:)

i have the hugest smile on my face right now.

read the previous post and then look at the 'anonymous' comment.

so.cute.

I love you, Dadda!


Joy is the feeling of grinning inside.
-Melba Colgrove

FALL!

guys,
the weather FEELS like fall today!
so much joy in this.

ps: here's a little something i wrote last year about fall:

Do you know what i love? love with every figment and fiber and thread and molecule in my body? It is FALL.

I LOVE the fall. love, love, love, love, love, love, love, LOVE it!

I love the orange of pumpkins and the gold of crunchy leaves; i love the crispness in the air; i love how starbucks starts to serve pumpkin spice lattes; i love that Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas are all within just a few months of each other; i love how fall slowly freezes into wintery blissfulness and mugs of hot cocoa and the smell of cinnamon and pine trees and sugar cookies. I love the chill in the air, freshness of the sky, the silhouettes of the trees as they shed their leaves, the October moon, and the way it starts to get dark and we can cozy in for the evening a little bit earlier.

It's beautiful in life how we can have so many beginnings and endings, you know? These cycles are important. They remind us that we can continually begin again... there are always new beginnings and seasons in which our hearts can change.

and for me, fall is maybe the most profound reminder of this. When the sun rises and it is all of a sudden distinctly fall instead of summer ... in nashville, it seems to have happened just over night... I am reminded of the power of an unchanging, mighty, merciful, and steadfast God who allows second chances and periods of renewal every. single. second.

and praise for that.

happy fall :)

bench talks

bench talk (n.) - a talk with a great friend on a bench in a public place where you can kick off your shoes, people-watch, eat sweet cece's and enjoy the first official night of fall for
as.long.as.you.decide.to.do.so.
hooray!
joyjoyjoy.

wogging and pesto-ness.

today i wogged 6 miles.
do you know what wogging is?
it's walk-jogging.
i tried to run the whole 6, but i had to walk a little bit.
slowly gettin back in the swing...

dinner = pasta w/ pesto.
so, so perfect and delicious.

bedtime!
night!

gas station sign

"Be a little kinder today."

Today, I saw this on a sign outside a gas station sign and just loved it.
Hope you're having a great weekend!
meg :)

bedtime.

today, it is bedtime that brings me joy.
this is not because i had a bad day, nor
is it because feel overly stressed or anything like that;
i'm just simply egg.zoss.ted.
nigh night!

the little things

it's 11:30 pm and i'm
sitting next to a new lavender vanilla candle,
loving the fact that my legs are silkysilkysilky smooth cuz i just shaved,
and drinking a combination of seltzer and raspberry-strawberry juice from a wine glass
while responding to emails and wrapping up the day.

joy in the small things!
meg

man.

today was an all-around great day.
i never intended for this blog to be a tell-all about what i do in my days,
but today's entry is gonna be exactly that.

i worked at burger up all morning (slash til 4).
i love working there.
i love the people i work with, i love getting to meet and talk with so many new people each day, i love that i can sip on diet coke whenever i want, i love that i can eat delicious french fries and other yummies at the end of my shifts, and i really just love the vibe of the whole place.

then i dashed home, changed super fast, and went to hot yoga.
so. so. intense today.
wanted to walk out of there bc i felt like a was gonna die about ten times...
but then it was over
and then i felt great.
i love that feeling of having worked really hard for something, sticking it out, and then feeling great.

at night, i made dinner with some of my girlfriends.
we made pasta with this yummy homemade tomato sauce and a yummy caesar salad w/ lots of parmesan-reggiano cheese and shared a delicious bottle of shiraz,
and then they had vanilla ice cream and i ate a blue ice pop.

as we were sitting at the table and i was taking a sip of wine, i had one of those moments where it was like -
man.

anyway-
that last part is terribly inarticulate, but maybe you get my gist.
i just feel really in a good place right now and i'm incredibly grateful for that.

there have been several times in my life where i have been like
where.
is.
the.
joyyyy?
(and will joy ever really come again? and will i ever get out of this massive black hole of uncertainty and depression?)

... and then i do.

joy is always restored.

xo,
meg :)

jambalaya, the little ones, and playin

the rees family is really awesome.
there are 8 kids.
the 4 oldest ones play in a band together.
the 4 younger ones are the most precious little lovies in the world.
paige makes some meeeean jambalaya.
steve brews his own beer.
max and kolbe do the cutest version (ever) of 'home on the range,' ukelele and all.
(max and kolbe are 6-year-old twins).
angelle ran up to me and said 'you are my best friend in the whole entire WORLD!' when i came in the front door tonight. :)
(angelle is 8).

tonight i went over to this joy-filled home and got to feast on paige's authentic traditional cajun jambalaya.
i also got to play 'maid' with precious mollie girl (who is 4),
and
after all the little kids went to bed,
the big kids plus some mutual friends plus myself went to the band room and had a jam session complete w/ drums, keys, 3 guitars, bass, a bongo and loveeee.

joy was resonating.
music is so cool.

sushi and dead poets

tonight i ate sushi for dinner and watched dead poet's society for the first time.
yes and yes.

:)

zumba, yoga, hot yoga!

today
i got to do zumba, yoga, and hot yoga
all for my job!

i came home after the last class feeling exhausted, but in that
good-exhausted way.
ju know?

joy for today = working for lululemon.
i am loving it!

sleepy time.
meg

east meets wedge

tonight i went to dinner @ pm w/ my friend colbs.
i ate a salad called 'east meets wedge' and it was delish.
good friend(s) + good food = joy :)

laundry day

i need to do laundry more than i think i have ever needed to do laundry in my entire life.

a) i really don't like doing laundry.
b) actually, i normally dread it.
c) i don't want to have a dreadful day tomorrow.
d) joy is way better than dread.
e) help me have a joyful laundry day by posting your (latest) favorite
songs,
pandora stations,
artists,
and
anythingelses
that i must hear.

ps: my joy for today was having tea w/ taisa after a long day of work.

xo.

messy buns and music funs

for the guys out there,
just disregard.

for you girlies, though,
the messy bun that just works the first time?
(i mean, works as in you can just wear it out in public all day after hopping out of the shower and having no time to do anything else with your soppingwetscragglepuff of a head of hair ...
bam baby.

joy numero dos = going to a show at what i like to refer to as the hippest, vibe-iest place in the nash:
my friend molly's apartment.

molly is a friend
(slash super talented musician/singer/songwriter) from vandy, and she and her friend matt recently started this awesome thing called "The Hoop," where, on the first Saturday of every month, they host a house show featuring several artists/writers from around town...
and it is so, so awesome.
... chill, intimate, encouraging, supportive, fun...
awesomecool.

nighty night!
meg :)

"Character is a measure of how you treat people who aren't able to help you, love you, or give you anything at all."
-quote from a little book i saw on a coffee table tonight

acantaloupeorangecottoncandyblueelectricpinksunsetinthetennesseenightsky.

yep.
that's what brought me joy today.
nature is powerful stuff.

i also loved dipping my lunch wrap in a huge pile of yellow mustard (i'm on this weird yellow mustard kick lately- it tastes so. freaking. good to me. all the time), and hearing my friend jade tell me about how she competed in weekly roller skating competitions when she was in fifth grade.

ta ta!
meg :)

trader joe's spaghetti-o's...

mmm.
today was a lovely day!

i got up and went running with my friend taisa, and even though it was still breakfast (ish) time when we finished... all i wanted to eat was a can of trader joe's spaghetti-o's.

now i'd never had these things, but i saw them in the store the other day, and for some reason (most likely connected to the fact that i was always curious about them when other kids would bring them to school for lunch back in the day), i bought a can.

long story short, i ate them for breakfast (ish). (it was 10:30).
they were delicious.
they brought me joy.

another thing that brought me joy today was meeting with / doing yoga with all the girls who work with me at my new job (new job = an educator for lululemon) !! i can't wait to post more about this in the next few days, but suffice it to say that i feel like i have found my soulmate job for where i am in my life right now.
i am so, so excited about it!

joy to you,
meg :)

the plan... revised :)

ya'll,
i have a weakness i'm going to tell you about.
it's called
setting unrealistically high expectations for myself cuz i get so excited and enthusiastic about things very easily and think the sky's the limit and that i will have enough time to do many things in my day... and then getting completely burnt out and rather than just taking baby steps or doing something related to the original project i set out to do, ... shutting down completely.

that's kind of what's happened with this bliggity blog.
i started it at the beginning of they year thinking i would make a video every day and add music and text and pictures and blah blah blah... and i was pumped about that for a while, but then it got to be so, so, so time-consuming, and instead of simply writing a little blurb or posting a picture or doing something a little more reasonable given my work schedj and stuff, i just quit posting altogether.

lame face!

slash human and something that i know a lot of other people out there struggle with as well... but you know what i mean.

so.
here's my plan from here on out:
share my joys in whatever way i can.
(and at least 3-4 days per week).
way more mange.
(manageable).

the intent of this project was (and remains) simply to share the little things that bring me joy in my day,
and that can be done it lots of different ways besides making videos.

so...

the end.
(and the beginning).
joys from today being posted in one sec.

xo.
meg