(possibly my favorite thing ever)
For a kiss to be really good, you want it to mean something. You want it to be with someone you can't get out of your head, so that when your lips finally touch you feel it everywhere. A kiss so hot and so deep you never want to come up for air. You can't cheat your first kiss. Trust me, you don't want to. 'Cause when you find that right person for a first kiss, it's everything.
-Grey's Anatomy-
If what you are following is your own true adventure...then magical guides will appear to help you.
-Joseph Campbell-
1. If my house was on fire and I could only grab 3 things I would grab my laptop, the old photos of my grandparents (this is several frames, but let's count it as one thing) and Perry, my trusty stuffed panda who has kept me company since I was 6. For the sake of the blank, I would like Perry to be draped in my grandmother's costume jewelry so I can save that from the fire, too. I have my clever moments...
2. A smell I really like is freshly brewed coffee, rain, lavendar and my rosemary-mint conditioner.
3. Something you might not know about me is that the caffeine in coffee doesn't affect me. This might have something to do with having built up a high tolerance (read: I'm a coffee addict), but nonetheless, I could drink a quad americano just before bedtime and have no trouble sleeping. But, give me a cup of chamomile tea and chances are I will be drowsy before I even finish it.
4. Some of my favorite websites to putter about on are Anthropologie, Amazon (I'm constantly looking up books and new authors), We Heart It and I'm a Facebook whore.
5. This weekend I will probably play trivia with the boys tonight, possibly grab lunch with my Mom tomorrow and I'm sure I'll do the usual gym, errands, cleaning and cooking rotation that makes an appearance in most of my weekends.
6. Nothing makes me happier than starting a new book that hooks me instantly and makes me want to ignore the world in order to read all day.
7. A bad habit I have is not wearing my shoes when I'm at work. I tend to take my shoes off when I'm sitting at my desk and I rarely remember to slip them back on before wandering around the building. My coworkers have taken to guessing what color socks I'll be wearing on any given day. Oh, and this only applies to the cold months, otherwise I have sandals on and I leave those on even when I'm at my desk.
If you're feeling frightened about what comes next, don't be. Embrace the uncertainty. Allow it to lead you places. Be brave as it challenges you to exercise both your heart and your mind as you create your own path towards happiness, don't waste your time with regret. Spin wildly in your next action. Enjoy the present, each moment, as it comes, because you'll never get another one quite like it. And if you should ever look up and find yourself lost, simply take a breath and start over. Retrace your steps and go back to the purest place in your heart...where your hope lives. You'll find your way again.
-Unknown-
Tonight has been perfectly relaxing. I went to the gym (to feel better about eating that frozen pizza for dinner) and then had a fabulously indulgent bubble bath. I lit a couple of candles, turned on my favorite instrumental Celtic music (I'm a nerd) and settled into my ridiculously hot bath with my book. It was lovely. I'm normally not a bath-taker, but this was just what I needed tonight. I also finished my book, Good Enough to Eat, which I highly recommend. It was about love, food and self-discovery...such an Erin book!
Happy Saturday, lovelies.
1. My favorite quote is "once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit." ee cummings. This is just one of many, many, many quotes that I love.
2. A bad habit I have is eavesdropping! I love listening to other people's conversations, but I am not always too stealthy about it. Sometimes I get really into what they're saying and I end up blatantly staring, or completely ignoring whoever I'm with.
3. The first time I felt like a "grown up" was when I bought my dining room table. Just about everything else in my apartment is a hand-me-down of some sort, or was purchased by my parents, but not my table.
4. Weekends are either crammed full of things I didn't have time to do during the week or they're nice and leisurely and full of coffee and pjs. No matter which end of the spectrum my weekend falls in, they always involve a heavy dose of "me time". I love weekends!
5. When I was a child I wished my name was Aeryn. Haha, yep, I didn't mind my name, but I wanted it spelled differently. I even went through a phase in high school where I spelled my name like that and my teachers just went with it. Oh, and I also went through a phase where I wanted to go by my name from German class, Amelie. I still think it's beautiful.
6. I wish I could work 4 10's instead of 5 8's. I love three day weekends and find myself putting in more than 8 hours most days anyway, so why not make the most of it?
7. A secret I have is that when pouring myself a glass of wine I choose which wine glass to use according to the little charm I have on it. The charms are of travel landmarks in London, NYC, Paris and Rome, and when picking my glass, I think of where I would love to be enjoying a glass of wine in that moment. Last night was Rome...the Coloseum to be exact.
According to imdb.com, Love and Other Drugs is about "Maggie, an alluring free spirit who wont let anyone - or anything - tie her down. But she meets her match in Jamie, whose relentless and nearly infallible charm serve him well with the ladies and in the cutthroat world of pharmaceutical sales. Maggie and Jamie's evolving relationship takes them both by surprise, as they find themselves under the influence of the ultimate drug: love."
What this synopsis doesn't reveal is that Maggie suffers from early on-set Parkinson's disease, which is why she doesn't let anyone get close to her. She doesn't feel that she has anything to offer a true relationship other than her illness, and who would want to sign on for loving a woman who will slowly lose her motor control? What the synopsis does get right is that Maggie meets her match in stubborn Jamie Randall.
I was worried that this movie was going to have a sad ending, but despite the feeling of finality that comes with Parkinson's, this movie ended with hope, happiness and love. It was wonderful.
(I don't mind a break from this...and yes, that's my blog.)
Anyway, this weekend was the first one I've had in a while that wasn't chalk full of things I needed to do. I hadn't over-planned, hadn't put off a bunch of things throughout the week and my list of chores was miniscule. This meant 3 days of time that was all mine!
On Friday, I left work early enough to fit in a long walk before the sun went down, cooked up a little dinner, poured myself a glass of Zinfandel and settled in on the couch only to receive a text that said, "Trivia tonight?". I couldn't resist, so off I went to a local pub for trivia with the boys and the usual gang of people. It ended up being a bit of a shit-show kind of night (I was sober cab) for the boys, but there was a lot of laughter in the end (and a little kissing).
On Saturday, I didn't get home until noon and proceeded to lounge on the couch, drinking coffee and watching Beautiful People on Netflix. Does anyone else remember that show? Jamie and I discovered it during a Sunday homework marathon while we were still living in the dorms. I wish it hadn't been cancelled; I still want to know what happened to the characters! I didn't shower until almost 4, which was heavenly, ran a few errands, scarfed down a bowl of cereal and then met my friend Lisa for a couple of beers at my (our) favorite bar, Lucky Joe's. We enjoyed our drinks, ate a ton of peanuts, psychoanalyzed the current boys in our lives and had one hell of a time people-watching...typical girls at the bar, right? It was so much fun!
Sunday was another fairly unproductive day. I slept in, showered, and ran around town with my Mom. We did a little shopping, she generously bought me several things and Mom gets major points for putting up with my cranky mood. I am not built for 2 late nights in a row! Kind of lame, but true. I am so glad that I went out both nights, but I don't know that I would have done it if I hadn't had a 3 day weekend. I finished the day by going for a walk, cooking a nice dinner while watching The Golden Globes and enjoying a cup of tea before happily falling asleep on the couch.
Today started off with a full brekky, another long walk (notice a theme?) and a movie with my parents. We saw The Fighter and I was floored. The cast was amazing, and Christian Bale impressed me to no end, especially after seeing the footage of the real Dicky; he was dead-on! Christian Bale is sometimes criticized for taking his roles a little too far, but in my opinion he's incredibly talented. One look at him in The Fighter and you know you're looking at a has-been, crack-head who's lost in the world; it was the perfect transformation! He absolutely deserved his award last night. Watching Amy Adams in this movie made me want to watche Julie & Julia. Her two roles are on opposite ends of the spectrum, but she's wonderful in both. So, I rented a copy of Julie & Julia, did a load of laundry, ate some leftovers and baked a small batch of chocolate chip cookies. It was a low-key day, but a lovely one.
Now the real question is, will I finally clean my bathrooms or put it off one more day?
P.S.- Feel free to play along!
I'm already formulating in my mind where I would hang these in my apartment...
When people can walk away from you, let them walk. Don't try to talk another person into staying with you, loving you, calling you, caring for you, coming to see you, or staying attached to you. When people can walk away, let them walk. Your destiny is never tied to anybody that left. What is hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered the most to us are wrapped up in parentheses.
-Unknown-
I am the work of your life and you are the work of mine. That is what love is!
-from The Last Station-
I'm not the silly romantic you think. I don't want the heavens or shooting stars. I don't want gemstones or gold. I have those things already. I want...a steady hand. A kind soul. I want to fall asleep, and wake, knowing my heart is safe. I want to love, and be loved.
-Shana Abe-
