Giving Thanks (and a little Bill Murray)

I love Thanksgiving.

I really do.

Of course there’s the delicious food (hellllllo stretchy pants!), the football and the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. But what I love most about this holiday is spending time with family and friends, as well as taking a moment (or five) to reflect and celebrate what it is that we’re truly thankful for, the things that give us joy and make our souls smile.

It’s a holiday that while steeped in tradition, can take on many forms.

For example, some of us are Tofurkey enthusiasts, while others are devotees of the deep-fried turducken. Some of us are Turkey Trot running champs and others live for the most epic of food coma naps (followed by a little pig skin on the big screen). Thanksgiving is one of the few traditional holidays that really celebrates our diversity as a cultural melting pot, which basically means you can take the holiday and run with it however you like. Harry Potter-themed Friendsgiving? Go for it! Around the World in 80 Turkey Dishes Potluck? Sure, why not?!

However we choose to spend it, our Thanksgiving celebrations are about the same thing–showing gratitude for what we have.

Well, that and pie.

I wanted to take some time today to share just some of the things in my life that give me joy.

Here are just some of my Thanksgivings (and I encourage you to share yours in the comments below!):

1. My awesome and crazy family who love me–and put up with me — no matter what. I truly drew the lucky card when I got them, and am so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing group of people in my life. *Cue the awwwwww.

2. My awesome and even crazier friends who love me–and put up with me — no matter what. Y’all know who you are and I owe each and every one of you the biggest of bear hug tackles. **Cue the double awwwww – shit, I’m pretty damn adorable on Thanksgiving.

3. Harry Potter. Because duh.

4. The Milwaukee Brewers. Because double duh.

5. My faith, my courage, my strength and my willingness to never, ever, never ever give up. It’s taken me a hot minute to own who I am, and y’all I’ve gotta say…being me feels pretty damn good. Most days anyway.

6. Good hair days.

7. See #6.

8. The kindness of strangers.

9. Ben & Jerry’s.

10. Ben & Jerry’s.

11. Ben & Jerry’s.

12. Sweat pants (especially after eating just all of the #’s 9-11)

13. Soul-hugging, mind-tingling, heart-pumping, belt-it-out-in-the-shower-or-in-the-car music.

14. The experiences, the challenges and the reallllllly tough moments in my life that have helped shape me, making me who I am.

15. The experiences, the challenges and the moments in my life that have yet to happen that will help to shape me, making me who I will be.

16. Hugs (the candy and the verb).

17. Freshly baked cookies, a hot shower, vanilla scented candles and oversized hoodies.

18. The ability to say no, but the courage to say yes.

19. PUPPIES!

20. And Billy Murray.

Have a fantabulous Thanksgiving, frannnnds! 🙂

 

Giving Thanks (and a little Bill Murray)

I love Thanksgiving.

I really do.

Of course there’s the delicious food (hellllllo stretchy pants!), the football, and the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. But what I love most about this holiday is spending time with family and friends, and taking a moment (or five) to reflect and celebrate what it is that we’re truly thankful for, the things that give us joy and make our hearts smile.

It’s a holiday that while steeped in tradition, can take on many forms.

For example, some of us are Tofurkey enthusiasts, while others are devotees of the deep-fried turducken. Some of us are Turkey Trot running champs and other live for the most epic of food coma naps (followed by a little pig skin on the big screen). Thanksgiving is one of the few traditional holidays that really celebrates our diversity as a cultural melting pot, which basically means you can take the holiday and run with it however you like. Harry Potter-themed Friendsgiving? Go for it! Around the World in 80 Turkey Dishes Potluck? Sure, why not?!

However we choose to spend it, our Thanksgiving celebrations are about the same thing–showing gratitude for what we have.

Well, that and pie.

I wanted to take some time today to shed some light on just some of the things in my life that make my heart smile.

I’m doing this a bit early seeing as all I plan on doing T-Day is watching football (Go Pack, go!), playing with my little cousins (one of them  promised me an mean no-holds-bar, fight-to-the-finish game of hide and seek and you better believe I am holding him to it!) and falling into a tryptophan-induced coma.

Here are just some of my Thanksgivings:

1. My awesome and crazy family who love me–and put up with me—no matter what. I truly drew the lucky card when I got them, and am so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing group of people in my life. Cue the awwwwww.

2. My awesome and even crazier friends who love me–and put up with me no matter what. Y’all know who you are and I owe each and every one of you the biggest of bear hugs. Cue the double awwwww–good golly I’m pretty damn adorable on Thanksgiving.

3. Harry Potter. Because duh.

4. The Milwaukee Brewers. Because double duh.

5. My faith, my courage, my strength and my willingness to never, ever, never ever give up.

6. Good hair days.

7. Bad hair days (because it really makes you appreciate the aforementioned good hair days.)

8. The kindness of strangers.

9. Ben & Jerry’s.

10. Ben & Jerry’s.

11. Ben & Jerry’s.

12. Sweats (especially after all of the aforementioned Ben & Jerry’s.)

13. Soul-hugging, mind-tingling, heart-pumping, belt-it-out-in-the-shower-or-in-the-car music.

14. The experiences, the challenges and the moments in my life that have helped shape me, making me who I am.

15. The experiences, the challenges and the moments in my life that have yet to happen that will help to shape me, making me who I will be.

16. Hugs (the candy and the verb).

17. Freshly baked cookies, a hot shower, vanilla scented candles and oversized hoodies.

18. The ability to say no, but the courage to say yes.

19. PUPPIES!

20. And Billy Murray.

Thankful…

I’ve already told you guys how much and why I’m thankful for books (just ALLLLLL of the books), but I wanted to take some time today to shed some light on the other things in my life that make my heart smile.

I’m doing this a bit early seeing as all I plan on doing tomorrow is watching football, playing with my little cousins (one of them  promised me an epic no-holds-bar, fight-to-the-finish game of hide and seek and you better believe I am holding him to it!) and falling into a tryptophan-induced coma.

1. My awesome and crazy family who love me–and put up with me—no matter what (cue the “awwwww”)

2. My awesome and even crazier friends who love me–and put up with me no matter what (cue the double “awwwww”–good golly I’m adorable on Thanksgiving)

3. Harry Potter. Duh.

4. The Milwaukee Brewers. Double duh.

5. My faith, my courage, my strength and my willingness to never, ever, never ever give up.

6. Good hair days.

7. Bad hair days (because it really makes you appreciate the aforementioned good hair days.)

8. Sweat pants.

9. Ben & Jerry’s.

10. Ben & Jerry’s.

11. Ben & Jerry’s.

12. My health (especially after all of the aforementioned Ben & Jerry’s.)

13. And Billy Murray.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone!! 🙂

Giving Thanks to Our Favorite Page-Turners

Hey guys!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Can you all believe that Thanksgiving is this Thursday?! Seriously, where has the time gone?! Before you know it, it will be Christmas and then we’ll be ushering in the new year (which is crazy-sauce! I just started getting used to writing/typing/signing the date as 2014!)

But before we (or I) get too ahead of ourselves, let’s go back to Thanksgiving shall we?

I love Thanksgiving.

I really do.

Of course there’s the delicious food (hellllllo stretchy pants!), the football, and the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. But what I love most about this holiday is getting together with family and friends, spending time together, and taking a moment (or five) to reflect and celebrate what it is that we’re truly thankful for, the things that give us joy and make our hearts smile.

It goes without saying that we’re all a little quirky on Turkey Day. Or maybe that’s just my family.

Nonetheless, it’s a holiday that while steeped in tradition, can take on many forms.

For example, some of us are Tofurkey enthusiasts, while others are devotees of the deep-fried turducken. Some of us are Turkey Trot running champs and other live for a little pigskin on the flatscreen. Thanksgiving is one of the few traditional holidays that really celebrates our diversity as a cultural melting pot, which basically means you can take the holiday and run with it however you like. Harry Potter-themed Friendsgiving? Go for it! Around the World in 80 Turkey Dishes Potluck? Sure, why not!

However we choose to spend it, our Thanksgiving celebrations are about the same thing–showing gratitude for what we have.

Well, that and pie.

So in honor of this day, I’ve decided to spend this week focusing on what I am most thankful for. Up first, I’m gonna let my book nerd flag fly as I give thanks for all the literary gold in the world. Here are 15 reasons why I am thankful for books:

1. Books keep you sane during your awful rush-hour commute.

2. Books have saved you from going on countless awful, no good, very bad dates. You’ve had many a perfect evening at home cuddled up with Mr. Darcy.

3. Books make soaking in the bathtub all the more fun (as long as you don’t accidentally drop said book in said bathtub. I’ve been there, done that and am still having nightmares over wrinkly pages and smeared ink.)

4. Books don’t care if you can’t pronounce the big words in them or if you don’t even finish them. Books don’t judge you for anything (except for maybe when you accidentally drop them in a bathtub.)

5. Books have the remarkable power to put even the rowdiest of children to sleep.

6. Books have the remarkable power to put you to sleep too, especially when you’re up late worrying if the turkey brine you used was “gluten free.”

7. Books teach you to empathize with people you’ve never met and help you tolerate the people you have, like your cousin’s boyfriend who is a DJ and is also a Cub’s fan.

8. Books remind us that sentences can have more than 140 characters, they don’t have to start with “OMG,” and they don’t always need to be accompanied by photos.

9. Books make you smarter. I have no idea why. I think it has something to do with pheromones in the paper?

10. When you need to put the world on a time out, books are there for you.

11. Books allow us to vicariously experience a range of gif-worthy emotions, from heartbreak, to terror, to despair to jealousy. All while maintaining our effortlessly cool, intellectual composure in public.

12. Reading is one of the few things you can do in sweatpants on the couch that qualifies as “constructive.”

13. Books show you that you are not alone in the world, even if all of your relatives thing you are and keep asking if you’ll ever get married.

14. Books teach you that your parents, your teachers, and your friends aren’t right about everything, but then neither are you.

15. And lastly, books teach you to think for yourself, so you can ponder things like, “pumpkin or pecan pie?”

Why are you thankful for books?

I put up my “Christmas Tree” this weekend and I’ve got to say, Rockefeller ain’t got nothing on my tree! 😉

This holiday season, consider giving/donating a book to children in need, giving them the gift of literacy and the magic that only a great book can give. For more information, please check out the awesome program Barnes & Noble is currently running!

Thoughts on a Thursday

1. I just finished re-re-reading Mocking Jay in anticipation for the movie which opens tomorrow (technically it opens tonight at midnight but I’m old and lame). Why?! Why do I do this to myself?! Who else is pumped to see this movie though?! I’m a little hesitant that they decided to split it up into two parts, but I guess that just means more room (and time) to include ALL of the details.

2. This song has been stuck in my head for 36.777 hours now. I’m going to go ahead and apologize right now to my poor coworkers who have had and will have to put up with my mad karaoke skills for the rest of the day/week.

3. Um, can we talk about how incredibly cute Mr. Adam Lavine is here for a second?  #sigh

4. I just had a really big interview (if you’re counting, it’s number 4,367) for an Adult Graduate Student Librarian position at Bryan College in Dayton, TN!! I’d say I feel really good about it, but I’ve felt “really good” about all 4,367 interviews before this one. Any good ju-ju thoughts, fingers-crossed, and 11:11 wishes directed my way would be mucho appreciated.

5. To celebrate said interview, I got a #facelift. Because how else is one supposed to celebrate other than buying and devouring a cookie the size of a small hippo?

6. Speaking of hippos…

7. Turkey Day is less than 7 days away!!! That means we’ve only got one week to train. Our stretchy pants, that is.

Have a great rest of your Thursday, guys!! 🙂

Happy Thanksgiving

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A Little Fries With My Catch-Up

Hey guys!

Long time, no post.  For the last week or so, I have been sans internet…which in a way was slightly invigorating. For something that is supposed to shave minutes from the clock, it is amazing how much time technology ends up sucking from you each and every day. It makes me want to try to spend less time playing ‘Words with Friends’ and surfing the web everyday and instead, start spending more time playing ‘Tug of War’ with my dog and, maybe even learning how to really surf (we’ll have to wait until it gets a bit warmer however for that one, wetsuit and all).

So much has happened in the last week that I wanted to share with you guys! Did you all have a great Thanksgiving? Snab any awesome Black Friday deals?

To give you a brief overview of how I spent my holiday and what has been happening in my neck of the woods, I thought I’d give you just a quick Cliff Notes version (You know me…I could write a novel just on Thanksgiving alone but I will spare you the lengthy write-up and just give you the high points) of what went down with moi over the past few days or so to catch you all up…

• A Day of Thanks and Giving

My Thanksgiving was amazing! Not only was it the first T-Day that my mom, sister, dad and myself were all together to celebrate in over four years, but it was the first that my mom hosted herself…and quite successfully I might add–we didn’t even have to dig in to the back-up frozen pizzas, which we had just in case the turkey was a no-go. My dad was the master turkey briner/roaster/carver, I was in charge of the squash/salads and my mom did an excellent job of preparing some FoodNetwork-worthy appetizers which we inhaled during the Packer game…aka pre-meal. Speaking of Packers….can you believe they are 11-0?! How totally amazeballs is that? Overall it was great day, not just because of the delicious stretchy-pants-testing food or the big Detroit defeat by the Packers…no. It was great because of who I was able to spend it with and the memories that were made. Isn’t that was Thanksgiving is really all about?

       

• Suicide Shopping and Santa Clause

Every year, my mom and I have a tradition of going through the phone-book sized ads that come in the newspaper Thanksgiving day, mapping out and planning our shopping excursion based on location, item and price and then getting up in the wee hours of Black Friday (around 3 AM) to brave the stores along with thousands of other crazy shoppers. This year however, we needn’t have to wait until 3 AM the next day because most stores opened up as early as 10 PM Thanksgiving night! How crazy is that? I mean I am all for a deal when it comes to shopping for Christmas gifts, but really? Shouldn’t people be allowed at least one day to spend with their families? Money is just money after all. If they keep going at the rate they are, the big honchos who own and operate all of these stores will have them be open all day, paying no recognition at all to holidays or the significance that they hold. Oh well, whatcha gonna do I guess.

As most of you know, I have a slight addiction to DVD’s. I’m a DVD whore, plain and simple. I can’t not walk into an FYI, Wal-Mart or Target without walking out with one (or three) movies or TV shows on DVD. Jimmy Choo shoes are to Carrie Bradshaw what movies are to me…I gots to have me some…and not just some…tons. Upon hearing that Wal-Mart and Target had unbelievable DVD sales (I’m talking $2 DVD’s here!) Thanksgiving night, I knew where I was headed. After a quick post-dinner nap, I headed on out to brave the lines and hoards and hoards of people already awaiting the 10 o’clock hour at Wal-Mart. Now I have been Black Friday shopping many times before and have been in some crazy crowds, but never, ever, like this. Upon first stepping through the store’s doors, I knew it was going to be one interesting night. There were people EVERYWHERE! And I mean everywhere. You couldn’t walk two steps without bumping into someone’s cart or leg or accidentally stepping on their toes. I made my way to where the DVD’s where being held and waited with the many others who were after the same thing I was until 10 PM when the deals would officially start. Waiting in line was like waiting for the gun to go off at a race…the anticipation was brutal; the crowd stood hungrily eying the movies that they wanted, ready to pounce on them at the stroke of 10. Once it was time, the animals were let out of the cage so to speak; the people around me rushed forward, grabbing armfuls and armfuls of DVD’s (and I am pretty sure my hair and jacket multiple times along the way), not even caring what they were. It. Was. Nuts. At one point, I bent over to get a copy of Glee for my mom when all of a sudden a crazy old lady in pajamas pushed me from behind, sending me flying to the ground. She got my Glee, and gave me a gnarly bruise instead. In the words of Stephanie Tanner…”How rude.” I got what I had wanted for the most part, walking away with over 17 movies and TV shows and saving over $60 in the process but goodness…it was quite the shopping experience. That following day, I went out with my mom around 1 PM, the chaos mostly over with, to see if we could score any more deals. Most of the things were long gone by the time we got there but we did run into this guy…

Elfs smelfs...Kris Kringle gets all of his toys at Wally World!

• The Doggy Blues

Did you know that dogs can be clinically depressed? I didn’t know either but apparently they can. My pup Thunder has had a problem of biting and scratching his paws and legs for some time now, almost to the point of scaring. we thought that he could have allergies, possibly to his food, that would cause him to itch, scratch and break-out the way that he has been, but we took him into the vet last Saturday and found out that he has high anxiety, especially when he is away from his owners, faces a great change or shift in his routine or is left on his own….poor guy. He was prescribed some antidepressants (five pills a day which we have to sneak into a heavily buttered piece of bread to get him to take and even sometimes, we end up just covering in butter…Thunder is the only dog I know who could eat sticks of butter like they were a dog biscuit. He may end up weighing 200 lbs. the next time we take him to the vet but he will be happy!) which will hopefully help him out. For a treat, we gave him an early Christmas present and he LOVES it!

• Blind Date

Oh goodness…I am going on a date tomorrow night. Me. On  date? That hasn’t happened in eons it seems like so it’s fair to say I might be a little rusty. Man oh man…what do I wear? How should I fix my hair? Nails painted or not? Totally going to have to remind myself not to burp out loud until at least the third date. It’s kind of nice to be in that fun and flirty stage of a possible new relationship, or at the very least, a friendship. I am always down for meeting new people and making new friends, and if something beyond that were to happen, I would definitely be okay with that too. Wish me luck!

I guess that pretty much catches you all up. I hope you all had a fantastic holiday and are having a great end to your humpday!

Until next time…

🙂