One Rule

If you've seen The Fault in Our Stars,

you know what an encouragement is.

Like Augustus' mom, I enjoy seeing encouragements in the spaces I spend the most time in. 

I have a wall in my office with a bunch of giant canvas black-and-white photos of the Tiny Human. 

And I just recently added this encouragement below her pictures:

I need to be better at this. 

Be your wild courageous brilliant self every single day.

No matter what.

I have found, at least for me, it's easiest to be this most awesome version of myself when I am surrounded with equally brilliant and wild people.

Like LakeGirl, for one. Or my favorite people from law school. 

Morning Jo, mean-mugging' style

Last weekend, I sneaked away for the day and got to reconnect with a few of my soul mates. 

I haven't seen my friend, Count, since we graduated, which is totally unacceptable but life has just gotten in the way. But we finally found a way to connect and it was amazingly wonderful.

We fell back in to place like we had just seen each other, 

when in reality almost four years have gone by. 

Friends like that are the bestest.

It's so hard to describe, but my heart just felt happy the entire time I was "back home."

We spent some time at an old fave hang-out,

Atwater Beach.

The colors in Wisconsin this time of year are my favorite.

You can see why it's so true when I say my favorite color is October.

We also acted like ridiculous weirdos and made an obscene number of slo-mo videos on the beach.

LakeGirl had her new iPhone and we sort of stumbled across the slo-mo video feature and let's just say we rocked it like a boss. 

Think Chariots of Fire. 

Literally. 

It was that awesome. 

We also hit up the best burger/bloody Mary joint in the whole city . . .

and got to witness this beast going down at the table across from us.

Holy Moses- 

that's an entire deep fried chicken, 

two mini cheeseburgers and skewers galore of other meats and cheeses and creatures-of-the-sea.

I really, really wanted to pose with the Bloody Beast but my friends assured me that would be all sorts of awkward and weird, which is likely why I wanted to do it. 

You know, 

Be your wild courageous brilliant self every single day.

My intentions were good.

So instead of creeping on a bunch of random people's dinner,

I just consumed about ten pounds of frickles at my own table. 

What's a frickle, you ask?

A gift from the gods.

It's a deep fried pickle french-fry. 

And eating ten pounds of them?

Brilliant.

Don't Forget To Be Awesome

Until about three months ago, give or take, 

I didn't really drink coffee.

You know, like straight-up, black, plain-Jane coffee. 

As in, "Hello barista sir. I will have a coffee, please."

I have previously talked about my obsession with Starbucks,

but my pre-three-ish-months-ago order was all sorts of jacked-up weirdness,

with the root source of said weirdness being a latte.

I loved sitting in coffee shops, but not because they made coffee.

I bought a sweatshirt that said in all big, bold letters "COFFEE" even though I didn't drink coffee.

I would invite people to "meet me for coffee," but I wouldn't actually get coffee.

I know. It's all sorts of oxymoronic madness. 

But that's me, so just try to keep up.

And then I woke up one morning, and just like that, 

I decided I loved coffee.

I attribute this mostly to LakeGirl but not so much because she's awesome and my north star when it comes to guiding life's decision making,

but more so because she insisted I borrow her collection of Gilmore Girls DVDs.

And after watching obsessively in marathon fashion Lorelai caffeinate over and over and over,

 I figured, in a truly logical manner of course,

"Huh. Lorelai drinks coffee. Lorelai is awesome. Coffee must be awesome."

And yeah. I didn't pay much attention to the fact that Lorelai wasn't real. And in the end it didn't matter much because the equation was totally legit. Coffee is awesome.

Becoming a coffee drinker has had several unexpected bonuses:

1. I spend less money at Starbucks. High five to being all economical me.

2. On Tuesdays-Thursdays (the days I have decided I will no longer stop at Starbucks on the way to work), I have this fun new morning routine once I get to the office and it's really quite enjoyable. I drop my crap off in my office, turn on my computer and then head to the kitchen to make a few pots of coffee. One of my dream jobs has always been to be a waitress, and when I scurry around the kitchen changing coffee filters, and filling carafes and organizing the coffee mugs in the cupboard (and yes, this is part of the routine), I feel all domesticated and fabulous. Don't judge. One of the best parts of life is being able to find joy in the most ridiculous of little things. 

3. Because I make the coffee (see no. 2 above), the partner whose office is next to mine always stops by to wish me a happy morning and thank me for making the coffee. And this makes me smile. 

4. I have started a collection of exceptionally amazeballs coffee mugs. So yeah, this sort of makes the saving money part of No. 1 moot, but meh. The mugs make me happy. Especially this one.

And by the way, that is in fact a pizza grease stain on my jeans.

 Lunch was especially delicious today. 

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream . . .

I figured by quoting Shakespeare, at least this post would start on a classy note . . .

no promises for how it will end.

So the downside to this whole secret blog venture is I can't post real, legit pics of me, 

or the Tiny Human,

which is unfortunate,

because the Tiny Human is super cute and really rad.

You're not really missing much with the absence of my mug.

But on the flip side, the Tiny Human does make a great unicorn,

so there's that for a silver lining.

Exhibit A

So Octoberpalooza month means I dress the Tiny Human in all things Halloween,

day and night.

Exhibit A is evidence of that, with her all spooky and awesome'-like rockin' her Baby Gap Boo jammies.

So with Exhibit A in mind,

know that I totally felt like a dirty tramp when I cheated on October by not only purchasing but wearing these beauts last night:

Thy eyes doth not deceive thee. 

Those are in fact flamingos, wearing Santa hats . . .

and yes, yes you do spy with your little eye tiny little mobile trailer homes to boot,

with Christmas lights strewn about the trailer-home aluminum windows.

Target, you done real good this time. 

Sweet October

Yesterday got away from me . . .

but know this.

In my humble opinion, there is no month in the year more glorious than sweet October.

I also love Halloween and as a result, 

my daughter has been subjected to what I've lovingly deemed "Octoberpalooza."

Beginning October 1st and until the stroke of midnight on All Hallow's Eve, 

I dress her in Halloween-inspired attire from head to toe,

Every. Single. Day.

This year, I upped the crazy and have insisted that the Tiny Human's jammies also be donned with skulls or skeletons or witchy-like monsters consuming copious amounts of candy. 

It's all sorts of over-the-top and admittedly nuts,

which makes me love that we do this even more.

I was sort of worried that the Tiny Human would protest this year . . .

so I preempted the anticipated resistance by taking everything totally out of her closet,

 leaving only the Halloween Octoberpalooza approved items behind.

That way, when she demands to dress herself,

she'll dress appropriately.

Genius.

To my extreme delight, though, the Tiny Human actually seemed legit excited about the madness,

and was genuinely giddy about revamping her closet on Monday night.

She woke up earlier than usual on October 1st,

before I had to leave for work, 

and the first words out of her mouth were, 

"I wear Haw-wo-ween shirt today."

Done. And. Done.