things that made me happy today

Photo by tiny_muffins

On my way to keep my mom company while she was babysitting my cousins, I stopped for ice cream at Peaceful Meadows. It was 9:50PM and they close at ten, so I felt like that jerk that shows up last minute wanting to order. Luckily, there was another jerk there.
Me and this guy stood at the window while at least 10 employees inside ignored us in hopes we would go away.
He turned around and asked me, “Are they closed?”
I reply, “I don’t know…I thought they were open until 10.”
He taps on the window, asks if they are open, and one of the girls reluctantly replies yes and takes his order. He gets his ice cream and walks away (so I thought).
I order my ice cream and as I’m about to pull money out of my wallet, a five dollar bill is thrown on the counter from behind me, and Guy says “I got hers.”
I smile and tell him he doesn’t have to do this, but he insists, a bit sheepishly and he buys my ice cream. I now am drumming up ways to dance around the inevitable asking of the number, but with a smile he says, “Enjoy your ice cream!” and walks back to his car.

It left me smiling for a good few minutes. I like nice people.

dr. horrible’s sing-a-long blog

Photo by briankdunbar.

It’s finally here! When I first heard about Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, I was overwhelmed with excitement not worthy mentioning here for fear of how incredibly lame it makes me. But come on now – it’s the latest project from Joss Whedon, who, if anyone was around me for the seven seasons that Buffy was on, knows the love I have for this man. Second it stars Neil Patrick Harris, who is quite quickly becoming one of my favorite people in Hollywood. And third, it was created during the writer’s strike – which, while it may have been tragic, produced some brilliant, and often hilarious, pieces of work. Did anyone watch Conan during the writers strike? It was funnier than it’s been in years! And a tiny part of me wished the writers would go away forever. But only a tiny tiny part, the part not occupied by the raging desire for new episodes of Lost.

Ah, but I digress. Back to Dr. Horrible. Act I was posted today, 13 delightful minutes of singing, witty quips and ridiculous story lines. It was better than I even thought it would be, which is weird. Why would I ever underestimate Joss Whedon? So, the basic story line is Dr. Horrible has a blog, which we are to believe has been going on for some time before this first act. This charming Dr. Horrible is just desperate to be a cool super-villain and to be accepted by “Evil League of Evil”, and you just can’t help but feel sorry for the guy. In addition to this, he has a crush on the cute girl at the laundromat, whom he is too shy to talk to. Oh, and then there is his arch-nemesis, Captain Hammer, who is the “good guy”, but is really kind of a jerk.

The songs are all very funny as well as catchy, something that was to be expected after Once More With Feeling (the musical episode of Buffy). The songs in Act I are “Freeze Ray,” “Bad Horse,” “Will You Help,” (which are both really short) and “A Man Has To Do What A Man Has To Do.” Did I mention that I just made up those names? Well, I did. Unimportant. Anyway, Freeze Ray is my favorite, although the end of “A Man Has To…” cannot be ignored.

Dr. Horrible is definitely worth checking out. Act I was put up today, Act II will be up on Thursday and Act III, the final act, will be up on Saturday. They are completely free to watch at DrHorrible.com, but they are only free to watch until Sunday night, when they will be taken down at midnight. After that it will be available for sale on iTunes. But, come on…watch it while it’s free!

(Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog)

4th of joo-lie

Photo by fotozon.

Happy Fourth of July everyone! Like every fourth of July I can remember in my past, it is overcast and a bit rainy here. Not cool. Although sort of ironic that it’s typical British weather and today is the day we became non-British. Hmm.

Anyway, I can’t believe I forgot to post this in Things I Love Thursday last night: My mom sent me this video of these two guys that raised a lion cub that they bought at Harrods. Keep in mind that this was in the 70s, a time when it was apparently not weird for baby wild cats to be sold in department stores. Anyway, they named him Christian, he was really cute. But, as lions tend to do, he grew up. He was eventually too big to fit in their apartment, so they were forced to introduce him back into the wild at the Kora National Reserve in Africa. Well, a year later they went to visit him to see how he was doing. They were told that he had become the head of his pride – this meant that, since he was fully wild now, he would never recognize or remember him. I’ll let you watch the video and see what happens:

Never underestimate the power of love!

Lovey lovey,
Pontius

Things That Made Me Happy Today

Photo by Ben McLeod

It was one of those days today, when nothing particular happened, but I found a bunch of little things giving me the warm fuzzies. And don’t they say it’s the little things that count? So, I feel that it is appropriate that I give credit to those little things that made my day just a little brighter.

Coffee It seems that every time I find myself back in Massachusetts, I also find myself a hardcore coffee addict. Every single morning, I wake up and make my daily trip to Dunkin’ Donuts. Lately, my order has been a medium coconut iced coffee with cream, sugar, and a shot of mocha. It’s a dream!! (Thanks to Aunt Jean for the suggestion of the mocha shot!) My morning coffee fix gets me through the day (well mostly) until night falls, when I make a cup before bed with our lovely little gem, the Keurig One Cup Coffee Maker, which I am obsessed with. Lately, I’ve been making Nantucket Blend coffee with either Cinnamon Bun or Irish Creme Creamer. To die for. As of late, I’ve been drinking three to four cups a day. It seems to have replaced alcohol, for the time being.

Weeds Such a good show! Season four just started and I have only been able to catch a few episodes in the past. But lucky for me, my dad has seasons one and two on DVD and season three is up on OnDemand – so I’ve been catching up so I can watch season four (this is like that time I got hooked on Lost…). It such a funny, clever show. And come on, it’s about an attractive white middle aged mom in the suburbs who’s a drug dealer. It’s funny. And Mary-Kate Olsen guest stars in some episodes and she happens to be one of my guilty pleasure favorite actresses. Nancy Botwin, FTW!

Eyebrow waxing Some people dread this “painful experience,” but I honestly think it’s one of my favorite things. I often subconsciously find myself not tweezing my eyebrows so that I will HAVE to go get them waxed. I feel that if you go to the right place and have the right person do them, it’s a really enjoyable experience! You get to go lay down on a nice little imitation bed in a low lit room with music playing and chat with the person who is spreading hot wax on your arches and ripping hair out of your face! But seriously, I just look so much better afterward, it is well worth it. I’ve definitely seen some botched jobs and it’s not a pretty sight. So I would find the right salon by word of mouth, the best advertising a salon can get. If you’re in the South Shore area, I go to Shelley at Glow and I have never had a bad experience.

Phone calls from old friends Well, not really old friends – just people I haven’t talked to in a few weeks. Marv called me last night and it was lovely to hear from him. Sheen called me today and despite what he thinks, I do love him and did not forget about him! I am really bad at calling people. I usually only call if I have something specific to tell someone, not just to chat. Because, ask my friends, I’m awkward on the phone. I never have anything good to say. When most people need to spill their guts and vent, they usually call me because they know I will listen and not interrupt. I’m fine with that. I like listening. And I love hearing from people because I love my friends!

Silver linings I am making a resolution (it’s a little late, I realize) to find the silver lining in all situations. I think I will be a much happier person if I do this. I feel like I AM a happy person, but that I often focus on negative things because I want to change them. And I know everything can’t be changed. Like if someone decides they want to dump you as a friend because their girlfriend is threatened by you – well I would take it as a compliment that someone feels threatened by me! By all means, feel threatened. You should. Also, as much as a situation like that sucks, it weeds out the bad eggs for the good eggs. I am loyal to each and every one of my friends and I respect them all. To sum up how deep my loyalty runs, I provide you with a quote from Hey Chris that sums up my feelings:

The people I call friends are the best of the best. Have I had to stand behind one of them even though they were wrong? Absolutely. And I will until they prove themselves a rotten or toxic person. Rotten and toxic people can do good things and good people can do rotten and toxic things, the true ability is being able to distinguish between the people who deserve your loyalty and those who don’t. Have I harbored criminals? Yes. If [my friends] murdered someone, would I help them? You bet your ass. Call it foolish, fine. Call it blind, okay. Because I know that each one of them would do the same for me.
Disagree all you like, I completely understand why you would. But I think that comes from not fully understanding and truly loving your friends. And maybe you have a different set of values and standards, and that’s fine. But my friends are my family, and just like a mother would protect her kids from danger, the law or harm, I would and will and continue to do so.

I expect the same loyalty back from my friends. And it’s nice to know who doesn’t respect you enough to show you loyalty, because they are a toxic person to your life. And I have somehow gone off on a rant when this was supposed to be a quick blurb on silver linings. Apologies!

Notes From The Universe My note from the Universe this morning totally validated my opinion on living with no regrets, and I love that:

The biggest misconception people have about the past, Aimee, is thinking it can detract from the rest of their lives.
It can’t!
The past only ever makes more stuff possible.

Tallyho,
The Universe

P.S. And while some might then argue that a different past would make possible a “better” future, Aimee, I would gently remind them that they cannot yet see all that I can see, and would beg to disagree.

Loves it!!

What made you happy today? Leave me a comment and let me know!