things that are making me happy

i'll admit it: i am one of the least religious people i know. i just don't understand it. it makes no sense to me and i struggle to understand how religion makes sense to others, but when i see pictures like the following, it brings tears to my eyes. this is slightly dated because the protests in egypt are over, but i wanted to share this picture because, even for someone who doesn't understand praying, i understand how important this was and how this would never happen in our country.


from this site.

dream apartment - 56

so i love me a comfy couch. oh crap. i just put the picture of the couch in and it showed all of them. i didn't want that. i just wanted to highlight #3. (from apt therapy) i think thats the best. it looks awesome that there is a fun little foldy pillow thing. LOVE it. i dont know if i like the (lack of) color that much. i'd prefer something darker maybe. what do you think? what kind of couches are your favorite?

things that are making me happy

this video is SUPER cute. enjoy.



found here.

i wish i madde that

how about some positive motivation today? saw this video and thought ya'll might enjoy it and/or get something from it.



i'm at home sick today, so thats why this is short. have a great thursday!

[song by will smith!]

he's a pirate

i'm starting to get sick. or maybe, rather, i am sick. head cold. stuffed nose. pounding in my head. ugh. i took some 12-hr medicine at 7am. hate to think how i would feel without that. anyway, because of my sickness, i dont have anything really to say. so i'll post some videos of my brothers baseketball for your enjoyment. these are from last weekend's games.





and then this link here will bring you to a conference update which is kind of interesting, as well. his team has been doing really well and i have some articles that i'll post in the next few days. also, i booked a ticket to head to minneapolis in march to (hopefully) see them play...

[song by tiesto bcs the marauders are pirates.]

walk like an epyptian

so since i've been so lazy, i don't really have anything planned for this week's of posts. so, i will post something that my mom sent me (from my aunt). please note that i did not write the following. nor did my aunt (i'm assuming) and i don't know who wrote it. if you did, i am happy to give you credit and consider this a sign of respect. note that i am not making any money off of this, so if you want me to take it down, i can, but there's really no point. anyway, i post the following in honor of my comrades in wisconsin and elsewhere who should not give up.

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised. All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry. In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It's noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression. Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe is home from work.

He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

those pics are from the protesters in madison from here. another article you should read about how the discourse is changing/incorrect is right here.

things that are making me happy

so this is super quick. i've been a bit delinquent in my postings lately. and oddly, not because of business. out of sheer laziness. i dont seem to get much done when i have a lot of free time and work has been not-so-busy. i have not traveled in... (aside from a quick trip to az) ... a long time. and there is nothing really exciting going on. and thus, free time. and more lay-around-do-nothing-including-blogging-time.

BUT i do have a cool video for your viewing pleasure. this video almost made me tear up. check it out.



and i got this video from jezebel, here. stupid ignorant republicans who voted to ban gay marriage - you do NOT make me happy.

dream apartment - 55

i love me some stairs. i should use them more often. in fact, there are people at work who go up and down the stairs once a day (we're on the 11th floor). i should start doing that. i've also been trying to do at least 10,000 steps a day. its tough. so that would help. but, anyway, stairs. my love. so, obviously i'm in love with both of these, although, also kind of confused. especially the second one. i think for this picture, i would paint each stair a different color.


and for these stairs, i would first figure out how to go up and down them. i can't really tell where they are coming from. maybe they are just random stairs jutting out of a wall with no purpose??? kind of like stairs in a tv sitcom. FABULOUS!


what do you think?

i hear the mumblin...

just a quick post because i only have 20 min and totally didnt realize! i'm on a flight from phx to cvg and then on to bos. was in scottsdale for a work conference. it was good overall, but i wish i had been slightly more prepared and planned to meet some people ahead of time and whatnot. next year. on verra. anyway, the best part about all this is that i only have a 2-day work week! so thats cool. i'm also going to start using linkedin and twitter for work. so thats cool.

anyway, i wanted to write about what i did yesterday and why i didnt get a chance to write... this conference that i was at happens every year and the tuesday afternoon is always open so that people can go out with their clients/providers and mingle and do activities and have meetings and whatnot. so i took my client gliding. not hang-gliding. gliding in a plane without an engine. and it was pretty cool. i was looking forward to it the whole time until monday evening when my client started trying to scare me. he kept telling me stories about what makes it so scary and flipping the plane over and whatnot. so i was slightly nervous. but i just went with it anyway. its not like i was going to stop because i was scared. i've rarely ever done that. if i say i'll do something, i pretty much do it. and i fly all the time and that never bothers me.

so here's what happens: you're in a little plane that is made out of plastic/metal. its towed into the air by a crop plane. you go up to 5,000 ft above the ground and then push this button to let go of the rope. the crop plane takes off on its own and goes back to the ground. then you're just up in the air floating around. its easy-peasy. i was nervous while i was getting into the plane and because i did the acrobatic deluxe ride which meant that i had to wear a parachute in case the wings blew off the plane or something. they didnt. i think that woul'dve made it more exciting and i would've liked it more. but it was actually kind of uneventful. i didnt scream or anything like that. i'm not really a screamer. and it was fun, but not really anything freaky. as soon as we got in the air, i could tell it was really safe and easy.

here is a video of what you do:


i haven't watched it yet, but i'm assuming thats it. its from the company's website.

a friend of mine told me about how when he did it, he got out of the plane and was jumping around on the ground with my client and they were hugging each other and they were both really pumped. so i assumed that would happen, too, but, no... i just kind of walked out of the plane and it was like "ok. great. done. next." i thought for sure i would be an adrenaline junkie after this. but no, no adrenaline rush. i guess i'm pretty even-keeled.

that was kind of the highlight of the past few days.

so what do you think? would you go gliding? would you enjoy it? scream?

fame will not control us

tonight is a great night for a glass of wine or a gin and tonic. alas, no drinking in feb for me. people keep saying that it was smart of me to pick the shortest month. of course, i didnt even think of that. but if i had, that would've been smart. i'm at home, alone (woo hoo!), eating indian food and watching the grammys. actually, i recorded the grammys and now i'm watching bones to get caught up before my trip tomorrow. then i have to wash the dishes and pack for my trip. i was going to clean my room, too, but i went in to the office and was there for a few hours. so i have not been able to enjoy my empty apartment as much as i would've liked. what if my flight were cancelled tomorrow?? that would be AWESOME.

ok, i'm back on the grammy. overall, i ended up liking the bones episode. and after this i'm gonna watch mr. sunshine. has anyone seen that/ anyone want to? who is this band on the grammys right now? i've never heard this song. some lead singer dude with two guitar necks and a back up guy with a brown/red guitar. and pictures above them falling. and the drummer looks bored. fame will not control us or something like that. they KIND of remind me of afi. a more mellow version. i might be bordering on liking them.

anyway, so busy day today (sunday - even though i'm posting on monday). oh. muse is the name of that group. who has heard of them? so back to today. i got up later than i planned, ran to a workout class. did that for an hour (or, rather, "attempted" that for an hour). went home, stopped at starbucks, had breakfast, left to go get a zipcar to pick up my little sister, was TOTALLY late, rushed, drove the zipcar out of the parking garage with the parking break ON (couldn't figure out how to turn it off) until i got out of the garage and then i could call zipcar for them to tell me how to do it, got stuck in traffic in chinatown, zooomed down the highway, picked up my little, went to pick up skates at the skate club of bosotn, then over to the newton skate school for her lesson (boy its tough having kids!), watched her lesson, rushed her home to her parents, dropped off the car, went to work for a few hours, took a cab home, went to cvs, got dinner and came home. its been a crazy day. who is this bruno mars guy? i've heard of him before. NOT what i expected him to look like.

ok, so i forgot what i was going to write about. i think i'm going to buy the janelle monae cd. she's cool.