Ball Game

A bunch of my friends and I went to the Royals game on Saturday in honor of Madeline’s moving to San Diego in less than a month. What better way to celebrate than to get together on a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon, tailgate and enjoy some good ol’ sports.

Girls Night at the K!

Bridget, Annie, Maddie, Stephanie, Hannah, Myself, Kathryn

Big Laughs

Black Market seats

Watching the Kentucky Derby in the back of the Chiefs Van. Classy.

Everyone looks so nice. One of these things is not like the other...

Wish I could share more, but I like to keep some things a mystery.

Success!

Yes! I finally, successfully re-worked the Book It page. It was simply a formatting issue (that simply made me want to hurl my computer across the room). Now it looks all readable and lovely.

I decided that enough is enough and it’s time to read One Day by David Nicholls. I read this book just over a year ago and was awed by it. I told myself, “Self, you need to wait at least a year before you can read it again,” and here we are. One Day, we meet again.

Photo Courtesy of davidnichollswriter.com

Love This

Here the shade and sun love me equally.

I fill a palm with green cardamom

I bend toward a heap of tea leaves

crushing tangible memories between

my fingers releasing a rush of recollection

rich as living always mine always mine.

I found this on page 58 of the Anthropologie catalog–please, tell me how much you love this store. This passage made me think of carefree traveling to a beach-y destination. The quote sits on a page with a pier and a boat in the distance. I should hope to find myself here in the near future.

Pondering Happiness

I will attempt to keep this post short because I need to head to the kitchen shortly for homemade pizzas and salad, but I want to share a little from the book I just finished last night, The Geography of Bliss. I’ve been working on this book for a couple weeks, mostly because every time I want to start reading I am interrupted by something (often I read before bed and it’s sleep that stops me from reading). Over the last couple of days I got into a groove and finally put the book to rest last night. The more I read the more I liked it. It’s a little silly to start, but the more he travels and discovers components that make a happy, or equally unhappy life, the more I found myself thinking about what makes me happy.

The other night I read this passage and a smile instantly came to my face:

“Life is a combination of freedom and destiny, and the beauty is you don’t know which is which” (Weiner 290).

This was uttered by a guru on the author’s trip to India. The guru is fielding questions from an audience of believers and skeptics alike. The above response is a reply to the question, “How can I know my fate?” Clearly, the guru is highly adept at dodging and spinning tough (or impossible) questions. Of course, many of us would like to know what lies ahead in our lives. There is so much I like about the guru’s artful response. Our lives are full of free will and choices. I’m so happy with many choices I’ve made recently, albeit some very surprising (Switzerland for a year! Graduate School! Moving to South Carolina!) and difficult to make. Yet, I am a full believer that God has a larger plan in store for us. We make the choice, however, to follow blindly or create paths on our own. Sometimes it’s nice to know what is coming next. But, lately I’ve come to find that so many greater things can occur if I just let things be and stop trying to make so much happen.

Eric Weiner’s last country is the United States. One element that I identified with was our nation’s “frontier spirit.” Weiner talks about the constant mobility of our people. We pick up and move to where we think we might be happy. We are a people of relocation. He quotes Ellery Sedgwick’s words,

“In America, getting on in the world means getting out of the world we have known before”(Weiner 312).

How true! I know I am guilty. I chose to move to Europe for a year in order to explore more, see more, experience more than I felt I could in the States. Mind you, I still believe there is plenty to see here, but Europe beckoned me. And by the time my year abroad was over I felt I had changed and discovered and grown up in ways that I simply could not have at home. But I came back (right Mom!) and I’m so happy to be home in Kansas City.

Yet, I am off again. Moving to a new city and a new state. Heck, an entirely new region. But I am very excited. This isn’t a permanent move, and I can see myself settling down (what does that mean, by the way?) here in good ol’ KC. And I am hopeful that I will be very happy in Charleston.

Holy Organization!

Disclaimer: I don’t really like to post about things like this, mostly because I know you don’t care. But today I will make an exception to the rule (a rule that is subject to many modifications and qualifications).

Each day I look into my closest to grab a pair of shoes and I see this:

Shoe Disaster=Daily Headache

I turn around to get some jewels to pile on top of all my beautiful clothes and I see this:

Jewelry/Jumbled Mess

With a day off of work I decided to take some time and devote it to Project Organization. I started with my closet,

Closet, before upheval

A small (read: big) explosion of bags and purses

and pulled everything on the floor out. I tried on every pair of shoes to decide if I could a.) fit my big feet (and extraordinarily long toes) in them, b.) walk in them, and c.) find anything in my closet to go with them. After discarding several pairs I rearranged shoes by season and necessity.

Ahhhhh, peace

Then, I weeded through my stack of bags that has caused me many an anger attack. When I want to leave in a hurry and need to change my bag, I end up pulling the entire collection out, pick the one I want and throw them back in the closet while doing a little huffing and puffing. Each time I swear I will organize them. Ta da!

Bag Stack. These now reside in a separate, spare closet.

Organization at its Finest

Finally, I attacked the jewels. Thanks to the butterfingers at TSA I have a couple of single earrings missing a mate. I desperately needed to go through my jewelry, decide what I actually wear and put it all out of sight. Sitting on the floor in my gym clothes I tackled the mess and came out a much happier person.

Jewels Galore

Finally! A dresser I can set things on!

Phew! I feel so much better. Like a child, I made my mom come up and see all the progress I made. Now, if I could just conquer the disaster under my bed…

Working Girl

I’ve been working, on average, five days a week, usually throwing down 30-40 hours during the work week. This gives me a lot of time to think up and use fantastic phrases such as, “You know, with this necklace I think we (always “we”) should do a smaller earring that isn’t so loud. Clearly, this necklace has a lot to say.” All this time in the store also gives me a chance to get to know clients that are coming in to revamp their wardrobe. We have many regular clients, but we also get some newbies that are fresh off the sidewalk and not used to our superior customer service (not to mention a sassy good time).

The one thing I’ve noticed through working at The Store is that people aren’t always used to the time and attention we give them. If I had a nickle for every time I had a woman say, “You have been SO helpful. Thank yoooouuu-uh (you know that “you” when she cocks her head to the side a bit and makes the word 2 or 3 syllables?)”  I could have a totally separate paycheck. For real. But, this makes me so happy. Not that I wasn’t prepared for this, because when you provide a service for someone then you hope they feel good. What surprised me most was how much it means to people.

Did you know there are people that get extremely nervous while shopping? So much so that they give up entirely and end up wearing parachute pants and crew-neck sweatshirts for the rest of their lives? Obviously, I suffer from no such affliction and cannot identify. But knowing that I can wardrobe a woman, put her in outfits that not only make her look good but feel good too, all while sparing her from an activity that makes her nervous and upset, makes me feel good and as if I’m doing something worthwhile.

Just today I got a hug from a woman who came in to return a dress that looked fab-ulous on her, but her mother deemed it too “young” for the function they were going to (by the way, the woman is in her thirties and is still having her mother approve her outfits–this is another issue entirely). She apologized profusely for bringing it back and gave me a hug as a Thank You for my great care and customer service. I reassured an apology was unnecessary as not everything works all the time, and we look forward to seeing her again. Last week I had a woman kiss me on the cheek for helping her find a sweater and preventing her from buying a jacket her husband would scorn her for buying (again, what’s with the seeking permission on clothing??). She appreciated my help when her husband was in the store and was happy to see me again. Who knew shopping could be such a personal experience for a person?

Reading The Geography of Bliss has made me conscious of the parts of my life that make me happy. It also asks me to consider how happy I am. I feel I am very happy. Sometimes I am confused, stressed, sad, lonely, or frustrated (see previous post), but overall I know I am a very happy person. And working with my clients, spouting out funny phrases, and brightening people’s day makes me even more happy.