Happiness - According to Ms. Luella Bates Washington Jones

I find a lot of joy in the little things. In fact, I find joy in finding joy in the little things, so I try to document those layers of joyfulness whenever possible. Usually, they sneak up on me so my phone serves as my means of documentation. Here are some of the happy things Ms. Luella Bates Washington Jones has captured lately.

{It is absurd how happy a new set of colored pens can make me. My love of school supplies goes way back and was a significant factor in my decision to become a teacher. Then I learned that the students had a tendency to abscond with them.}

{Now that I'm not teaching, it's easier to keep awesome colored pens around, but it's slightly more difficult to justify their purchase. Let's just say my to-do lists are very pretty.}

{This is from a while ago, but the combination of Tom, Lucy, and a healthy glass of Zin makes for a very happy time indeed.}

{Tom and I were very late to the party on this one, but seriously? I love these characters so much that I am willing to believe all the crazy-ass nonsense that they get into.}

{Hi there.}

{Mom busting a move}

{Lucy wanted in.}

{the succulent wreath in action}

Week 15: Caine's Arcade

Last Friday, (after a little wine) I finally watched this video:



Did you watch it? Seriously, go watch it. It's ten minutes long - you have ten minutes. See? I mean, have you ever? Anyway, I just watched it again, and I am still so in love with it. Caine's enthusiasm, his dad's willingness to let his kid run amuk all over his shop, how Nirvan is all, "heck yes, I want a fun pass," the way all of those strangers came out to make Caine's dream come true...the whole thing just fills me with love for all of humanity. If I'm this effusive about it now, dead sober, you can imagine how a few glasses (ok a bottle) of wine would intensify this feeling of love for all the world. I was basically Ebeneezer on Christmas morning after watching this thing...

Want to know the best part? When the Caine's Arcade website was first established, they decided to try to raise a little money for a scholarship fund for Caine's future education. The initial goal was to try to raise $25,000. As I write, the PayPal widget on the website shows that a total of  $179,271 has been donated to help fund Caine's education (a move to a private school now and savings for college later). And, actually, it gets even better - the Goldhirsh Foundation has agreed to match donations to the scholarship fund dollar-for-dollar. These matching funds will be used to establish a separate Caine's Arcade Foundation that will "help find, foster, and fund creativity and entrepreneurship in young kids." The interweb can be such a force for good - it's not all cat videos and cyberbullying after all!

Anyway, point is, I watched the video and decided that Tom and I needed to make a pilgrimage to East L.A. to get ourselves a fun pass. The next morning, I held on to my tipsily arranged plans and looked up the website again to get directions to Caine's arcade.  Lo and behold (who says that?), they had scheduled a block party for Saturday since the arcade would be closed on Sunday because Caine was going to be making his First Communion... I mean, really. Could this kid be any more adorable?

{source}

We weren't the only people who decided to come check out Caine's Arcade. You could feel the goodwill in the air.

The line to buy a fun pass stretched down the block, so we hung out for a bit, signed Caine's guest book, and headed home.

All in all, it was the perfect way to spend a Saturday morning. In addition to the rare opportunity to see an arcade made entirely of cardboard, I got a glimpse of an L.A. that I never get to see.

Around the Neighborhood with Ms. Luella Bates Washington Jones

Working at home is great, but it has it's hazards, not the least of which is the close proximity of both the couch and the kitchen. In an effort to combat the temptation to nap and/or make baked goods that seems to strike around 3:30 every day, I've been taking a lot of late afternoon walks.

The other day, I walked by a house where a cat was keeping watch from the front step. As soon as he saw me pass his walkway, he ran out and started walking next to me. He walked with me for the rest of the block and then went on his merry way.

Cats are weird.

Window shopping is more like window admiring around here since the shops in my 'hood are on the high end of the spectrum. Sadly, Vera Wang and Carolina Herrera are not exactly in the budget at the moment. But, oh aren't the windows pretty?

This particular store, Neil Lane to be precise, comes with it's own security... I'm assuming that part of his job involves checking your credit score before he lets you in.

This guy doesn't live in my neighborhood, but I couldn't leave him out. His home is the window of a boxing studio (boxing club?) next door to the salon manly haircut place where Tom gets his hair done cut in San Diego.

So the moral of the story is: walking is fun and less likely to lead to a mirror-induced panic disorder come bikini shopping season than mid-afternoon bingeing.

Week 1: Mt. Hollywood Trail Ride

Seeing as we're already into the second week of the year, I'm a bit late in kicking off this new project, but this idea came to me as most of my ideas do, at the last minute. I decided that, in the spirit of the Year of Yes, I will try to do one thing each week that I have never done before. I also decided that I will do my absolute best to document this novel event here, on my oft-neglected blog. My goal will be to get the weekly post up by Sunday night. I realize that it is Monday, and I have, therefore, already failed to reach my goal. Happily, this is my blog and I make the rules, and I say that I can start today.

My new thing for the first week of 2012 came courtesy of a lovely, thoughtful Christmas gift from my awesome husband. In addition to a Sodastream (two new things - I made my own soda this week!) and a Michael's gift card, Tom gave me a gift certificate for a trail ride with Sunset Ranch.

Even though it's been years since I last sat atop a horse, I often think about how much I miss riding, and I actually have dreams about it all the time. Anyway, I was a little worried that a canned trail ride on a pokey old pony wouldn't live up to my memories. As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised. It actually felt really good to sit on a horse again, and since I vainly declared myself an "expert" equestrian, I was assigned to Roxy, the liveliest of Sunset Ranch's fleet.

{Sadly, being an expert equestrian does not earn you an exemption from the dorky helmet requirement.}

The best part was that none of the other would-be riders who showed up at the ranch while we were waiting for a guide were hardcore enough to want to join us on the two hour ride, so Tom and I were the only people in our group. Our guide was Lila, a sweet girl from Alabama who moved to L.A. six months ago to pursue...you guessed it, acting. I always thought it was an over-hyped cliché, but Lila was the second person we met that day who had moved here with dreams of seeing her name in lights. Hopefully, one of the many Hollywood heavy hitters who read my blog will be inspired to head to Sunset Ranch and give Lila her big break.

{Tom and Neptune followed by Lila and Tracer}

Our ride took us from Sunset Ranch to the top of Mt. Hollywood, with views of the city, the sea, and the Hollywood sign in between.

The ride was a really lovely way to spend two hours. I could almost forget that I am sharing this city with 3,792,620 other people. [Tangent: The last time that Tom and I were stuck in traffic on the drive from San Diego to L.A., I attempted to distract myself by looking up population statistics about all of the places I've lived. Population density pretty much sums up the differences: L.A. - 8,092.30 people per square mile, San Diego - 4,002.6 people per square mile, Shelburne, Vermont - 294.0 people per square mile.] There were other people on the trail, but on the back of a horse, you are literally and figuratively above it all. That combined with the Roxy's rhythmic rocking gait made for a very relaxing couple of hours.

So, to sum up, week one of The Year of Yes and Doing New Things was a success indeed. I had almost forgotten how very much I like to view the world through a pair of horse ears.

P.S. - Just 'cause they're cute - gratuitous pictures of the ranch's baby chicks.

Gratitude - Day Four

Today, I'm grateful for little things. I guess that's pretty much the overriding theme for the whole month, being thankful for the little things. Here are a few of the simple pleasures I'm enjoying this weekend.

-hot pink gloves that make scrubbing the kitchen floor a tiny bit more glamorous (I actually don't mind cleaning at all. There aren't too many other tasks that provide such immediate gratification.)

-mid-afternoon naps (I have no photo of this, for obvious reasons.)

-plenty of time to linger over the getting ready process (I'm heading out tonight to see Tom play with Melly Frances and the Distilled Spirits, and since I had plenty of time, I decided to go all out with the hot rollers. This would be even better if my favorite ladies were here and getting ready was liberally interrupted by coffee chat, but I'll take what I can get.)

-edible souvenirs (Having Tom home is no small thing, but the special treats he brings me from Japan definitely count as simple pleasures. These uniquely Japanese treats are green tea Kit Kats!)

Gratitude - Day Three

Today, I am grateful for coziness, a state of warm, snug comfort, according to the dictionary. It rained today, and I seized the opportunity to cultivate coziness. There are a few simple steps to creating a state of warm, snug comfort, and I will share them with you now.

Step 1: Find appropriately cozy apparel. I, personally, broke out my "sexy lumberjack" flannel shirt for the first time this fall. Plaid flannel is ideal when cultivating coziness. If it is cute and ruffled, all the better.

{Thanks to my sisters for finding this shirt and letting me bite off their style.}

Step 2: Put on some rainy day music or NPR. I went with the soothing tones of Ira Glass and This American Life. I'm a geek, get over it. For serious though, listen to Ira Glass's voice - instant coziness. I pulled up the podcast on my phone and plugged it into Tom's new amp (Yamaha!) which upped the cozy factor even more because it looks old timey and emanates a warm red glow.

Step 3: Cook or bake something, preferably something that will fill your home with the smell of cinnamon and/or nutmeg. This part can be tricky because you have to use whatever ingredients you have on hand because running to the store in the driving rain is not snug or comfortable. Happily, I had everything necessary for pumpkin cookies. I get extra cozy points for having pumpkin on hand.

Step 4: Enjoy. Eat a cookie; listen to the rain; take a nap if you want. If you have a partner in coziness, now would be a great time to play Scrabble.  That's it - relax and enjoy the state of snug, warm comfort you have created.

Felicities

In an effort to focus on the positive...more things that make me happy!

- plentiful produce
I'm sure that this has made the list before, but the bounty of fresh. local produce that is always available is one of the many reasons that I can't imagine living anywhere but California. Late summer is a real high point...

{heirloom tomatoes}

{figs}

 

-lazy brunches at which we spot celebrities
On Monday, Tom and I slept in. Like super, ridiculous, lazy slept in. By the time we were finally showered and reasonably presentable, it was almost one and we were ravenous. We made our way to Le Pain Quotidienne (the name sounds unbearably pretentious in West Hollywood, but the original was in Belgium, so they get a pass). It was delicious, and we saw my sister's celeb doppelgänger, Amanda Peet.

-homemade lunches
There are lots of things about being unemployed that suck - the lack of a paycheck and sense of purpose being two that come to mind, but there are also some things about being unemployed that do not suck. One of those non-suck things is having more than thirty minutes to prepare and eat lunch. The ability to go to the bathroom whenever I wish is also a plus. But I digress. Today I took some of the aforementioned plentiful produce and made myself a kick ass salad for lunch and I ate it when I wanted, not at some predetermined time when the man thinks I should have lunch... This is sounding less and less cool as I write it, but it's the little things, right? Right? Whatever, my salad was awesome. Work is for suckers.

-finishing stuff
This week my sense of accomplishment came from completing a crafty project that involved wire cutters, spray paint, and a staple gun. I felt like a teenaged hoodlum; it was awesome. Pictures are on the way, but here's a preview.