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Only My Favorite Holiday

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So many people love Christmas and Thanksgiving. I have heard a lot of people lately mention Halloween as their favorite. For me, I love the Fourth of July. While I have heard some mention it being their's also, it is not the front runner. But come on guys, what isn't to love? It's summer and barbecues and fireworks and colors and excitement and swimming and watermelon and lemonade and everything that is good in life. I love it so much that I decided to extend that holiday this year for four extra days. With the Fourth being on a Wednesday, it just felt awkward having a random day to celebrate so I took Thursday and Friday off of work and made the holiday so much better! To be honest, on the Fourth and the day after I didn't really do too much. On the Fourth, I attended the obligatory parade which, let's be honest, was a bit of a let down. Don't get me wrong parades are my favorite....beyond favorite, but a parade should not be a line of Ford F15...

Reconnecting to Myself

As you may have noticed (or maybe I am arrogant and you haven't), I took a couple months away from the writing game. There are a few reasons for this, none that I will really get into too much at this time. Let's just stick with the simple explanation that things didn't go according to plan and I didn't feel super inspired much of the time...especially the last month. During the past couple months I have been more and more connected to my phone. Those of you who know me know that even before these past couple months, my phone has been inseparably connected to me. THIS IS BAD. My incessant need for human connection in the most inhuman form has become a major distraction. The things that I love (although my phone is an outlet for some) have fallen by the wayside and instead I am constantly watching my Snapchat and Messages  waiting for something to come through. I am constantly connected to Facebook and Instagram feeding off of what other people do instead of doing th...

What Is It You Value?

One of my friends has been constantly reminding me lately that as we approach decisions in life, whether they are big or small, we must always make our choices based on our values. This has had me up late at night thinking on multiple occasions about what it is that I value and if I am living my life in accordance with my personal set of values. I value the building of relationships . Over the past three years (or so) I have made friends with individuals who have changed my life in major ways. I could list them all here but without their permission I probably better not. The list of their accomplishments in my life have ranged from helping me be confident in who I am (a person who I never thought I would be) to helping me gain confidence in my abilities. Some of these people helped me release myself from the stresses of the world and others brought me back down to the ground when my mind started wandering too far. Finding friends, however long- or short-lived those friendships we...

Your Personal Happiness House

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I don't know of anyone whose favorite season is Winter. If you do fit into this rare and offensive category, you really ought to sort out what is important to you. I mean, I guess you can have your own opinion (but you also have the right to be wrong). Where was I going with this? Ah yes. Spring. It's officially here. Even Mother Nature has decided to play along some. Rain instead of snow. The beginnings of flowers. Wearing shorts outside. Little things that detail the beautiful time of year that is Spring. It is most often the little things that make the biggest differences in how a person feels. Think of a house....a happiness house, if you will. The structure of the house will be the same as the structure of any house. A foundation. Load bearing beams. Far too many nails. A roof. These represent the basic structures of our lives. We have families, friends, education, and ambition but with just those things all we have is bare walls, empty rooms, and possibly a ba...

Give It A Rest

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My faithful followers have been asking for another post and for the past few week I just haven't been able to produce words. In fact, a running joke I have with one friend is that we can have a full conversation just using the word "words" with varying tonal inflections. The fact that English has had a difficult time expelling itself from my inner sanity means that writing has become blocked. This is a phenomena called writer's block. A lot of changes have been happening at work over the past month and a lot of inner personal changes have been forcing themselves to the surface as well. The combination of internal and external factors really weighed me down. It wasn't completely bad but it sure was heavy and taxing. In response to everything that was going on, and in the midst of one of the points of highest stress, I did something I have never done before. I called in to work and took a day off. Now, I have used sick days before. Sparingly. But I use them w...

January Adventures (part 2)

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As I mentioned in my last post, there were two weekends in January that really elevated the month as far as the extracurricular activities that I am bringing into my life. The first was detailed in the previous post meaning that now I must detail the second of the two. January 26-28: Oscar Prep Movie Marathon Weekend One of my New Year's Resolutions was to go to a movie each week as a way to get out of the house and do things. Let's just say that on this particular weekend, I far exceeded my goal of one each week. In fact, I hit five movies in three days. Flashback to 2011 with me for just a moment. For whatever reason, I fell in love with Natalie Portman during 2010 and 2011 and when she was nominated for (and won) the Golden Globe, the Screen Actor's Guild award, and the Oscar for Best Actress in "Black Swan", I took notice. Now, I have always loved awards shows but never paid close attention to them until Ms. Portman ushered in my fanatical love of movie...

January Adventures (part 1)

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I have been holding onto this post for a couple weeks now. As a part of my New Year’s Resolutions, I have been wanting to get out more and have experiences that will make me happy. Ya know, find the things I love and just do them. Let’s just say January has been a good month for this and there are mainly two weekends that prove this. This post will be about only the first of the two weekends....and there are pictures this time for proof. January 12-15 (MLK Day weekend) To start out with you need to know that I am not rich at all. Money doesn’t come super easy to me but that is something that I don’t want to have holding me back. This particular weekend, I spent a lot but I had one of the greatest weekends of my life. I’ve that weekend I made the decision that no matter what it took I was going to see two Broadway traveling shows. The first one was “Rent” in Idaho Falls on Saturday. Prior to this show, it had been a while since I had seen a show that was neither a high school/col...