LOST!!!!!

okay raise your hand if you're as pee-in-your-pants excited about the season premier of lost tonight as i am!!!

sunshine at last!

i feel like i haven't seen the sun in weeks... it's been grey and cold and wet and windy for what seems like the entire month of january. anyway today the sun is out and shining and it is so beautiful and bright and it makes me so happy!

photo from news.bbc.co.uk

bra hats

remember when you were like twelve and you and your best friends would burst into random ridiculous silliness which would inevitably induce endless fits of hyperactive giggles? my friends and i are like that now. i am one lucky girl. :)

happy birthday, kaity!

photographs

i am secretly insanely jealous of talented photographers. i love taking pictures, but i am certainly not any good at it, and half the time i forget to take pictures even when i remember to bring my camera. i love to look at beautiful photographs taken by others; to wonder at the many different ways that other people see the world. there is no better way to perfectly capture the absolute essence of a moment. what a wonderful thing to be able to do: to take something so fleeting and create something so lasting...

not trying to be cheesy or anything (i never have to try really...) but my favorites, of course, are our wedding pictures. every once in a while alan and i like to stretch out on the floor and relive the story of our happiest day ever, perfectly documented in a series of heartstopping and laughter-inducing moments. it absolutely never gets old.

photo by scott and tem juarez

fog

fog is so pretty... i'm glad i don't have to go anywhere today. hooray for lazy sundays!

sleeping in

it was a crazy week at work this week, and i have to say i was exhasted yesterday. the kind of exhausted where you get home from work and you don't even remember the commute because you pretty much drove home on autopilot. the kind of exhausted where you know you should get up and go to your friend's birthday party (i'm so sorry chelsea!) but you just can't imagine a situation in which you might actually be able to move. the kind of exhausted that allows you to sleep for ten (!) blissfully uninterrupted (!!) hours and wake up at 8:30 (!!!) on a saturday morning.

i'm guessing most people would not consider sleeping till 8:30 on a saturday morning "sleeping in," but if you know me, this is an amazing accomplishment.

for one thing, i'm an eight-hours kind of girl. any more than that and i usually feel like i am wasting precious daylight. i know, i am the most sickening type of morning person. for another thing, i almost never sleep past eight on weekends; it's nearly impossible (please refer to my "alarm clock" post).
but today is the perfect sleeping-in kind of day. it's yucky-looking and cold outside, and so very cozy and warm in my bed... so lovely...

ode to pink

i honestly don't know if there is a better color than pink. it's so perfectly girly -- it can be fun, refined, sassy, glamorous, calm, and flirty -- and it just makes me so happy! if there is a color that could define my personality, it is pink.

pink for thought (a few pink things that are perfect and lovable):

flamingos, hello kitty, pink floyd, grapefruit, my phone, chapstick, my barbie corvette from when i was 6, my favorite pair of boots... and my beautiful set of pink melamine mixing bowls that were a wedding gift from my friend chelsea, who shares my unconditional adoration for the best color ever invented.

happy birthday, chelsea!

photo from thisisloveforever.com

i heart office supplies

when i was a little girl i used to go to eckerd all the time with my mom. i would wander up and down the office supplies aisle, fascinated by all the possibilities it held: paper, pens, markers, pencils, stickers, crayons, glue, all brand new and untouched -- art happiness just waiting to be created. even now when i go to any drugstore or grocery store i am always drawn to the office supplies. i still love the idea of blank paper and empty notebooks, and i still lose myself in thoughts of the words and doodles i might fill them with. seems silly to find inspiration in an aisle of hi-liters and paper clips, but i suppose that's just one of my many silly-nesses...

"every child is an artist. the problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - picasso

health

health is one of those things that you just don't appreciate until it's gone. you never realize how nice it is to be in good health until you are in poor health. well, i am healthy. and my husband is healthy. and for that i am thankful.

birthday month

today officially marks the beginning of birthday month. in the next five-ish weeks (so maybe it's a long month), there are eleven friends' and family members' birthdays for me to remember and celebrate.
it's a bit of a marathon, but it's also a great excuse for everyone to get together a little more often than we would normally be able to. i am blessed and incredibly grateful to have so many amazing people in my life, and it is absolutely an honor to celebrate their birthdays with them!

happy birthday, princess jen!

greatness

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

today (and every day) i am thankful for the greatness of people like martin luther king, jr., who was incredibly strong, intelligent, courageous, and kind, among so many other things. the fact that a man like him ever existed is enough to give me faith in the human race.

his principles and tactics were enough to inspire so much change in our nation - i am proud of how far we have come and at the same time saddened by the undeniable fact that we have not come so far at all. there is still so much injustice in the world, so much violence, so much negativity, that at times it is overwhelming. i just try to remember that all i can do as one person is be the change i wish to see in the world (thank you, gandhi). then i try to be just that.

playoff happiness

well, it's sunday, and you know what that means - football day!
(countdown to superbowl: 14 days)

today i am thankful for the fact that a certain team is no longer in the playoffs, after losing their game last week. now, please know that i don't normally like to take pleasure in the misfortune of others. but you must understand that when this certain team is playing (and winning), my husband is a big ball of stress and fear and every negative emotion you could ever possibly think of. don't worry, i know how ridiculous that is, and i think he does too, but that doesn't change it. so i'm just so thankful that we will be able to sit back and watch football and enjoy it, the way it is supposed to be enjoyed. hooray for football!

updated 1/21/08: i'm so sad that the packers lost last night! i still love you, brett!

little whiskers

today i am thankful for little whiskers and claws i find on the floor all over the apartment... tiny gifts from my baby kitty! he loves me!

...now to vaccuum.

fridays!

this week was my first full five-day week back at work after all of the holiday craziness. it was a long week, but a good one - it's actually kind of nice to get back into my normal routine. still, i'm looking forward to the weekend, and i'm certainly happy that today is friday! no big plans, just relaxing and enjoying life with my crazy cat and of course my hubby, who would like me to mention how incredibly super super turbo sexy he is. ;)

morning coffee

i'm one of those obnoxious "don't talk to me before i've had my morning coffee" kind of people. but don't judge me - to me, it really is the best part of waking up. each morning i sit down with my delicious cup of organic coffee and try to soak up a few peaceful moments before the day truly begins. i love it.

my job

like so many people, i tend to take my job for granted. after all, it's not my dream job, and i don't get paid much. but it's my first job out of school and in the end i am grateful for it. i truly enjoy the people i work with, i've learned a lot, and i get to draw, color, and look at fashion magazines all day long. not a bad gig, really.

photo from nbcuniversalstore.com

financial stability

it used to be that i was not the most financially responsible human being in the world. i got a credit card when i was 18 and i had no idea how it worked, but i maxed it out anyway. and then they kept raising my limit, and i kept spending money i didn't have. then i got a job waiting tables, and after i paid a few bills and bought some food, i went shopping. one time i saved up a lot of money... and then i went shopping again. then i quit my job because i hated it, and i took out a student loan in order to finance my semester-long unemployment.
i don't think i stopped being stupid about money until alan and i got engaged.
we always knew that we would be paying for the wedding almost entirely with our own money, and i don't know if you've checked recently, but weddings are insanely expensive. even the cheap ones. i think i read somewhere that the average cost for a wedding in north texas is somewhere around $22,000. and so began the budgeting, and the gradual process of learning about the value of money and time, and learning to truly evaluate every single purchase decision we made. it was tough at first, i'm not going to lie. but eventually it got easier, and the most extraordinary thing happened: i began to really think about the things that were most important to me - and weekly shopping sprees didn't make the list, not even for a fashion design major. in the end, we managed to have the most amazing wedding i could have ever imagined, and we did not put one cent of it on a credit card. and speaking of credit cards....
after the wedding, we focused all of our energy and budgeting skills on paying off our consumer debt and building up our emergency savings cushion. on december 15, 2007, we paid off our very last penny of credit card debt. i can't tell you how proud i am that we were able to start 2008 debt-free! we don't have to worry about how we're going to pay our bills, or what we're going to do if one of the cars needs new tires. we aren't wealthy, but we aren't struggling, and we have our priorities all figured out. we have been contributing more into our 401(k)s and saving a significant amount of money each month towards a down payment on a house one day. i am so fortunate to have learned the financial lessons i've learned so early in my life, and i'm so thankful for the peace of mind that financial stability brings.

the library

i suppose this makes me a nerd. but the library has helped me so much in life!

i wasn't a huge fan until i got to college. after i moved out of the dorm, i needed a quiet place to study. i used to go there almost every day, between classes, after classes, whenever. after i met alan, i forced him to go to the library with me. (p.s. i'm pretty sure his gpa went up that semester, even if he did spend half his time passing me notes and playing golf on his phone.)

now that we've both graduated, we don't need to use the library for studying. but we are on a budget (saving up for a house one day), and we do like to read. so a couple weeks ago we went to the public library and got ourselves some very official-looking library cards. no more spending money on books for us! plus, libraries are pretty fancy these days. they have self check-out, and you can renew your books or reserve items online from the comfort of your very own home. now all they need is a starbucks...

it's so easy being green

i am a hippie. there's no getting around it. i'm a vegetarian, i recycle, i buy organic foods, i use all-natural household products, and i take my very own set of super-cute reusable bags to the store so that i don't have to use plastic ones. ever.

mine are called envirosax, and they can be purchased at envirosax.com or delight.com. for $34.50, you get a set of 5 eco-friendly bags that roll up neatly into the little carrying case that comes with. seems like a lot to pay for grocery sacks, but i love love love the fact that they can easily fit into almost any of my purses (unlike my bulky canvas bags used to live in the backseat of my car!). and they're so cute that i use them at any store i go to, not just the supermarket. who needs plastic?

photo from delight.com

saturday morning clean sweep

my saturday morning ritual involves coffee, my computer, and at least two episodes of clean sweep on TLC. i am an organizational junkie... something about organized, uncluttered spaces just inspires me. i myself am not the most organized uncluttered person in the world, but i'm getting there. i can't tell you how much stuff we have sold, thrown away, or donated to good will. i'm not sure when the uncluttering process began, but the whole thing is completely addictive! it's such an amazing feeling of freedom to have fewer things, to truly love the things that you do have, and to know where your things are when you want them.
almost inevitably, watching my clean sweep on saturday mornings inspires me to declutter or organize something, even if it is something small. and so, thanks to clean sweep and organizational guru peter walsh, i always start out my saturday with a tiny feeling of productivity and accomplishment.

dance to the taco

my hubby is an all-star song writer. he probably invents at least six new songs a day, usually centered around one of three topics:
(1) the cat,

(2) whichever mundane task he happens to be doing at the time, or

(3) the jingle from a commercial, which he then changes and makes it something entirely his own.

last night was a case of the latter - a song called "dance to the taco," based loosely on a taco bell commercial. it's certain to be a modern-day classic. i am so lucky to be married to such creative genius.

vacation journals

when alan and i go on vacation together, we always like to write down some of the details of our trips so that when we read them later we can remember our adventures. we started this tradition on the first trip we ever took together, to new orleans, when we had been dating for almost a month. we drove there, and on the 9-hour trip back, we started writing down lists: food we ate, places we went, interesting people, favorite this or that... it was fun even writing the lists, and reliving each little memory as we recorded it.

last night, alan and i were looking at the journal from our honeymoon in paris, and it was such a treat. instead of writing about our experiences at the end of our trip, like we usually do, we had taken time time at the end of each day to write down the details of our adventures - from the places we visited and food we ate to the crazy tourists we saw and the songs we sang at the top of our lungs while we were walking home in the pouring rain. it's amazing how many little details had already slipped our minds - like the crazy super stewardesses from the future in line at versailles, and the king-slash-drag queen of sweden (not really) who got special treatment at musee d'orsay... anyway, i'm so thankful for our vacation journals, and for the joy they bring me and my husband when we read them.

joe gibbs

yesterday, hall-of-famer joe gibbs announced his retirement as head coach and team president of the washington redskins. he was an amazing (amazing amazing) coach, and while i'm sad to see him go, i am so thankful for what he has done for the redskins franchise, with an overall record of 154-94 in the regular season and 17-7 in the postseason, not to mention three superbowl wins.

i am thankful that i was able to go to every game he has coached in dallas since his return to the team in 2004, and especially thankful to have been there to see him lead the redskins to victory over the cowboys in dallas in 2005.

i am thankful for his strength and for the way he and his team were able to pull together in 2007 after the tragic loss of sean taylor; thankful that i got to watch them play every game in his honor, and defeat dallas by 21 points in the last game of the season to earn a spot in the playoffs. i know that the 2007 season was an incredibly difficult one for coach gibbs, for the redskins, and for so many fans.

so thank you, joe gibbs. you make me proud to be a redskins fan.

photo from redskins.com

my alarm clock

my alarm clock is black, furry, and purrs loudly in my ear to wake me up every morning. sometimes he also sticks his cold wet nose in my face for added emphasis. on weekdays, this generally occurs about 15 minutes before my planned wake-up time, and on weekends, it's almost always at 7:30. in any event, he is the most reliable alarm clock i've ever had, and he almost always allows for plenty of cuddling and petting before it's time to get up and face the day.

HGTV

oh, how i love hgtv. thank you, hgtv, for filling the hours that i used to spend immersed in wedding shows and magazines, thank you for all that you have taught me, and thank you for keeping me [mostly] sane on days like today, when i am stuck in my apartment being sick.

ketchup

yes, i am thankful for ketchup. i know i already posted about condiments, but bear with me.

before tabasco, there was ketchup. my first condiment love -- sweet, tangy, and delicious -- the perfect compliment to almost any food. i used to put it on everything imaginable, and if there was ever any left on my plate, you'd better believe i'd be licking it up.

until i met my now brother-in-law, i had never found anyone who might actually beat me in a ketchup-loving contest, but he is truly the king of ketchup. he puts it on things i had never thought to put ketchup on -- mashed potatos, mac and cheese, thanksgiving turkey, and more. it's inspirational, really...so i suppose i am as thankful for a ketchup-loving-brother-in-law as i am for ketchup.

happy birthday, chris!

massages

mmmm massages... they are so. so. good. alan and i went for a much needed and long overdue couples' massage this afternoon. then we got home just in time to get good and stressed out by the playoffs... maybe another massage tomorrow?

photo from nfl.com

shooting stars

there was a meteor shower in the wee hours of this friday morning. it was supposed to have peaked around 1:40 am, at which point i happen to have been snoozing, oblivious, in my own warm and cozy bed. but at 6:15 it was still dark outside, and i was awake, so i stepped out onto the balcony and looked into the sky. only seconds later, a shooting star streaked across the sky! i think you're supposed to make a wish on a shooting star, but i may have gotten a little excited and so i forgot. i ran inside to wake my hibernating husband and dragged him outside, still half asleep, in pajama pants and dress shoes, to watch the sky with me. we stood out there in the cold and stared upward for about five minutes, seeing nothing.

i read about the meteor shower again afterwards, and it turns out i was pretty fortunate to have seen a shooting star at all, based on my timing and my geographical location.

so this morning i am thankful for my shooting star, and the tiny moment of child-like exhilaration that it brought me.

tabasco

when i was little, you could not pay me to eat spicy food. my dad used to put tabasco on everything. i mean everything. and of course i thought that was pretty much the grossest thing in the whole world ever.

i'm not sure when the change occurred, maybe sometime in college, but now i can't get enough spicy. i think i've been making up for lost time, too -- my husband says i "drink" salsa, and no sushi roll is complete without a heaping glob of wasabi perfection.

oh, and i have also fallen head-over-heels in love with tabasco. on everything. i suppose it runs in the family.

happy birthday, dad!

a little selfishness, or, hermit day 2008

the holiday marathon tends to leave my husband and me... blissfully exhausted. we spend most of our time during the holidays rushing around to buy presents and make sure we see as many people as possible, which really is wonderful, except that we get so caught up in the holiday craziness that we tend to forget to make time for each other/ourselves.

so on new years day, alan and i resolve to be hermits. we take the first day of the new year off from making other people happy and just make ourselves happy. we don't see anyone else, we don't do anything unless we want to. and we don't let ourselves feel guilty about it, either! sounds a little selfish i suppose, but we love it.

here's how "hermit day" 2008 went: we woke up, ate breakfast, took a nap, went to the mall, came home, worked out, ate dinner, went to bed. (that's the abbreviated version, of course - there was a lot of football mixed up in there too.) we made sure to eat our black-eyed peas, and in general just enjoyed each others' company.

photo from wikipedia

natural light

at 7:30 in the morning on new years day 2008 i open the curtains and blinds to let in all the light i can... then my kitty and i take a small moment to appreciate the quietness of the morning and the soft pale light that pours in from outside. it illuminates the whole room; one wall in particular looks so orangey bright that it hardly makes sense. there's something about natural light that just makes me so happy all over.
i think it's safe to say that the same goes for scoop -- he'll sit by that window for hours today, soaking up all the warmth of the sun and purring for no real reason. i pet him and he looks up at me, adoring, with his big yellow eyes and his tiny little vampire fangs. what can possibly be better than this?