happy-like

In the wake of a shitty week, I still have things that are making me happy.

In no particular order:

Rainy Portland Sunday mornings spent sleeping-in in my cozy, warm bed, dreaming of the night before and unreservedly fantasizing.

Great dates. With thus far great guys. Who are smart and too handsome to be so humble and great kissers too. And who are seemingly too well suited to me to be real.

Pizza places that serve gluten free pizza by the slice and have wifi. Oh, and a great happy hour every day of the week. Instant happiness.

Really sweet bartenders who remember my name and shave money off my tab. See also: finding new karaoke bars where I am destined to become a regular.

Cucumber white tea. A revelation that is.

Random strangers who hold the door open for me.

My best friends and family who even when only available by text or facebook, always boost my ego and send me endless love and support.

Great coworkers (and a great boss) who take me out for drinks when I'm stressed out about going home.

Hard cider. It's a gluten free salvation.

Nice dudes who, when like an idiot I drop my camera and break my flash, get it fixed for me without my even asking.

Did I mention the gluten free pizza?

Hoping I see said great guy again soon.

the wearing of the red

The point of this post is meant to be happy, but I'm in a fairly cranky state due to my drinking entirely too much for the third weekend in a row, thus incurring a most evil hangover. My head is just doing that womp womp womp and I kind of want to rip it off and trade it in for a better one. Maybe one with better eyesight and less sensitive skin, while I'm at it.

Point being? This post may turn out a little manic.

Incidentally, mulled wine is an incredible invention. As my friend Kim put it, it's like Christmas sangria. And that is the damn truth.

Anywayyy, as I mentioned last week, I've been really focusing on what I need and want, etc, focusing on what makes me happypants.

The first things I did were easy, but make a huge difference.

I started wearing more red. Why? Well, chickadees, I'll tell you why. Most importantly, red looks great on me. I wear bold colors well if I do say so myself. Plus, red is the color of bravado. Red is the color of fuck yeah I'm awesome and you can fuck off if you're too much of an idiot to know it and walk away from alllll this. mmhmmm. That's right. This lady is smart and funny and looks hot in red lipstick and red lace panties too. Yup, red lip gloss, red nails. I bought a new red scarf and matching gloves.

Then! And this is the exciting one....I changed my hair!

Wait...here's a before:

And here I am at the Aveda Institute getting my herr did (LOVE that place!):

 

When you have as much hair as I do, you get the royal treatment

 

Waiting for my hair color to process

 

Right after

Then, I went home for two days and decided I wanted more bangs and trimmed the sides myself. This could have been BAD, but turned out awesome. Because I AM awesome after all. Dur. Haven't you been paying attention? 

Here's the hair last night at the epic Ugly Christmas Sweater party (where I drank all that delicious mulled wine):

 

Christmas threw up on me

I know it looks good because Johnny, the approximately 65 year old concierge (and a shameless flirt) in my building told me I looked hot. He also called me Marlo Thomas. 

 

I'll take it.

He was also super impressed I knew who Marlo Thomas is. But, like I said, I'm awesome.

So I bet you're thinking that after the red and the hair, there's really nothing left, but I assure you, you're wrong. So very wrong.

I've been working out as much as I can (which I would like to be more, but getting into a routine is a challenge) at the free gym in my building. I really wanted to join 24 Hour Fitness but the 24 gods hate me and it's looking like that's not meant to be. I can't even explain; it would take too long. 

Plus, there's the art. I've been really trying to bring art back into my life, taking as many photos as I can, when I can, and visiting museums and places with cool architecture. 

A couple of weekends ago, I spent an entire day in Portland Art Museum and had the best time. I hadn't been before because I was being really snobby and judgey. See, PAM charges 15 smackers to get in. And I'm like, I paid less to get in the damn Louvre (of course, I was an art history student at the time, so I got in for free.) and I paid $10 at LACMA to see Lichtensteins and Warhols, why would I pay $15 to get into Portland's dinky museum? 

Well, hit me with the asshole stick because it's an awesome museum. They have quite a few Impressionists, including Rodin, Van Gogh, and Monet. They had a small Titien on display (though not my fave of his) and they have an entire building for modern art (which really gets me happy) including a Chihuly and Rothko. 

Plus? I took my camera. And what I love about museums which let you shoot (hehe) is that it challenges my photography skills in so many ways. One, it's a blast to make new art out of other art, capturing installations from different angles or in front of paintings. But also, the lighting in museums is so changeable and not always conducive to photography that it really keeps me working hard to get any decent shots. Needless to say, so much fun. 

 It's ME

 It also inspired me to get painting again. I haven't painted since I was a kid, mostly because I got discouraged when my skills didn't match what an instructor asked of me. I'm never going to be the girl who paints a still life or a portrait. It's not what I like and not what I'm good at. What I do love are textures. So I'm interested in getting into some abstract work that plays with texture and mixed mediums. It will take a while, because spendy, but I can't wait.

Oh and funny story. I go to the museum cafe to get a tea and I notice these little gluten free granola bars next to the register. The girl then tells me that they also have a gluten free cupcake. Yes. And I say, "I don't remember the last time I had a cupcake!" And she says, "Well then you need it." And so I got it. 

It was pure, decadent, moist, sweet, blissful heaven. I think I frightened the other museum patrons as I devoured the cupcakey goodness.  And do you see the sparkles? The sparkles! THE SPARKLES!

Sigh.

And that's just for starters. I've also been drinking too much wine. That counts right?

A Little Tease

*sigh*

The only thing I want to talk about, I'm not supposed to talk about. I'm sworn to secrecy lest I jinx it by mocking the universe with my garish happiness.

Buuuut I aaaam happy (said in my whiniest voice)! I am dammit. Unbelievably, magically happy. Deliriously happy.

See also: dense that I didn't snatch this up before. But clearly karma has its own time line because the only explanation is that my good karma is kicking in. Can't rush karma, obv.

GAH! I can't say anymore. Trust me, people, good things. Only good things. Gooey, afterglowy, good things.

a vague hint of proof of said happiness

fat and happy

Today was a day of work holiday parties, the first being our annual all-staff lunch and oh em gee do I love this event! The food is all comfort food and dee-lish-us and while the thing can go pretty long, there is this raffle with some pretty damn good prizes. I always tell myself that I don't want to win, but dude, I totally do. Didn't happen this year, but some day, one of those wine baskets will be mine. I swear to Odin.

Then on to my divisional holiday party and my favorite part about this shindig is the food competition. There's always a theme and everyone brings a dish and then we all vote on the favorites. The voting isn't the best part. The eating is. I am so fat and happy right now. Mmmmm. I also might be slipping into a sugar coma. Someone call an ambulance. Hah!

So, even though I get absolutely no work done (and believe me, I have plenty to do before winter vacation), days like this work nicely into my new master plan: plump up for the winter. See, my plan has two genius elements. First, while all my female friends are watching their weight through the perilous holidays and becoming more and more crabby in the process, I am foregoing the misery and enjoying myself. Bring on the food, I say! Bring. It. On. And that brings me to the second benefit: more insulation. I plan to be nice and warm this winter once I'm done plumping up (not nearly close enough to my goal), while you dieters will be freezing your asses off. Proof: I have a coworker who recently lost a bunch of weight and he told me today that it's true. He is colder this year. So you see? I will be literally fat and happy and also toasty warm, while I eat toast. Genius.

Don't you all wish you were as smart as me, Internet? Now, seriously, someone please call an ambulance.

Shiny Happy People

Da dada DUM *drum roll* I have a day off tomorrow!!! A DAY OFF!! Like, it's  a Wednesday. And I don't have to work. And I can catch up on life. Do you understand how fantastic this is, Internet? Let's all take a moment and do the happy dance.


And here's some happy music to dance to:

*HAPPY DANCE*

Okay, do we all feel happy now? I certainly do. I am so excited for my day off. Considering that my last day off (Sunday) was spent recovering in bed with Hulu (I heart you, Hulu!) from my BIG EVENT, I am in great need for a real day off to get stuff done. I can finally take my poor car in for an estimate (yup, her bumper is still hanging on like a hangnail), do laundry and clean my house, write thank you notes, download my photos from last weekend, and maybe even catch up on some reading or even...*gasp*...wait for it...gardening! The options are endless and I am more stoked than a queen at Fashion Week.

And it gets better. I know you don't think it's possible, but you'd be wrong, Internet. It does. On Thursday I finally get some girly time with Mo! It feels like weeks since I've seen her and I haven't even gotten to hear how her first half-marathon went and she hasn't heard about Hot Bartender. Well, I'm sure she's read about him here, but believe you me, I plan on telling her much better details than I would disclose with you, Internet. I mean, don't be offended, but you and I just don't know each other that well yet.  What do you expect? These kinds of relationships take time. Anyway,  back to Mo and myself, this is very unlike us, so needless to say, we are long overdue for some much needed gossip. I'm really not sure how we made it this long, actually. I need my gossip. It's like a fix. Wait, let me go amend my crack post and add gossip to my list of cracks.

And then...I get to see my very favorite aunt on Saturday!! She's just moved down here to the south of Caleefornia from San Francisco and I'm going to spend some quality time with her at her new house. I love this woman. Next to my other favorite aunt who passed away when I was much younger, this awesome lady is one of my very favorite people. She is fun and generous and a really great female role model, the kind I really didn't have growing up with my harpy, I mean my mom. This woman met my friends and I in Paris when I was living there and we tromped around the city of lights and drank wine and ate too much cheese. She and I went to Hawaii together last year and she got me drunk on mai tais. She took one of my other cousins to Italy this last year where I hear they ate gelato every single day (ALL-ways a good idea in my experience). On a scale from one to awesome, I'd say she's super awesome! And I am completely excited to stay with her this weekend.

All in all, I'd say things are looking up. Now if only I had Hot Bartender's phone number. Or even his real name, for that matter. That could be a teensy hitch.