My other best friend is also getting married.

So... you guessed it! A week later I threw another shower. 

Who says bridal showers have to be boring?

-ticket invites

-themed gifts (i.e. a knife set for Psycho)

-a movie of the groom answering movie themed questions about himself that the bride had to guess.

-movie themed treats

I don't think it's fair that there is a socially imposed age on who is allowed to Trick-or-Treat. It gives Halloween a bad taste in my mouth (or maybe that is the lack of candy in my mouth...). I mean, what's left for all us oldies to do? 

This is what I did instead of a. get glares from adults who resentfully hand me fun size candy bars so I won't egg their homes b. kidnap children or c. nonchalantly follow groups of children from house:

Ate pumpkin soup and carved pumpkins

Tried to refrain from making fun of a really awful Dracula movie

But really, what kid embraces his father after he sees him eat a bunch of people? Apparently this one.

I mean it when I say that making every day a holiday is a great way to live life. Not celebrating every day has made that especially clear. Yesterday, I got an email at work saying that the office would be providing pizza, cupcakes, and a peek at a decked out DeLorean in honor of the day Marty McFly arrives in the future (October 21, 2015). I didn't plan on getting so attached to this day. I mean, it's not like the day Harry Potter arrived in the future or something but, it was a holiday and I was all about that. 

When my boss walked in to work, she said, "I was so happy to wake up this morning because it felt like a holiday." She got that absolutely right. I mean, even riding the bus felt special today with random smiles from people who were in on the joke. And there was pizza and cupcakes with little paper DoLoreans stuck in them and caffeine free Pepsi and the movie playing in the meeting room. 

I mean, none of that is much but it made today something else than hump day. So I'm going to try and live the holidays better. I think I've relaxed into my new life a little more so I'm ready for it. The writing about it may be more of a challenge though. I spend 8 hours a day writing and it's different than this. I write this for fun and a little something something to put on my resume. It is zero percent about getting lots of viewers and making viral articles. But that's what I do at work so it's hard to come home after writing all that and write... not that (obviously my ability to articulate things is improved after a day of working...not). 

Anyways, let us renew and we'll see where this goes.

Is there a better way to celebrate such a day than starting your real life internship? Probably not.

There were some really interesting options to celebrate today but I chose It's My Party Day because I am all about that life. I intended to celebrate it by enjoying a whole candy bar while listening to Christmas music by myself. This sounded like the perfect way for my introvert self to recover from the hours of socialization I would have by attending a new congregation for the first time. But change of plans! (Which is totally allowed because it's my party.) These new plans resulted in my rediscovery of my Sunday night social scene (it sure has been a while). A small gospel discussion, the name game, and a round of Clue is where it's at.

This summer, when a Japanese friend of mine asked me where I lived I told him I was homeless. In essence, I was. I was a nomad benefiting off free airplane tickets and hotel rooms provided by my job with no true ties to any other habitation. My friend freaked out a little bit, he was worried and wanted to help me. I mean, there's always that language barrier but I though to myself that maybe I shouldn't use the term so cavalierly.

Homelessness is simply something that I don't understand. This was a strange realization I had one day talking with a homeless man in the streets of Houston, Texas where every stoplight hosts a someone asking for food or money. As I talked to him, I realized that I would never be homeless. No matter how terrible my life got, a parent, a friend, a great aunt or second cousin would give me somewhere to sleep. I absolutely cannot conceive homelessness. 

Which is why it's so unokay that I failed to celebrate this day. I was too busy to take a second and do something even the small act of finding someone to hand my McDonalds gift card. I'm in a city with so many homeless for crying out loud! It wouldn't have been too hard. 

But I was too busy examining Ikea products and buying bulk oatmeal for my new home to do that. 

As I learned from Sam I Am, it is good to try new things. So my family enjoyed this Polish mashed potato and cheese stuffed ravioli-esque food as an appetizer around which we discussed questions we have about the new gender-swapped version of Twilight such as: Will the girl vampire save the boy human from crude girls that are harassing him in a dark alley? On the same lines, what is the boy version of Rosalie's backstory (specifically, is he a rape victim)? In the future, will our protagonists be able to reproduce? In fact, will the boy human ever become a vampire because unlike Bella, he won't have a super-strong baby killing him from the inside out to necessitate it? So many questions! Despite being so very over Twilight, I am fascinated with the idea of this book. I'm all about examining how cultures perceive gender. I wonder how Poland perceives gender?

  

When someone passes away, there's not actually anything anyone can do to make it okay. This is coming from someone who has firm hope. I know that there is life after this life and I know that I will see the people that I love again. But knowing that doesn't heal now. That doesn't make them not being here feel anymore normal.

Today, someone close to a family friend passed away. We brought our family friend a card, a cookie, and flowers. That doesn't make it better. In fact, when someone close to me died, every act of kindness done to me was a remembrance that he was gone and remembering was when it hurt. A dear friend, well acquainted with this topic said that it's for the giver, that the giver needs to feel like they're helping. I believe that's true.
But I still think it helps. Because you feel loved. Even when flowers in all their prettiness don't fix a single thing, they remind the bereaved that they haven't lost everyone who loves them. So hopefully that makes it a bit better.

Today I came and took it. 

This is not the same as "coming and getting it." The holiday insights website distinctly specified that this holiday does not celebrate that.

Today I came and took an apartment in Salt Lake City. My dreams of moving to Salt Lake City are coming true.

A few days ago I accepted an internship and today I got myself an apartment. It's all happening so fast and wow! Life is something else. 

This may or may not be an actual holiday but if not, it 100% should be. The reason I chose to celebrate it october 5th is that fifteen years ago Gilmore Girls premiered on television. The Fox Girls loved it from the beginning. Now I know there are a lot of people who love this show (and if you're not one of them, who do you think you are?) which has caused me to misconcept that everyone loves it the way that my family does. We live and breathe this show so much that a simple reference to the bop-it is code for "this social situation is getting too awkward for normal social strategies" and we could be cleaning with it on as background noise and have no need to look at the screen to know that Kirk is trying to sell Lorelai a mailbox shaped like Condoleezza Rice. Oy with the poodles already! Am I right? We just grew up watching it, on television, on tapes recorded by my grandparents who had cable, and eventually binging it on DVD. It is the memory of staying up late on a school night with my sister and mother who never said no when we pled, "just one more." So it goes without saying that this show has contributed to making me the person I have become. Therefore, in light of this, the anniversary of the show's birth, I have complied a list of 

10 Things I Learned from Gilmore Girls

not including such useful information as the fact the the plural of culdesac is culsdesac and a plethora of pop culture knowledge.

1. To make the most out of life


2. But sometimes you need to let yourself wallow

3. Being a book nerd is cool

5. Women are strong, smart, and independent

6. How to have a quick wit

7. To find joy in simple things



8. Guys don't have a monopoly on making the move

9. Moms are the very best


10. Not everything works out the way you want it to, but that doesn't mean it's not still amazing


So you may be wondering...

We'll let our leading ladies answer that.

I feel like celebrating Frugal Fun Day may have been cheating because too much of what I already do is frugal fun. It's impossible to have expensive fun every day but you should have fun every day. And that I did today. 

Our frugally fun entertainment was playing Dominion with my old friends. It is one of those games that looks nerdy but is not. This presents a question: who decided which games are "cool" and which are "dorky." I am willing to stand and say that I don't think there is inherent coolness in tackling people for a ball for four hours straight. However, I think that Dungeons and Dragons is a very entertaining pastime (decided from the one time I played it) and if that makes me a nerd then, why? Am I the only one baffled by this?

Celebrating world smile day was a self-revelatory experience. 

I consider myself a pleasant person, friendly even. And according to the personality quiz I took online I am "naturally social," despite being an introvert (learn about your personality here).

However, it turns out I am not as smiley as I thought.

Today my goal was to smile at absolutely every person: people I walked past, grocery store workers, people driving by in cars, all of them. I didn't think it would be too hard. I just thought it would be a matter of choosing not to pick out a new song on my ipod as I walked past other persons. I was wrong. 

It was unnatural and near to awkward roughly 57%* of the time. Now, I'm willing to admit that at least 14% of these encounters were awkward due to the fact that I have become a social hermit because that I have been living in my parents' basement and the only time I even see a human my age is when I hang out with my engaged amigos (not even exaggerating here). Therefore, the introvert inside me has reclaimed her territory making me 78% more socially incapable. However, this 14% that's a result of my social hermitation does not account for the other 43% of awkward smiling interactions. What I have to conclude is, I don't naturally smile at people as much as I think I do. 

Which is a sad thought to me. It's sad because I genuinely (but possibly naively) think that it makes other people's day just a bit better (probably a 3% improvement). At any rate, Everyone smiled back. Some even added a "hello."  What I definitely know is that smiling at other people makes my day better. Who knew that that study that said if you smile you will feel better was actually true? Maybe it tricked me into being happy or thinking that I had more friends or to think I was confident (turns out, when I see a hot guy I usually peek at him but quickly avert my unworthy eyes from his hotness-a practice that was against the rules today). 

The moral of the story is that, I'm going to work on smiling at people more. 

Hopefully, I will eventually celebrate World Smile Day every day.

* please note that all percentages presented in this piece are estimations as I like the idea of quantifiable evidence more than I like actually quantifying evidence

As children, my sister and I would forgo the classic reenactment of "The Hills are Alive" for the less popular sitting-on-the-stairs-inching-up-while-singing "the sun has gone to bed and so must I" whenever we saw a flight of stairs. 

As adults, my sister and I do a complete two-person interpretation of any of the Les Miserables songs. For instance, a classic reproduction of "Look Down" must have a bed or couch to function as the set piece that Gavroche looks down at his "patch" and each of us has our parts memorized and access to the necessary props (I'm Eponine, she's Marius, and we take turns being Gavroche because he's our favorite).

We may or may not wish we were in a musical at all times (see here)

Today, in honor of Broadway Musicals Day, I purchased tickets to go see West Side Story this weekend! West Side Story is on my list of top five favorite musicals. I mean, it's a Sondheim-written Shakespeare-modernization with a hot dramatic medley and balleting gangsters. Each of those elements in and of itself is enough to make me crush on a play but put them together and I'm in love. And I have always wanted to see West Side Story in real life and see if the director decides to be true to the original version by doing such things as having them sing "Officer Krupke" after they witness their friend's murder (which why did anyone conceive that as an appropriate song placement in the first place?)

So this, the day I make this Broadway musical dream come true is a good day indeed!

What's your favorite Broadway musical? Comment below.

This has been a heck of a week.
I got asked to an interview and 12 hours later I was on the road rushing out of state to it, I got offered said job, and turned it down. I nannied two kids, one cat, and one dog while their mom was in Hawaii and cleaned up animal poop more times than I would like to recollect. During the day, I cleaned an apartment that was so dirty (someone actually poured or dropped soil onto the floor), and had to turn down two substituting jobs because I was just too busy. Honestly, for a university graduate living at home, all of this is a miracle. However, for a blogger celebrating holidays daily, it is a little less so. 

In other words, between spending several hours solo in a minivan mentally preparing to sell my skills to a potential employer and trying to get children to do their chores, homework, and bed on time, the celebrations were just not number one priority. 

The weekend was welcome.

In an effort to atone for my lack of daily holiday observance, I celebrated all the weeks holidays in the weekend.

First thing Saturday morning I whipped up some carrot cake pancakes with cream cheese syrup to celebrate 

National Pancake Day.

Also, I don't know what actually constitutes a "better breakfast" but to me it means "more healthy." Soooo, I counted the carrots in the pancakes as the healthy part to honor National Better Breakfast Day.

(I don't know why they're on the same day. Note to self: check what holidays are already celebrated on a given day before adding a holiday to it)

Then, whilst cleaning, I listened to some one-hit wonders on behalf of 

One-Hit Wonder Day.

From this experience I learned that they are one-hit wonders for a reason. I mean, I like nearly zero of them. But I may have the Just Dance choreography memorized for "Take Me On" and maybe I repeatedly listened to "Somebody I Used to Know" on repeat (I would not be unhappy if Gotye got ousted from the One-Hit Wonder Club).

Hug a Vegetarian Day was easily celebrated as I live with my favorite vegetarian (fun fact: she may have once gone on a date with a boy who thought that communism and vegetarianism were the same thing. This does not compute).

I also was able to celebrate Carfree Day by walking to church on a most perfectly warm autumn day. It was an excellent opportunity to ponder as I prepared to receive inspiration and make promises to God and then reflect as I returned home. 

Flannery O'Conner said, 

"I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say."

For that reason exactly, I haven't known what I've thought for quite some time now. I unexpectedly ran out of journal space when I was in California this summer and I'm so picky about what book I write my thoughts in that I had to order a new one off the internet which I didn't get until after I got back from New York weeks later. 

So I have been forever behind on my journaling. 

But I am incapable of moving on from something until I write about it. I can't just skip writing about something that was important to me but at the same time, you have to be in the right mindset to write about it. It's much harder to accurately describe a tragic experience when you're feeling chipper. Therefore, it can be hard to catch up. At the same time, I'm unwilling to completely let things go until I've let them go onto the page. But above all, I can't make sense of things until I've interpreted my complicated thoughts into concrete sentences. 

It's a very complicated life to live, the life of a journal addict.  

At any rate, thanks to Dear Diary Day, I managed to hunker myself down and get myself all settled straight on the journal writing front. I now will be free to discover what I think when I need it because I'm all up to date and ready to go.

Also, here's some cute pages I worked on because I am obsessed with cute journal pages. 

AHOY MATEYS!

What has been hARRRd for me brain to savvy is the popularity of this here holiday! So I did a little researchin' and this is wha' I discovered. 

It appears as though it began with the gentlemanly sport of racquetball. One of the scallawags yelled "Aaarr!" in response to an injury and the idea set sail. The nineteenth day of the ninth month of the moon was chosen because it was the birthday of one of them scallawag's ex-wench. The day gained popularity when these buccaneers sent a letter to Dave Barry, cap'n of a humor column. It has also been featured on "Wife Swap" and "Jeopardy!" (see here)

Above all, me thinks the day has reached its fame due to the makers of the fried doughs. Krispy Kreme offers a free dozen doughnuts to anyone dressed up as a pirate this day and I'll tell ye what, there be a good number of college kids who will do just about anything for a free load of grub, even stoop to pirating. ARRGH!

Easiest way to celebrate? Switch yer book-of-face to "English (Pirate)." It be a delightful way to brush up on the ancient speech. If ye be lost, fear not lads and lasses! Here is a useful code of terms to help ye savvy the tongue: Pirate Glossary. Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day to Ye!

Maybe living at my parents' home isn't where I want to be right now, but it certainly has its perks. Number one perk? I get to do fun things with my sisters. 

My parents went on a date so I got to host a Girl's Night!

To celebrate Aging Awareness Day, we played a little round of Bingo! Cuz... it seems like a game for those of more maturity. 

So we treated her to some massaging as we watched an appropriate Aging Awareness Day film:   
The Age of Adeline.

APPLESAUCE DUMPLING RECIPE 
allthedaysareholidays