Scarred for Life

Posted by ItHappinsBlog on January 31, 2012 No comment

Last weekend I met my good friend Kate in College Station, Texas, home to our alma mater, and we spent a nice relaxing girl’s weekend at her in-laws football season house. We ate at our favorite restaurant La Bodega, not once, but twice. We watched Sex-in-the-City reruns, baked cookies and even took a nap on Saturday. It was fantastic. The only draw-back to the entire weekend was that the house had no internet. Somehow, the world continued to go ’round, but that did mean…no Pinterest for me. Boo.

So last night I’m in my room catching up on all the fabulousness that I missed – cool shirts – tasty recipes –  quirky humor – when I run across a pin so horrifying that I immediately had to abandon Pinterest. The damage had already been done. What I found was so absolutely disturbing that it took me an hour of reading to get it out of my head and, still, when I woke up this morning, there he was…

David Bowie, circa 1986, starring in The Labyrinth. CREEPY.

This movie gave me nightmares as a child. It made me afraid that my stuffed animals we going to come alive and take me hostage. It had me terrified as a teenager to babysit my little brother.  I don’t even know if I can put this into perspective for you guys. I AM STILL TERRIFIED OF THIS MOVIE. It gives me a serious case of the heebie-jeebies.

The movie opens with poor little repressed Jennifer Connelly babysitting her baby brother while her parents go off for a night of dinner and dancing. She’s so upset by her predicament that she wishes her brother away to the goblin king played by David Bowie. Then she spends the entire movie trying to solve the king’s labyrinth and save her brother by befriending a peeing goblins, nearly suffocating in a land-fill of disgusting muppets, and generally trying to escape hundreds of other creepy-crawly creations from Jim Henson’s imagination. (Sorry, Jim, I’ll never be a fan.)

The only saving grace here is that at the end of the movie, after sweet and innocent Jennifer Connelly makes it through the labyrinth only to discover the sinister David Bowie holding her baby brother hostage in some sort of topsy-turvy, I can stalk-you-around-every-corner maze of staircases, she finally realizes that the only real control that he holds over her is in her mind, and she utters “You have no power over me!” Like magic, David Bowie is defeated, Jenny gets her brother back and alls well that ends well, right? Only in the movies.

To make matters worse, the person that pinned the lovely picture above actually admitted to being attracted to David Bowie. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. I mean, seriously? You couldn’t PAY ME to think that. You could enlist the services of the best plastic surgeons in the world to make him look like Ryan Reynolds and I would still know. Blehhhh.

David Bowie, you have no power over me. Unfortunately you have successfully given me the willies for over 20 years. Ick.

 

La Vie en Rose

Posted by ItHappinsBlog on January 27, 2012 No comment

Back in 2007 I made my very first leap across the pond to Munich on a business trip. Now, as you can imagine, I was thrilled to finally be traveling to Europe, but what 20-something-year-old girl has Munich anywhere close to the top of her must-see travel list? ….  (Crickets chirping)  So I did what any self-respecting, overly-independent female would do, I scheduled a weekend in Paris on my way back to Texas.

The thing about my business trips is that I take about 75% of them completely solo. When I first started traveling, my mom would make me send her my entire itinerary for each trip (and she still does, love you Mom). My dad liked to take whatever crazy stories he heard on the news, assume that these things were going to happen to me and then spend hours on the phone telling me why he didn’t think I should go.

At the time, I hadn’t yet developed the super stellar parental communication skills that I have now (I can hear them laughing), so I may have “accidentally forgotten” to tell either one of them that I was going to Paris after the meeting ended in Germany. No harm, no foul, right? So off I went…

Munich was beautiful, the weather was perfect, and my first business meeting abroad was a success, but Paris…

Paris was indescribable. I got lost in the maze of cobblestone streets, relaxed at a cafe on the banks of the Seine, soaked up the sun in the gardens outside the Louvre, became enamored with the Eiffel Tower the first time I saw it (and the second and third and fourth…) I learned that I could totally live off of the fresh baguette sandwiches filled with ham and cheese, and could by a bottle of decent wine for less than $8. Between walking and the metro system, I traveled miles and miles back and forth across the city soaking it all in, finding my freedom, living life.

I’m not sure if I should credit my absolutely amazing experience to the adrenaline rush of traveling alone and in Europe for the first time, to the fact that I was being sneaky about doing it, or to possibly the simplest explanation of all: it was Paris!

What I found most surprising about all of this, is that the memory that I hold on to the most from the trip is not one of the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame or any of the other major Parisian destinations. On my second day there, I was leaving the central part of the city and beginning my long walk back to the hotel when I came up to a large fountain enclosed in a giant circular pond. People were sitting around catching up with their friends while children laughed and played without a care in the world, chasing each other through the chairs and racing little wooden boats with colorful fabric sails through the water. At that moment, all I wanted to do is find one of those little boats and take it home to Texas so that I would always be reminded of the easiness with which they lived.

I have a picture of one of the boats that always brings back the happy memories of that trip, but I have to admit, today is the first time I’ve looked at it in at least a year:


(You’ll have to forgive the picture quality…learning how to use the camera settings came many trips later.)

Oddly enough, what reminded me of the story above was not running across that picture, it was something I found on Pinterest:

I’m not sure I’m going to bust out the craft table and try to make a little boat this weekend, however it did help me remember that there is always happiness to be found in the simple things in life.

Happy weekend everyone! :)

P.S. Just in case you were wondering how my “go big or go home” January exercise plan is going, I finally weighed myself today. I’ve lost 8 lbs. and an estimated 5 to 6 inches off of my thighs, hips and waist. 2 more lbs. and I’ll hit my goal weight. 3 more after that and I’ll be back at my high school weight, but much stronger than I was then. ***GRIN***

Confessions of a Hoarder

Posted by ItHappinsBlog on January 26, 2012 No comment

Sometimes bad things happen, people misbehave and I end up getting all wonky, bent out of shape and completely funkified. I over-analyze all the potential causes of a situation, only to end up with a thousand open-ends and a million more questions.

I always knew I had superpowers…

It has certainly been one of those weeks. I should have known that this was coming after Monday’s performance. Instead, I fought the instinct to over-analyze (thinking that this would be helpful) only to have everything build up into a ball of toxic sludge and launch a hostile takeover in my brain. Anyone else see the disturbing resemblance to the show Hoarders? Except I don’t hoard stuff, I hoard emotion.

This is the look that I’m giving myself right now –>  -.-  In case you don’t translate emoticons, I am not amused.

So I clawed my way out of the rapidly shrinking free space in my mind. (Remember in Aladdin when Abu grabbed the giant ruby causing the Cave of Wonders to collapse in molten lava and they barely made it out with their lives? Ya, it was a lot like that, but with less sand.)

And I found something that helped me refocus on the big picture:

Yes, everyone really does it, even those rotten people that have been misbehaving lately. Although I am convinced that their’s is smellier than most…

(I realize that the picture above implies that this bodily function only occurs in politicians (fitting, I know), but I assure you that is not the case. You can blame Pinterest for removing their ‘search’ function. (Seriously, guys, can you add that back please?!))

 

I’m on to you, Superman.

Posted by ItHappinsBlog on January 24, 2012 1 comment

I woke up early today determined not to repeat yesterday’s internal temper tantrum, made my favorite coffee (Cozy Winter’s Night by HEB/ Central Market), turned on some mellow music and played on Pinterest for a while. 8AM rolled around. Time to get ready for work, no big deal.

Lately I’ve seen so many pins about cute up-dos with braids, etc. So I thought, why not? I had no other master plan for my hair today. So I take a decent-size chunk of hair in the front, semi-French braid it to the side and pin it in place. I was envisioning something like this, but with curly hair:

What I ended up with was an unruly braid slicing across my forehead with the rest of my hair in a ponytail at the nape of my neck. Not exactly movie star quality, but whatever. We don’t see clients in the office anyway.

Then it was on to the closet. As usual, none of my “work” clothes sounded appealing, and I figured my hair was rebelling, so what the heck – skinny jeans and a black t-shirt it is. Flip-flops completed the outfit and then I grabbed my satchel, gym bag and tote that had a bottle of wine in it for girl’s night and headed out the door.

Even though my roommate and I live on the 4th floor, we normally take the stairs, but today I was feeling lazy and I pressed the down button for the elevator. I hear the cables begin to whir, the elevator dings and a woman’s automated voice announced “4th floor. Going down.” The doors slid open.

HELLO CLARK KENT. It’s like one of those epic moments in a movie when the light shines down and a choir starts singing. There he stood, with his athletic build, perfectly placed light brown hair, a button down shirt tucked in to some dark grey khakis (sensory overload at this point), a brown messenger bag slung over his shoulder, and yes, big black nerdy glasses. H-O-T.

Honestly, it was like this, but better:

Ok, maybe not better. Holy cow, Ryan Reynolds. But this guy was definitely hot, not to mention right in front of me.

So I got on the elevator, pressed the button for my parking level and immediately started reflecting on my appearance. I must have looked like some sort of bohemian, sporty mess. Of all the days…

We reached Superman’s destination first, and as he exited the elevator he said, “Have a nice day.” My auto-response mechanism kick in and I replied, “You too, thanks.”

Then, in what must have been some sort of adrenaline-fueled boldness, I leaned out of the elevator and shouted, “Hey, are you single?”

He turned with a smile and replied yes. I grabbed a pen and scrap piece of paper out of my purse, wrote down my number, handed him the paper and simply said, “Great. See you around sometime.” He took my number, said “sure” and we both turned to go on about our days grinning from ear-to-ear.

……….

There goes my runaway imagination again. Fooled you, didn’t I? After responding “You too, thanks,” I let the elevator doors quietly shut and continued down to my floor. I seriously have got to work on this.

On the plus side- he lives on the floor above me and uses my elevator. There is still hope…

 

 

Be Nice…Or I Will Stab You.

Posted by ItHappinsBlog on January 23, 2012 No comment

It’s been one of THOSE days. And I don’t mean the days when I can use the excuse that “I’m a girl and I’m allowed to be a tyrant because my hormones have mutinied.” No, no. It was just a quiet Monday at the office – everyone else was going about their business diligently…while I sat in the corner polishing my throwing knives.

To the brave souls that talked to me today because we had to get work done, I’m sorry. To all the other idiots that weren’t smart enough to get a clue and back away slowly:
A) You have a brain and five senses, LEARN TO USE THEM.
B) You should know that in addition to my throwing knives, I just bought a set of poisonous darts off of Ebay from a medicine man whose Amazonian tribe is nearly extinct. From making the darts.
C) I know what you drive and where you live.

Even getting on Pinterest hasn’t been able to distract me. Although I was rather pleased earlier when I found someone that understood what I was going through.

We connected on an emotional level. And he has nice teeth. Definitely $16.00 well spent. Too bad he won’t be here for a few days.

I also found a few rather inspiring signs:

 

And my particular favorite:

And you better change it quick. I hear some crazy girl is packing poisonous darts.

So since Pinterest wasn’t doing it for me, I shipped myself off to the gym, took two rather intense cardio classes trying to exhaust the grouchiness into submission, came home, accidentally ate a bag full of almonds (so much for a real dinner) and took a 45 minute shower. Guess who’s still in a bad mood?

Flashback to 15 years ago: I can hear my mother in my head. I need an attitude adjustment.

Here’s one last reminder before I put myself to bed because I can’t be trusted to behave any longer:

Dear Self,

Put. The Coal. Down.

Sincerely,
The side of you that wants to get some sleep

 

OH MY GOD. I found my support group.

Posted by ItHappinsBlog on January 22, 2012 No comment

In my About Me section, I mention that I have a thing for traveling. That’s kind of putting it mildly. Last year, for either work or vacation, these are the places that I visited: Hong Kong, Germany, New York (twice), England, Austria, Greece, California, Portugal, France, Puerto Rico, Colorado and the United Arab Emirates. The year before that, it was: Taiwan, Canada, New York, England, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Florida, Panama and Colombia. This behavior has been going on for nearly five years. Needless to say, I get around.

You’re probably expecting me to launch into a whole post on how amazing all these trips are and how I absolutely can’t wait to go on my next one. Well, you are partially right, these trips were amazing and I’m giddy like a school girl over some that I have coming up (Rome, Barcelona and Santiago, Chile to be exact.)

But…

I’m bored. (I’ll pause for a second to let the rotten vegetables stop flying.)

I didn’t realize how bad the problem was until I came across the sign below while browsing on Pinterest a couple of days ago:

Your first thought is probably along the lines of “oh what a cute idea for a kid’s room.” Operative word: KID. I saw this picture and immediately launched into intricate daydreams about how absolutely amazing it would be to visit one of these locations. If only I felt the same way about places in the world that are ACTUALLY REAL.

So after spending an afternoon in La La Land, dreaming about how cool it would be to attend school with Harry, Ron and Hermione, I came to the conclusion that there have to be places in this world that will inspire me as much as my runaway imagination clearly does. The search began immediately and, by some miracle, results started pouring in.

What else do you do when you have a bunch of sporadic ideas that you don’t know what to do with? Create a “Bucket List” board on Pinterest. And on the top of my new list: Attending the Yi Peng Festival in Thailand. Whether it’s the unity of thousands of peaceful people in one place, the ethereal glow of the flying paper lanterns, or the uncanny resemblance to the plot of Tangled, when I look at the picture below my heart flutters a little bit and I know that it’s an experience that I can’t miss.

And while I was searching for all these great and inspiring things to add to my new board, I came across perhaps the most groundbreaking discovery of all: The Wanderlust Festival. Holy cow, there are people out there just like me. At some point in our lives, wanderlust took us hostage and we unavoidably developed Stockholm Syndrome. Now all of us, with our crazy ideas and dire need for new experiences, can get together and daydream to our heart’s content.

I found my support group. Look out, California!

 

Resolution-Smesolution

Posted by ItHappinsBlog on January 21, 2012 1 comment

It’s January 1st and you guys all know what happens. We dream up some lofty New Year’s resolutions that we then beat ourselves up about when we don’t follow through in the coming months. We come up with excuses – things like “I don’t have enough time” and “I’ll start tomorrow.” Six months later we realize those excuses have led us to do absolutely nothing and we succumb to the final excuse “New Year’s resolutions don’t really mean anything anyway.” Feel better about giving up on yourself yet? Probably not.

To avoid the disappointment of letting myself down, for the past couple of years I resolved to do absolutely nothing. That’s right. No goals whatsoever. And I bet you can guess where that’s gotten me… So, when January 1, 2012 rolled around, I threw that passive crap out the window and mentally made note of a few things I would really like to improve upon this year.

One of my top goals is to get back into really good shape and stay there. My friends are probably rolling their eyes about now (find out more about my second ‘real’ job in About Me), but with all the traveling, the good food and let’s not forget the wine…even those of us with the best intentions slip up.

Now, after years of not following through on my resolutions, I decided that I need to set two rules:
1. Go big or go home (one of the more respectable endearing probably annoying tendencies that I have).
2. Refer to 1 above and don’t be too hard on myself.

So, I’ve gone big: January is the month of lean proteins, veggies, lots of water, and working out at least six days a week. And for all the craziness that has gone on this month (but isn’t it crazy every month?), I have to say I’ve done fairly well.

Enter my nemesis:

That’s right, Pinterest has been taunting me with this recipe for not just regular mac-n-cheese, but BREAKFAST SKILLET mac-n-cheese, looking all hot, bubbly, creamy and ridiculously cheesy in that iron skillet. Hold please…I have to wipe the drool off my face. Staying strong. NOT. BUYING. THE. INGREDIENTS.

Until February. :)

Luckily, I have other things to motivate me:

Bet she’s not eating any breakfast skillet mac-n-cheese.

Also, my new mantra, which I totally and utterly believe in:

Thanks, Pinterest, for being both the angel and the devil sitting on my shoulder.

What Dreams May Come

Posted by ItHappinsBlog on January 20, 2012 No comment

I don’t know how many of you this happens to, but I have very vivid dreams that I remember…regularly. I have this crazy idea that most dreams are my subconscious trying to work through the problem-du-jour. Keep reading and you’ll see why this theory could be flawed.

It’s mid-afternoon and I’m at what is supposed to represent my grandparents’ house with some nondescript family members. We are all sitting around talking when we start to hear crickets chirping outside in alarming numbers. So, naturally, off we go to investigate. As we’re walking across the road to the field that is apparently owned by my grandfather, one of the men matter-of-factly announces that the crickets are chirping to warn us of the snake apocalypse that has taken over my grandfather’s land. Great.

So do we turn back for weapons (or go back to the house and call the air force to blow the place up)? I mean come on, we are talking about a snake apocalypse here… Of course not. We continue on fearlessly to find the leader and exterminate him.

As we get closer to the center of the field, we suddenly come upon a long, skinny, dark grey snake, at which point my grandfather declares, “That’s an old-fashioned! Be careful!” Thanks, grandpa. Because I was really thinking about scooping it up in a bear hug and naming him George. We proceed – not to walk around the snake at a safe distance – but to jump over it. As the last person clears the snake, it suddenly darts side-ways, does a flip, and slithers off. I guess old-fashioned means it used to travel with the circus.

That’s when we hear the real commotion. The snakes, who have apparently deemed the center of the field home base, have all gathered to listen to their fearless leader give a pep talk, Martin-Luther-King-style. Its voice, which sounds suspiciously human, rings clear each time it speaks into the loud speaker. (Just in case you aren’t keeping up, snakes not only know how to speak, but they can use PA systems now.) Suddenly I know exactly which snake we are looking for. He is going to be giant and fat, much larger than the rest of the snakes, and crocheted out of multi-colored yarn. Go ahead and let that sink in.

Thankfully at that point I woke up, but if I really am to believe that dreams are my subconscious working through problems, someone better kill all of the stuffed snakes. They’re plotting against us.

And just in case you didn’t get the proper visual, check out what I found on Pinterest:

See? They do exist.

 

The Sequin Dress Incident

Posted by ItHappinsBlog on January 19, 2012 1 comment

One of the first things I learned about Pinterest is that you can search for anything. This includes cocktail dresses, which I happen to need a lot of to avoid wearing the same thing at all of the receptions that I attend with the super important global people (refer to About Me if you’re confused.) I also happen to be going through a phase where I find shiny things fascinating. It’s possible that I am temporarily part cat.

So I run across this BCBG dress while browsing one day, and it happens to be on sale (bonus!):

As luck would have it, I am definitely in the market for a fabulously sparkly, slightly whimsical dress that will make me feel like I own the room, without making me look like an attention-hogging prima donna. Don’t get me wrong, when I’m in a room full of the super important global people, you better believe I like to look like a million $$$, but this dress needs to be fit to wear to a wedding as well. No one wants to be the cause of a bridal temper-tantrum. And did I mention that my ex is going to be at the wedding? I considered trying to catch the flu on purpose to get out of going, but I decided that was probably rude and instead I pretty much need to look like a rock star. Plus my friends said they would drag me there anyway.

Last Saturday my friend Stephanie and I load up in the car and head to the BCBG outlet store in search of the dress. We split up when we get to the shop and both end up in the dressing room with at least fifteen dresses each, some of which were definitely chosen for their comedic value. Dress-by-dress we jump out from behind the curtain to oooh and aaaah at each other. About ten dresses in, I suggest that we find the two most hideous dresses, take a picture together and send it to our friends who were stuck at work. My next dress was the little gold number above and I pop out of my dressing room only to hear Stephanie erupt in laughter. She then proceeds to tell me that this was definitely the dress for the picture. Needless to say, that ended all of my sparkly dreams.

Moral of the story: Just because it looks good on Pinterest, does not mean it will look good on me.

But don’t worry! Despite the obvious lack of shiny, I fell in love with another dress:

BCBG will be seeing me again very soon.

 

 

All Your Questions Answered

Posted by ItHappinsBlog on January 18, 2012 No comment

WARNING: This blog is totally and completely still a work in progress. (This may never get removed. Life is a work in progress!)

Here are some quick FAQ’s:

Who? Me! Duh…

Just kidding! I mean, it is really me, but to the majority of you that means absolutely nothing. Read more about me.

What? http://ithappins.com. Kinda obvious, don’t you think?

When? Daily posts meant to stir the following emotions: inspiration, amusement, excitement, confidence, wanderlust and generally fix the world’s problems. You don’t need a therapist, just read this blog!

Where? I was born and raised a Texan, but rumor has it the internet is global.

Why? When asked why, the answer should always be: why not?. But to actually answer the question- because the “pinning” sensation has inspiration spreading like wild fire. If you haven’t already, go see how it feels: www.pinterest.com.

P.S. I’m serious, spend 2 minutes setting up an account and then take a few more to browse the site. I dare you not to find at least one thing that you want to “pin.”

P.P.S. See post script above and even if you’re really, really busy, go join the site (it’s like relaxation in a jar)!

Also… follow this blog, check back daily, comment ’til your heart’s content and feel free to send me any questions/ rants/ raves/ ideas, etc. that you have at ithappinsblog@gmail.com.