Summer Happened

Since I'm a teacher, I've had the same basic schedule since I was five years old. My life is broken into semesters and is punctuated by well-timed breaks. All my non-teacher friends always express jealousy at my three months-ish of break, but I've never really known any different. There's something so glorious about having that break time to do pretty much whatever you want, whenever you want. I will take the smaller paycheck teachers get every time to have freedom over my time like that (not that I would say no to a raise, don't get me wrong).

I got some good and much-needed mama time...and Gatsby got some Grammy time :)

The thing about having a three month break from your routine is that...you have a three month break from your routine. Days start to blend into one another in that languid way that only summer days can. At its best, you get to work on and do things just because you want to; at its worst, you forget the last time you washed your hair.

 I made some fun friends while in England and played lots of char-ahds (which is like charades, but British).

My family and I hiked a glacier in Alaska. We ate PBJs and filled our water bottles with glacier water and it was one of my favorite days ever.

All of this is to say I haven't been the best blogger the past few months, but for good reason. I've been busy with all the summer things: traveling, spending time with family and friends, hanging out with my sweet nugget, and eating and drinking lots of great food and drink. In the last four months, I've been to New Orleans, England, Austin, and Seattle/Alaska. What?! Picture dump posts are forthcoming. More than having fun, I've had the opportunity to be with people I love and to think deeply about what I want out of life moving forward. What can I say, too much free time makes me existential. Hopefully, some big news is coming soon!

I drank butterbeer at the Harry Potter studios in England. My (not-so) inner nerd was freaking out the whole time.

School (real school, you know, with kids) starts today, and I'm ready for it. I'm ready to wake up at a normal time, do something productive all day, and see my colleagues and students, who I really enjoy being around. I spent my last real day of summer drinking coffee, sitting on the couch with Gatsby, running a few errands, and having dinner with friends.

My brothers and I in front of Mendenhall glacier in Juneau

Goodbye, Summer 2014...you've been pretty great.

xoxo,
E

Do You Believe in Soulmates?

 I read this great blog post the other day that I found on (where else?) Pinterest. In it, the writer says that her husband isn't her soulmate. At first, I thought it must be a pretty cynical take on relationships, but as I read on, it was really eye-opening. I love this part:

"I love my husband. I think he’s pretty awesome or I wouldn’t have married him and had some babies with him. He makes my life more interesting, makes me better, and loves me even when I’m not very lovable (which is a lot of the time). I picked a good one, for sure. And I’m glad he’s in my life.

But if I hadn’t met him, I think my life would still be pretty good. I wasn’t waiting for someone else to come along and rescue me from my horrible existence. I had a good existence before him."

I love that! She talks about how the idea of a "soulmate" is a lot of pressure to put on one person. And she's so right: to me the idea that one person out there is supposed to fill some sort of void not only puts a lot of pressure on any relationship I might have, but seems like an unfair burden to place on myself. How am I supposed to be good at my job, nurture relationships with friends and family, create a complete life for myself if there really is one person that my whole future is supposed to revolve around? If that's true, I should be actively and exhaustively searching for this person around the clock because there are a lot of people out there.

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You always hear that you are supposed to stop looking for someone and that's when someone will appear in your life; I've always thought that sounded like when people tell you not to think of a pink elephant...what's the first thing you think of? It makes a whole lot more sense to craft a life that you actually want and love than to end up with a life built around one person because, let's face it, people aren't always around forever, but you have to live your life for a pretty long time.

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The post gets a little religious at the end, but if that isn't your thing, there is still a lot to be gained from it. In my opinion, this is an excellent message for us to share with girls, not to make them cynical, but to encourage them to seek their own life, rather than half of one so that someone else can swoop in and "complete" it. Rather than taking away the "magic" of love, I think this pulls back the curtain and reveals something that is, to me, is more desirable because it actually looks and sounds real.

What do you think? Do you believe in soulmates?

xoxo,
E

Songs and Memories

I know they say scent is the strongest sense tied to memory, which I can totally understand, but I really think that certain songs can bring up stronger memories for me.

 

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Do you have songs that bring up memories or certain times in your life?

Here are a few of mine:

"A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" from Cinderella
-This always reminds me of my dad because he used to sing it to me before bed time. I've always thought that this would be the song we would dance to on my wedding day. It kind of makes me weepy just thinking about it :)

"Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor
-My dad again. He has a really good voice and loves to sing...it's funny, when he comes home after work, you can often find him sitting in the car in the driveway or back in the bedroom singing (loudly) to whatever song is on the radio or his iPod. I just remember him singing this song growing up.

"#1" by Nelly
-High school basketball games/high school in general. The team would enter the gym to this song, and it just has such a confident vibe. This song came out my freshman year, and I remember singing it in the car with friends. God, we were cool.

"Nothing Better" by Postal Service
-Pretty much any angsty time in my life. This is my listen-to-it-on-repeat-until-I'm-crying-too-much-to-sing-along song. Break-up? Crush on someone who doesn't know you exist? Moderate to severe panic that comes with almost any life change? Break out the Postal Service and thank me later.

It's interesting to think about a person from your past (or present) and think of what song brings them to mind. I had a crush on someone in high school that comes to mind any time I hear "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World or anything by New Found Glory. So weird, but those types of things make me smile every time, even if it's bittersweet.

Now go dig through that CD book you know you had in high/middle school! There are some serious gems in there ;)

xoxo,
E

Follow Your Arrow

One of my favorite reads, A Cup of Jo, recently lead me to this incredibly interesting read. It's an article about a mother who, in an attempt to bring culture and worldly perspective to her children's lives, moved her family to Paris for a year. Since the French seemed to have the market cornered when it comes to doing, well, everything right, she thought she would come back to the States with little citizens of the world, cured of all their obnoxious American ways.

As someone who doesn't have any human children, I was surprised by how much the article resonated with me. Lately, I've been reevaluating where I am, geographically, professionally, personally. I've been looking within and without for my next step, wondering where I should go next in pursuit of the life I want for myself. Gosh, crafting the life you want for yourself is a lot of pressure! Following your passion and finding the next "right" thing is hard! I sometimes wish for a crystal ball that I could look to in order to know that, five, ten, fifteen years down the road, I will have made the right decisions and ended up where I wanted to be.

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The moral of this article seems to be that we are all making it up as we go along. The old adage to focus on the journey, not the destination should be changed to focus on the journey because that's all there is. Maybe there is no destination. The only destination is the one we reach when we stop journeying. We just have goals in mind that we try to align our actions with.

 

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So, I guess this is all to say that if you are feeling the need to make a move but are not quite sure where to...I feel ya. I find that every few years I start to feel the need to do something else. I'm hoping someday I'll settle into something that makes me want to stick around awhile, but I'm not sure I've found that thing yet. Does anyone else get the itch to move on like that?

Lots of big picture thinking going on around here lately! I hope you have a wonderful Monday and don't forget to follow your arrow :) 

xoxo,

E

Remember that time I had a blog?

Yeah, me either. Here I am, almost a year after my last post, blowing the dust off A Few Little Happies, and ready to hop back into the bloggy universe! Well, sort of.

For a while I felt like I lost touch with why I carved out this little corner of the Internet for myself. Surely it wasn't just to make lists of things I want, right? Well, maybe sometimes, but definitely not all the time, which is what I felt it was turning into.

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I originally wanted to create this blog to have a space that I could explore and that could make me smile. After all, there are a lot of things in life that seem to only be put there to make you not smile (I'm looking at you, Tuesday Faculty Meetings).

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The other reason I want to recommit to this blog is because of my dad. (Hey dad!) He is constantly telling me that I need to be writing, and while I have my doubts as to whether I really have much to say, he's told me that writers keep track of their thoughts...in writing. Since this is 2014 and we're living in the future (wait...where's my flying car?!) and all, journals make more sense in blog-form. One of my February resolutions (it's a thing) is to pursue things that make me happy just for their own sake, so this is the place where I'll catalog them!

So there ya go...I'm back baby! I'll be redirecting my efforts to make this a space for things that make me happy...and that I think will make you happy, too.

Number one through ten on the list of things that make me happy are my precious nugget, Gatsby, so I'll leave you with a picture of him looking spring break ready in his Hawaiian shirt!

I mean really...if cute was a crime, this would be a felony.

xoxo,

E