occasionally, life will really surprise you.

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life."

hazelnut > vanilla
coke > pepsi
harry potter > twilight
sawyer > jack
grey > gray

Me: I don't know. I'm pretty bad at dating.
Friend: I think you're good at dating. You do it enough and don't fall in love with every guy who takes you out.
Me: So, then I guess I'm pretty bad at being in a relationship.
Friend: Well... I wouldn't say bad. You just haven't found the right person. When you find the right person, then you'll be good at it.

oh geez.

so. life. whoa.

for each personal "tragedy" recently, i've been handed a huge dose of perspective. i am so blessed. i am healthy. my friends are healthy. my family is healthy. and most of us (myself included now) have insurance to cover the unexpected. i am so blessed. so very very blessed.

i've certainly been busy. work - duh, it's almost black friday. the gym - cycle kicked my butt this morning, yo. small group. gobble wobbling on thanksgiving. moving & unpacking. dave matthews band! keeping up with friends - old & new. it's a lot, but i think that now is the time to be busy and stay out late and be exhausted if i have to bc people are worth investing in.

and last night, i had my first home cooked meal in a really long time. my friend alex invited me over and he made turkey lasagna (that's right - i'm back on the poultry bandwagon) and salad with spinach, tomatoes, and blueberries. it was delicious. i think i had almost forgotten what it's like to eat real food at a table with someone else that's not in a restaurant.

i'm trying to focus on the positives right now. at the holidays, i have a tendency to stress out and be glass half empty... or glass half full of craziness... one or the other - they're both bad. this year, i'm going to try a new perspective.

i'm also trying to take time for myself. once a week, don't make plans. keep a night or morning to myself to do things around the apartment or read - which i haven't been doing, but need to. hopefully, i'll be able to do all this & make it through the holidays alive.

also, note to self: go see the new harry potter movie. get vacuum from mj. do laundry. get some mixing bowls.

so there you have it. life. whoa.

“He awoke each morning with the desire to do right, to be a good and meaningful person, to be, as simple as it sounded and as impossible as it actually was, happy.”

Jonathan Safran Foer

"He said to me I was a tree in a story about a forest, and that it was arrogant of me to believe any differently. And he told me the story of the forest is better than the story of the tree."

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

I'm still not unpacked. Oy.

My kitchen is put away. Mostly. The shelves are lined and things are in the cabinets now. Score.

I'm using red & orange as my kitchen colors. I'm basing it around the only dishtowel I own.

I have to unpack just a couple more boxes and put away my laundry. Yuck.

I need a broom. And a tv stand. And a curtain rod for my bedroom. I haven't decided what to do with my living room window at all. It's huge... like I could take a nap there if I had a cushion.

I really really need to hang stuff on the walls.

May I please have more hours in a day?

Slow and steady wins the race.

i'm making up for lost interwebs time.

i'm good. content. happy.
friends. shelter. food. coffee.
all the glory when He took our place.
let's not make it complicated.

and when i live, i'll give it all i've got.

sleepless, long nights. that is what my youth was for...

holidays.