first grade lessons

chicago's pretty cool..

i think i could live there.

here's some bad things recently:

• the airport lost my luggage on the way back from chicago and i didn't get it for a couple days
• my check engine light came on so i took it to toyota and found out nothing was wrong- they just had to reset the light. i still had to pay $103.
• got my first ticket in the mail for not stopping completely while turning right at a red light.
• rufus continues to routinely wake up at 6 am every morning to play for an hour, juuust enough to not let me be able to fall back asleep.
• i move tomorrow and i haven't packed one thing.

here's some good things:

• presented at my first work conference (that was cool)
• visited the northwestern campus and fell in love.
• went to nashville to see my friends and had a really good weekend :)
• realized that i take the gre in a week!
• move in right across the hall from my bff tomorrow!
• my sister moves to the same city as me in a couple weeks.
• my hair has stopped falling out (for real... i think)

disclaimer: even though i listed all those bad things, i was really proud of myself for not letting them even alter my mood in the slightest. really been on a positive thinking kick lately and it's helping. and relaxation exercises/my form of meditation really do wonders.

so my little brother finally made the move to my old room now that i've been out of my house for almost 5 years. last time i was home, i attempted to help my mom clean out some of the things in my closet and drawers so my brother could start using them. (but you know how when you start "cleaning out", it just turns into looking at old pictures and reading old things and going down memory lane. well, it does for me at least). so i found allll my old journals (i think there was a total of 6 or 7) and started reading a few pages from each. the most comical one to read was the first one i started in 1st grade. every page started with "I am happy because.." and i thought it was refreshingly simplistic and genuous to remember that i really was extremely happy every single day. then i opened one from middle school and high school and read all the complaining and emotional teenage girl things i was going through. and it made me think. after all the perspectives i've seen at this stage in my life, it's really hard, actually impossible, to get back to that simplistic mirth. but the least i can do is try.

i talked to a good friend the other day who always pops in my life just at the right times to remind me about what's important. i have a tendency to get so lost in my own mind that sometimes all i need is someone to say, "hey- you're so lucky/blessed/fortunate/whatever form of that word you wanna call it" and it brings me back.

so, as an attempt to get back to the daily "I am happy because.." journal entries, i've started thinking about something every morning that i am so happy i have in my life. and it more-or-less leads to positive thinking throughout the rest of the day.

& if this was my iphone, i'd put in a couple of my favorite emoticons at this point. haha

cheers to friday!

alright

not really sure why i'm still up because i'm usually out by now. i think part of it is that i have a headache that just will not allow me to sleep. another reason is that i had a (i've been trying to think of the right adjective to put here, but i can't so i'll just say) strange day. and maybe a third reason is because i just redid my blog template thing and i'm excited to have a new post on it.

work has been very busy lately. i have a tendency to get overwhelmed if i feel like i'm behind, but the key words there are 'feel like'. because i'm really not i suppose. just have a lot more going on these days. work days go by so fast. anyway, so on my lunch break i went to subway and right when i walked in the door wanted to turn back around because the line was so extensive. i'm talking like 12-15 people in front of me. but i knew i already had to pay a dollar in the parking garage no matter what so i figured i'd stay and hope the line abated quickly. i end up being in subway for a total of 35 minutes- just to get my food and rush back to the office for a meeting.

what made the subway line bearable was that the man in front of me started a conversation right when i came up behind him in line. when he first started to talking to me i really wasn't interested in what he had to say because i just wanted to get my sandwich and get back to work (because of all the things i kept going over on my internal to-do list). but then after talking for about 5 minutes, i realized he was a harmless old friendly man who was trying to pass the time just as much as i was. we ended up talking about how he just moved here a couple months ago and was asking about more places to eat (subway was the only place he'd been for lunch since he moved here- the lady there had his order memorized). then he asked about what i do, and from that we got into a discussion about autism. and i don't know. there wasn't anything extraordinary about our conversation- he was just a good-natured old man and it made a 35 minute line seem like not that long.

then when i was in my car on my way home from work, while stopped at a red light i started going over one of those to-do lists in my head again and kind of leaned back in my chair and put my hand on my head. my window was rolled down and i must have looked like something was really wrong because the people in the car next to me rolled down their window and the guy got my attention and said, 'hey! everything's gonna be alright. everything's gonna be alright..' i kind of laughed and said thank you. and then he rolled up the window and the light turned green. and i thought... yep, i guess everything really is gonna be alright.

i believe

"There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life."

John Lennon

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us a universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest … a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

Albert Einstein



content

edisto island is the cutest little island in south carolina. it really is like a step back in time. 2 full days of lying/walking on the beach and card games (the picture below to the right is our wheat thin poker game-heh). even though i would've loved to stay a full week, those couple days were just what i needed. on the way back yesterday, i couldn't help but feel completely content. i love those moments when you feel absolutely aware of the moment you're in and you can appreciate it.

jon was so nice to drive most of the way there and back so i could study for the gre. i got a good portion of my study book done (it's about 400 pages) and i feel much more prepared than last summer taking it. sometimes when i start studying for it, it's hard to even keep my mind on the questions because all i can think about is when i get to start applying in november. haha.

here's us being happy that we're at the beach..





to finish off our 4th weekend, we walked down to worlds fair park to catch what we thought was going to be about a 45 minute firework show. it ended up being about 15. but at least we got to see some (because they're illegal in edisto). hope everyone had a great weekend! back to work..

fourth

those of you who know me are aware of my love for fun facts and statistics (might be the main reason i love snapple so much).

i thought it was only appropriate to celebrate this fourth of july weekend with a little knowledge about the holiday:

• 31 cities/towns across America have "liberty" in their name.
• around 150 million hotdogs are consumed on the fourth.
• the amount of fireworks imported from china was over $200 million.
• the fourth of july was not declared a national holiday until 1941.
• the words 'under god' were not added to the pledge of allegiance until 1954.
• benjamin franklin wanted the turkey to be the national animal but was outvoted when john adams and thomas jefferson chose the bald eagle.

jon and i have decided to make an impromptu trip (i love those) to edisto island, sc for the weekend. hoping for nice weather! my body has been yearning for some vitamin d.

annnd rufus wanted to tell everybody happy fourth but he's too shy/sad that i'm leaving for the weekend.

happy independence day! hope everyone has a great weekend.