The last day of the first month of the new year.

I want a date that takes me to a mall or bookstore, laughing and pulling one another, hands intertwined, to the dictionary section, plucking out the latest Webster's and looking up a word that he said or she said and the other challenged, all the while laughing in that giddy way that first daters hope for and second and third daters are finally comfortable enough around each other to have. Whether its 'Pasching' or 'haranguing' we'll fight over how it's spelt and maybe even think about asking a sales attendant or Googling it but instead being satisfied in the archaic tale of our junior high selves that actually used to look up words instead of using dictionary.com. It becomes a laughing-out-loud people-staring-as-they-walk-by riot and his red shirt compliments my gray top so well it's as if we were made to sit on that bench and read words and share definitions with one another if only to have something that we could look back upon and say That was It. That was when I knew we had begun.

And the quote from Charles Dickens' Great Expectations crept into her mind, even though she hadn't ever taken the time to read the book, she remembered the passsage:

That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it and think how different its course would have been. Pause, you who read this, and think for a long moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on that memorable day.

Song Saturday!

Hello there friends. What are your Saturday plans? I didn't get to bed until pretty late last night and woke up early to eat a little breakfast and take part in a Zumba class. There are lots of things I want to do for the rest of the afternoon, but I also wanted to leave you with a song. If you can't get motivated today and need a little extra push, or just want something to jam to as you are getting ready for your Saturday night plans, this is my recommendation:

red hat tales.

I'm not going to lie, I actually wore this hat at work half of the day on Tuesday. You see, yesterday I didn't shower. I had decided it was a night for swimming on Monday, so I went to the gym where I proceeded to run into an approximately 8-year-old boy every time I tried to do a lap. He didn't seem to grasp the whole concept that this line was mine, and his only real job at that moment was to not be in my (or the 60-year-old lady to my left)'s lanes. Oh no. He was CROSSING them.

He was a Maverick. I get it, because I like to call myself a Maverick from time to time.

Maverick is a word I like to use better than rebel, rule-breaker, et al.

But then, an old friend who I have not seen in about a year walked into the pool area. He was with another friend of his; they were heading to the opposite end of the pool in that slow, lethargic, too-cool stroll that some boys have. And what do I do? HIDE. All I think is that I don't really want this boy who happened to have been in my life at one point to see me in my swimming suit, trying to dodge an 8-year-old kid at 5:30pm on a Monday night. So I decide it's time for some underwater swimming and strategic water treading where my head is not looking anywhere in the vicinity of this boy. Cool, right?

JUST LIKE A MAVERICK.

How was your day?

I spent a large portion of today pouring over one Excel spreadsheet. I was armed with a transparent red 32 ounce water bottle with "Wells Fargo" emblazoned on one side and ice slowly dissipating within, four dum-dums - two watermelon, one strawberry and one green apple, and, at a particularly desperate point when my eyes kept flicking open and closed and a dull pain began pulsating in my left temple, a small bag of mesquite bbq chips. Fun fact: I hated bbq-flavored chips growing up and have only started trying them within the past year.

I also had The Current's online stream going throughout the entire day. What fantastic music. If you never listen to The Current, you really should. My absolute favorite part is about the middle of the afternoon, when you are sure you cannot go on anymore, that you are going to tell someone you feel sick because you are just so tired of working and it is 2:30, and hey that was a good effort for the day...well at that exact moment, The Current plays something completely off the wall. Literally. It's an alternative, local, small band kind of station but they'll throw in Destiny's Child or TLC or a really popular Prince song or Backstreet Boys. Seriously! It makes my day every single time. They know what they're doing over there at MPR. I highly recommend them for your work day.

And because I've just rambled about the radio, here is a song I've been loving every time I hear it:

Do you have any stories for today?

Another chance to turn it all around.

This is the New Year by Ian Axel, first seen here.

Last night.

Last night was the big fundraiser my work put on. Everyone in my office has spent months sending out letters for donations, procuring and mapping out the location, choosing the food, securing volunteers, inviting people to come, and doing all of the little things (like printing and double-checking name tags and creating booklets and planning a program and figuring out when the big rent-a-truck is going to be coming to the office) that go into creating an event for over 500 people. I was up at 6am yesterday just so I could make sure I had enough time to breathe and gather all of the things I'd need for the day before I had to be at the venue. We built signs and huge, people-sized golf tees and put up miniature golf holes, and I even spent a few hours counting golf tees into an aquarium for a "guess how many" game. (There were 5, 463 by the way. Thankfully, I had a third grade girl named Abbi helping me or else it might have made me go a little batty!)

By 4p.m. we had already been working for over the normal "work day" of eight hours and that is when my job really started - the students arrived. These were the people we got to 'man' each golf hole and I got to entertain them by telling stories, trying to give them the information they needed to know to successfully do what we needed them to do, providing them with pizza and snacks, and teaching them a few of my favorite icebreakers. They were a very spirited group and after running from hole to hole every few minutes, making sure they had everything they needed, I was exhausted. Then it was time for me to help out at registration, where I met more board members than I had at the board meeting I attended! I'm still a new face to the organization, so I shook a lot of hands and listened to a lot of stories and met a few people whose names I am going to try to remember. I think I'll make flash cards with their name and business on one side and their photograph on the other.

That last sentence was a joke but it's not a bad idea.

All in all the night was a hit! We had record numbers of attendance, raised a large sum of money for the 5 programs we run, and everyone commented on how much fun they had all throughout the evening. I never once tried the delicious-looking food, and if my friend Katie had not been there I'm sure I would have missed out on the free old-time photobooth as well, but I love helping at big events like these; the energy of people coming and the excitement of seeing so much preparation actually culminate into a night people thoroughly enjoy and appreciate is really thrilling and fulfilling to me.

And now today, I rest. It's been a hectic few days and I'm giving myself the day off. I went to a place that is starting to feel like a community this morning and had brunch with some pretty ladies. Soon I think I will head out to a coffee shop and create my list of things to do before my next birthday. (That's something I missed mentioning here, too. I'm 23 now!)

I hope you've all had a fantastic weekend and are taking some time to rest up for the week ahead!

Busy bee.

On this late Sunday night, I'm working on proofing a book for a fundraiser my company is holding next Saturday. It has been a busy weekend, full of family, friends, really good food and a little bout of sickness. Thankfully, I'm starting to feel better and will be heading to bed to rest up for the busy week ahead once I finish proofing this book!

Bear with me this week as I'll be working extra hours and have a lot of my free time already accounted for with friends, meetings, and a two-hour period where I'll be speaking to a group of teachers and parents. I've been given a lot more responsibility at work lately, and am expected to live up to what I said I could handle. This is really important to me, so I've been putting in extra time to make sure I'm on top of my game. It's fun having a job that constantly surprises and challenges you because then you see what you're made of and what you thrive on. I've been trying to remind myself that being busy means you're integral to what happens at work instead of getting stressed out because of all of the tasks I have yet to finish. It's a balancing act and sometimes I feel like I'm not good enough, but I know that I'm still new and need to get the world of full-time work down. It's only been two months; I have a lot of time to get it right!

Today's song.

Have you seen Country Strong? I saw it last weekend with a good friend and in a weird way, it was just what was needed that Sunday. I grew up in rural South Dakota, so country music was the norm. I have since changed my musical tastes, but whenever I am driving home, as I get closer and closer I tend to find a country station on the radio. I think that this might always be what happens, and I'm totally okay with that.

Also, his voice, especially in this song, is soothing to my ears. If you need to take a big deep breath and refocus on the task at hand (even if it's going to sleep) I recommend listening to this.

If you saw the movie, what did you think of it? Do you listen to country music?

Songtime.

This is the thing I've personally missed the most being featured on here, primarily because it always made me pay attention to what I was listening too, and also because for the weeks I wasn't, I got to hunt around the internet for something new. Not many things can beat this video, though. I find it charming and think it's really creative!

Oh hey, 2011, didn't see you there.

As you may have noticed, I've taken a little rest from blogging these past few weeks. There were so many things going on everywhere, and honestly, I was so excited to be at home or in Hawaii (yes! a big Christmas present was a trip to Hawaii) and with friends and family or even just alone for a bit that I just wasn't quite in the place to share.

I've been feeling a bit lackluster lately and know that there are ways I can start feeling better, writing better, and being a better friend. I've just also been learning that a lot of these things include spending more time offline, unplugged, etc.

Honestly, 2010 was a fantastic, infuriating, rough, exciting, challenging, happy, stressful year. I had Chinese food for my 22nd birthday, spent most mornings writing at 4:00am, interned at a fantastic youth serving nonprofit, planned and executed a community service trip with 4 other inspiring people, wrote things my teacher would read out proudly in class, wrote things my teacher would pass back unhappily, spent a lot of time at a theatre, lived with six different people (4 boys, 2 girls), graduated from college, spent one of the most relaxing weekends of my life at my friends grandparents' cabin, crafted, started reviewing books, started hoarding used books, went on weekly adventures, rarely shopped for clothing, started distinguishing the difference between "he likes you" and "he's hanging around you because you're fun to hang around," added somewhere around 8 new rings to my collection, threw in hats "just for fun," went on a cruise, was unemployed, became extremely discouraged by how long it took to not be unemployed, became employed, said goodbye.

Happy 1/11/11. If you ever said that you wanted to do something "one day," I think today is it.