September 2008

A few of my favorite things about this weekend: 1) A meeting of Obama shirts at a friend’s party. 2) Before seeing Otella, this sunset that would have taken your breath away as well. 3) A finished 4′ x 6′ commission for Oxfam America.

There’s nothing like a loved-one being in horrific car accident to make you appreciate life. My only sibling/older brother was hit by a drink driver several weeks ago, which is the second time he has walked away from an accident that could have easily killed him. The event of course shook up everyone, and Paul was lathered with love and attention for simply being alive.

My mom, Paul’s girlfriend and I decided to take it step further this past weekend and throw a party celebrating my bro’s superhero survival skills. Since my power was still out from the freak wind storm/hurricane in Kentucky, I had to borrow a friend’s kitchen to bake a cake for the event, which Paul greatly appreciated.

We had a great night appreciating my goofy brother and certainly acknowledged how fortunate we all are to have him. We also got to tell some funny stories about Paul (he’s an easy target). I’m so happy he’s alive and in one piece.

My friend Erin and I somehow got into a lengthy discussion Friday night with our barista at the Heine Brothers on Longest Ave about the mile-marker of when Ashley became more common as woman’s name. The maker of my earl gray tea claims the old school soap opera, Dynasty, started the trend of Ashley being a feminine name thanks to one of the characters breaking the mold. This seems fitting since the TV series aired for the first time 2 days before I was born.

What relevancy does this have to happiness you ask? Well, aside from the pleasure of shooting the shit with a stranger about the origin of my name, our brista then gave Erin a tower of whipped cream on her hot chocolate that would make anyone smile (or laugh). He must have been amused by his own soap opera trivia knowledge. We were happy to reap the benefits.

If you’re having the kind of week where finding good things to highlight are hard to come by, you can always look at the bad and remember that it could be worse.  Here’s a shot at it:

The residual affect of hurricane Ike have left most of the fellow Louisvillians I know without power for going on 5 days now (including myself).  BUT it could be worse if I didn’t have gas and was taking a cold shower like so many of my friends; not to mention my gas stove has prevented me from living on peanut butter.

Secondly, for as much as I’ve bitched about the debris in the road, detours, and powerless stop lights, it could have been worse if this had been my car and not my neighbor’s.

See, I have a lot to be happy about!

I was browsing through Etsy the other night and after tagging tons of jewelry, decided that I was going to make some jewelry myself (sorry Etsy artists). I spent an hour at Dee’s craft store the next day buying beads, latches, and so on. I invited two girlfriends over last night to join me in a impromptu craft night. We chatted, got “cubed,” and made jewelry. Here are the fruits of our labor…

A friend emailed this to me after I finally got “Mission Happiness” out of my head and live on the web:

For those who ponder and wonder and wrestle with the idea of what it is they really want, I have an answer that each would wholeheartedly agree with: “HAPPINESS.”

And for those who ponder and wonder and wrestle with exactly what will bring them true happiness, I have an answer that each would wholeheartedly disagree with: “Just do something, do anything, as soon as possible, and do it with care.”

And I’d add, “Trust me.”

Tallyho,
The Universe

The universe must be stalking me. Get your own ideas!

One floor down and across the hall is a young lady about my age, who reminds me of a modern day Donna Reed (for whom have fond memories of watching with my grandma on Nick-at-Nite as a kid).  Last night she came up to my apartment to offer cookies and brownies left over from a fund-raiser she just returned from (because Donna Reed types are constant do-gooders).

You gotta love people who still believe in welcoming new-comers to the neighborhood (me) with baked goods.  I think she and I will get along pretty darn well.

I recently ran into a mother/daughter duo at a Vietnamese restaurant who were my old neighbors. I used to babysit for the daughter, who at that time was about 6 years old. This young lady is now half way through college and planning to be an au pair (glorified word for nanny) abroad next summer. How’s that for making you feel old?

They were asking me about my experience as a nanny in Australia right after I graduated from college. It was all in passing, but today I got an email from the daughter with more specific questions. I replied back with a very long-winded response that flowed that water. Writing to her about my experience brought back some extremely fond memories.

I think I truly lucked out with my surrogate/nanny family. That was an amazing 6 months of my life. I tried really hard to find a way to stay (such as marrying an Aussie), but alas, the immigration office kicked me out before I could get my ducks in a row. Maybe such phenomenal experiences are best left at their peak so they will forever stay in dream-like status in our minds.

Here are a few highlights from Saturday’s face painting party (and here are all of the photos)

The concept was a tough sell at first, but clearly everyone caught on and loosened up by the end of the night (wine, beer, mojitos, sangria, and lemonade/vodka will do that).

I kid you not, I’ve created a google doc titled “Return Path to Happiness.”  The doc contains a to-do list (as well as a check list of things not to do, such as “no listening to sad/sappy music for one month”).  The list includes having 2 parties in September since I’m painfully aware that I don’t spend enough time with my friends and family.

The first party is tonight, and leave it to me pick a laughable theme: “face-painting for grown ups.”  That’s right, my peeps are to show up bearing exposed skin that will be adorned with paint.  This is going to make for a great flickr set…