GOOD WEEKEND!

This was a good, good weekend. Which was good and needed, because Friday was AWFUL. Oy.

Friday, we had our bi-weekly poker game with Bobby's buddies. It was fun, as always.

Saturday, I took my dog to see her "grandma" (my mom) and play with her "uncle" Mikey (my mom's dog) while we played with crafting stuff (the results are on my other blog, check my profile if curious!), along with a girl around my age from my mom's church! Turns out we had a ton in common, and she's moving close to me this fall, so I might have a new buddy! After crafting, spent some one-on-one time with Mom at dinner, which was nice and much needed.

Today The Hubs suggested we have breakfast out somewhere because we had a really busy week and didn't get to spend that much time together. So we went to a new, super-nice place (it'll have to be a rare treat rather than a regular joint) and enjoyed it immensely, came home and had a little *ahem* private time, and then took a little walk together with our dog. Then I "let" Bobby watch golf (he doesn't actually need permission) while I went to see "Toy Story 3"! Highly recommend, btw, good times.

So yes, a very nice weekend to help get over a bad end to the week.

Two Days Catch up!

Hey, at least it wasn't a month this time! ;p

Yesterday was happy-making in that the weather was just beautiful. Loved it! In our area, especially, sunny yet cool days are rare and will disappear in about a week, I'm guessing. ;p BUT I sure enjoyed it while I could!

Today was not a good day... I had an "emo" day, and I was unfortunately in my head way too much. However, since The Hubs and I are sharing the car right now (his truck is in the shop), I had to walk from my temp job to a nearby cafe' to wait for him to come get me. The weather was nice again, and the walk felt nice, too. Plus I got to just sit, chill, and enjoy some tasty shrimp tempura while waiting. It was a nice way to decompress for a little bit and give me a moment's peace. Also, we took Daisy (our dog) to get groomed, so I look forward to seeing the results of her makeover!

So... monthly bliss?

I just realized I haven't posted in a month.

I kind of lost my "blissful" focus. 2 weeks of insanely busy subbing jobs (that were pretty awful more often than not), followed by 2 weeks of two different colds... the second week being the worst of the two (I'm STILL coughing and my throat is still sore)! So it's been a little difficult to be blissful.

BUT this is still a damn good idea. I'm in an interesting place right now, trying to figure out what makes me happy and what I want out of life. I'm just over a year away from the next major milestone (the big 3-0), and life has not quite worked out as I expected or hoped. So did I make the wrong plans? Or am I just taking a detour? It's all very interesting and confusing. Yay for early mid-life crises? It's certainly not blissful...

Of course, though, that's not the point of this blog: I'm trying to find bliss in general, but I want to focus on those delightful little moments of bliss that happen every day and go unnoticed by my usual negative attitude. Hence the point of it being a DAILY exercise!

That said, this is me jumping back on the horse! Official! *jumps*

So what was blissful about today?
- seeing the video of Kathy Griffin handing Elizabeth Hasselbeck's behind back to her after EH tried to call Kathy out for being a smack-talker (then went back to cowering in her corner of the couch when Kathy literally said "BRING IT"). Kathy Griffin is AWESOME.
- Daisy being so happy to get out and run around a little. She's just so dang cute, and I love seeing her happy. I imagine this is how I'll feel when I see my kids being happy, too - once I have them. ;D
- My temp job allows me to listen to my iPhone as I please while entering data, so I downloaded a few audiobooks for free from my local library. It's actually pretty AWESOME to get free audiobooks (and they have a decent selection - I need to wait for a few more popular books to become available, but what I have for now will tide me over fine), and the time flies by so much quicker. It was really nice.
- Texting back and forth with my mom today. I love feeling connected to her; I almost wish I lived closer to her (as it is, I'm only 1.5 hours away)... I do consider just moving back to my original area and getting a jobby job doing ANYTHING to afford it. Either way, it was nice, and I smiled several times today. =)

See? 4 different "blissful" things about today... and when I started that list, I was grasping at what I could write about. But once I got started, I came up with 4! THAT'S why I'm doing this; to remind myself that for all the bad I focus on, there's actually a lot of good.

So my goal is to do this at least M-Th, with weekends optional (but encouraged). I'm committed, darn it!

Weekend bliss!

Best part of yesterday: Easy sub assignment with students I actually subbed for long-term earlier this year. Nice to see them and be mostly happily welcomed back. =D Also, back was feeling MUCH better for most of yesterday until spending 6+ hours playing poker. BUT I came in 2nd in two of the 3 games (and hubby won the 3rd)! That's actually really good for me, haha.

Best part of today: Playing on Polyvore while resting my slightly-recessed back, then going to the new Dave and Buster's with friends. I will admit, initially I was annoyed as heck about the wait for food service (2 FLIPPLIN' HOURS!), and we chose to go play games instead - and almost every game had a wait, so I started out a little grumpy. BUT the wait wasn't too long, and we started with one of my favorite (shooting hoops challenge), which immediately lifted my mood and I had a better attitude. We played until we were basically out of credits, then since we were hungry, we went to a nearby burger joint that Bobby and I A-DORE. Our two friends hadn't tried the place before, so it was fun to introduce them to the place (it's our typical "Oh, you haven't tried them? Let's go there!" restaurant for friends from out of town, but we'd assumed they had tried it because they live around here, haha.)

My back is mostly feeling better, so tomorrow (er, today) I'm FINALLY going to get back on track with walking Daisy for her daily loop. My back being strained again has NOT been helpful to that, and it reminds me also that I need to get back on track with watching what I eat. We had a "cheat week" that's turned into 3 weeks now. Oops. So we need to get back on track with that. =/ I'm actually looking forward to being able to take Daisy out for a nice walk together! =D

2 days' worth of happy

When your back is hurt and you can't do much, it's hard to find the blissful bits (other than "Yay, back is in only MILDLY excrutiating pain today!"). BUT I PERSEVERE, FOR YOU. Well, really for me.

Yesterday the best bit was lying on the floor to help my back, and using that time to play with my dog, who is bored due to my not walking her very long due to my back. We both had fun, and it made me smile :)

Today I felt strong enough to shower and run a small bank errand! Whoo-hoo, clean AND left the house! Best bit today, though, was The Hubs getting transferred to a new area in his dept, which he's happy about. Could mean small raise in 3 months if he proves himself, too!

So they're not much, but they're there. It really does keep my spirits up, too, to make these little notes about what's good about each day, a little less cynical energy. :)

Weekend of bliss: Santa Barbara

Sunshine, smell of the ocean, beautiful surroundings, spending a full weekend with an old dear friend, AND meeting newborn babies...

Pretty darn blissful weekend. =D

Also: Would like to win the lottery so I can move to Santa Barbara kthnx.

ROAD TRIP WEEKEND! With a friend who lives in NYC and came out to see another friend of his who had a baby this week - and wanted company on the trip (and I am an excellent travel companion, btw)! I'm working on a playlist for the trip - and rediscovering music I forgot I had, haha. I love having all my music at my beck and call, but admittedly I tend to get addicted to about 10-20 songs and listen to them ad nauseum. This usually contains at least one "Glee" song at any given time (right now I'm loving their version of "Physical" and, strangely, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" which I normally can't stand).

SO PUMPED FOR THIS WEEKEND. OMG. Will hopefully have lots of blissful moments to share when I get back, although I will miss my husband and my dog (possibly not in that order ;D).

Oops!

I'm behind 2 days now, CRAP.

Well, Wed. had me a little blue, but one thing I really enjoyed was walking by a flower garden and being smacked with their beautiful smells all at once. It only lasted a second, but it was an out-of-nowhere delight. :)

Yesterday I finished my mother's day cards and mailed them out. I'm really happy with how they turned out, and I felt good while making them, too.

This weekend is going to be full of awesome, as I'm road-tripping with a good friend I never see to a town I've never been to! I also get to meet his friend's new baby girl, which I'm excited about, too, 'cuz I love me some babies. I'm making a happy 1st mother's day card and picking up a small gift for the new mom as well :) It's shaping up to be a pretty sweet weekend!

Today's highlight: New episode of Glee. It brought the LOLZ.

That's about it. =/

I'm fearing redundancy.

It's weird... I started this project to record MY "daily bliss", but some days there really isn't a truly great moment. Some days are just meh. Not bad, but not great. Then the few "daily bliss" moments I DO have seem to be repetitive.

I might be expanding my entries to include things that might inspire a little happy in other people soon... what that is, though, will have to wait and see what I stumble upon. =)

So, for now, here's what brought me a little happy:

• Taking a walk with The Hubs. We're starting a plan to gradually increase our walking health, with the hope to walk a 5k (my first!) in September to benefit AIDS research. So our distance is only about a 1/2 mile loop, but we're REALLY out of shape. Plus it benefits our dog, too - Daisy gets some sunshine as well, and as we walk longer distances, she'll get in better shape, too (and more tired out by the end of the day!)
• Planning my road trip this weekend with my friend J. Turns out we'll be passing "the Dutch capital of America" on the way down, so I'm hoping to convince J that we NEED TO STOP THERE. There's a Hans Christian Andersen museum! I love his fairy tales!
• El Pollo Loco. OM NOM NOM NOM NOM. They put crack in their skin or something, it's such freaking delicious chicken.
• Got a half-day sub call - it was a teacher I've subbed for before, and this time I actually got to meet him. He likes my work, and asked for my number and name to make sure he could request me in the future. *beams @ compliment*

Huh. Guess my day was better than I thought - which is the whole purpose of this blog! To recognize the good moments, so I don't just focus on the negative!

Low day on the bliss-o-meter

Today wasn't necessarily a BAD day, it just wasn't great. BUT the goal is to record the happy moments, even if they're small and seemingly insignificant.

Today's moment of bliss were two: Talking to my friend J, who I'm taking a weekend road trip next weekend to Santa Barbara, CA (I've never been, so I'm very excited, and J lives in NYC so I'm also super-excited to spend a couple days with him), and starting my mother's day cards. Unfortunately, My idea didn't work out so I have to toy with it a little more... and I wasted 2 pieces of cardstock trying to figure it out. ARGH!

Either way, still glad for the two good moments today. =)

Daily Bliss - 5/1/10

This is, like, crazy birthday week. As I mentioned before, last night was The Hubs' birthday poker night, where we also celebrated a friend's earlier birthday and another friend's upcoming birthday. Today we celebrated the earlier birthday friend - he wanted to have sundaes at his house, followed by Monster Mini-Golf . So we did that today! It was actually a LOT of fun, and I did pretty darn good at the mini-golf for once. After the golf, we went to dinner with another friend and his wife at the Old Spaghetti Factory next door, which was also a nice time. =)

So to ADD to the birthday craziness, my baby brother turns 18 today! He's a legal adult! It's INSANE to me - I'm over 10 years older than him, so I literally wiped his butt and fed him bottles, helped him learn to walk, taught him how to swim... I mean, he's my brother so he's not my CHILD, but I remember all of this. I'd post pictures of how adorable he was as a baby and shit if it wouldn't embarrass the shit out of him. (Might do it on Facebook, though, haha.) I tried to call him, but he's a dork and doesn't have his voice mail set up, annoyingly. Meh. Still awesome and amazing that my youngest sibling is an almost-fully-legal adult. I'll be more excited when I can take him to a bar for his first drink - well, legal drink, anyway. ;p

Daily Bliss - 4/30/10

Today was a GOOD day. Granted, most of that is due to:

• not having to work so I could focus on prepping for poker night (I felt like June Cleaver! I just needed the crinoline to wear with my one 50's-style dress, haha)
• baking cupcakes, making homemade garlic dip (Good, but OMG GARLICKY - thank god everyone had some!), and making mini biscuit pizzas that were quite tasty!
  
• The apartment being clean. Man, I love how nice a clean home is! Makes me wish I didn't just clean for company (but it also motivates me to have company over more often, lolz)
• We had company! Bobby's friends came over, and there was lots of laughter (including a 3-minute session of friendly teasing my ninja-like poker skills - I tend to sneak up out of nowhere and win monster hands, and they were mimicking me saying things like, "Oops, did I flop a royal flush? Silly me!" You had to be there, but it was so funny my sides hurt.) Everyone seemed to have a good time, and I made sure that each of the birthday boys (we had two this week and have one next week amongst our guests tonight!) had a cupcake with a candle to blow out. It's my firm belief that everyone should hear "happy birthday" and get to blow out a candle on their birthday (or soon before/after).
  

All in all, a GOOD day. I love these kind of things, where the night wraps up and we're just pleasantly full of cheer after hanging with our friends and/or family. =)

Daily Bliss - 4/29/10

I said this was DAILY bliss, darn it! Unfortunately, I passed out before I could post.

The highlight of my day yesterday was lunch with a friend, who called me out of the blue to see if I wanted to hang out, which was nice. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day - not bad, but not amazing, either. :)

Daily Bliss - 4/28/10

Today was a nice day. Mellow, relaxing... and stomach-churning. NOT in a bad way - it's The Hubs birthday, and his bday wish for the actual day were to sit around the house, watch the SF Giants game, and pig out. We're working on changing our eating habits around - cutting out processed food and junk food, eating better foods (and smaller portions), and basically just improving our health for ourselves and for starting a family soon. (NO, I'm not pregnant, but we're... hoping for an accident.) So today's indulgences have made me a little queasy. Ick.
Not only was it nice to just hang out at home with my husband (who took the day off from work), but our dog was feeling better today. She was acting sick last night, and like she was in pain, and it freaked us out a bit. We suspect that she ate an errant pinto bean that fell on the floor while cooking - internet research showed that it can cause gas in dogs like it can in humans, so since she appears to have made a complete recovery, we suspect it was her tummy being bloated from the bean that made her so low-energy and sad last night. She was her happy, spritely self as soon as we woke up this morning, so we were relieved! She's acted like nothing's wrong since - ate her breakfast and half her dinner, happily ate some treats, jumped up and down from the couch... she's good!

This picture wasn't taken today, but it shows one of my favorite views: Her face when we're playing tug-of-war with her toys.
See why I love her so? That face just kills me.

Daily Bliss - 4/27/10

Today was not a bliss-filled day. Which is to be expected... most days aren't full of happy moments. The purpose, though, is to find that one moment where I did smile or feel a flash of joy. So while today wasn't exactly full of sunshine (LITERALLY), there were a few things that made me smile.

• Grocery shopping for my husband's birthday dinner and birthday poker night. The Hubs turns 27 Wed. (I'm 1.5 years older - yup, cradle robber), and I was HOPING to surprise him with dinner tomorrow, but then the jerk had to change his mind and consider going out to dinner instead of lunch... so I had to tell him I'd bought dinner stuffs. I'm making him steak and shrimp, baked potatoes, and I bought chocolate lava cakes you heat up in the oven from Trader Joe's. I also bought the ingredients for recipes I'm making for his poker night on Friday. It makes me happy to make my honey something special for his special day!
  
• Actually, Trader Joe's is always a joy to shop at, so let's throw that in, too.
• I also love planning parties and being the hostess. Granted, my husband's poker night isn't necessarily a "party" because the guys he plays with have a fairly regular biweekly poker night, and it just so happened to conveniently fall after his bday, so I offered to have us host it. =) BUT since it's for GUYS, and they're a fairly mellow group, I'm keeping the snacks minimal. Garlic dip, chips and veggies for dipping, mini-pizzas made on biscuits, and cupcakes (for my hubby and for 2 of his friends, who also have recent bdays). And, of course, beer. It IS a poker night, after all. ;p

So while today hasn't been a GREAT day, it still had its moments. =)

Daily Bliss - 4/26/10

What was blissful about today:

• A nice, cool morning to take my dog Daisy around "the loop" we take (which means I didn't get a work call that woke me up and made me rush to get to the job). She frolicked and was adorable, and I was happy to watch her frolic.
• I DID get a substitute job, a half-day assignment (with enough notice to still get some stuff done and not have to rush) - bonus that of the 3 periods I was there for, it covered a lunch period AND the teacher's prep period! I basically got paid $16-17/hour to sit and play on my iPod for 1/3rd of my "shift". Can't complain! (There were some buttheads, but nothing too bad.) More (and better) substitute teacher hilarity can be found at ellemennoppee's blog. She works with elementary school, so her tales are infinitely more adorable and funny. I deal with surly teenagers most days. xD
  
• I'm making a quick and easy spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight, which I'm sooooo looking forward to. I love me some spaghetti and meatballs! I got the idea to make easy "meatballs" by just squeezing the meat out of sausage and rolling it up in balls - the meat's already seasoned and mixed! Fry them for about 5 minutes, then let them simmer in your sauce on medium heat for about 7 minutes. NOM. That will make me have a happy tummy tonight. =D

Pretty blissful day!

Daily Bliss - 4/25/10

Today's moment of bliss brought to you by the insanely long carrot strings in my salad today. Yes, that's CARROT, not spaghetti! Picture taken by my lunch companion, Holly - meals with friends is always a little bit of bliss, too. :)

I had a daily bliss

120.
I had a daily bliss
I half indifferent viewed,
Till sudden I perceived it stir, --
It grew as I pursued,

Till when, around a crag,
It wasted from my sight,
Enlarged beyond my utmost scope,
I learned its sweetness right.

- Emily Dickinson