Some time around Saturday, I realized that I had been neglecting my Happy List and putting all of my energy into my LIfe List. That’s not good! Chris asked if it was because nothing had made me happy this week. No…I just hadn’t written those things down. So, I present the list in no particular order this week.

• Fixing the shower head so that we have actual water pressure all by myself
• Starting my scooter!
• Going to a yoga class
• Having a student recommended to come to one of my classes by my teacher
• Not having to turn the alarm clock on
• Making the bed every day
• Taking pictures of my scooter. She’s so pretty and shiny.
• Finishing my life list (will publish soon)
• Hopefully being a good listener and supporter to a friend
• Planning my veggie garden in my head
• Planning our Anniversary
• Newcastle Beer (I know it’s the Bud of Britain)
• Misti’s little pig-tails
• Joining a CO-OP
• Weekends that seem to last forever
• Academy Award dinners
• purple potatoes

Hope every one is having a great week so far!

Last night I breathed a sigh of relief as I plopped into bed because I didn’t have to set an alarm for the next day. And today, I woke up around 8 (people, I usually start my day around 4:45 or 5:20 depending, 8 is sleeping in), took a shower under the shower head that I had fixed, and went to a yoga class. Then I thought about how I could make this day even better.

I went out to the garage and moved some of the kitchen remodel debris out of the way, pulled the blanket off of my scooter and dusted her off. I was pretty sure that V wouldn’t start. I never hooked up the battery tender for the winter and even before winter had started she had been having a little starter issue (more like a cough really). But I did this thing that’s pretty impressive. I read my manual. I know right?!? There was some bit in there about carburetors and clogs and it included the ancient symbols and incantations to help fix the problem. So, I started my scooter and then took her for a spin around the block

People…I AM READY TO RIDE!

I am so blessed. The more I wrote on the Life List (I’m up to 96), the more anxiety I began to feel. Then I had all these people, these wonderful friends, chime in willing and ready to help me accomplish some of those things on the list. I am thankful to have you all in my life.

Tonight we drive out past Shawnee to meet my parents and sister at Dad’s favorite catfish place. We are celebrating some birthdays. Both Dad and Janell’s birthdays are on Monday. I am thankful that we will be able to sit down as a family and visit and catch up on all that’s been happening.

I have a lot to do in the lab today, but really, I’m thankful for this as well. I need this day to fly. I am ready for the list of things floating in my head to start happening this weekend. I need a yoga class. I need a tempeh sandwich. I need to dust of the V and see if she’ll start. I know I shouldn’t get my hopes up about Spring and this weather, but I just can’t help it. I’m ready to tackle some things.

Hope every one has a fabulous weekend and wonderful Thankful Friday!

Because it just seems to be the thing to do, Sunday I started working on my Life List. I have been following Maggie Mason and her Life List Adventures and had just about decided to start a list of my own when Chookooloonks posted her list.

I only glanced at the first few things on Chookooloonks’ list because I didn’t want to copy. But I reached a lull some where around #60, so I started looking around at what other people had listed, including Chookooloonks. What I was surprised to discover was how so many of us have the same or similar things on our lists.

Also, I was surprised at just how difficult writing the list could be. It started out to be really easy and at what point I thought about making it my “50 things I want to do before I die” list because I know there are things that I will probably never get a chance to do. But this is where the list becomes important. The list is like a pact I’m making with myself to live each day to the fullest. It’s a promise to get up and get out there and just do something. Any thing.

I’m up to #91 on the list, so I’m not ready to post it. But here’s the first 50 (no particular order)

1. Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef
2. Grow my own vegetables
3. Move out of the state I am currently residing
4. Learn to really use my camera
5. Live like a native in France
6. Learn to speak a foreign language fluently (preferably French, if I plan on living like a native).
7. Visit all fifty states (I have 19 down, 31 to go!)
8. Learn to scuba dive
9. Take a Zumba class (because I think it would be hilarious)
10. Learn Ashtanga yoga
11. Go kayaking with whales
12. Hike parts of the Oregon trail
13. Learn to surf
14. Go snow skiing at least once
15. Go on a cross country trip on my Vespa
16. Learn to make cheese
17. Get my bicycle fixed and ride it!
18. Travel on Route 66
19. Visit Yosimite
20. Taste 100 new wines
21. Learn Acupuncture
22. Raise some chickens
23. Have a Beach Blanket Bingo themed party at the lake
24. Buy a good swimsuit (I’ve avoided the purchase of any swimsuit for the last three summers)
25. Learn to drive a standard
26. Take a small engine repair class and learn how to do my own scooter repairs
27. Read Bhagavad Gita all the way through
28. Memorize the Yoga Sutras
29. Visit Yellowstone
30. See Mt. Rushmore
31. Ride elephants in Thailand
32. Camp on the beach
33. Learn to make gravy
34. Tour the Grecian islands
35. Take my mom to Ireland
36. Buy and refurbish a n old 50s styled camper
37. Go hang gliding
38. Be in a play
39. Sing on stage
40. Have a dinner party
41. Learn how to make tofu
42. Grow my hair out really long and then cut it all off for charity
43. Design a Threadless shirt
44. Learn how to can foods
45. Learn to make pickles
46. Try 52 new recipes
47. Taste 100 different kinds of loose leaf tea
48. Learn to play poker
49. Be in New Orleans on Halloween
50. Learn to fly an airplane

Here’s to life! Happy Love Thursday!

Some of this stuff on the list are things that carry over from the previous week. We all know why I didn’t post last weeks. Moving on. Here’s the list!

Seeing Misti in a play! That’s made the list before, I believe, but it never gets old.
Watching the Olympics and crying with the athletes as they finish their run (woman’s downhill–I’m looking at you)
The pictures I’ve taken so far for my 365 day project
My ticket to BlogHer
Portland like weather
That moment just after using my neti pot where I can smell everything
Listening in on a trigonometry lesson at the book store. That tutor was so patient and engaged with his student, it made me want to go back and take trig again
Making sure Austin eats something wholesome before heading off to choir contest
These yoga pants I’m wearing today
No great expectation days
Getting involved in a new book
Making meals up days in advance
Trying out the pre-set oven controls
Resisting the lab meeting “food”
Laying around on a Saturday watching crappy movies
The Earth Cafe!
Finding now exactly what we’re missing for tax stuff as opposed to the night before taxes are do
Having most of the lab gone for retreat

Uh…Can’t think of any more. Happy Tuesday!

Chris mentioned today that lately I’ve been blogging on the designated Love Thursday and Thankful Friday entries. And he’s right! So, since I’m doing nothing but lounging on the couch, watching The Mummy Returns, I thought I might as well write something.

Today we had planned to take our tax stuff in to a friend of ours in Norman. But as we scrounged all of our paper work together, we realized we were still missing the tax info on Chris’s student loan. Bummer because I was planning on using this as an excuse to try out The Earth Cafe. Well, Chris being Chris, says “let’s go anyway”. So, we did and we were magically transported back to Portland to our favorite little vegan place, Paradox.

Seriously. Why? Why am I just finding this place now? I think there were two actual meat items on the menu: a turkey sandwich and a tuna melt. They use organic and local products. THEY USE VEGAN MAYO! As I finished up the last of my Fool Your Mom chk’n salad sandwich, tears welled up in my eyes. We finished our lunch with a macaroon and just as I was about to take the last bite, one of the guys from the kitchen came out with a chocolate cake. This wasn’t just any chocolate cake. This was obviously homemade, with that light dusting of flour on the cake. It was beautiful.

Good food and I mean good food (ethical and healthy). Now…I’m watching House Bunny.

Well, I have to say that I’m really thankful to be back on the mend. Yesterday was my first full day back to our normal routine since Monday, and I couldn’t have timed it any better since most of the lab (including the boss) are all away at the annual retreat. So, things have been really quite around here, and I’ve been able to actually get a lot of things done. I am deeply thankful for the peace.

As usual, I am looking forward to the weekend and the extra rest. Chris and I plan to take our taxes in tomorrow, which is always a mixed blessing. I am thankful that we have a good friend in the tax business, but I’m worried that we’ll owe (because we always owe). I’m worried that I haven’t kept track of certain things like I should have, receipts and whatnots. But I am thankful that Chris and I don’t have to figure the mess out on our own for once. [RAISES RIGHT HAND] I swear to keep better track of all yoga-related transactions and receipts. Amen.

Hope every one has a great weekend!

Oh, Hello internets. I’ve been MIA this week. A nasty stomach flu hit on Monday and I’ve pretty much have been comatose since. But I’m back from the brink of death just in time for Love Thursday.

Last Friday, Chris and I attended the opening of our friend Misti’s new show Love Song. That’s right. The title is Love Song. The play is funny, sweet and a little sad, but it’s all about love and being open to the possibility of love. It was a great performance, though I might be a bit biased because I think every thing Misti does is awesome and great.

Being open to the possibility of love I think can be the most challenging part sometimes. This week, my husband saw me sicker then he’s ever seen me. He was there to pat my head as I emptied everything from my gut and then dry heaved into the trash bin. He forced me to drink Gatorade even though I cried at the prospect. It was ugly in here, but he was there.

Obviously still a little fevery and delusional. Happy Love thursday!

After an incredibly painful lab meeting on Tuesday, I’ve done a bang up job of staying under the radar until yesterday about ten minutes before five. So…I have a bit more work to do today then I had originally planned for. That’s fine. In fact, it’s all microscopy work, so I’m really good. And because I’ll be so busy, this day will zoom by just like all the others. Before I know it, I’ll be sitting at the opening of Zelda’s play Love Song and crying and laughing with the most amazing friend.

Really? What more could I be thankful for?

Really, this should have been last week’s entry, but I had already typed up and posted before looking at my Phrase-a-day calendar. On voit le bout du tunnel. Which is a perfect phrase for Thursday.

Thursdays are my favorite day. I teach a 6 AM, work all day, and teach a 6 PM and then that’s it. It’s all down hill from there. Thursday’s are our pizza nights, so I don’t even really have to cook. I know that if I can just survive Thursday, every thing will be OK. It’s my light at the end of the tunnel.

Hope everyone enjoys their down hill slalom as much as I. Happy Love Thursday!