Thanksgiving

“There’s more to Thanksgiving than Potatoes.” –Rachael Jensen

Okay, so I know I’m late, and Thanksgiving happened 5 days ago, but I’m jumping on the bandwagon and making a gratitude list in honor of good ‘ol Turkey Day. Don’t roll your eyes at me- I know its overdone, but really, when’s the last time you made a list of things you’re grateful for? You should make one. You’ll feel better after, trust me. Anyway, here’s mine:

-Cousins!!!

Making Thanksgiving weekend awesome since… pretty much forever. The little ones play games with you, the older ones give you dating advice (is it wanted? Umm… cough cough), and all of them love ya despite that time you crashed their dirt bike.
Here are a few of my awesome cousins. Aren't they just adorable? And growin' up so fast. :)

-Awesome Music

Because music expresses humanity in ways that my meager vocabulary fails to do. And it takes road trips from unbearable to uber-relaxing. Here’s one of the songs I've been jamming to recently:

Sara Bareilles. Love her. And that end scene, where she's jammin' in her boots in her own little world? That would totally be me.

-Road Trips!

The destination is important of course, but getting there is half the fun. Especially if you stop once in a while to explore cool stuff, like old trails and ghost towns and the occasional ice cream shop.

-Stars

If you’re going to wish on something, it might as well be something as epic as a massive, glowing ball of plasma burning billions of trillions of miles away. And they're beautiful.

-Faith

Sometimes it’s the only thing that keeps you going. I’d be lost without it.

-High School Buddies

Especially the ones that you can still talk to forever about anything, even though you haven’t seen them in years. Good things like that should never change.

-Hot Cocoa

Chocolate’s good. In steaming, liquid form? Downright blissful.

-Hugs

I mean the real, genuine, heartfelt ones, given spur-of-the-moment. The sincerity of them surprises you at first, and then you just feel all warm and fuzzy. They're the best.

-Finding Awesome Parking Spots

Because its the little things that make life fabulous.

-Things that Make Me Laugh

Life is so much more enjoyable when you can laugh at yourself. Of course, funny youtube videos work too. Like this one:

Well, that's a starter list, any way. So Happy (late) Thanksgiving! Here's to leftover turkey and pumpkin pie! What about you guys? What are you grateful for?

Making Hugs Un-Awkward

Recently, my friends and I were discussing hugs, and, more specifically, how awkward they can be. If you never experienced an awkward hug, it’s either because you’ve been blessed with amazingly good luck or because you never went to middle school. Everything about middle school is a recipe for awkward hugs- with all those young teenage boys and girls trying to flirt with each other but not sure how, awkwardness is bound to ensue. The best one I ever experienced? A good friend came in for a hug and missed. He was hugging MY ARM. Yep. And he didn’t correct it or even LOOK embarrassed. Just hugged my arm and went along his merry way. But I guess I should be easier on the kid. I mean, it was only eighth grade for crying out loud, and heaven knows teens have enough to worry about without stressing over hugs. But still, my arm? That’s just… well… awkward.

Yes, middle school, at least for me, was full of awkward hugs. Sadly, they don’t stop after middle school. There will always be the times you feel socially pressured to hug someone you don’t know that well (family reunions, anyone?), or even just don’t like. And of course, there will always be hug bloopers, where the huggers hit each other in the face or snag jewelry on the others clothing. Or as a couple of my guy friends joked, hugging other guys can be weird sometimes. I won't expound on that because being a girl, I don’t have the experience to relate. However, one of my good buddies showed me an awesome clip that helped him to clear up his hug confusion:

Well there you have it! How to give the perfect man hug. Actually, some of those tips could totally apply to all hugs in general, not just guy hugs. Sweet! I wish someone would've shown this to my buddy in the eighth grade. Maybe it would have saved him the fate of being the inspiration for this cautionary hug tale. I quote the adage, "It's only awkward if you make it awkward." Well, he made it awkward. I still laugh about it.

Car Dance Party!

I’m driving in the car when the song comes on.

“Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame…” Bon Jovi’s voice ricochets from my car speakers. “Darlin’ you give love a bad name.”

What follows is a car jam session as all jam sessions should be- windows rolled down, volume cranked up, and the wind making chaos of my hair. It's the kind of jam sesh that causes the older lady in the car next to me to roll her eyes, and makes high school kids I pass by to start making fun of my dance moves. But I don't care. Right now, the song is all that matters. Everything else- the stresses of homework, the thoughts of dinner, the worries of work, can all wait- because music is just that awesome.

Don't let the sparkly pants and frizzy hair throw you off- the song is fantastic.

Apparently I'm not the only one who dances in my car.

Are you jealous of car dancing yet? Perhaps you'd like to learn how. Lucky for us, Boris and Juri can show us the moves:

See? They even car jam in Moscow! I'm not that weird, right? Right?

Okay, so maybe car jamming may not be your thing. But everybody's got a song that makes them wanna dance, or at least tap their feet a little bit. What's yours? I'd love to hear from you!

This epic jam is made possible by good friend Wendy True, who introduced me to Bon Jovi in high school and, in so doing, opened up the fantastic world of 80’s rock jam sessions. This one’s for you, Wendy, who for all your sweetness can rock out with the best of them.

PS- So for my writing class I got to write/design/publish a website. How cool is that? Click HERE to check it out.