someday...

today is a beautiful, beautiful day.

and i got up and came to school.  not cool.  on days like today, i just sit and dream about all of the awesome, fun things that i could do if i didn't have to come to school.  so i thought i would make a list of things i would be doing today if i didn't come to school (and yes, i'm in class right now).  i'll do these someday... enjoy.

• gardening
• making photo books of my trips with philip
• getting a new tattoo i've been dreaming about 
• bike pub crawl
• walk around and take pictures of spring
• painting my entryway
• go antiquing down south broadway
• plant herbs in my kitchen
• label my kitchen jars
• have a picnic
• drinking these amazing cocktails
• enjoying a yoga class
• give myself a cute manicure (& pedicure)
• sleeping :) 

so hope you all are enjoying your sunday!  it's my last weekend in school (for the semester, anyway).  i'll be enjoying my weekend soon! 

til next time... 

high high #18, plus fill in the blanks!

whew.  whadda day.  i worked 12 hours, finished my final project, and came home to a few surprises.

1 - a pre-mixed martini, courtesy of my husband who knew i had a rough day. 

2 - a surprise from my momma. 

now, my mom is big on surprises.  there is no doubt in my mind that she loves surprising people more than she loves being surprised.  so when she texted me tonight to call me once i got home and settled in because she had a surprise for me, i wasn't surprised about the surprise.  a lot of time she goes shopping and picks up something for me, or takes me shoe shopping, or something fun like that.  but this time she said she made me something.  so i went home, i settled in with my martini (!!!) and gave her a call.  

she told me she made me a board on pinterest.

now, let me just say that i introduced my mom to pinterest last weekend, and she's obsessed.  she loves it. in fact, she spent a good portion of her time while at my house playing on pinterest with me.  so today, she said she was playing and saw a lot of things that she thought it would like, so she made a board to pin them all to.  so i logged on to check it out. 

if you want to get to know me, just check out her board on pinterest.  it is absolutely astounding how well this woman knows me.  she has literally ALL of my favorite things on there - russia, shoes with bows, philip seymour hoffman, my celebrity father, artsy graffiti, the beach, brooklyn, inspirational quotes, bauble necklaces, david hyde pierce, uneven manicures, the avalanche, truman capote, mosques jack goes boating, kings of convenience, kir royales, pilsner, the obamas, owls and my favorite book.  it's amazing.  she even pinned a picture of my ex (???).  now THAT is impressive.  i am so blessed to have an insanely awesome mom who is not only a wonderful mother but also one of my best friends.  

and if you are looking for anything awesome on pinterest, just check it out.

and since it's friday and i'm blogging, here are my blanks... 

1.  when i wake up in the morning, the first thing i do is hit the snooze button if at all possible.  if not then i usually pet mussolini, my cat.  then we go into the bathroom together (seriously, he follows me) so i can brush my teeth.

2.   i can hardly wait for finals to be over for the semester.  and then school to be done forever.

3.  the quickest way to my heart is sharing my ideology because if we don't see the world the same way, how will we agree on anything else?  also - a good sense of humor :)

4. a little known fact about me is that i am an aquarius in every detail of my being.  i'm individualistic, assertive, humanitarian, eccentric, opinionated, idealistic and can be detached.  i'm one of those people that really identify with my zodiac sign.

5. the best part about my job is  [i don't blog about my job - so i'll blog about the best part of my volunteer job] working with people who are so passionate about what we do.  this isn't work, no one makes them come.  they come because they care, they believe and they want to make a difference.

6. something i just couldn't live without is music.  music music music music music.  also good beer.

7.  something useful that i wish i knew how to do is  speak another language.  in my life i have taken french, latin, greek, italian and czech.  i only know some french today and the rest is basically gone.  i can understand some italian but can't speak it - i got rosetta stone from my dad for christmas and it is the first thing i want to do once school is done.  i can't wait.

ok guys, it's off to school for me this weekend, for my LAST WEEKEND!  wish me luck! 

til next time... :)

high high #17

high high of the day week month - meeting aj jacobs.  he is every bit as awesome, funny and friendly in real life as you would imagine he is from his books.

me & aj jacobs!!!

it was all thanks to philip (of course), who discovered that the author would be at the tattered cover lodo to promote his new book, drop dead healthy.  i will admit that with the craziness of school, i haven't had time to do anything, let alone read books for fun.  but i've read all his other work, from articles (my favorite is my outsourced life!) to his books, such as the know it all and my absolutely favorite - the year of living biblically.  if you haven't read it and are looking for some summer reading, definitely check it out (since i started this blog there there have been links to purchase my favorite books from amazon under 'i pledge to read the written word').  his discussion was fantastic, and afterwards he stuck around to sign everyone's books, take pictures and chat about just about anything.

now why is aj jacbos so insane cool?  a few reasons.  first of all, he's one of the reasons i've flirted with judaism (more on that later).  second of all, after i finished the first book of his that i read, i looked him up online.  this was in my previous life.

in my previous life i wanted to be a writer.  badly.  i had the beginnings of a novel, the beginnings of a memoir and have penned a few short stories.  my first go-around in college was in the pursuit of a creative writing degree - although what you do with that i still have no idea.  i've written for magazines and websites, and for a short time did a good amount of freelance travel writing and sports writing as well, while i was living in brooklyn.  i wanted to be a writer and didn't know where to start if i didn't want to just be freelance.  so, i had just finished the year of living biblically.

i thought aj's book was great and he seemed so approachable, so i found his website and sent him an email.  for some reason i thought this was a good idea.  it was my first fan mail ever, at the age of 23.  i told him that his book raised some interesting questions in my own life on religion.  and then i asked for his advice, since i considered myself a struggling writer.  and you know what?

he emailed me back.  not just some generic, canned response either - he gave me the name of his friend at esquire in charge of internships, his direct line, and said to say that he referred me for an internship.  how awesome is that - this guy had no idea who i was but just figured he'd help me out.

now i ended up moving to denver, so in case you were wondering i was not an intern at esquire (but how amazing would that have been?).  i moved back to denver, did some serious soul-searching, and arrived at my current destination of student and dedicated OFA team leader.

so when i met aj and he signed my book, i reminded him about his email to me about the internship.  he said he remembered (who knows if he really did) and asked if i got the internship.  while he signed i told him (in brief) about my move to denver and change.  he thought it was great, and even said he supports obama.  we took a quick picture, and i left on cloud nine.  when i got home i peeked open my new book, and saw this:

now that is a good day.

til next time...

friday blanks!

hi friends! it's friday, i don't have school, and that makes me happy.  i have a crazy amount of homework (finals time!) this weekend but hopefully i'll get to blogging again before next week comes.

make it a fun one and everyone have a cocktail for me in the sunshine! :)


1.  today is a great day because it's friday, and i don't have school this weekend! yahooo!

2.  tomorrow i will be working in the morning, pounding out lots of homework in the afternoon and spending the rest of my saturday hanging out with philip and my mom.  a few weeks back i discovered that mom has never seen the talented mr. ripley, which is a huge no-no in my world.  so we're watching it with some good italian wine tomorrow. 

3.  my favorite time of day is the time between dinner and bedtime because that's when i spend time with philip. homework is usually winding down and we will finally catch up on our days.

4.  sometimes you just have to knuckle down and get shit done. i've learned that complaining doesn't get you anywhere and neither does feeling sorry for yourself. so knuckle down and get it done so you can move on to better things later.

5.  a song that i just can't get enough of lately is cake's 'love you madly.' not exactly the newest song but an obsession of mine as of late that makes me happy.

6.  my favorite accessory is usually my purse or my shoes, but lately i'm loving a new sheer scarf i bought. i tie it up in my hair. it's so pretty and girlie, perfect for spring! 

7.  my favorite thing about this week was watching so many first round playoff games.  major fun and major stress reliever.  happy me!

the award-winning blog!

whoa - my day got MADE yesterday by winning a blogging award!  i'm blushing! 


my dear blogging friend jess over @ littmssunshine gave me a liebster award, which you will now see proudly displayed on my blog :) 

the liebster blog award

the liebster award is for up-and-coming bloggers (200 followers or less) that you think deserve recognition for their fabulous blogging abilities

jess, thank you and i am honored (especially since your blog is way cooler than mine)!  i feel like i've been such a slouch when it comes to blogging lately, but i'm happy to hear that people are reading and actually enjoying!  hooray!

think this is cool? if you get the award, you have to follow these rules... 

1. link back to your award giver and show some ♥ 
2. choose blogs to pass on the liebster award to, then...
3. list them on your blog with links 
4. leave a comment with the award winners 
5. give 5 random facts about yourself. 

AND the liebsters go to... 

miss bianca @ the martino nest

the ladies with awesome taste, megan & jessica, @ the colonies

ok, and now (silly) the five random facts about ME:

1. i yell at the radio when i disagree with what is being said.  and the television too.
2. i am currently obsessing over sweet leaf's mint & honey organic green tea.
3. i could not be more obsessed with hockey. right now i deal with my crazy stress by drinking watching round one of the stanley cup playoffs and screaming at the television. it doesn't add to my stress because my team didn't make it :(
4. i have a 'thursday dance' that i do to the opening theme of parks & rec because it kicks off my favorite shows on my favorite day of the week.  and it's the best show ever.
5. if i could pick one thing to drink for the rest of my life, it would be champagne and champagne only.

now, go check out these awesome blogs! 

til next time... 

xoxo

positivity.

today started out a bit rough for me on my way to school all weekend.  i need a dose of powerful positivity today, so i thought i'd share some with everyone else.  nothing like a saturday boost! 

even if no one else is.

always try to do this.

love this.

be supportive.

NEVER!

thank you ghandi!

steve jobs knew how to inspire.

til next time...         

fill in the blanks!

hi there!  it's been a few weeks since i've played blanks on friday, so here we go.  i have class this weekend and i just got my assignments sent over to me via email and had a panic attack - so here we go awful end of the semester! hope everyone's weekend is better than mine is going to be! 

1.  today is a good day because  it's the end of the work week, which means i can focus on school aaaaalll weekend.

2.   the best thing i did all week was  meet my calling goals at the phone bank monday night.  we were finishing up calls waiting for our last volunteer to hand in her tally when we found out we were 5 calls short of our goal.  so everyone grabbed one more sheet to call through, even though it was 8pm and none of these people get paid.  it made my heart swell and everyone was so motivated we recruited more volunteers in that last 15 minutes than we had all night.  amazing.

3.  the current weather is rainy and it makes me feel like i missed spring so much.  i love it.

4. the best thing about spring is  coming back outside. happy hours on patios, flowers, windows down, skirts get shorter, toes come out in sandals.  too many to name.

5. a fashion trend that i'm dying to try out for spring is  hair chalking.  how fun is that?!?!

6. a person who made me smile this week was   my husband, who remembered that wednesday was our five year anniversary of getting engaged, and made a big deal out of it.  he also made me smile tuesday when i had my day from hell, and i came home to a note that said 'pick one' in front of a bottle of wine, a bottle of vodka and a bottle of beer.  now that is love.

7.  the most delicious thing i ate all week was an awesome, spur of the moment pasta salad i made.  whole wheat rigatoni, garbanzo beans, peppers, tomatoes, olives... delicious.

high high #16

how can i have a high high of the day when it isn't even halfway over yet?

because today i was reminded that in just one short month i will be waking up in franklin, visiting my insanely awesome sister anne.  and not only that, but i will be DONE with the semester from hell.

remember my trip to tennessee last year?  yeah, exactly - and i didn't even have anything to let loose from.  it's going to be wonderful.

what's your high high today?

til next time! :)

lovely, lovely weekend.

just wanted to share a photo so you could understand how excited this weekend made me.

like i said, two of my favorite people on earth came to visit us last weekend.  my cousin E & her husband P came from queens.  it was a glorious three and a half days off of work and we just had an amazing time.  some photos to follow...

what can i say, P  & philip kind of love each other

it's not a vacation without a stop at the tap room!

double IPA, seasonal, raspberry ale

drinking, walking to a comedy show, what's not to love?

red square, 2am.  enough said.

roomie clarence made a new best friend! 

so did miss E :)  anamana! 

easter family pic :)

me & PI, hair thanks to pinterest!

love love love

growing up, my cousin E and i were complete opposites.  and i don't even mean that figuratively, i mean that if i loved something she HATED it.  but now that we are older, we both discovered that we had a ton of things in common over the weekend.  our home decorating style is the same - the couch she just bought is practically identical to mine.  it was such a great time and it meant the world to philip and i that they visited us.  

but the flip side is now it is totally crunch time!  just a few more weeks of school left - through the first week of may - and then i'm done.  i had a mild panic attack today as i registered for my last semester of college (fall 2012).  all the classes that i need are available and i am registered for, which is insane... but that means it's all really happening, really falling into place.  it seems like just yesterday i was contemplating even going back to school in the first place.  

that makes me happy :) 

til next time (which might be may... ugh...)

xoxo

high high #15

today i came across an old friend.

my mom found this old bunny that i named moo moo.  she made me happy when i was having a rough day.

i mean, how cute is that bunny?  how could anyone be upset after looking at that?  what makes you happy after a rough day?

closet drama.

hi there!  sorry for my absence (again) but things are really picking up around here... we had a wonderful time in keystone last weekend and are anxiously awaiting the arrivals of our cousins e & p on thursday morning.  so i'm cramming a week's worth of homework into about three days to enjoy a glorious five day weekend with them thursday through monday!  whooo!  since i last wrote, spring has arrived (for now)!  everything is starting to come alive and bloom outside... of course we are supposed to get snow tomorrow, so we'll see how long this lasts.

here in colorado, this is what we call spring.  spring, much like fall, is a but schizophrenic.  today it is 80, and tomorrow it's supposed to snow (not kidding).  so while you need your summer clothes out for days like today, i can't pack my sweaters up just yet due to the random snow and occasional rain.  today, i spent the morning doing just that - going through all my clothes.  i swore to myself that this time i would really chuck things out, but there are some things i just can't get rid of.

but it goes beyond clothes.  it's about who you are now versus who you were a year ago.  and being honest with your self about it.  it's very hard to do, especially for me.  i have a very - versatile - sense of style.  i've been a bit of a chameleon - i've had every color hair except blonde (and this includes red, purple and blue).  i've been the preppy girl.  i've been the 'college girl.'  but now that i'm a bit older, cleaning out my closet can feel like taking a tour of who i used to be.

it's funny how much my style has grown and evolved as i've gotten older.  but i can't help but hold on to some of those old pieces that remind me of past lives... you never know, right?

dresses, dresses everywhere... 

how could i ever part with any of these beauties?

i told myself that this year, i wouldn't just get rid of worn out clothes.  i'd also get rid of clothes i hadn't worn all season and anything that is unflattering on me.  but sometimes, i just can't say no...