Today was a perfect Saturday with my best friend Lauren. Pedicures with the screaming Vietnamese ‘nail artist’. Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. Running into an old friend and making his girlfriend jealous for no apparent reason. Perfection in day form. But the highlight of this day had to be the footie pajamas she bought and wore around my apartment for a good two hours. She blended in perfectly with the spare room’s decor, and I couldn’t help but be jealous of her comfort. Look how cute she is…

Then after about 90 minutes in the pajamas she must have had a heat stroke because the most random things started spewing from her mouth…

“My hair smells weird but not like my shampoo.”
“I’m starting to sweat…”
“Do I look like a frog?”
“These were a horrible plan. I hate socks!”

Yeah, that’s my best friend.

It wasn’t a long week.  It wasn’t a bad week.  It was just a strange week.  A few days ago, I was in love with the idea of having a day-off midweek, but the reality of it meant that I had two Mondays when most weeks one is more than enough.  Multiple hour-long interviews each day meant that work followed me home each night.

So on a Friday night with everything finally out of the way, the plan is simple, me-time.  Watch a chick flick or read a feel-good book.  Jam out to John Mayer and be in bed at 11.  If you feel like having a girl’s night in of your own (no matter your gender), hum with me to an oldie but a goodie, and be selfish enough to take some time for you. You’re worth it.

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There are two musical nights in television every year that I have to watch… the Grammy’s and the Country Music Awards.  With the Grammy’s arriving in the spring, last night was time for Nashville’s biggest stars to get dressed up in their finest Wranglers and Stetsons and perform their hits from the past year.  Even Hootie and Shania were there!!! In case you missed it, here are my favorite performances.

Carrie Underwood: “Just A Dream” – I never have really liked this song.  The video is just too over the top, and it might be too sad for even me.  But seeing her perform it live and get choked up at her mom crying in the 2nd row gave me goosebumps.  Like the song or not, this girl is my American Idol and has the talent to prove it.

Taylor Swift: “Love Story” – This may not have been the strongest vocal performance of the evening, but it was the most visually appealing. She’s just so freakin’ adorable.

Brooks & Dunn with Reba: “Cowgirls Don’t Cry” – I heart Reba. I heart Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks. But I especially heart when they sing together. This song written with Reba in mind is exactly what country music is about for me, an emotional yet every day life story.

10.  Days off in the middle of the week

9.    New Music Tuesday

8.    A good book before bedtime

7.    Chiropractor appointments with my favorite sports fanatic doc

6.    Fratelliquillas, twice in one day

5.    Cute convertible gloves (in pink and black)

4.    Melted first snows

3.    New pairs of contacts (because three months might be too long to wear the old ones.)

2.    Working remote controls in every room of my apartment

1.    And most importantly, best friends (in all shapes and sizes)

Zac bought a new watch at Wal-Mart.  Yeah, that IS a calculator watch, and we had to scour Flagstaff to find it.  He’s pretty excited that he can tell time and ‘calculate’ on it.  Also, he can spell three things… hello, boobs, and hello boobs.  Awesome.”

It’s not a big hush-hush secret that I have the best brother in the world.  It’s actually scientific fact, but I won’t bore you with all of the numbers and equations.  Just trust me… he’s the best.  True to best brother form, Zac drove up to Flagstaff late, late, late Friday night after a long/stressful work week with lil sleep and way too much driving to spend Veteran’s Day with the gang.  Not long after he got settled my toliet started making a hissing sound and the next thing I knew Zac had taken it apart and we were on our way at 2am to Walmart to buy what we needed to fix it.  For the next two hours Zac struggled to fix the toliet, and eventually, at 4am tired as he was, it was done.

It would have been easy for us to wait and call maintanence on Saturday am.  Zac was exhausted… tired of driving… weary but no.  It was broken, and he cared enough about me to take care of that domestic burden.  There are four hundred and thirty seven reasons Zac is my numero uno best friend and spending time with him this weekend just affirms how much he means to me. His willingness to go the extra mile and take care of the ‘man-stuff’ in my life is just the icing on the world’s best cake.

It’s that time of year where my parents are beginning to ask me what I want for Christmas.  I’m tempted to ask for a pygmy hippo this year, but my dad will probably just say no because he’d just wind up having to take care of it at his house.  So maybe I’ll just buy him one, and all of our problems will be solved.

Life has been pretty freakin’ sweet as of late.  I’m not quite sure what’s been going on, but for the first time in a long time I feel like the dark clouds have begun to clear from the sky and follow someone else around.  Yes, yes, life hasn’t been that bad, but I have been in a slump. (Think batting .295 instead of .330 not October ’08 Stock Market.)  It’s something I think I’ve been dealing well with for the most part.  Sure, there was that church thing awhile back and moving and leaving Cares.  Work hasn’t been 40 hours a week of bliss but more like 60 hours of juggling a feather, bowling ball, and screamin’ toddler at the same time, however life is still grand.

I think this upswing of happiness started months ago with all of the changes in my life, but I really began to feel and embrace it in the past two weeks.  It doesn’t help that I’ve had some pretty awesome times with friends to remind me of how great life can really be.  The pajama party with my munchkins was the perfect beginning to this friendapalooza.  Then, the very next day I was graced with the the humor and wisdom of JLo during a three hour rendezvous outside of Late For The Train downtown.  Caffeine and people watching sets the perfect backdrop for two old friends to catch up on a Sunday evening.

Monday was no slacker in the joy department as Lauren, Jeff and I headed down the mountain to spend an evening with Matty Nay.  The drive down was full of spastic twitter conversations about Albert Pujols and the Saved By The Bell cast, and Mr. Nathanson did not disappoint.  Of course, I am a lil sad that for the second time in a row he showed love to my accompanying cast and not me, but watching him call out Jeff aka beard boy for not singing along to ‘Take On Me’ was well worth the lack of love.  Tuesday marked the release of the Ryan Adams’ album and Jeff’s release party complete with a drama queen (not me this time!), dutiful boyfriend, drunk roommate (mint ice cream mojitos, ew!), and Arrested Development, while Wednesday and Thursday brought good times with great friends, the kind that make you feel like you belong.

Our dear friend Kyle (Mr. I’ll Never Talk To You After Graduation) blessed us with his presence on Friday and filled our evening with tales of the Border Patrol Academy while we munched on tacos and enchiladas.  (Oh, the irony!) Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty completed our Halloween evening, and Saturday was full of a Battlestar Galactica marathon (don’t hate) and an afternoon with my favorite Flagstaff family and their unicow.  On Sunday morning, I sang in church for the first time in two years and found a spiritual home, while Sunday evening was spent playing ‘beauty shop’ as I cut Jeff’s hair and colored Lauren’s. Finally on Monday night, I crashed and slept for 11 hours to recover from all of the activities on my social calendar.

So needless to say, life has been fan-freakin-tastic, until today… or yesterday, since it’s 2am now.  Wednesday was a challenge from beginning to end, and for a reason I couldn’t quite comprehend for most of it, I was off.  The questions of ‘are you ok’, ‘what’s wrong’, ‘why are you emo’ could only be answered with ‘I don’t know’ or a lie of ‘I’m fine‘.  Some of the air in my happiness balloon had escaped, and I really couldn’t remember why.  Then somewhere within the few minutes of my drive home from work the shuffle mode of my iPod once again silenced me with a simple Lucinda Williams song, and without conscious thought my car drove past my apartment and headed away from the lights of Flagstaff.

Somewhere between the fifth and sixth time I listened to the song on repeat, my brain was able to finally put the puzzle pieces of this day’s happiness hiccup together and sort through what my heart was refusing to acknowledge and remember.  The older I get the more I realize that happiness is a choice.  We get to decide what and who affects us positively or negatively.  Ever the control freak, I’ve struggled too many times to keep my sad moments or sorrows in check until I’m alone, or even worse, I’ve lied straight to the face of those who love and care about me for fear of appearing weak.  I can’t promise that I’ll never be upset again or that I’ll never lie and say ‘I’m ok’ when I’m not, but I can promise this… if you ask me today ‘are you alright’ I’ll tell you of yesterday’s heartache and today’s happiness, and on the days where I can only tell you ‘I’m ok’ and you know it’s a lie, don’t stop asking, please?

Lucinda Williams – ‘Are You Alright?’

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This TayTay video ranks up there with the classic J-Lo/Ja Rule BSM Video scavenger hunt masterpieces. (Like when we reenacted the Titanic, made fun of Anna’s CZ ring, and danced in front of the mall.  Oh, the memories and night vision.)  If you don’t get the doll/phone references toward the end of the video, be glad you have enough of a life to not understand but ask me because it’s brilliant.  No wonder I have a girl crush on Miss Taylor in the non-creepy way of course.

IMHO, the best thing to come out of this political season (entertainment-wise, that is) has to be this sketch from Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update Thursday.  It’s a pretty big deal to get Will Ferrell back on the show, and this was brilliant!  Enjoy…

As always Zac has great taste when it comes to music, and on my last voyage to the homeland of cotton, cows, and copper, he introduced me to one of my favorite new songs. I don’t listen to country music all day every day, but it’s hard to be in Willcox and not want to roll the windows down and drive slowly through town listening to country music. Something wonderful has been in the air as of late, and this song expresses that sentiment perfectly.  So listen! Watch!  Love!  Live!  And it’d sure be nice if you would roll with me.

Montgomery Gentry – Roll With Me

Wake up in the morning
Get to living my life
Making sure that Im all that I can be
Went to church on Sunday
There was a moment that came
I swear it was like the Lord spoke right to me

So now I’m slowing it down and I’m looking around
And I’m lovin’ this town and I’m doing alright
Aint’ worried ’bout nothing except the man I wanna be
I’m thinking it’s time to be livin’ the rhyme
When I’m singing a song about nothing but right
And it’d sure be nice if you would roll with me

Saw a kid last winter only twenty years old
Being laid to rest while his mom stood by his side
Sure was hard to watch those tears roll down her face
Made me think how we all just have our time

So now I’m slowing it down and I’m looking around
And I’m lovin/ this town and I’m doing alright
Aint’ worried ’bout nothing except the man I wanna be
I’m thinking it’s time to be livin’ the rhyme
When I’m singing a song about nothing but right
And it’s sure be nice if you would roll with me

Who knows whats ahead
I think I’d rather not know instead

So now I’m slowing it down and I’m looking around
And I’m lovin this town and I’m doing alright
Aint’ worried ’bout nothing except the man I wanna be
I’m thinking it’s time to be livin’ the rhyme
When I’m singing a song about nothing but right
And it’s sure be nice if you would roll with me

Wow, 365 days ago I decided to begin a journey on this website that included making time each day to journal, rant, gush, or just talk through the happenings of my life.  Originally the goal was to write every day for the month of November, and once that ended I just couldn’t stop.  As I’ve read back over the past fews days at the highlights and struggles of this last year, I realize just how blessed I am to have an outlet for processing and documenting my little moments.

I’m sure to many the concept of blogging must be a lot like the musical encore, a desperate cry for attention and affirmation.  (Seriously, why do we even scream for the encore.  We know it’s gonna happen.)  Yet, for me even if everyone stopped reading my words on their computer screen, I don’t think I could cease writing.  Some of hardest days and saddest moments have been laid to rest here.  I’ve taken verbal snapshots of the best times of my life, so that they will never be forgotten.  Most importantly, I’ve found a home for me.  So as a new November begins this morning, I’m not going to make a huge pledge to post every day.  There’s just no need. Instead, I’m going to keep on expressing me and hope that a few of you might be touched, entertained or inspired along the way.