Five Things That Made Me Happy This Week (And One Confession)

Guys, this has been A Week. You know it's not a good sign when your Monday blog post starts off with you complaining about how tired you are. I spent the whole week stressed at work and didn't go to sleep early enough on a single night (shame on me). Throw in some dreary weather and car repairs, and I am 250% over it. All of it. Come to me, weekend.

Needless to say, I didn't feel inspired (or energized) enough to write what was on my editorial calendar for this week. So in what's become sort of a tradition on these "blah" sort of weeks, I've decided to dust off this old post idea and chat about some things that made me happy!

Five Things That Made Me Happy This Week (And One Confession)

1. My car repairs weren't nearly as bad as I thought they would be! Last week on a rainy day, I went to turn my lights on and nothing happened. I'd had this exact problem almost exactly a year ago, and my mechanic had to replace the whole switch in there. It took several days and several hundred dollars and so much stress, I can't even tell you. So to have no headlights again within a year had me on the verge of crying, I was so frustrated. But lo and behold, the problem ended up being dead lightbulbs. That's it. First of all, how the heck do both headlights die simultaneously? And second of all, this is the first time in the two-year history of my ownership of Buzz that I took him to the mechanic expecting the worst and escaping with something minor. Usually it's the complete opposite; I go in for an oil change and find out he needs new brakes. But this time I had Buzz back later that same morning, saving me hours (and potentially days) of stressing about it. [praise hands emoji]

2. Last Saturday I hosted a (very belated) Passover Seder for a few of my (non-Jewish) friends. I hadn't been planning on celebrating this year, but they requested a Seder. And this same group of people celebrated Chanukah with me back in December. I have non-Jewish friends who go out of their way to celebrate my holidays with me. That is the most amazing thing. (I also cooked everything myself, did so successfully and had everything ready with 10 minutes to spare. Whaaaaat.)

3. Also last Saturday, a TV special on the Miracle on Ice reunion aired. I've been basically dying for footage of the reunion since the moment it ended (over two months ago, omg), and now we FINALLY have some! I also scrounged up a radio show that did a broadcast about the reunion, which has some great audio from the ceremony. So I'm no longer left to reminisce with just my memories, and I can share the joy of what actually happened with whoever wants to experience it! (I may or may not have watched the special and listened to the radio show like three or four times apiece. Don't judge me.)

4. My boss has a lot of faith in me. Which is sometimes kind of terrifying, because sometimes she thinks I'm capable of doing things that I'm not so sure I'm capable of. But it's pretty cool to work for someone who tells me that I'm smart and capable... even if that comes after throwing me into a task that I have no real idea how to tackle.

5. THE METS. Guys. I've been a lifelong fan of this historically terrible team. But right now they have the best record in the entire MLB. They swept a 10-game homestand for the first time in franchise history. They tied the 1986 World Series-winning team with the best start in franchise history. They won 11 games in a row for the first time since 1990. And they've done all of this despite a laundry list of injured players (David Wright included). Holy. What is going on? Who are these people? What has happened to this team that used to roll over and die? Where have all these haters come from? Are there going to be bandwagon fans?

I haven't been this excited about the Mets since 2012, when we had Dickey Day instead of Harvey Day.

And my confession: I literally don't know how to handle rooting for a team that's good. LOL. I got more and more emotional the longer the winning streak went on. I've been tweeting and posting on Tumblr about the Mets nonstop because suddenly it's exciting to be a fan! I can finally be proud of my team! And I'm sorry but I cannot shut up about it! I'm finally excited about watching games because losing isn't all but guaranteed! And even if the Mets are down a few runs, they actually fight back! WOW. All of this is unprecedented. I kid you not. I'm used to being utterly embarrassed by this franchise. I need to get used to this whole "winning" thing. In the meantime I might be really annoying. My apologies. (But of course, I miss all games in the 11-game winning streak, but as soon as I can watch a game, they lose 6-1 to the Yankees. Of course. Of course.)

Hope everyone had a lovely week! :)

Things That Made Me Happy + A Confession

Do you ever have one of those weeks where you get to Friday and you should really be writing a blog post but you're just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ?? Because that's where I found myself this week. And last week. And the week before that, probably. I've felt pretty off my blogging game since around Thanksgiving (though I think I've been hiding it pretty well?) and I really need to get my mojo back.

So anyway, in light of my ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ status, I'm going to borrow a post idea from Amanda at Rhyme and Ribbons -- she writes weekly recaps about five things that make her happy, plus one confession. And I dig that idea. So let's do it!

Five Things That Made Me Happy This Week (And One Confession)

1. My Friday did NOT start out the way it did last week. And I realized a way to prevent myself from ever locking myself out of my car ever again! Buzz is an old car, which means a) there's no remote to unlock him with, and b) he has two keys; one for locking/unlocking and one for the ignition. So from now on, whenever I get out of the car while it's running, I'll take the lock key with me! I'm SO relieved about this, you have no idea.

2. Miami basketball (unranked) beat Duke (ranked No. 4) on the road by like 20 points, NO BIGGIE. Oh man, it was so beautiful. I spent the whole game cheering from my couch and feeling nostalgic for the time I got to witness an eerily similar event back in 2013. :)

I am literally speechless. Seriously. No words. It is GREAT to be a Miami Hurricane! #IStandWithTheU

A photo posted by Darci Miller (@darcisays) on Jan 23, 2013 at 6:07pm PST

3. I got to exercise my journalist muscles this week for the first time in over a year (omg). My awesome friend/former boss Brandon (this guy) needed someone last-minute to cover an event in Colorado Springs and he knew I could write, so he asked me if I could help him out. Uh, twist my arm? Hah. Three-time Olympic fencer (and 2008 silver medalist) Tim Morehouse runs an organization called Fencing in the Schools, so I got to go to an elementary school and watch him tell kids his story and teach them about fencing. It was adorable, and Tim is incredibly nice, and it means I'll be published on TeamUSA.org!

4. Internet friends. Honestly, I never thought that being a fan of a team that competed 35 years ago would lead to me making friends because of it. But Tumblr is a magical thing, and I've met some incredibly awesome girls in this tiny little fandom! (And if we want to talk about more Miracle on Ice things, this webisode. I'll be laughing forever.)

5. It's a three-day weekend and it's going to be 50-something degrees today and tomorrow and Miami basketball is currently leading No. 13 Notre Dame (on the road) in the second half. I am ALL ABOUT ALL OF THIS.

And a confession: when it rains, it pours, and this week has definitely involved some pouring. I've had a lot of extra things I had to work on (and stress about), and there's going to be even more stress on Tuesday. And I'm already stressing about all the stress. BUT it's the good kind of stress. Potential new opportunities and getting out of my professional comfort zone and all that stuff that's, y'know, positive... I'll just be super anxious about all of it until it's over.

(And the Canes just lost to Notre Dame. YIKES, I ruined it. Sighhh. Either way, have a good weekend, everyone!)

Things That Make Me Charlie White Happy, Part 2

This was one of those weeks when my Tuesday post went live and I immediately thought, "...welp, I have no idea what else I'm going to talk about this week." Seriously, I have the rest of my posts for the month all nice and planned out, but today's box on my calendar was empty and taunting me. Rude. So I dug into my archives and am recycling one of my old post ideas. :)

The last time I wrote about things that make me Charlie White happy was right after a really bad week, and I just needed a way to keep myself from bursting into stress-induced tears. This week, however, wasn't bad. It was actually on the good side of average. But we all need to focus on the happy things anyway, right? There's no reason to just plod through the week without some positivity!

Also, just as a reference for those of you who don't already know, this is Charlie White:

He's an Olympic gold medalist ice dancer (in case you were living under a rock during Sochi 2014), and don't you want to be that overjoyed about life? He gives new meaning to the term "happy dance." But I digress. Here's what had me happy this week!

+Jim Craig following me on Twitter. GUYS. I retweeted one of his tweets and not long after, I was eating lunch, minding my own business, and I see THIS!

I had food in my mouth. I'm not even ashamed to say I almost choked. I'm still freaking out a little bit.

SERIOUSLY. Be still my heart! (Yeah, like that's ever going to happen when Jim Craig is concerned.)

+Embracing discomfort. I've lived most of my life by the motto "fake it 'til you make it." If you don't know how to do something, pretend you do and figure it out. Well, my job is something that's very much out of my element. I've been given a huge project that I have zero background or expertise in. And I'm confident in my ability to figure it out and learn, but I'm completely not confident in the work I'm actually producing. So I flat-out told my boss: I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm trying, but I've never done this before, and I have no idea if it's right, and I will definitely need help. Oddly enough, that made me so much less uncomfortable! It's a huge relief to know that she knows what to expect (or what not to expect), and she's gone out of her way to be supportive and give me a safe space to get help and "have an ugly day." I'm still not totally comfortable with the prospect of ugly days (there's a smidge of perfectionism in me), but I do like that I'm allowed to have them!

+Dusting off my Photoshop skills. I like making things for fun, and it had been awhile since I'd had to silhouette anything. It feels good to practice that a bit and play graphic designer! Though I did forget how miserable it is to silhouette hair. (It's that perfectionism again.)

+Finding out we have Veteran's Day off of work. Woop! The good thing about having never gotten the yearly holiday schedule is that I get to be pleasantly surprised when we have a day off. We had to work on Columbus Day, but this coming Tuesday is blissfully free!

+Rediscovering old items in my wardrobe. Hey there, girly moment. But for real. I dug out a couple of pairs of boots I haven't worn in forever, and wow, I'm totally re-obsessed with them. I'm patting myself on the back that I even thought to bring them to Colorado with me, because I seriously haven't worn either pair in at least a year, maybe two. But they're super cute, and will go to great lengths in reinvigorating my winter wardrobe! Does anyone else get ridiculously bored with your clothing options every season? I'm already dreading the monotonous rotation of warm clothes during the winter months. So two new-old pairs of boots gives me two new options, which I'm pretty pumped about.

+It's sweatshirt weather! Okay, by "monotonous rotation" I really just mean work clothes. 'Cause I'm SO excited to dress for cooler weather on the weekends! Slouchy boots, fleece-lined leggings, sweaters... and there are few outfits that make me feel more like myself than a pair of jeans and my Miami sweatshirt! Speaking of which...

+FSU week is coming up! I might be slightly less enthused about this come next Saturday night, BUT Miami football takes on FSU next weekend! It's a rivalry game, and FSU is ranked No. 2 in the nation, and we pretty much just flat-out hate 'em, and Miami's been playing well recently. So hopefully it'll be a hell of a game (and result in our first win against FSU since my freshman year in 2009)!

And with that, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend that makes you Charlie White happy! :)

Things That Make Me Charlie White Happy (And Things That Really Don't)

This week beat me, guys. Between (extremely expensive) car problems, all sorts of stressful madness at work, and then another round of (extremely expensive) car problems, by the time Saturday afternoon rolled around I was trying not to burst into tears in the lobby of the auto shop. Granted, if each of these things had happened one at a time, I wouldn't have been nearly as overwhelmed. But all together? Ha, no thanks.

Basically, I've been a giant grumpy ball of stress for the better part of a week now. But I don't want to be a grumpy ball of stress. I want to be Charlie White happy.

Charlie has to be the happiest person on the face of the planet. I mean, look at him. He always has that smile on his face. He's like sunshine condensed into a human being. How do you do that? How are you that happy all the time?

If you're looking at me for an answer... well, I don't have one. But I compiled a list of things that made me Charlie White happy this week, because there are bright spots even on the days in which you spend three hours sitting at the mechanic while your car is being worked on. Siiiigh.

+Free cookies at work. Free stuff is great. Free food is greater. Free junk food is the greatest. I think that's something we can all agree on.

+People offering to help out when I'm carless (before I can even ask). For some reason, I find asking for a ride to be incredibly awkward. Actually, I find asking for favors in general to be incredibly awkward. Maybe the people in my life know this, because I had more ride offers than I know what to do with, and I'm so grateful! Not just that I didn't have to ask, but that people want to help me in my hour day(s) of need. :)

+Going to lunch with a friend and (finally!) hearing his Sochi stories. I do love me some good behind-the-scenes Olympic tales! And it doesn't hurt that the friend in question is an A+ human being.

+Treating myself. I couldn't even remember the last time I bought something frivolous for myself before last weekend. But I randomly decided to treat myself to a couple of books and a movie, and that was an excellent life choice. Especially when the movie showed up at my apartment with this!

+Going to sleep earlier than I thought I'd be able to. *heavenly chorus*

+People complimenting my blog. Seriously, if you want to make me really happy (and simultaneously kind of uncomfortable), talk to me about my blog.

+Getting Buzz back from the mechanic a day earlier than expected. YES. The cost also wasn't quite as high as the worst case scenario I was given, so that was a smidgen of relief as well.

+Having amazing friends who make me feel better about all the suck, from clear across the country. There is honestly nothing like getting texts that say a) "do I have to come kill someone for you?" and b) "we'll take good care of you if you ever need a vacation away from it all." Are they not the greatest? :)

+Crossing an item off my Olympic bucket list. LOOK, I can name every Olympic host city by year! (Don't judge.)

Now, you'll have to take my word for it that I didn't cheat. I didn't study, either. I just randomly decided to see how many I could remember (because that's where my mind goes when it's idle, apparently), and realized I was there. Woohoo!

+Spring has finally sprung in Colorado. I say this with extreme reservation, as it snowed on Wednesday morning. But it's supposed to be 80 degrees today, so we can call that spring, right?

+Going to see the Rockies play the Mets. I've been wanting to go to a Rockies game for, like, a year now. So when the Mets finally came to town, the situation was too perfect for me to pass up! I got to watch baseball, break out my R.A. Dickey shirt, eat a hotdog, and enjoy the flawless weather with some friends.

It was oddly comforting. I mean, it's a stadium I've never been to, friends I've never been to a game with and have only known for a couple of months, and a Mets roster that I'm like 90% unfamiliar with. But cheering for Murph and Duda and Wright felt like a little slice of home, like all the Mets games I've gone to at Citi with friends I've known for my entire life. It was also kind of fun having a sense of camaraderie with all the other Mets fans there. We share the same struggle. All the Mets jerseys I saw, with the exception of David Wright and Matt Harvey, are players that are no longer on the team -- Reyes, Davis, Delgado, Martinez, Piazza, Dykstra. We live in the past because... uh... who the heck is our present??? (Serious question.)

The game itself was crazy entertaining (and crazy long -- three hours and 46 minutes!) and the Mets... lost. On a walk-off home run. After blowing a six-run lead in the third inning. Wompppp. But any game in which the Mets score 10 runs is a good one, especially since they lost the previous two games to the Rockies by a combined 17-7. And hey, the Mets losing is the kind of suck I know to expect and have learned how to handle. So if I had to be there to see a loss, it was a hell of a loss to see. At least they kept things interesting for all three hours and 46 minutes!

Looking back on all this stuff makes me realize that, despite all the craptastic stuff, this week was pretty awesome. Maybe this Charlie White happy thing is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Hmmmm. I'm onto you, Charlie. Let's see if I can keep this optimism going as I drive a car with headlights and blinkers that don't work for the next few days. Siiiiigh.

Wishing you all a Charlie White happy week, friends!

Images - 1 - 2 - 3

"The World's Mine Oyster"

Wotcher! (I can officially start saying that, because I was greeted with it by a man at one of my shifts this week. It's not just Tonks! IT'S REAL LIFE!)

I feel like so much of my last week and a half is confidential, and so much more of it has been spent writing a paper. It's reading week now, which means the first wave of big assignments are due next week, so it was time I buckled down and finally started being a student. I had to forgo some adventures with my friends to stay in my room and read about how gender roles in Britain changed after 1945, which was really not fun. And a part of that is definitely because I've been spending so many hours volunteering. But it's absolutely worth it! More on the good Olympic-y stuff in a moment. :)

I had three shifts back-to-back-to-back last week -- Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It was AWESOME. I missed my daily nap on Wednesday, but ya know, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger! Hah. Some people were just doing their first shift on Thursday, so I got to be the knowledgeable one and help them out. That was a nice little feather in my cap! So volunteering was pretty much my day those days, though on Thursday I did come back to campus and Amanda had dinner waiting for me, which was exciting! Burritos, no matter how MacGyver-ed, are delicious.

Friday was spent being studious (coughprocrastinatingcough), and at night there was a candy/donut party at Draper's where we waited endlessly and fought for our lives for a single Krispy Kreme donut each.



On Saturday, Jen, Amanda and I went to Oxford! We took a bus and got there around noon. It's funny how unprepared we were, and how okay that ended up being. We had no idea where to get off the bus, and then we had no idea where to go when we did get off. But we ended up picking the right stop and being mere blocks from Christ Church College, our destination. We got to tour the chapel, which was very impressive, and climb the marble staircase used in Harry Potter, which was awesome, and walk through the Great Hall that was the inspiration for the one in Harry Potter. Quite excellent. A small part of me still wishes I could've studied abroad at Oxford -- it's just so beautiful!



That was all we'd planned in advance, so we meandered around town for a few hours. I loved not having to rush to be anywhere or worry about getting lost, and it's such a gorgeous place! We stopped in the Alice in Wonderland store, a candy shop, a games store, and a couple of bookstores, and wandered through the market. A delicious savory pie was split as a pre-dinner snack, and whoever says there's no good food in England is LYING! We ended up getting dinner in The Eagle and Child pub, where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien used to hang out. I finally got my fish and chips! It was expensive, but excellent!

Sunday was some more homework, plus a mall trip with Amanda. She needed to top up her phone, I needed face wash, and we wanted to find a crafts store, because we're making T-shirts for The Hunger Games premiere next month :). But apparently Brits don't do arts and crafts, because there was not a single Sharpie to be found in the largest mall in the country. I miss Michael's! But then we walked to Olympic Park, just because it was sunny and beautiful and we could. (The fact that we're close enough to walk there makes me love my life.)





Monday was spent with my paper. And that's really it.

But Tuesday was my birthday, and it was wonderful! I woke up to a new episode of Castle, picked up a volunteering shift, my friends made me pancakes for dinner, and it was an absolutely gorgeous day outside. I know people at home were expecting some crazy drunken stories and were disappointed by the lack of them, but I couldn't care less. I had a fantastic day. :)

It's funny -- I spent my 19th birthday watching the Vancouver Olympics, my 20th birthday preparing for my interview with Coach Amy Deem, and my 21st birthday volunteering for LOCOG. EVERYTHING IS OLYMPICS AND NOTHING HURTS!

Yesterday, the study abroad office took a bunch of us to Shakespeare's Globe Theater (Theatre?) for a tour and such. We walked around the exhibits, which would've been a ton more exciting if I was madly in love with Shakespeare like Amanda and Liz are. But then we got to go into the theatre itself, which was awesome. It's an almost exact replica of the original, and the cast of A Midsummer Night's Dream was onstage rehearsing while we were there. That's undeniably cool no matter what you think of ol' Billy Shakes! There was also a sword fighting demonstration, which made me very glad that never in my life will I have to duel. I would die in half a second. The actors doing the fighting were seriously talented!

Afterwards? More work. Noticing a pattern?

I'd volunteered to help out in the Ceremonies offices today, so I woke up early and headed back out to 3 Mills. You know you're an over achiever when the security guards stationed on the route from the tube station to the studio recognize you. Hah, it's fantastic!

I think I can actually talk about what I did today, though! OMG! I mean, they didn't tell me I couldn't...

I made photocopies. I filed things. And I Google mapped things.

Funnily enough, I think I learned more sensitive material today than I have during all of my actual shifts. So I won't tell you what I read, but I will say that it wasn't a terrible job. The thing is, I don't care how mundane a task is when I'm volunteering. As long as I'm being kept busy, I'm pretty happy. And everyone in this office was so nice, and so thankful that I was there to help. My final job was (and I can say it, 'cause it's been released to the press!) Google mapping routes from the studio to various schools in the area and back. Each route had three schools to go to, and there are two teams traveling on each day, and there were four days to route. I had to leave, though, so I was told to do as much as I could. I routed two days for each team, thinking it was super easy. When I gave the print-outs to the lady I was doing them for, she was SHOCKED and said that someone who worked in the office took half a day to do what I'd done in half an hour.

Don't worry, I didn't strain my shoulder patting myself on the back. ;)

I think my favorite part was when I was leaving; I passed one of the security guards that I see every time I'm there, and he looked at his watch and said "You're leaving already?!" Hahaha, I love being a familiar face!

Afterwards, I headed to Covent Garden to do an assignment for my Text, Art, and Performance class. I walked around the markets a bit -- DEFINITELY have to go back there! -- and went into the Royal Opera House. They actually have exhibits in there, which is pretty cool. The weather was absolutely perfect, so on my way to the Soane Museum, I stopped to eat my sandwich in Lincoln's Inn Fields. I love all the parks in London, and sitting in one on what felt like a beautiful spring day was complete perfection. The museum was pretty cool too. The guy was an artist and an architect, and the museum is his house, left almost exactly the way it was when he died. This is the second house/museum type thing we've been to for this class, and they're really neat. I love that whole stepping-back-into-history thing. And this one was free, so hey! Though the first one was better, but I'll take what I can get.



And that's pretty much where I'm at right now. Tomorrow, Liz, Amanda and I are going to Cardiff, Wales for the day, so that should be fun!

Before I go, though, I witnessed two awesome acts of humanity today and I thought I would share.

As I was heading to the LOCOG office, I was about to go up the stairs at the Bromley-by-Bow tube station. There was a woman there with a tote bag in one hand, and she was supporting herself with a cane in the other hand. A man, not young by any stretch of the imagination, offered to help her up the stairs. She thanked him but said she could manage, but he insisted on at least carrying her bag for her.

Later on in the day, I was walking down Mile End Road to Sainsbury's when I witnessed a minor accident involving a car and a biker. I'm not really sure what happened, but the car was turning into a parking lot, and it ended with the biker falling over. It wasn't serious, and he was up and walking by himself, but the reaction of everyone in the vicinity was amazing. Another biker leapt off his bike and abandoned it in the middle of the sidewalk to help the guy up; the car screeched to a halt and both people inside jumped out to help him; and even pedestrians rushed over to make sure he was okay.

Maybe it was something in the air, but everyone was sure feeling the love today. And it made me happy! :)