things making me happy lately//cheers to recognizing the simple pleasures in life:
+my best friend blogging about all the tv shows she watches
+iMessaging with her during the work day to break up the monotony which makes me feel useful
+ buying some new workout tops that are adorable - yes, i buy into the whole wear different clothing to get into the mood. even if i'm doing a bar method DVD in the comfort of my home when i could very well be in the softest pj's and cashmere, i like getting dressed up to workout - though i have definitely gone running in the softest old tshirt and no makeup at 7am before, and that also has it's place.
+this recent trip to asheville. the perfect bikram studio there, feeling my face crack with emotion during class and then in church, the entirety of the congregation singing. music is magic and their choir was pure art - i don't consider myself a religious person but it was gorgeous and made me feel all the feels. feel not alone. feel so present. i hadn't cried for a long time; i slept really well that night.
+getting to hang out with the best dogs in the world, my goldens. walking them makes me so happy, watching them walk as close as possible to each other is just so heart warming. they're brothers. and their personalities are hilarious.
+ day after workout soreness makes me feel like an athlete, which was a big part of my life during middle and high school. it was such a big deal to feel like an athlete then because my 'thing' had always been school and i hated running more than life itself. and then i started swimming and water polo and worked and worked and worked. normal was six workouts a week, spending my life at the pool and going to the trainer during my free period to sit it ice or get stretched out, workouts of the day posted on the, bryan making us do crunches and wall squats and god knows what with medicine balls. i can understand the appeal of crossfit. for myself, i am not into the competitiveness or in how fast you can do something compared to others - i'm more into personal bests. also, i have no interest in getting injured and having learned my lesson (um, running through pain thinking things like 'pain is weakness leaving the body' um, nope, pain means you won't run for a month because you sprained a tendon, dumb-dumb)
+ chelsea handler's books, which i usually save for family vacations because they are fun and the quickest reads. they are not a guilty pleasure, fuck guilty pleasures, i sincerely laughed so hard reading her tales. i can live though her alcoholism and sleeping around without any of the hangovers or STDs. pretty much a win win all around.
+ my kindle. it is such a joy. i could read 5 different books on my last trip and still have room in my suitcase. i have found myself wanting to read books i physically own on my kindle. i love that i can highlight and make notes in the margin and see them all at a glance - it would be so great for writing papers.
+ having so many books i want to read! debating which murakami to start with, which didion to pick up next. i just started cheryl strayed's (of dear sugar fame) wild, where she hikes the pacific coast trail. i have had some wild adventures on the trail. this quote spent a good amount of time in my AIM profile back when that was a thing we all did:

"I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all. The woods do that to you, they always look familiar, long lost, like the face of a long-dead relative, like an old dream, like a piece of forgotten song drifting across the water, most of all like golden eternities of past childhood or past manhood and all the living and the dying and the heartbreak that went on a million years ago and the clouds as they pass overhead seem to testify (by their own lonesome familiarity) to this feeling. Ecstasy, even, I felt, with flashes of sudden remembrance, and feeling sweaty and drowsy I felt like sleeping and dreaming in the grass."

and also:
"we were all such free spirits, crossing the country we were nomads and artists and no one ever stopped" from a michelle tea poem.

+chad harbach's fielding the art of fielding was an AMAZING book, and please don't let my chelsea handler love get in the way of this recommendation. it was fantastic, and reminded me of catcher in the rye in a strange way.

+these books in my reading queue:
wild by cheryl strayed, excited about this one
extremely loud and incredibly close by jsf, i bought this because it was 25 cents in the kindle store - i had started it years ago and can't remember why i didn't
i was told there'd be cake by sloane crosley. i read a story or two of hers before i go to bed or outside during lunch.
the nine: inside the secret world of the supreme court by jeffrey toobin. i forgot i had bought this until i just looked at my kindle for iphone app. oooops.

+pulphead: essays by jon jeremiah sullivan. i wanted to love this so much more. it was still a good read, recommended by edith zimmerman at the hairpin with simply 'as good as everyone says.' i liked it a lot but didn't fall in love. 4/5. still really worth picking up and something i'd recommend to a friend over cocktails. i just read a bloody mary recipe and now i want one, extra spicy. brunch is the best meal.

+even with all the books i want to read (the list is never ending) i feel a compulsion to read some old favorites - salinger, atwood, plath. i got david sedaris' when you are engulfed in flames to reread on kindle. i loved all his books so much. i always quote him when people ask me what i like to read. i'm heavy into reading memoirs at the moment, a skip away from nonfiction.

the fountainhead by ayn rand (i can't believe i never had to read this in all of my coursework)
jonathan troppman's other books, because the one i read by him was so great. fiction though it doesn't feel like it.

+lately i have been having a though i remember having years ago, which happens when you are meeting a lot of new people in random places. sometimes i would just wonder what in god's name people talk about. or just like, what are you supposed to talk about all the damn time?! i have this random memory of telling this to my therapist and him laughing, and being like, i don't know. tv, music, movies, books.

okay this has definitely become more 'rambles' than 'truly recognizing the simple pleasures in life' but whatever. i'm listening to ani and drinking the coldest glass of water and not sleeping even though its late. but i'm going to fall asleep soon and run around tomorrow.



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