wonderful wednesday

linda and me - rader's family farm - normal, illinois - october 25, 2011.

with the stress of work today, there was nowhere less i wanted to be than at my desk today.

then my phone started blinkingred.

a new message.

it was from my friend alex, who i haven't talked to in a while, and who i haven't seen in an even longer while.

hearing from him made me smile (genuinely) and made me remember how good it can be to hear from good friends, where distance may keep you apart. 

that got me thinking of the things that make me genuinely happy.

by default, i am a happy person. my laugh can be heard all the way across the office. people tell me i am easily entertained. i'm rarely bored or upset for too long. 

but today, alex's out-of-the-blue message really made put a smile on my face and gave my voice a happy spring. 

here are 15 things that make me smile.

1. unexpected messages from old friends.

me and alex, sophomore year, fall 2007.

3. a full tank of gas.

4. crisp fall air.

5. comfortable silences between really good friends.

6. navy blue and white striped shirts, of which i own about 5. 

7. boys who wear boat shoes or toms or classic blue vans skating shoes. 

8. when the dress you want fits perfectly.

9. waking on your own time to a day with absolutely no plans. or a day full of fun, exciting, adventure-inducing ones.

10. when your friends uploads the pictures from a great weekend before you even get home.

11. driving home after 10 on a sunday and unexpectedly tuning in to dawson mccallister's radio show on kissFM. always a treat to gain some perspective on your life right before the work week.

12. finding things i "need" on trips to ikea!

13. planning vacations with or to visit people i love.

14. the atmosphere at a really, really good concert.

i'm in the cut-offs, getting my juke on at deadmau5 - epic dance party at lollapalooza, august 7 2011 (as you can tell by the annoying date tag in the corner). 

15. airports. being on an airplane. take off and touch down. ascent and descent. delays. airport food. magazine shopping at the gate. 8+ hour flights to new worlds. people watching. the fact that everyone is going somewhere. being in the sky before the sun rises, and staying there after it has set.

san francisco to chicago - october 17, 2011.

what always makes you happy? what brings out your laugh lines?

mi casa

hello, little blog. so much has changed since i lost posted in... april. i've been super busy at work thanks to the disastrous weather in the midwest, but i've moved out, gotten an orange kitty named bill, and planned a trip to San Francisco with my friends from work.

 this is bill. he is three and he has a dreidel cat toy and he likes playing with my ponytail holders.

my place is unpacked for the most part, but not all decorated. i'm holding off of on that for; i want to devote an hour a day to sorting through all this introductory mail that has accumulated in various piles in my apartment, reorganize the tchotchkes that have found their way onto my mantle and dresser, hang up more pictures/locate frames, and set up my wii.

as always, per my "strive for constant improvement" mantra, i'm in a workout challenge class with one of my friends (down two pounds!), drinking lots of water, and i'm looking forward to taking advantage of this nice weather with some early morning or late evening bike rides (i finally have my bike here from my parent's house!). i'm trying not to be as computer or television-centric, and trying to get up off my butt, keep things at least slightly clean, and maybe get around to folding this week-old pile of laundry in my basket. i want to get to sleep on time and wake up in time to get some hours of OT in the morning at work. basically, i need the energy to get up and check things off my to-do list. such a better feeling than knowing you've spent the day doing productive things, rather than napping while watching the Harry Potter marathon on ABC Family.

as i get everything together, my life has been full of friends and awesome things that are getting me out of the apartment. i won passes to an advance screening of Transformers: Dark of the Moon and i took my friend cory. i also spent the weekend of the 4th at my friend's pool, betting (and losing) on horses, taking in an awesome fireworks display, hitting up a hot air balloon festival, and going to a Sox game. it was a great weekend that took a lot out of me, and i'm still recuperating.

for now the focus is on busting my best at work in the week ahead, riding my bike in the evenings, and eating as healthily as possible (turkey, water, egg whites, peppers). what is your focus of the week?

be excellent.

travel tuesday: 11.3.10 - barcelona, spain to paris, france

1. saying goodbye to barcelona

2. españa from the aire

3. caroline's student foyer in paris looked just like the interior of the hogwarts express

4. paris by night, overlooking the seine just outside of the latin quarter

5. notre dame

6. my first glimpse of the eiffel tower from the plane

7. bathed in parisian twilight, right before we had some stella artois at shywawa

travel tuesday: 11.2.10 - barcelona, spain

1. my old dried fruit seller friend at la boquería

2. sunset on top of la sagrada familia

3. overlooking the sunlit modern side

4. twilight exterior of casa batlló

5. enchanted forest interior of la sagrada familia

travel tuesday: 11.1.10 - barcelona, spain

1. parc guell

2. looking up at the palau de la música catalana on a clear november day

3. making insects out of recycled objects in parc guell

4. quite possibly the best night out i've ever had

5. the view off the balcony at my old homestay with a view of the fc barca stadium in the background

6. exploring right off las ramblas

7. me and my old host mom

8. so many good nights out at this bar on passeig de colón

things i loved in february

all things pink and light and airy and printed and girly.

clean up, clean up everybody everywhere

 Living at home has its perks. For one, every two weeks a nice woman named Anna comes and cleans our house. However, when she gets to my room she just rearranges the dozens of nail polish bottles on my dresser and throws my shoes in my closet (see picture four). Not much to clean in a room that has a fine layering of clothing that acts as a floor. She'll stack up the DVDs and magazines and books I have scattered next to my bed (see the last picture) and then gently place all discarded clothing in the pile in front of my desk (see the picture below). 

Now that I have a move-out date in less than two months (!!!!! MY NEW PLACE IS AMAZING !!!!!), I think it's time to stop having "piles" of things and time to start getting rid of things. Maybe the best way of picking out my clothing for work each day would be to look in my closet or drawers; not by kicking through a mound of clothing with varying levels of cleanliness. So, after I wake up from my morning nap, it's mission cleaning. I feel like I'm always devoting myself to this cause. But this time, it's for real. Please enjoy the following "before" pictures, which feature gift bags filled with still unpacked Christmas gifts, old copies of US Weekly, and boxes of yet-unpacked home headbands and jewelry from college (for a point of reference, I moved home in late May 2010). Excellent!

Stay excellent. And cleaner than me! But I don't think that will be hard.