Things That Make Me Happy

I had a damn good weekend. I spent lots of time with good friends, new friends, old friends, family... and after my stressful week of mid-terms, this was just what I needed. I was going to blog all about this weekend's events, as they were all pretty fantastic, but instead I'm going to share something I found the other day (and just in the nick of time, I might add). I found a list I made on February 8, 2010, of 33 things that make me happy.

I wrote it one day at Alexandra's house, after a rough couple months of boy problems and depression. At that time, I felt like I had been overlooking all the good things in life; I needed to remind myself that there were plenty of reasons to smile. It hung on my fridge at my old house, and now it's hanging on the fridge at my new house, right where it belongs. Here it is, uncensored:

1. music
2. coffee
3. sunshine
4. stretching
5. exercise
6. breakfast
7. Weight Watchers
8. bike riding
9. reading
10. cleaning
11. clean clothes
12. Sunday phone calls/emails
13. doing my hair & make-up
14. matching underwear
15. sex
16. parties (especially theme parties)
17. dressing up
18. drawing
19. singing
20. practicing instruments
21. watching movies
22. dinner with friends
23. museums
24. swimming
25. painting nails/toenails
26. going to the movies
27. Chicago
28. crafting
29. kids
30. car coffee
31. massages
32. painting
33. dancing
34. showering
35. going out for coffee
36. poetry

What makes you happy?

Let's have a quickie!

My first class was canceled, so I'm killing time in the computer lab. I was going to post all about my recent trip to the MCA with Chryssa, and highlight some of the phenomenal artists we saw, but I don't have time right now. I do have time, however, to list what I got in the gift shop: a set of glass plates that look like a paper plates, a few little presents for some of my loved ones, and a magnificent book about my favorite performance artist, Marina Abramovic. I'm most excited about reading the Abramovic book, which comes with an audio guide narrated by the artist herself. Looooove. Oh, yeah, I bought a membership to the museum, as well. That means a whole year's worth of art-tastic fun.

I have printmaking class in about 15 minutes, and it's woodcut critique day. Ugh. My woodcut came out terrible, in my opinion. It was a passionless project for me. Sometimes when you struggle with a piece, it becomes your favorite, your pet, a challenge to be conquered with pride; other times, you just want to chuck it in the garbage can, out of pure hatred and frustration. Unfortunately for this woodcut, it fell into the latter of those two categories.

Cheers, all. My band is playing a show next Wednesday at The House. Y'all should come and drink and dance and laugh with me. It's gonna be a time. Here's the link to the event information.

UPDATE! (...which is not as cool as an "UPGRADE!")

I have officially moved into my new house in DeKalb, with my new awesome roommate, Sarah B. I'm still not completely unpacked; it's a huge task, considering the ridiculous amount of trinkets that I own. 472+ VHS tapes, 300+ owls, and who-knows-how-many books later, and the unloading is coming along slowly but surely. Tomorrow is my 28th birthday, I start school on Monday, and I'm going to be in an arts and crafts show next weekend in downtown Aurora. Did I also mention that I started a new job about a month ago? I'm busy, busy, busy, as usual.

As if all this wasn't enough to fill my time and brain, yesterday my electric went out and will not be turned on for one to three days. Thank you, oh so much, previous tenants who did not pay your bill. My fridge is filled with soon-to-be-wasted food, I can't listen to my stereo, I can't charge my computer or phone, and I did my make-up by flashlight last night. Oh, yes, and I had to cancel the birthday house party I had planned for Saturday night.

So here I sit, at The House Cafe, checking my email, blogging, and swigging coffee... I'm just going with the flow and trying not to worry about things that are out of my control, counting to 10 over and over. Chryssa is going to lighten my roots this afternoon, and I think I might buy a new dress to lighten my mood.

P.S. I'm reading a fascinating memoir right now (thank you, Sarah!) called I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie, by Pamela Des Barres. I'm devouring all its juicy details of rockstar trysts and sordid tales from a life I could only imagine. As a girl who's always been in the band, and not with the band, I'm absolutely engrossed in Pamela's life story. And come on, who hasn't wondered what it would be like to make-out with Jim Morrison??? It's a must read.

How the idea of an emotional enema can turn into YouTubing:

I woke up today and read She's Come Undone for two hours; it's one of my favorite books, and I have spent much time over my winter break re-reading it for the millionth time. I'm not a giant fan of fiction, but I relate to the main character so much that I find myself reading her story as my own, crying when she cries and learning as she learns, no matter the fact that I know exactly what's going to happen on the next page. Unfortunately, reading this book first thing in the morning is apparently not a good idea for me, as it can set the tone for the rest of my day as one of despair and longing.

After getting out of bed, feeling depressed and empty, I looked around my newly rearranged apartment at all of my stuff (which there is A LOT of) and noticed how many items have been made for me, or presented to me, by others. From what I hear, my tastes are both distinct and affordable, making it easy for my loved ones to randomly pick up little gifts for me. The only con to this? Finding remnants of past relationships, either extinguished or smothered, all around me, on a daily basis. This morning, I had an idea that I would throw away all of these things, or, at the very least, pack them up and hide them away in a closet; give myself a clean aesthetic slate, one free of hurtful memories and long-lost inside jokes - an emotional enema, if you will. People do it all the time in movies... destroy boxes full of ex-boyfriends, leaving themselves feeling liberated, the dead weight of decayed intimacy removed from their shoulders.

But I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Instead of wallowing in my self-directed disappointment, I did a little Googling to cheer myself up. Follow the link below and you will see exactly how I got here, three and a half hours later, feeling so much less guilty about my heavy accumulation of outwardly meaningless, yet inwardly invaluable, material possessions.

Let me Google that for you...

I'd like to specifically point out a great YouTube video I watched, featuring psychologist and author Sam Gosling talking about the theories behind his book Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You. The video is an hour long, and worth every minute of your time it will occupy.

Enjoy. In the meantime, I'm off to do some actual, rather than emotional, cleaning. Chrissy and Liam are coming over tonight to drink a couple of brewskis, and my apartment is a mess. Happy snooping...