Gratitude on the go! 12-30-13

Today I am grateful for:
-the warmth of my apartment
-Hannah coming over to put together a puzzle. She brought us lunch and also Petey. Amazing.

A work in progress
It's a pretty great puzzle
I wanna see you peacock! 

-a fun show tonight

-being over the hump

-fun improv set. Good listening. Lots of swearing. Oops. :)

-laughter

-my dad coming to see the show 

-happy hour with Emily. Super fun as always even though I still can't really eat anything yet

-the basics

-as always, my friends 

Gratitude on the go! 12-29-13

Today I am grateful for:

-this quote: 

"Mindfulness is the awareness that arises through paying attention on purpose in the present moment — non-judgmentally."

-being able to eat some solid food.

-getting my new radio in my car! It's pretty amazing. Thanks Santa! 

-being able to say goodbye to Ruth. She's moving out to NY in two days to start her new life. I'm so excited for her! She's gonna do amazing things and I can't wait to see and hear about all her adventures. :) 

-a fun Sunday crowd. 

-the 12 days sketch in the show and still having a blast doing it. 

-watching TERRIBLE lifetime movies and texting Amanda. It's...incredible. 

-laughter 

-the basics

-as always, my friends 

Gratitude on the go! 12-28-13

Today I'm grateful for:
-waking up this morning to no stomach pain
-being able to go for a walk with Louie this morning
-The warm weather. It's all relative, but 37 degrees honestly feels incredible!
-being able to see Ruth's show!
-two good audiences
-watching Molly McKinney get married in Scotland via the interwebs in real time! The future is now people! The future is now! It was pretty cool.
-being over the hump for holiday shows
-laughter
-being able to eat some solid food. Just some soup, but still. Progress!
-the basics
-popsicles
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-27-13

Today I am grateful for:
-my dad helping me out for most of the day. I got food poisoning. Its the absolute worst. I haven't thrown up in 10 years so that was fun.
-popsicles

This little guy staying by my side the whole day.
He really brought me a lot of comfort
very grateful for that

-the support of the cast
-back rubs
-the basics
-ginger ale
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-26-13

Today I am grateful for:
-my therapist. It was really nice to debreif the past week and all the ups and downs that have taken place. She, as always, was great. Listened and said all the right things.
-getting my car back. It's pretty much fixed up.
-snuggles with Louie
-Hannah and Anna coming to see the show! We hung out afterward too and caught up a lot. Went to Crave and then we went to Williams and played darts. I can't wait for the day when those two move back here!

Here we are at Crave!
We basically got everything on the happy hour menu
Spoiler alert: Something on that table gives me food poisoning

Love these ladies! 

Playing darts at Williams.
I won. Twice.
Woopsies!

-Laughter

-the basics 

-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-25-13

Today I am grateful for:
-these quotes:
"It's important not to blame yourself for having reactive thoughts  and feelings. They seem to be a natural part of being human."

"Practice hope. As hopefulness becomes a habit, you can achieve a permanently happy spirit."

"Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance."

"Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony."
-Santa coming! :)
-seeing movies with padre. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Ancorman Two. They were both really good.
-dinner at Quang. The place was packed. It was really cool to see.
-hanging out with Ruth. We ended up packing up her stuff a bit but it was still a good time
-the basics
-laughter
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-24-13

Today I am grateful for:

-breakfast with Anna, Steph, and Joanna. French Meadow. Delish. Also ran into Ruth! Amazing. 

-getting rides from friends while my car gets worked on. 

-the afternoon to myself

-texting

-a pleasant evening with my mom. Another Christmas miracle! She came over to my place, which I really appreciate. We had dinner, opened presents, and hung out with Louie. Louie I think helped a lot. We spent about...2ish hours together. Pretty darn good if you ask me. 

We even took a selfie.
For real.
We haven't taken a picture since 2011. 

-seeing a movie with padre. Saving Mr. Banks. Super good movie. 

-baking cookies with padre and delivering it to firemen that work on Christmas eve. It's a tradition. We've been doing this since I was two or three. As long as I can remember that's for sure. 

-laughter

-the basics

-texting

-my cd's I sent to people arriving on time

-as always, my friends
-

Gratitude on the go! 12-23-13

Today I am grateful for:
-breakfast with Hannah. Went to Gigi's.
-a quiet afternoon
-Jack Barret to step up and play piano tonight for the show. Pete called in sick. Apparently he was admitted to the hospital. He's okay. The show must go on though. And Jack saved the day. He did great.
-A nice audience.
-a two day break!!
-Anna, Steph, Joanna, and Hannah coming over and eating snacks, ordering pizza, playing cards against humanity, and watching the I Love Lucy special in color. It was quite a glorious Christmas eve eve. :)
-laughter
-the basics
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-22-13

Today I am grateful for:
-This quote:
"You live through the darkness from what you learned in the light."
-Hannah coming over and hanging out. She brought Petey too. She treated us to lunch (pho!) and then we watched snl. Louie handled everything really well.

Louie hanging out. 

Petey hanging out.

Louie and Petey hanging out together(ish)! 

-getting a ride to the workshop

-laughter

-a pretty fun improv set. Super patient and fun characters.

-late night drives with Padre 

-the basics

-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-21-13

Today I am grateful for:
-this quote:
"The greatest obstacle to connecting with our joy is resentment."
-sleeping the sleep of sleeps. My body must have really needed it. I slept until almost noon! Granted I had to get up to let the dog out at one point, but otherwise I was out for the count! It felt great.
-Amanda texting to say she arrived safely.
-getting through a two show day and feeling good at the end of the night!
-being present. I'm present that I really enjoyed our improv set tonight and I actually felt engaged and in the scenes. I think a part of it was that I really stuck to my point of view with my characters and that was wonderful. I allowed my characters to take up space and that felt great.
-ice cream
-laughter
-Louie being the best dog and not going to the bathroom inside the house after I had to go do shows for 8+ hours.
-remembering that today is winter solstice. I'm not a fan of this day honestly, but it does mean that the days are gonna start getting longer from here on out. And that is definitely something to be grateful for.
-the basics
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-20-13

Today I am grateful for:
-my dad trading cars for the day. My car needs new breaks bad.
-being able to dog sit for my friend Maggie. Her dog is amazing. His name is Louie and he's an absolute gem.
-getting lunch with Jen!
-the nice lady at the post office
-taking a power nap. Totally unintentional, but my body was spent.
-a long evening of shows coming to an end
-laughter
-being able to see amanda before her trip
-the basics
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-19-13

Today I am grateful for:

-these quotes:

"Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly."

"The history of the human race is the history of ordinary people who have overcome their fears & accomplished extraordinary things."

-Amanda officially moving in! A ton of people helped move her stuff and we got it done in two trips! The place looks really amazing and pretty much everything in her room and the whole apartment really fits magically together! 

-people coming together to help one another. It honestly is a beautiful thing to witness. 

Candles.

-a really wonderful audience 

-laughter. There were some Choice moments on stage that genuinely made me laugh out loud. Was it inappropriate? Maybe. But everyone enjoyed it. 

-late night chino time with Emily.

-coming home to find Amanda watching friends and crafting. Amazing

-the basics

-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-18-13

Today I am grateful for:
-hot showers
-being able to see Rita's little baby Maisy. She's a cutie!
-Amanda's sister giving birth to a healthy baby girl! Molly Noel.
-late night drives with my dad. I've been struggling a bit this week. I've felt lost and confused. I decided to open up to my dad and ask his advice. He was really helpful actually. Way more than I anticipated. It was so hard to actually start talking, but once I did I felt immediate relief. That shit was eating away at me more than I realized. I really appreciated him listening.
-laughter
-the basics
-as always, my friends.

Gratitude on the go! 12-17-13

Today I am grateful for:
-this quote:
"Do everything with so much love in your heart that you would never want to do it any other way."
-my therapist. I was struggling a bit to talk today. I just couldn't find the words. She was very patient. As usual. She also was able to reschedule me for the next couple weeks. I'm also grateful that she liked the card I made.
-hanging out with Amanda. She's so strong. I'm honestly in awe.
-being invited to Andy's bday party.
-making new friends
-cards against humanity
-laughter
-the basics
-as always, my friends.

Gratitude on the go! 12-16-13

Today I am grateful for:
-This quote:
"Sometimes good things fall apart, so better things can fall together."
-soup. I went back to the Soup To Go place and got a flight of soups. Three small soups were exactly what I wanted/needed.
-A fun and easy VO with Augsburg
-podcasts
-public transport.
-kinkos
-love. Today my friend Amanda's dad passed away. It was very sudden and unexpected. She called me and I immediately went over to her place. I don't know what that kind of loss is like. Not many people my age do. When I got to her place though her other close friends were there as well. They were all laughing and drinking beer and shooting the shit. That's love. Being there for someone without question. I felt very grateful as well that I was able to go to call late and leave before improv tonight so I could spend as much time with her as possible.
-laughter. It's like crying only way better.
-the basics
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-15-13

Today I am grateful for:
-a day at home. I didn't have to teach today so I spent most of the day catching up on emails, working on my lergy mix 2013 and catching up on tv. So grateful.
-meeting up with Sarah Agnew to talk about babysitting. She's so nice.
-laughter
-being present. I realized I still super struggle with confrontation. There was a bit of a tense conversation I was witness to tonight and I just couldn't deal with it. I definitely mentally checked out. I didn't know how to handle it. I 100% left my body. It was like I was listening to everything via a walkie talkie. I felt bad. I still feel bad. I didn't know what to do. I did apologize later for not being able to be present during that conversation.
-Hannah and Josh coming over to watch AHS. It's still soooo good!
-The basics
-melatonin
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-14-13

Today I am grateful for:
-This quote:
"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly."
-brunch with Kevin

I got my christmas present early.
An itunes gift card!
Just what I wanted!

Also I guess it was my "birthday!"
We got free tres leche cake.
Just what I wanted!

-laughter
-this amazing video:

-peas. haters gonna hate, but I fucking love peas.
-being present. I'm present to the fact that I have to start taking better care of myself. Particularly when it comes to sleeping. I'm working on it. One minute at a time
-the basics
-my warm comfy bed
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-13-13

Today I am grateful for:

-a very quick and easy video shoot at the workshop. 

-all the wonderful things to look at in the downtown skyways today. There was a teen orchestra playing that really captured my attention in particular. Oh and also this:

Seriously this made my day.
I think this discovery will help get me through the bitter winter
I love soup! 

-this quote:

"It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences."

-beyoncé's new album. Dropped without any notice. She's always been brilliant in my book and this is just confirmation. She kind of made history in the music world today.

-VO's with Augsburg Fortress. Seriously. I'm so grateful and lucky

-the really nice email I got from Karen Walrond. I signed up for her online class today and after posting a fan girl note, she responded. It made me happy.

-podcasts

-smiles 

-Kat coming to see my show tonight with some family and friends. It was so nice to see them. They seemed to really like the show too. Always a treat to see them. 

-laughter

-people making old 90's movie references. My decade! 

-the basics

-hot showers

-as always, my friends.

Gratitude on the go! 12-12-13

Today I am grateful for:
-this quote:
"Attention is the act of connection. and the reward for attention is always healing."
-the weather warming up a bit. It was 18 degrees today y'all! Heat wave up in this piece! Seriously though, in all honesty, it felt warm today. Thaaaatsss...probably not the best sign.
-my calendar working on my phone again.
-the complements I got when I was in my green dress today. I can't help it. It made me feel good.
-a fun show
-laughter
-laughter that makes your sides hurt
-the basics
-late night car rides with padre
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-11-13

Today I am grateful for:
-a fun voice over at General Mills
-the really nice woman at the front desk. Ramona. She really brightened my morning.
-smiles
-a easy corporate video shoot at the workshop
-a afternoon free. I was able to finally sync up my calendar on my phone, which was soo needed it was ridiculous. It took a lot of time, but I'm okay with it. I was feeling so naked without it.
-the new calendar app that is formated the way I like
-a pretty fun crowd for a wednesday night.
-laughter
-goofing around
-catching up with Jaime on gchat. It's been so long. It was nice to hear what was going on with her these days.
-being present. I'm present to how recently I've made plans with friends to watch movies/tv together, but we usually just end up talking. You know, like one would do with friends. I'm a huge fan of this. I love hearing about other people's lives and what's new and exciting for them. My friends happiness is my happiness. Or if things are hard, I'm glad we can talk about them instead of pretending everything is okay. I guess I'm just grateful for connection.
-the basics
-a quiet apartment
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-10-13

Today I am grateful for:
-my therapist. Having two weeks off was hard but I felt we got a lot done. We talked about the anger I've been feeling and how on a biological level that's good. Doesn't make it easy though. Did some more body work, which is always super helpful as well.
-lunch with Christine. Always a treat to see her.
-having the time to do laundry.
-seeing a movie with Ruth. Frozen. It was a bit corny, but in a wonderful way. I enjoyed myself for sure.
-hot showers
-free heat. It's a balmy 72 degrees in my apartment. :)
-laughter
-the basics
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-9-13

Today I am grateful for:
-this quote:
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
-lunch with Jen. It was nice to catch up just the two of us. And Oscar too of course.

Look at this little guy!
 He's gotten so big!
I suppose I can't really call him little guy if he's gotten big...

-babysitting Ila and Lena. Once again, they bring me a lot of joy to my day. We did some crafting and playing make believe. They're just really good kids that are super kind and fun to be around. My favorite thing of the night that made me laugh really hard was when Lena was singing a counting song and the following exchange took place:

Lena: "Three little dumplings, four little dumplings, five little dumplings...One little dumpling" etc 

Ila: "Lena, what comes after 5?"

Lena: "...Dumpling."

Here are the crafts we made tonight
Some homemade little Christmas Trees
Thank you internet! 

-my actual Christmas tree!

He's cute and adorable and brings me much joy. :)

-the director of Lena's preschool, Kumi, raving about the new holiday show. She said that she's been coming to see them for the last 20 years! That's so awesome! 

-group. Oof. Things got deep today. There were just two of us again, but it was still fine. Talked a lot about my mom. We kind of determined that I was feeling stuck. I guess I am. Stuck about how I want to get closer to my mom but at the same time just be done with our issues. Out of sight, out of mind kind of deal. One of the counselors asked if I would be up for a role play, which I did but it was super hard. My gut reaction was to say no effing way! I could feel myself start to get overwhelmed and I could hear my therapist's voice saying, "what do you feel in your body?" I felt super tight in my stomach, I got really warm, I almost started shaking, my heart rate sped up but at the same time I wasn't really breathing. I did my best to find the areas on my body that weren't feeling stressed and tried to focus on that. It's so hard when its in the moment because my reasoning part of my brain is switched off and I'm so in survival/back brain mode. Like I said though I did it and I think it was helpful. It gave me a lot to think about anyway. And if THAT wasn't enough then we actually started getting into talking about what happened when I was young. Woof. It doesn't get easier. I'm grateful though that group was supportive and let me kind of ride out the waves of what I was feeling and also checked in with me to see if I needed to stop or if I wanted to keep going. That was very helpful. I'm glad I talked first so I was able to decompress a bit while listening. 

-Anna H and W coming over to watch the Sing Off. 

-the basics

-laughter

-as always, my friends 

Gratitude on the go! 12-8-13

Today I am grateful for:
-having the morning to clean my apartment
-some solid alone time. Super needed.
-a quick sunday show
-laugher
-Hannah and Josh (and peety!) coming over to watch AHS. Seriously that show is so good!
-the basics
-melatonin
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-7-13

Today I am grateful for:
-the time to start cleaning my apartment. It makes me feel very accomplished and also helps me focus.
-two incredible shows tonight. Honestly, I think the 5pm show tonight was the best audience in my time at the workshop. They were so engaged, the laughed at all the appropriate places and then some, and they just seemed to be having the most wonderful time. Since they were having such a good time, we were having a fantastic time too. It was a crazy mad high of awesomeness.
-laughter!!!!!
-goofing around
-feeling happy
-my job at the workshop. Seriously. I love my job and I want to lean into that joy.
-hanging out with Tom and Anna. We didn't watch Downton again. We just hung out and talked. Which honestly makes me really happy. I love just chatting with friends.
-the basics
-my amazingly warm ugg boots. Seriously, thank you again to Rachel who just gave them away to me for $free.99. Outstanding. They're so comfy!
-melatonin
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-6-13

Today I am grateful for:
-laughter
-a long day being over
-the basics
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-5-13

Today I am grateful for:
-waking up in time to move my car. Snow emergency!
-being done with house sitting. It was really good timing so I'm glad I was able to do it, but I'm also excited to be back in my own bed tonight.
-babysitting Ila and Lena. My goodness they're great girls. I had so much fun with them tonight. We made paper snowflakes and finger paintings and played school and watched Curious George. Lots of fun.
-space heaters
-laughter
-seeing movies with Andy. I was NOT a fan of the movie we saw tonight (oldboy), but I still enjoy our movie adventures.
-the basics
-my roommate officially moving out. I'm sad things ended the way they did. He was such a great roommate for such a long time. Bummer. However, I am grateful for the good times we had.
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-4-13

Today I'm grateful for:
-being able to sleep in
-having a free day. Honestly I was kind of not looking forward to it. I tried really hard to make plans but nothing panned out. So I just kind of sat around and crafted. It was really nice actually.
-my mom coming to see my show. She didn't tell me she was coming, but it wasn't too bad. It also made me acutely aware of how much work I still need to do. I wish my therapy appointment wasn't cancelled this week.
-laughter
-late night texting. Albeit a bit confusing
-the basics
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-3-13

Today I am grateful for:
-dreaming
-a good wrap up meeting with the history theater. Lots of great new ideas.
-lunch with Megan and Jen! It's been awhile.
-a quiet afternoon.
-getting my new phone! Woo hoo!
-the really kind guy at the tea garden. Gave me just the order I asked for without judgement. I like my iced drink lukewarm. I know. It's weird. I just think it tastes better.
-being able to see Holiday Mix Tape at the BNWSU. It was super funny!
-laughter
-the basics
-as always, my friends

Gratitude on the go! 12-2-13

Today I am grateful for:

-sleeping pretty well

-having lunch with kdog! Bento boxes. We haven't done that in a long time. Our conversations got a bit deep, but it was good. Still learning a lot about each other. 

-group. Only two of us tonight. I realized the thing most on my mind is stuff with my mom. Again. Ebbs and flows. Minute by minute. 

-Being able to upgrade my phone! Woo hoo! 

-creating 

-the basics

-as always my friends 

Gratitude on the go! 12-1-13

Today I am grateful for:

-being able to sleep in a bit

-improv

-huge theater. Three years ago in the first week of December, huge opened. I was fortunate enough to be one of the first people to perform there in a show called overheard. I'm pretty sure we did a couple of shows for just 2 people. Now they're selling out shows almost every night! It's such an amazing place and community and I'm really grateful to be amongst such incredible talent. 

-butch roy. He gave (and has continued to give) me some incredible opportunities. I keep meaning to thank him in person for all the amazing things that he's done. He's really an inspiration. 

-watching the youth teams perform

-laughter

-smiles 

-the kind guy at the check out counter at Walgreens

-that it's December 1st and there's no snow on the ground yet. 

-being present. This evening has been a bit rough. I think I'm pmsing and not the other option. To be honest I'm feeling a bit lonely. I could have gone out to the big improviser of the year awards, but I wasn't really up to be around a lot of people. I did want to be around a few of my friends though. Idk. Im just having some age old thoughts pop up. "Why would anyone want to be around me? Why am I so stupid? Why aren't I braver?" I know they these thoughts are not true, but that's where I'm at tonight. I'm acknowledging them and trying to be kind to myself. One minute at a time. It will pass. 

-the basics

-melatonin

-as always, my friends 

Gratitude on the go! 11-30-13

Today I am grateful for:
-getting brunch with Kdog. So much laughter. We also can now finish each others sentences. As well as thoughts. It's nuts.
-my amazing job.
-laughter
-the really nice cop that pulled me over. I totally ran a yellow light. It for sure turned red and I ran right through it. Womp. The officer pulled me over, asked for my license and registration, and just told me to be really careful for the next time. Thank you officer! you really made my night. I totally will not be doing that again.
-watching Downton Abby at Anna and Tom's place. Also catching up and eating food. :)
-the basics
-melatonin
-as always, my friends