into a bucket of boiling tears. And, at the same time, somebody else is hitting my soul in the crotch with a frozen sledgehammer. And then a third guy walks in and starts punching me in the grief bone."
Love sucks, you guys.
But it's funny how, when you're walking through the Christmas decorations on Disneyland's Main St. in the pouring rain with Ghiradelli peppermint hot chocolate in your hand and your best friend by your side, that you find yourself again.
Isn't it nice to know that the lining is silver?
Monday, November 5, 2012
Shenanigans
professional photo-bombing
waiting to be evacuated on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
family Christmas photo (we'll photoshop Brenly in)
Holly for a night
I saw Boys Like Girls
and All-American Rejects
Have a great week!
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