Things That Make Me Smile

Inspired by a friend's recent blog I've decided to take a look at all the little things in my life that make me happy and make me smile on a daily basis! Lately I've been thinking about how I'm really quite happy with my life right now. I'm in the sort of limbo right now because I've just graduated college but I haven't moved on to a "real job". I am still working at my work-study job on campus, but I'm no longer a student. I'm waiting for the next chapter of my life but I don't quite want to leave behind the old chapter. In a time of such indecision and uncertainty I've still found some joys in where I am in my life. I can look forward to the future without yet worrying about the responsibilities and issues the future will bring. I can plan anything in the world as the next chapter of my life. Anything at all! What a wonderful feeling to have no responsibilities anymore/yet! I can go to work and not care about the job because I know my last day is only a few weeks away, I can go out with my friends, see movies, go to the gym, hone my hobbies, have time to myself because I know good friends are not far away so I don't have to feel lonely, I can learn to cook things, and make plans for my future. And besides all that....spring is on it's way, I can feel it! Spring is my absolute favorite and it makes me so happy and it also causes The Beatles' song "Here Comes The Sun" to play in my head constantly :-)

Other things that make me happy and make my smile:
-The Beatles
-random holidays and festivals like Frozen Dead Guy Days
-reading the blogs/emails of my friends who are studying and traveling abroad right now
-pajama pants
-Cadbury eggs
-personal emails and letters
-the smell of rain
-the satisfaction of conquering a new song on my violin
-candles
-pay day
-a book that makes me laugh
-planning a trip (studies show it's the planning of a trip, more than the trip itself that makes people happy, isn't that weird?! I say if you plan the trip right, you can also find happiness in the end result)
-visiting or being visited by friends
-hippies
-puppies
-sushi
-VW buses
-Knowing that no matter where I go or what I do in my future I will always have my roots, childhood, memories, and home in the beautiful and amazing place that is Boulder
-I'll add more later :-)

Frozen Dead Guy Days

In an article in the Daily Camera about this year's Frozen Dead Guy Days festival a CU student was quoted saying "I feel like Nederland's the place with all the people too weird for Boulder". Oh man I hope so!! Boulder, I fear, is getting less and less weird as the years have gone along. It's interesting to have grown up here in Boulder and see how it has changed. Going up to Nederland really does feel like you get a taste of everything I love about Boulder but is harder to come by. Nederland is a fun, weird, hippie kind of town in the mountains just above Boulder and the home to a festival dedicated to celebrating the town's very own frozen dead guy. He's been cryogenically frozen in a shed for 20 years now, awaiting the day when science makes it possible for him to be brought back to life. Even after his family was deported to Norway, the frozen dead guy remains in Nederland, kept on ice year round, and his festival gets bigger and more popular every year.

I went with some friends who had never been before and I was so excited at their reactions to the madness around us. They loved the hearse parade, polar plunge, coffin races, and the food and beer, and they loved the idea of such a ridiculous festival existing in the first place!

I am SO glad to live near such a silly place like Nederland!

Haha!

Anyone else been watching the olympics? I've seen several, but not all the events. I'm liking the figure skating and snowboarding the best. Here's something for a good laugh:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-20-funniest-figure-skating-faces

New Photos From a Very Old Camera

I finally took my Grandpa's old Rolleicord camera out with some black and white 120 film and attempted to take some pictures! They aren't spectacular but my hope is that as I get better at using the camera, the photos will get better.
See the pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2495928&id=10220358&ref=mf

You Still Work Here?!

I hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day!

I'm getting very restless with my life right now. I'm trying to enjoy my time but I just don't have much going on right now and I can't help but feel like I'm just waiting for more exciting things to begin. With an end in sight to my work-study job on campus, the menial work seems a lot more boring than it ever did before. And with no homework to keep me busy I have to keep finding new movies to watch or things to do online or books to read. I guess it's nice though to have the time to read books again! I'm reading Three Cups of Tea right now. I'm finally getting around to reading it after seeing the author Greg Mortenson speak at the Journey of Hope benefit/concert thing last summer at Red Rocks. He's got a cool story and it was fun to see him in person and now I'm reading his book so that's fun! I'm ready to move on from this job though and see what else is out there in the world soon!

Random things going on lately:

-A friend of mine from middle school was on MTV's America's Best Dance Crew last week. It was so cool to see her on tv! She's a pretty freakin' amazing dancer. I've never watched the show but since I knew someone on it and they were representing good old Colorado I just had to watch :-) The episode is here: http://www.mtv.com/videos/americas-best-dance-crew-season-5-abdc-regional-finals-the-west/1631540/playlist.jhtml

-My new project, although it's proving a lot more difficult than I thought it would, is to learn the violin part to Bob Dylan's song 'One More Cup of Coffee'. Mostly it's good because it gives me something to do but I've got a couple friends who can duet the song and it might be fun to play along with them. We'll see if I can actually keep motivated to learn the whole song. As of right now I've got about the first 30 seconds of the song figured out. If only they made sheet music for Bob Dylan songs! As it is though it's a matter of adjusting the song via Audacity to slow it down and isolate the violin part so I can actually hear it, then meticulously go through each little bit and try to find the notes that are being played, then put it all together, speed it up and memorize it. If only I were a musical genius and learning something by ear came easier to me! Oh well I guess it will be a nice challenge for me. I miss playing the violin so it's fun to pick it up again. Unfortunately I live in an apartment and I fear my neighbors might hate me if I practiced at home, so I've been playing at my mom's house.

-I've been continuing my contemplation of what to do after this summer. My new idea is to travel and work/volunteer as I go. I really want to go to Europe, as I haven't been there at all yet. Preferably England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain, Czech Republic...it's a long list. I did find a cool program though that hooks travelers up with volunteer work in exchange for food and a place to stay. Doing things like helping out on a farm or vineyard or B&B. I think that would be so much fun and a much cheaper way to travel around! I'd have to pay for transportation but that's about it. Those travel/work/volunteer websites are:
http://wwoof.org/ and
http://www.workaway.info/

On Saturday Kira and I went up to Nederland to have another of our picture-taking adventures. It was cold and snowing up there but it was fun. I finally tried out my Grandpa old Roleicord camera with the help of Kira and all her photographic knowledge that I seem to have forgotten in the last few years. I got a refresher course in f-stop and shutter speed, plus just the act of loading, winding, and removing film is kind of a lost art for me, ad especially tricky with a camera from the 1950s! It will be interesting to see how the pictures turn out. I also took pictures with my digital camera.

Keeping myself entertained

I am currently....

Reading: Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry


Addicted to watching: Dexter


Learning to: use my mat board cutter for framing, and cook eggs in new ways

Hoping to: go hiking with friends more often

Trying to: go to the gym every day

Geography of Bliss

Read this book. Seriously. I just finished reading it. It's fabulous, profound, and totally hilarious.


In this book Eric Weiner quotes an Indian guru saying: "Life is a combination of freedom and destiny, and the beauty is you don't know which is which" This quote reminded me of my favorite quote from the movie Forrest Gump: "I don't know if we each have a destiny or if we're all just floating along accidental-like on a breeze...but I think maybe both is happening at the same time"

Forrest Gump, the Indian guru, and Eric Weiner all have a good point, and for now at least, this is how I choose to view things like destiny and free will. I think the two are intertwined so deeply that we can't tell the difference, and maybe it's a little bit of both.