Sunday, August 8, 2010

10 things that made me happy this week . . .

1. tropical punch kool-aid. no wonder i loved it so much as a kid! and how amazing are the single packs that you just dump into a bottled water? voila! kool-aid in an instant!

2. listening to old episodes of a prairie home companion on the internet. always makes the work day pass by quicker.

3. maybe i listened to king of anything by sara bareilles on repeat all day friday. maybe. (good tune)

4. my mom and i finally made it out to see eclipse. very good 14-year-old-self time.

5. cheap accessories from forever 21.

6. in an effort to be healthier and curb any developing caffeine addictions, i've been making a non-conscience effort to not drink as much soda. if i tell myself i can't have it, it's the only thing i want. if i tell myself i can have it, but just make a last minute decision to stick with water or something else instead, then i'm fine. this week i only had two sodas, and only one of them caffeinated. so pretty much i can do reverse psychology on myself. i'm amazing.

7. i watched super size me. my friend recommended it. terrifying! but it made me feel even better about my soda victory this week. also, i feel very superior because i haven't eaten anything from mcdonalds except ice cream or french fries for at least 7 years. now i'm feeling inspired to curtail my fast food consumption even more. i'm making efforts to keep things in the fridge/freezer at home that i can make really fast at lunch time so i feel less inclined to take the fast (food) way out.

8. over the weekend i watched valkyrie (for entertainment) and then i watched a documentary called into the arms of strangers (out of curiosity) (how great is netflix on demand?!). the documentary was about the kindertransport, which evacuated over 10,000 jewish children out of germany and surrounding areas just before the start of wwii. they were taken in by families or placed in boarding houses/orphanages in england. i was so humbled by the generosity of the british people. apparently the united states was invited to participate in the project but congress decided not to on account that it was against god design to separate children from their parents. (a nauseating and humiliating moment in american history.) you should watch it.

9. whenever i expose myself to the wwii story i always think, "how did this happen?" i'm always incredulous. watching those two films also made me excessively grateful for the two-party system we have in our government. yes, it's annoying to listen to their constant bickering and mud-slinging, but they do balance/cancel each other out. opposing views are important. maybe more important than your own. it protects us from tyranny.

10. my reading material for the last several months has been remarkably underwhelming. while i've enjoyed some of it, it haven't loved anything i've read since reading north and south last year. (you know that feeling you get when you find a book you love. consuming. the bottom drops out of your world and all you can think about is the story or the character or the feelings it's inducing. you can't wait to get back to it. and you hope it never ends.) right now i'm reading a book for a book club that i hate. i feel like i'm being tortured with the written word. i find myself hoping that something horrid will happen to the (thus far) main character. which is sad because it's an (auto)biographical book about several generations of the author's family. but i am determined to finish it. so over the weekend i decided to treat myself to a re-read of one of my favorite books. it never disappoints. it only takes me four or five hours to read, so it's a good weekend indulgence that doesn't completely derail all other reading activities. i split it over saturday and sunday nights and delighted myself. i do try and exercise a bit of self control and limit my reading of it to once a year. keep it special.

1 comments:

Heidi said...

2. i LOVE prairie home companion!
3. i LOVE LOVE LOVE king of anything. i love the song, i love the singer, i love the lyrics/meaning... i just LOVE it! AND the music video is pretty much awesome!!!
6. i completely agree with you on the whole "tell myself i can't have it" thing. like you, i just try to make an effort to make the right decision instead of restricting myself. good job on being amazing!
8. i loved learning about the holocaust in junior high school. we went to the museum of tolerance in los angeles, which was so cool. and when i went to germany several years ago, we went to a concentration camp, which was also very cool. and by cool, i mean very interesting and real to be able to see it first hand... not meaning to be insensitive in any way, of course.
10. when i read the word "biography" i was reminded of something super funny that one of my new roommates said. she was telling me about renee fleming's book and instead of saying biography, she said bibliography. i laughed so hard inside. i couldn't laugh out loud because i didn't want to embarrass her. but, heheheheheh!