Things I Love Thursday 7.2

It's Thursday again, and I have had a pretty enjoyable week. I haven't been working much, which helps I think, but also makes me pretty broke! Oh well.

Tweets that are exactly 140 characters - I love it the most when it just happens to work out that way, but if I am close I will try to readjust what I wrote the tiniest bit to try and get it exactly there. I don't know why but I feel the smallest of thrills when I do that. I'm neurotic.

Birthdays - I had two big birthdays in my life this week. My father's was yesterday and we went boating as a family and had a nice dinner together last night. One of my closest friends from college turned 25 the day before on Tuesday. She lives in Washington but I sent her 25 individual birthday cards in the mail to celebrate. Happy birthday Dad and Chelsea!

Plane tickets - Southwest Airlines was having a two day sale on airfare that ended yesterday. My mom noticed it and told me about it. So I got a round-trip ticket from Omaha to Baltimore in September for a pretty good price. This is the first step for my New York City trip with my EEB! I will stay at her house and then we'll take a train up to NYC for the weekend. I can't wait, and it feels nice and real now that I have the ticket.

That one CD you can't get enough of - I have a lot of music, especially musical soundtracks. You all know that already. But I go in phases. There will be a soundtrack that I will listen to over and over for weeks or months and it's all I want to hear. Then I won't listen to it for months to a year and become obsessed with something else. It's fun. Right now I CANNOT get enough of the soundtrack to the musical Next to Normal. I love it so much and I listen to it practically every day at least once. It was up for best musical this year but didn't win. If all goes well I will get to see it live in September. Love it.

Other things:

• Finding a movie you love but don't own yet in the $5 bin
• Having so many books you want to read that you can't always decide what to read next
• Talking to far away friends on the phone, even for just a minute or too. It just cheers me right up.
• Pre-ordering things off Amazon and knowing they'll (usually) arrive on your door the day they are released.
• Spending more money on Amazon just to get the free super saver shipping
• Re-adjusting the books on your bookshelf to make room for your latest acquisition
  

July: A Wicked Neat Project

Alright, so it is July 6 and I am just now posting my goal for the month. I know. But I decided this month to mix it up. Instead of avoiding something for an entire month, or even doing something every day for an entire month, I decided on a project I have been putting off that I now have to get done by the end of the month.

Last year for my birthday a close friend bought me a journal that was Wicked/The Wizard of Oz themed. It's the neatest looking book and I really like it. I knew right away what I wanted to use it for, but I have yet to put it into action.

By now everyone knows that the thing I am probably most passionate about in live is musical theater. I am not a performer by any means, but I am a most ardent and appreciative spectator. Sitting in a dark theater watching a musical (or a play too) unfold on stage is my happy place.

Since this journal was sort of tied to Wicked, I decided I would use it as a record of the shows I get to see. I already save all the ticket stubs and Playbills, plus I have taken several pictures in front of the more significant theaters. My plan is to keep track of dates and theaters and notable performers and my general thoughts of each show I see.

Before I get to the present though, I wanted to start with the more significant shows from my past. Any show I've seen in New York, including my first Broadway show ever when I saw The Phantom of the Opera the summer I turned 16 with my dad. I have all the information collected, I just need to take the time to put them in the journal.

So my goal is to be completely up to date by the end of the month. I won't say I am going to work on it a little bit each day, I know I never would, but a fair chunk each week until it's done.

NOW, I need suggestions for future months. I have a few more ideas up my sleeves, but that won't last forever and I really want to keep this up. So I will take dares (except for the potato thing Dad, I won't even try to give those up), suggestions anything you have to offer me. Let me know!

Operation Choco-Not. Status: Complete

Holy cow, it has been July 3rd for half an hour now and it only recently occurred to me the significance of it being July. June flew by in a flash and that means another month where I SUCCESSFULLY completed a goal. Nothing chocolate (pretty much nothing sweet) for an entire month.

I really honestly thought this was going to be my toughest challenge yet. And lo and behold it was not at all. I've made the occasional mention of this over the past few weeks, but I am still shocked. Giving up sweets was so easy. A lot easier than I think it should have been. I am addicted to sweets and have a hard time rationing myself.

But it seems like the moment I made that decision and took dessert of the table completely, it left my head completely. I didn't even really miss it. I didn't get any huge cravings I had to engage in epic mental battles to overcome. I was fine. I still am.

Once July hit and I realized my "trial" had ended, I didn't run out an binge on anything. I allowed myself a nice glass of chocolate milk tonight at work, and it was incredibly refreshing, and that's all I've had. For now, that's all I'm going to have.

So I've decided to keep it up. Not as a goal or for any great length of time, just because I've learned I can. Chocolate milk is back in my life though, I really do love that stuff. And if dessert comes to me I won't automatically turn it down: Ice cream with friends here, a piece of someone's birthday cake there. I just don't plan on seeking it out for awhile yet; I'll let it come to me. Ben, Jerry, I'm so sorry. I still think we need to take a break.

Oh, and information on July's goal will follow in the next day or two. Stay tuned.

Things I Love Thursday 7.1

It's Thursday again! And I am in a much better frame of mind than I was when I posted last. My situation has not changed, but I have changed my outlook on the situation. I'm doing what I can to change it and I just have to let it all go. But hooray for Thursday.

Fireworks - I haven't seen any yet, but I know I am in for a big treat this weekend. I have to work the 4th, but the 3rd is when the excitement happens in my family. We go to Rosenblatt stadium in downtown Omaha as a family and with another family we're all friends with. There is a fun baseball game and then when it gets dark they let everyone out onto the field and there is a pretty spectacular fireworks display. I had so much fun last year and I can't wait. There is just something about fireworks that is just innately joyful. Just try to not cheer up when you watch them.

New swimsuit - I love to swim and be in the water, but that activity usually requires a suit. I have no problem wearing one, but I always have the damnedest time trying to find one. I really stopped trying, and it's been about eight years at least since I really had a decent suit. But I went out today and tried to find one, and it took a while but I did. It is so cute and now I can go to the lake with my family and swim on some upcoming vacations. It's great.

Taking an idea and running with it - Sometimes I get these flashes of brilliance where I come up with a perfect idea. At least I always think so at the time. My good friend's birthday is coming up next week and a couple of weeks ago I came up with something to do for her that for all I know no one's ever done. I can't get into details because she reads this, but I am excited about it and I just went crazy and had a lot of fun getting it all together. She had better like it, or at least realize that the concept came from a good place!

So You Think You Can Dance - I full out love this show. I can't get enough of it. The variety and the caliber of talent on that show astounds me weekly. I love learning about all these choreographers that I, a person with 3 or 4 left feet, would never have known otherwise. I just love being a witness to all the creativity and talent on that stage. I can't get enough.

I had others too, but I can't remember what they were now. I'll have to save them for later I guess.

Things I Love Thu ... Monday?

OK girls, I dropped the ball this week. I let Thursday pass me by completely loveless. I apologize. I partially forgot, but mostly this was a pretty loveless week comprised of work I didn't enjoy, tips I didn't make and very little time off. Not a good week for me at all. But here are some bright points I pulled out of it.

Vacation presents - I guess I'm getting a little old for my parents to bring something back for me when they go out of town, but since I am back living at home for awhile, this tradition has been resurrected. It's nice. My mom is so sweet and tries really hard to get into my head (a scary place for anyone really) and find me something I'll like. These last couple trips they've taken she's (and my dad too) brought home some really beautiful jewelry that suits me perfectly. All silver and simple, one necklace that's a turtle from Hawaii and some Celtic jewelry from Seattle. I'm really grateful for her efforts.

Solitary days - My one day off last week was Monday. My sister had left for some camp thing, and my parents didn't get home from their trip until that night, so all day I had the house all to myself and no place to go. I think I had contact with a couple of store clerks and that's it. And I love and need days like that. I like my social time too as well (as a server you have to) but I need equal parts of alone time to function. It was just what I needed before a week of smiling at customers who were rude and who feel like they can spend all this money on food but because times are hard cut back on the tip.

Word Verifications that aren't words - I have been noticing a trend lately with word verifications. First off they're popping up everywhere! I remember when they were mostly just on Ticketmaster. Now they're on all the blogs and e-mail accounts and Facebook. And they aren't words anymore! They are gibberish. On the one hand it can be funny, on the other frustrating. I was trying to get on something or other yesterday and their font was so screwy I could hardly make it out, and since it was futile to decipher a word, I finally gave up. But mostly some of the ones I've seen just make me laugh!

Anyway, this week is looking to be much better, and I expect to blog on time and with a much improved outlook. Happy next few days!

Things I Love Thursday

Oh man, I am the last one of my new Thursday group to get to this today, oh the shame! Oh well. It brings me to the first thing I love.

Friends who push you - I already mentioned how great I think my BEDA buddies are last week, but it's nice to have people who get your competitive dander up in a way. I always have good intentions but all my life I've struggled with the follow through aspect. I am a procrastinator, and didn't fully feel like blogging today, but just knowing that my other three gals have posted made me get my butt in gear and write this post.

Small personal successes - So I have sworn off chocolate in June (and essentially all sweets) and it has been going surprisingly well. I don't know exactly how to explain it, but it's like when I made it so it was not even an option, I thought about it less. I can't count how many times I swore I was going to cut back on sweets but never did. But the moment I turned it into a goal and publicized that goal, it was easy. I even survived the ultimate test last weekend when a table gave me a piece of their German chocolate birthday cake and without even pausing I took it home and gave it to my mom. Go me!

Veer.com - I love this Web site. Aside from all the awesome fonts and type I can't buy, they have all these great desktop backgrounds. I switch mine up every month or so, but I have a whole folder of backgrounds all from Veer that I just love. Definitely check it out.

Kristin Chenoweth - It is finally my turn for her new book at the library, and I haven't even started reading it yet and I am excited about it. My friend SEJL already read it (She and I are both huge fans of Cheno), and she said as you read it you can tell it's her voice. I am pretty sure this is one I am going to want to own.

My sister - Now I am living at home right now, and my sister is home from college for the summer. Being thrown back into that sibling dynamic with the parents around has been tough. My sister and I are two very different people who have very few opinions in common (except we both love Wicked). We fight a lot. But when our parents are out of town it's like this switch flips. The dynamic changes from siblings to something more like roommates. We go out to dinner and hang out and it's so much fun. I was feeling down the other night, and she took me to see a movie to cheer me up and it was great. The movie was funny and ridiculous and just what I needed to step out of my head for a couple hours.

Things I Love Thursday

April may be over and my blogging may be lagging, but I still communicate with my BEDA buddies pretty much daily through Facebook and Twitter. These gals are great and I enjoy interacting with them online so much and learning from them.

I don't think any of us are ready to go back to blogging ever day (Yikes!) but we have decided together to start blogging again once a week. We stole the idea of Things I love Thursday from Nicola, who got it from another source, but keep looking for a new installment each week from me and my BEDA Buddies: Nicola, Becky and Christina.

The Tony Awards - OK, so I didn't actually get to watch them this year, and that part of it really sucked. But I still love them. I look forward to June each year for that reason. I love that Broadway gets a night to recognize the incredible amount of talent all crammed into one portion of NYC. I love that all these current shows on Broadway perform and are watchable on YouTube for years to come.

Changing my shoes after work - I don't care if I was at work for an hour or 10. The feeling when I get to my car after a serving shift and take off my work shoes and slip on a pair of flip-flops is unbeatable in that moment.

Planning a trip - Taking trips is pretty great too, but I love the beginning stages of planning a trip when you are so excited and have so many ideas and plans about what you are going to do. You haven't yet remembered how poor you are so in your head the sky's the limit. I'm planning a trip to New York City in the early fall with my best and favorite traveling companion, SEJL, and I cannot wait.

Tables that remind me why I sometimes like serving - I've been going through a frustrating period waiting tables where I just feel burned out and sick of what I'm doing and I feel like I'm not good at it anymore. But then I had a couple of tables this past weekend that were just great and things flowed between them and me. One in particular told me before they left that the service had been fantastic, and I just really really needed to hear that.

Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments trilogy - I read all three books (City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass) one right after another and just fell in love. I am not a critical reader, I just either love the plot and the characters or I don't. I cared about these characters and I am sad they only have three books. But then after I finished I found a great deal on the first two (I already bought the third) and now I own them all! More happiness.

June: My toughest and best challenge yet

This is a couple of days overdue, but all my BEDA buddies have been blogging today so it works out anyway.

For June I decided on a goal that was very important to me and something I really needed. I have decided to go an entire month without chocolate! That's right ladies, you heard me. Chocolate has always been a weakness for me. I don't go totally overboard, but I can't ration myself. If I buy a single candy bar I eat a single candy bar. If I buy a bag of chocolates I eat a bag. It's frustrating.

I've figured out that for now I am an all-or-nothing gal. So I am cutting myself off completely for a month. To see if I can do it and to prove to myself that I have that power over my "addiction" if you will. Depending on how that goes, I plan to gradually re-introduce it back into my life.

I am on day 4 of no sweets and it is going surprisingly well. It's like knowing it's not even an option makes it easier to go without it because I don't think about it as much. I feel good about it, but it is only day 4. Let's hope the next 26 go as well.

End of May: Soda report

It feels so weird to be blogging right now, because I went from posting every single day to not posting at all for nearly an entire month.. This is strange.

Swearing off soda was so easy and yet so hard at the same time. Like I said at the beginning of the month when I set the goal, it is only recently that I really started drinking a lot more of it. But I have such easy access to it now. I get all the free soda I want at both of my jobs. And sometimes a cone cup of sprite or whatever is really refreshing, and water doesn't always cut it.

So of course the moment I decided to cut it out, I wanted it. When I grabbed my cone cup and looked at the soda machine, getting water (or occasionally lemonade) was a lot less appealing when soda was not an option.

Oh well, I resisted all temptations and didn't have a drop of soda all month. Mission accomplished. Though I did end up drinking a lot more chocolate milk.

Tune in tomorrow for June's goal. It's a doozy.

May: So long soda

I am determined to continue with my monthly goals. If I succeed in May that will be two months! I actually decided on May's goal last week, but I almost quit before I started tonight.

My goal for May is no soda. At all. I did really want some tonight though. I was at work and so thirsty and water just was not cutting it for me.

I never used to drink soda much as a kid. Root beer with pizza and that was about it. I don't come from a family that drinks a ton of it. But then I started working in restaurants, where you basically get all the free soda you want while you're working. Bad news.

And then for some reason when I moved to Pennsylvania last year, I just started drinking a lot of soda. It was like I flipped a switch and just wanted soda. Weird stuff too, like I went on this grape soda kick for a month or two. That got old fast though.

So no soda will enter my system all month long. It's OK though, my all-time favorite drink is still chocolate milk, which I would never even attempt to give up.

And this makes 29 consecutive days in a row, so this is technically a BEDA blog to make up for missing April 1st. If I blog tomorrow that will make 30 consecutive days.

Bye, Bye, BEDA (BEDA, Goodbye)

In case you aren't all in my head, that title is to the tune of The Four Seasons song "Bye, Bye, Baby (Baby, Goodbye)", which is a great song. So go back and re-read/hum the title to the appropriate tune. Done? Thank you. Moving on.

OK, now I have to listen to my Best of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons CD while I write this. Alright I'm ready. I feel like a little kid who is stalling before he goes to sleep; I've been to the bathroom, heard a bedtime story and had a drink of water, there's nothing left but to go to bed. Or BEDA in this case.

Once again it seems I am the last of my BEDA buddy group to do a post like this, but I'm OK with that. I really enjoyed reading Becky, Nicola and Christina's posts first before writing my own. Honestly, I felt really touched reading all of them and I feel pretty lucky to have been part of this.

I happened upon BEDA by accident and decided to be a part of it on a whim. I had heard of Maureen Johnson through my best friend the YA librarian, but had never read any of her books. Sorry! But I've since rectified that by reading Devilish this past week. And I am in line for Suite Scarlett at the library. I am very grateful to both her and Jordan Cwierz for conceiving BEDA; they really are sort of our BEDA parents. MJ even commented on my first BEDA post offering encouragement.

Personally, BEDA was good for me in many ways.

• It got me writing more again, which I haven't done a lot of since graduating college.
• It forced me to think more to generate blog ideas.
• It also forced me to finish several half-written posts from months and months ago that might have remained unfinished for years.
• It got me out there more reading other people's blogs. I follow my college friends, but I don't often go out and find random blogs to read. This changed that.
• I wrote some posts I really thought were great. Not all of them, that is for sure, but some. There are a few toward the beginning of the month that y'all should go back and read. Definitely.
  

And then there were my BEDA buddies. I will repeat what they have all said, and that is how eerily well MJ did at matching up at least our group. We all have a lot in common so far and it's great. I really enjoyed getting to know the ladies in my group and reading their blogs and "talking" to them.

I know we've only known each other a couple of weeks, but I get the feeling the end of BEDA won't be the end of us. Between our blogs, Twitter and now Facebook, I hope these online friendships we've begun will continue. I'll keep reading ladies if you will (well, even if you won't)!

Thank you all for a wonderful month of blogging.

P.S. I've been told that since I missed April 1 and 2, I should continue into the next two days to make up for it. So stay tuned, I just might do it depending on my schedule.