The Boyfriend Post

I'm sitting here sulking because it started to rain before I could make it to the library, so naturally I'm online looking at pictures of cats. And then it hits me: everything I see, the ones that make me laugh the most, remind me of my boyfriend.

So here's a collection of my favourite pics that make me think of the Beloved Boy, who is busily working on his end-of-semester assignments so he can get top marks and rule the world.

I feel safest when I'm with him. I leave my phone behind, I don't check my Facebook page; I know that when I'm with him the rest of the world isn't out to get me. 

And he's my bear. For cuddles and snuggles and kisses and laughs. 

Yup. 

WolfGrrl

Happy Normal Things

Thank God for school breaks. They make me a better person.

As we approach Easter weekend and the week-long holiday associated with it, I find myself in a very zen place. I feel like a balloon: light enough to float above all my problems and fears and up high enough to see them for the molehills they are. Mountains are reserved for national parks and skiing. 

I feel so...peaceful. Oh sure, minor things crop up like dropping my book while on the stationary bike or tripping over a pile of dirty clothes and (nearly) maiming myself, but since I've finished my first batch of assignments and talked to all my lovelies (both in NZ and the US), I'm happy. 

One area that has contributed to my languid happiness is clothing. In the US, I have many hang-ups regarding size (I think most people will agree they do too) that make it hard to be comfortable while shopping for clothes. Here, I can't be bothered to worry about what size it says on the jeans because a) I haven't a clue what the size difference is between countries, b) I've never before bought clothes in NZ and c) it's all expensive. I find myself jettisoning (or planning to jettison) clothes I've struggled to let go of for years and replacing them with things that fit who I am now, not who I was. 

A second contributing area is books. I love to read; I love it so much, I become a zombie. I disconnect from the world when I have a book in my hands. My boyfriend finds it annoying, as does anyone trying to get my attention. (I wouldn't notice if the flat burned down, to be honest. It's that bad. Or good.) Getting my local library card was like getting the keys to every toy store in the world: I have been a happy, busy bee this week as I plow through the first bag of books I hauled home. 

A third area is Weather. I hate the rain. I hate being cold, I hate being damp. I hate when it's humid and I hate when it's broiling. I love sunshine and breezy air, the smell of leaf mold (JK, although I do think that's the smell we identify as 'autumn') and the crispness of fall mornings. The weather this week has been fantastically gorgeous; warm during the day and cool at night. (I sound so bipolar right now, complaining about the changeable NZ weather in one post and praising it in another. LOL.) But, really, who doesn't love gorgeous scenery set off by beautiful weather? Every time I walk from the university to my flat I see the hills rising in the distance and start humming "The Sound of Music" theme song. 

I am lucky. So, so lucky. I am loved, I am pampered, I am strong and I'm smart(ish). And I get to do things that are absolutely amazing! I get to read book after book in puddles of New Zealand sunshine while calling my friends on Skype to tell them about my lack of stress (and about how much I miss them). And my beautiful boyfriend is talking to me. I love that most of all. (I'm such a romantic sap. And it takes so little effort to get me there. Sigh.) 

Now I want to go to sleep. My neck has cramps. 

WolfGrrl

Many Homes

It's evening here, and the gray winter twilight has crept up to the windows. I'm listening to music from some favourite shows and thinking about tomorrow.

Tomorrow, tomorrow - for so many months now my life has revolved around tomorrow. January fourth is my D-Day, folks. My departure day (yes, I know that's not what it stands for, I'm making an allusion).

What can I say? Part nervous, part hyperactive, part ecstatic, I don't count the hours. I'll be in the US for a good long while yet, but it's still something I can't wrap my head around. Here we all are, everyone being a little nicer than usual, a little sweeter than usual. Here I am, sitting on my butt in the living room, listening to the dog bark while my mother cooks.

It's not that I haven't tried to imagine being absent; it's more that I can't imagine it. (Oh, now the dog's sulking. Cute.) This is home, and I know that it'll always be home. That's the lesson I finally learned about traveling: home stays, but you can make portable ones as needed. I'm going from my first home to my second home; my boyfriend is picking me up in an airport across the world.

Big day and all that, but I thought I'd pop in and leave a little goodbye since I have a) been absent for over a week and b) I will continue to be absent (or at least more absent than usual) for a while yet. Because first there's traveling, then there's settling, and then there's exploring! I'll be so busy, I might not be able to find some internet and a few minutes to write out an update.

Now, now, I did promise that I'd keep up this blog, and that's what I'll do. Got to let the friends at home know that I'm alive.

Happiness and good luck to all of you in the new year!
WolfGrrl

Dickensian

Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts. 

Charles Dickens

Princess du Jour

Today is a wonderful day, and not many people feel that way about Mondays.
For those of you who have no idea what goes on in my life, today concludes the first part of my fairytale.

Today, I meet my boyfriend for the first time.

I'm sure you're all staring at the computer screen trying to figure out where the typo lies; after all, can this man be my boyfriend if I've never met him? Let me point out that this happened even before globalization and technological advances; people have been falling in love through letters for centuries. I am just modifying the old technique for a new era. And while the ride has been fantastic, I have my eyes and heart fixed on the future, not the past.

I have been so focused on school, work, and getting my life together that for the past week I haven't had time to really examine how I feel. But this iconic Monday marks the end of my work time and the beginning of my play time. For ten days - ten days, Reader! - I get to laugh and play and wonder as we learn to fit into each other's lives. I have never chosen someone to be so close to me. I am an accommodating soul, yet for the first time someone has given me what I've always wanted and never had the courage to ask for.

I see a relationship (and a friendship, to a lesser extent) as a convenant between two people to put one another first. This doesn't work quite like it sounds; coming first means knowing when to step away if the other person needs time alone, or knowing when to step up if the other person needs help. Putting someone else first is an incredible commitment, and for a long time I never thought I'd find a person to make that commitment to me.

Finding this man makes me understand that it isn't a sacrifice to put someone else first. Usually it means making both people happy; finding a balance, finding happiness. I love to make others happy; I love to make my boyfriend happy. (I also like to make him laugh, which doesn't always make him happy.)

I'm so nervous, but it is overpowered by my joy. Normally, I feel joy like an all-consuming flash flood of emotion that lifts me too high and brings me down with a crash. This joy is like sitting in a pool of sun, baking my bones and letting all my burdens melt away. I feel like a princess. (According to him, I am a princess, hahaha.)

Today is a wonderful day. A magical day. A day where an ordinary couple take up the mantle of a fairytale couple. Today I am a princess, and my prince is on his way to me.

Except to hear the about how I tackle him in the airport.
WolfGrrl

Declarative Sentences

A fancy way of saying, I was accepted for a semester of interntional study.

Anyone who seen an official letter or email that begins with the word 'congratulations' can understand my state of shock, joy, and honor last night. The funny thing is, I was Skyping my boyfriend when I received the news that I would be studying abroad in his home country. He got to watch me cry in front of the computer.

This was supposed to be a post of short, declarative sentences brimming over with ecstasy. But, I am as always verbose in my delight.

This has been a Week. Two exams, two papers, the news that I shall be living overseas for almost six months... Fwah. I cannot take it in.

And tonight, some retail fun with my dearest Giggles (and Miss Gasybeans if she chooses to join us). 'Cause a grrl has got to eat!

WolfGrrl

Looking for Happiness

There are some things that make Mondays depressing (yes, even in college). But, usually something swings around and I can laugh off my sulk and turn my face up to the rain. Here are some things I noticed today that made it wonderful:

Making my boyfriend smile
Chocolate M&M cookies in the dining hall
Lunch with my roommate
Fascinating lecture topics
The Heath Ledger look-alike in class
Laughter
Walking
Cool air and a breeze
Waking up refreshed
Clean hair
Choosing the right shoes for the rain
Smiling

What are some of your happy things?
WolfGrrl

Yup

Falling in love is wonderful...and scary as hell. But I sure wouldn't trade it for perfect grades, a million bucks, or world peace.

This is my boyfriend and me. 

Three guesses who's who.

WolfGrrl

Stars

I love the film Tangled. Rapunzel is not my favorite fairytale, nor am I universally fond of Disney films. But I adore that film. I really do.

I love the stars. I love the way they sparkle, they way they peep down on us and the way they provide a constant source of wonder, hope, and delight. And right now I just feel as though the world is worth celebrating.

No, it's not Friday. It's not a holiday, or a weekend, or a day off. It's an ordinary school day, an ordinary work day. And yet...and yet.

If I was going to pick something completely random to celebrate, I'd celebrate the culture of inspirational videos and images that has sprung up on the internet. I love watching Susan Boyle sing for the first time on Britain's Got Talent; it reminds me how small we all are, and how large we can loom when we dare to try. I'm sure there's a reason we call celebrities 'stars.'

The sky is gray, my roommate is suffering computer issues, and my boyfriend and father are continents away. And yet...and yet.

There are stars, from the plastic fluorescent one on my dorm ceiling to the burning balls of gas millions of lightyears away. There are friends, dreams, presents, kisses, hugs, cakes and videos, messages and funny jokes to keep me smiling.

Smile! It's addictive. And watch the stars. It's soothing.

WolfGrrl

This Day

Today is a good day, readers. After a week of feeling out-of-sorts and off-balance, I seem to have found a nice resting place where I can flutter my wings and bask in the sun. The heat of summer has waned a little; the sky has cleared; my family is safe; my boyfriend is back at school and well.

I am constantly amazed by the ability of human beings to both create and withstand chaos. I create my own chaotic life, and I therefore must be responsible for the anxiety and stress that comes with that chaos. Somehow, though, that thought gets lost in the sea of worries and fears and pain. Life is a rocky, roundabout dirt road, not a paved super-highway with signs and six lanes to avoid traffic jams. I may know this in my head, but the rest of me needs constant reminders.

I would like to make this post a celebration of today. I don't celebrate the todays of my life often enough; I'm always running ahead or running behind, trying to see six ways from Sunday and feeling as though I am slave driver and slave. So let's see what makes this day a good day.

1. My boyfriend is settled. Never underestimate the impact loved ones have on our happiness. I never understood my mother's anxiety when my father travels until now. Having found someone to love - and love dearly - I worry about him. I want to be near him. I want to reach out and hold his hand when he's upset or stressed or happy. 

2. I got some sleep. Yes, college students (and other young adults) are notorious for being able to function on little sleep. Too bad I'm not one of those; coffee and I have never gotten along, and I can no longer depend on sugar to keep my brain working. I require sleep. Go figure. 

3. Sunshine. Oh, I love the sun. I love the warmth, the brightness, the colors it brings to the world. I love the morning and I desperately love the evening. I am so much happier when I can see golden light and green trees outside my window, instead of grey skies and rain water. Rain makes me melancholy. Sun makes me smile. 

4. My family is safe. I never doubted that they wouldn't be, but my father and sister are traveling out West and didn't check into their hotel on time. My mother was naturally anxious and that made me anxious. But they are safe (they took a sight-seeing detour, sighhh) and well and together. 

I'm sure there are more things that make today wonderful. I have no homework; I can relax; I finished the book I was reading; I can bake a cake; the cat didn't bite me (yet). These are some things that make today This Day, this good, good day. 

Bien

WolfGrrl

A Prayer

Hello, God. It's me. 

I know I have a spotty record for coming around; I hope you're not offended by that.
I also know that it seems like I ask a lot, because I usually ask for help on the big, scary things.
I hope you can understand why.
I hope you can understand why this prayer matters more than any other.
They tell me you are the All-Father, who sees and hears all.
Please see into my heart.
Please see my sincerity.
Please see my fear.
Please see my unworthiness and overlook it, as fathers do.
I would like to ask for help, God.
I would like my love and my faith to be rewarded with honesty.
I believe that you have sent me a special guardian angel.
I believe that you know what you have planned for me - if you have anything planned.

And I hope, from the deepest part of my heart, that I will be worthy of this love and a good keeper of this faith, and that I will be rewarded with honesty, and a relationship that gives me shelter from life's storms.

I know there are many things I am risking that I don't consider.
I know that there are many angles I haven't considered.
I would ask for a merciful acknowledgement that this is right or wrong.
Please, God.
It would comfort me.

Thank you.
WolfGrrl

Bella

Bonjour. Je parle en français d'aujourd'hui.
Ma famille a adopté un petit chat noir. 
Elle s'appelle Bella, pour Bellatrix Black. 
Elle est tres jolie mais elle est aussi un peu de mal. 
Elle est petite. Elle est noire. 
Elle joue avec moi tres bien. 
Maintenant elle dormit. 

Bienvenue dans la famille, petite Bella. 
Tu es une bonne amie. 

WolfGrrl

Sweet and Sour

Yes, I do like (American) Chinese food. But that's not what this post is about.

Lately, when my mother comes upstairs to tidy and make her bed in the mornings, she finds me lying on my bed, usually covered by a blanket, either asleep or near to it. Her standard question is "Do you feel all right?"

Today we were trying to remember the last time I was this relaxed. I think it's been at least a decade, if not longer. That's more than half my life, Reader. More than half.

This is the sweetness of my life. I am not depressed, I am not drugged to the point of being gaga. I am peaceful. I have found a place where I can be both social and calm, extroverted and introverted. I go out with friends, I make sponanteous trips to the mall or the library or the animal shelter. I go to work; I go to school. I go (endlessly, haha) to the doctor. My life is full but not bursting; it is sweet and has enough sour to give it vigour.

I am happy. I've lost weight, but not too much. I eat and don't worry about when, how much, or what. I laugh often and love more openly. I am sad, but it doesn't last as long, nor is it as strong. I bounce. I am so bouncy I probably annoy everyone around me - except they tell me no, they like to see me like this.

Who is this person? This wonderful, incredible, intelligent, resilient person? Has she always been in me, buried under layers and layers of dead skin, depression and darkness?

I have cast off my darkness at last; I have bloomed; I am not a catepiller (ugh) but a butterfly. (A humble one, admittedly, but hey, that's me.) It's summer where I am, and summer used to be the time I hated most. Now I shrug off the heat and snooze in the sun. I look forward to wearing shorts and flipflops and dresses. I con my friends into taking pictures of me (OHMYGAWD, that has NEVER happened before!) and let them dress me up and take me out.

Maybe I should have said this post was simply sweet.
WolfGrrl

Just Us

Hello.

I'm a little shy today; something wonderful happened to me yesterday, and I want to both share it with the world and hold it close, like a candle against my heart. Have you ever gone outside on a perfect summer day and felt that first fall of sun on your face? That's the feeling I have now, even though it's cloudy and cool here today. I feel as though I have stepped into a patch of sun that doesn't fade, or disappear. It is a gift, this happiness.

Yesterday I wrote that I had no words. Today I have words...many of them. But they are not for any of you, readers. These are my words. For me. And for someone else, haha. Just us.

I have never felt part of an "us." It is nice. Comforting. Safe. Hopeful. Ahh, I'm giving away words again. No more. I wish I could give out smiles instead. I feel like hugging everyone on earth, everyone I see. Maybe because I can't hug the person I want to - you're too far away from me right now.

WolfGrrl

For Max

Those of you who read my posts know that I like words. Sometimes I like them too much. But today...today words are escaping me. Those of you who read my posts know that I also don't talk directly to you. Or not very often. But today...today I will. Today I will find the words to speak to someone.

Hello, Max.

You have stolen my words, silly person, but that's all right because I don't need them to talk to you. You understand. We think similar thoughts; we say things the other was thinking. You make me laugh. I make you laugh. You told me that I made you very happy. I'm telling you, right now, that I might be glowing. I have been all week.

You make me happy, Max. And that's not something I take for granted.

I haven't got impressive, writerly thoughts I can give you. I haven't got fancy words to clutter up my head and make me clumsy.

I do like you. Very much. It took courage for you to write me that, and I want to be equal to your courage. Friends or something more, I am so grateful, so humbled, so happy to have met you. Out of all the people in the world, I met you.

Ich sehe auch eine große Zukunft.
Je vois aussi un grand avenir.
Io vedo anche un grande futuro.
I also see a great future.

Those are all my words, Max. You stole the rest, but you gave me something precious in return. So thank you.

Genevieve

A Toast

I propose a toast, since in ten minutes I shall begin my last final of the semester, and when that's completed, I will be a third-year (junior) in college.

Having reached this milestone, I am filled with awe and a strange humbleness - I who never envisioned making it to high school graduation am half-way done with college. Halfway to becoming an adult. The specialists aren't kidding when they say that the later years of adolescence are the most crucial ones: looking back on this year and last year, I feel that I've grown so much. I am a different person than I was in high school. I have new friends, new hopes, and definitely new dreams.

I can't ramble on and on (because my exam is about to start, haha), but I'd like to propose a toast to those of us finishing our formative years. (Or not.)

The last post was for my friends. This one is kind of a repeat, but you can all stand a little more appreciation, I'm sure. Here's to us. We made it another year!

WolfGrrl

Friends in Far Places

Hiyah!

Since I'm cheerfully procrastinating about studying for my two ugly finals, I thought I'd write a bit about friends - a subject that makes me giggle, sigh, roll my eyes, and get warm fuzzies in my tummy.

My friends come in all shapes, sizes, walks of life, and locations. But one thing remains consistent: I choose people who make me happy. My selection process is appropriately convoluted (haha - just like this blog!) but it works for me. The people I choose as friends are the people who I'm happy to be with. Seems simple enough, right? My friends, my good friends, are those whom I can run to when I'm having a bad day, or who can make me laugh over Facebook chat. Some of them you know; some of them, you are. They live all over the world, and I talk to them once a day, once a month, or a few times a year. But we have stood the test of time; that's what makes us friends.

Recently, I made a new friend through an online art forum I joined on a whim a year ago. It's rather funny (to me anyway) that the friends I've made through this forum are mostly from Eastern Europe. I knew I had a lot in common with Asians and Asian-Americans, but Eastern Europe is my favorite place to learn about and now I feel justified in my obsession.

Sorry; got sidetracked. So, my new friend is not Eastern European and is actually (shocker) a guy. Hahaha, I can see the open mouths and narrowed eyes as all of you begin to build castles in the air. Don't worry; I did it too. But, ehhhh. Whatever. It's rare that I get along with guys - they're absolutely foreign to me. But it's also rare that I spend three hours talking to anyone...and we've been writing consistently for a few days now. What makes this story interesting is that this guy is actually from New Zealand...the place I shall be studying abroad in, and the place where I'm considering living as an adult.

Coincidence? Who knows? Lately, I've become a big believer in Fate. I choose to believe that choices and events happen when and where they are meant to, regardless of whether or not I think that time and moment are opportune. I can see my mother flipping out, her mind jumping to visions of online perverts and predators. Relax, Mama: it wasn't three messages in that I began creeping internationally, to make sure this person was who he said he was.

Guess what? He was. So now I have a new friend in a far place, and someone to call if I get in trouble in New Zealand. The world is very, very large, but at the same time my world can be shrunk by random chance. Now traveling across the international dateline and to a new country doesn't make me quite so nervous; I have a touchstone. (Sorry to be sappy; it won't last much longer, I promise.)

I like having friends in far places. It makes me feel that I am somewhat bigger than just my hometown. It gives me hope that there is a place where I belong, where I'll feel like the people there are just like me. I have found something like this with my university friends, each of whom shares something with me that I value. (Gasybeans, this is definitely a post you should read: here's your shout-out, my dear!) But it's exciting that I, I who had so much trouble connecting with people for most of my life, am finally able to do so. It feels like my epiphany (that I don't have to live the "standard" life, but rather the life that suits me) is blossoming.

It seems appropriate to end there, given it's spring here, and the world is blossoming. Here's to friends then, and the hope and laughter and hugs that they bring.

This post is for all of you. You know who you are.
WolfGrrl

Sugahhhhhr

OK, I wish that all my websites would not randomly update themselves. I get used to using one method, only to find that (and Facebook is notorious for this) everything has changed overnight. My usual method of dealing with this is to pretend it hasn't happened and not do anything for a week or so; this is the standard amount of time it takes my brain to adjust.

I didn't intend to begin today's post with a mini-rant about technology and my issues with it, so I'll apologize for that. I think I'll dedicate this post to delicious foods and extreme laziness. Yup, that sounds about right.

Since coming to college I've had any number of encounters with delicious new foods. Bread pudding, Starbucks coffee cake, scones (mmmmmmm), chocolate-covered-anything-salty, granola, Luna bars and yogurt and granola parfaits. I don't count salad in this, since I've been a fan of salads for the past three or four years. My family gets very tired of this when we go out to eat, hrmmm.

I love scones. I had to restrict myself to two scones a week, because it seems extravagent to pay $2.60 a scone five days a week. On the plus side, I eat one of these mouth-watering suckers and I'm set for the next seven hours or so. Did I ever say I was a healthy eater? Ummm, no. But I enjoy myself, and that's what counts, right?

The scones sold on campus are the size of my head (not kidding) and so yummy I think I could eat them for eternity. Just writing about it makes me want to leave my computer in the library and go running for the coffee shop ASAP. Luscious soft carbs covered in a crust of sugar and sprinkled with blueberries or chocolate chips....gah. This is ridiculous.

Many of you know (or should know) that I am a lazy person at heart. I put up a good front, but I am someone who lies in bed at night and debates climbing out of my warm coccoon because I have to pee. I am someone who wishes for a Time-Turner (see a previous post) or at least a magic wand that would let me turn off the light from across the room. I am super lazy, despite my love of walking (in the appropriate weather) and exercise (never in public).

What happens when you put a lazy, scone-loving Teacup Human on some antidepressants? Wonderful things, people, truly wonderful things. For example, I write you incoherant blog posts to avoid finishing my German homework.

Ja, ich spreche Deutsch aber der Klasse ist nicht so interessant jetzt.

Right, screw this. I want a scone.

Orf I go,
WolfGrrl

The Happiness Factor

I’ve discovered the definition of happiness.

Happiness is being transported out of yourself, out of ordinary life. It doesn’t mean you’re removed from the ordinary world, but that you transcend it. You are on a plane of existence where it’s OK to be silly, or tearful, or bubbling over with laughter. Effervescence is OK when you’re happy.

It’s the magic of drinking starlight and the warmth of drinking sunlight. A golden froth that burns low inside you, humming in every part of your being until you have to jump, or smile, to look ahead because you can’t and don’t want to keep it inside yourself. You’re lighter; so light you can float, or dance, or fly. Happiness is electrifying because it intensifies all that is wondrous and gently releases all that is painful or upsetting.

We are truly blessed that we can be happy, and those who cannot recognize happiness are truly cursed. It is the world’s most simple healer, a balm to anything and everything. Happiness connects us; it’s something inside of us that says “Yes, I’m here. Yes, I am. Yes. Thank you.”

There’s truth in those cliched adages you hear as you go through life: Standing on top of the world; Jumping for joy. I have stood on top of the world; I have jumped for joy (though I never imagined it was possible). I have been so happy I’ve jettisoned all dignity and spun in circles until I fell over just because the sun was shining, because I was with my friends, because I was.

Those of us who radiate happiness have the power to summon it in others. I read a saying once on the inside of a public bathroom stall that said, “If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.”

Happiness and fulfillment aren’t the same, but they can walk hand in hand like siblings. For me, the distinction between happiness and fulfillment is one of people: when I’m happy, there’s always a person involved. My crush smiled at me, my friend hugged me for no reason I could think of, a baby waved and laughed when he saw me, or my favorite TV characters got together. I am fulfilled when I complete something; when I can stand back and say that I’m satisfied, or when others are satisfied. I am fulfilled when I can make a positive change in my surroundings, but I am happy when I can make a positive change in a person around me. So you see how happiness and fulfillment are complements, and how often we feel both, together, to the point where we begin to think them inseparable.

Life hurts. Happiness is the compensation for – the other side of – that pain. We lose people and things every day: sometimes to Death, sometimes to Time, sometimes to just the ordinary process of living. But happiness pulls us back together like a mooring line, preventing us from drifting so far apart we can find nothing to share. When a smile no longer can gently lift the film of reality from another’s perspective then we’ll know that we’ve gone too far and the human experience has become so microscopic in scale we no longer see each other as a race, as a species.

The sensations of happiness, the invocation of that brightness of spirit and self by something or someone else – is transcendent across borders and nationalities and cultures: all humans, everywhere, that have ever come before and will ever come after, have felt that. We have all drunk the sun-and-starlight potion of joy. And that we have keeps us together when free will, when God or fate or chaos theory contrives to pull us all apart. Haven’t you had that sense, when you’re happy, that you can do anything, be anyone, overcome any impediment before you? I have. Happiness makes men and women mightier than gods, more powerful than any construction of faith or will or science. In happiness, we are invincible. 

WolfGrrl

TGI Friday

No, it’s not the restaurant. Today is, at long last, Friday.

Every college student (and possibly every student and/or member of the workforce) looks forward to Fridays. They mark the end of the week, the exciting (or relaxing) beginning to the weekend, and above all, the chance to do something fun.

Today will be a good day, in spite of the multitude of things I have to do. This has been a long, hard week, and I am looking forward to tonight, that gilded Friday night where the only thought on anyone’s mind is: I’m going to have fun because I don’t have to go to school/work tomorrow.

Today will be a good day because I woke up from a dream about Ian Somerhalder. Mmmm. For you teacup human aficionados (although that has nothing to do with Ian), go look up the CW’s The Vampire Diaries and watch it. Right now. Ian is probably the finest man alive, and as Damon the bad-boy brother with a sweet heart, he’s irresistible. At least for me. Dreaming about him put me in such a good mood I didn’t care that I only had thirty minutes to get dressed, eat, and prepare for my first class.

Today will be a good day because I am wearing The Sunshine Dress. Those of you who know me or who have seen me bopping around campus will probably recognize this dress; purchased two years at one of my (then) favorite stores, it is a sweet little sundress with a yellow and white flowered skirt, cinched waist, and an adorable little cream shrug to cover my shoulders. In it I look like an ad for Easter candy and colored eggs. So The Sunshine Dress is my way of spreading my delight to others and bringing a little bit of sunshine to the rest of the world.

But above all today will be a good day because it is Friday. Fridays have some kind of magical power over us; they release us from the drudgery of our lives and give us a few delusional hours of freedom. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who was stressed on a Friday night. In high school sitting through the last-hour class was torture for the teacher and students alike. For those final twenty minutes most of the teachers would give up and let us chatter amongst ourselves. They're glad it's Friday too. In college the rules are a little different, but that same feeling of lightness and exuberant freedom remains.

I, having spent my week running around, intend to spend my Friday evening being all that is peaceful and serene. I will dream of Ian Somerhalder. I will chat with my Italian TA (chi è la persona più bella nel mondo!) And I will wear The Sunshine Dress and be so darn happy I freak out my fellow students (not really. I am more responsible than this).

Ciao cari amici!

WolfGrrl