Jealous of Boston

As a Colorado gal, I have to say: I love me a good snowstorm.

It's been ages since DC had anything in the way of accumulating snow (officially, we've had a total of exactly 1.5 inches this year...this makes me sad), I find myself looking back on Snowmageddon with what basically amounts to overwhelming nostalgia.

Brandon and I had only been dating for a few months, but we were more or less living together at that point. Knowing that the snowstorm was going to pretty much cripple DC, we hunkered down in his apartment, grilled ribs and steak on the deck amidst blizzard conditions, and I think I read at least two books in short order.

Oh, and I played in the snow like a little kid. Because, as I may have mentioned before, I'm basically a four-year-old trapped in an adult's body.

Sigh. I miss it.

This, of course, makes me immensely jealous of Boston, which is supposed to get slammed with an epic snowstorm tomorrow. If there are any Bostonians out there reading this, please go frolic through a snowdrift for me!

Anyways, I might not be on the business end of an historic blizzard, but I've still had an awesome week. This week has featured a handful of things that have either improved my quality of life by, like, a bajillion orders of magnitude, or have just generally made me really happy.

And, since it's Thursday, it's time for...Thankful Thursday! Thanks, as always, to Jessie over at Jessie Loves to Run for hosting.

...The white noise app I discovered on my phone. As you may recall from last week, I was having a really hard time sleeping through the night -- random noises kept waking me up, and it was driving me slowly insane. Then I found the white noise app, and I've been sleeping like the dead ever since I put it to use. Epic win.

 

...The bus. I've relied on the Metro during my daily commute for the past four years, and it was infuriating. This week I finally got out of the house (and the office) early enough to take a bus, and...HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. The bus is amazing, people. My commuting time has been cut in half, I don't have to walk a half mile on crowded, narrow sidewalks filled with chain smokers (so. Effing. Gross.), I usually get a seat, I'm not crammed into a small space with a ton of angry people, and I can actually see the sun instead of being stuck underground while breathing noxious fumes that smell like burning electrical equipment and are probably loaded with carcinogenic junk. I've gone from hating my commute to loving it -- and as anyone who reads my Facebook feed can tell you, this is a really, really big deal.

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...The idea to watch movies on my Kindle while I'm at the gym. I no longer feel like I'm slogging through my cardio, *and* I get to watch all the crappy rom-coms that I've been wanting to see for ages. It's such a win-win! After finishing Pitch Perfect, I realized there are some free rentals available since I'm a member of Amazon Prime, so I've moved on to No Strings Attached. Natalie Portman + Ashton Kutcher = good times.

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...Libraries. I'm a voracious reader, and now that I'm done with my IIN schoolwork, I once again have time to do lots of leisure reading. Of course, the list of books that I want to read is as long as your average cruise ship: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, The Bungalow by Sarah Jio, Mindset by Carol Dweck, Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller, In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson...the list goes on. And on. And on and on and on. I don't want to buy all these books, though -- we're trying to save money, and a book-buying binge won't help us on that front. Between the Kindle lending library and the public library, though, I'm all set. I can get most of them on my Kindle, and those that I can't read electronically I'll gladly read in hard cover. The only downside is that there's a good chance I won't come up for air for the next six months.

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Lastly, the biggest and most exciting thing I'm thankful for this week (!!) is...drum roll please...the fact that my first article for Girls Gone Sporty has been published! (*Does happy dance*) You can check it out here, and feel free to distribute far and wide. This aspiring writer is practically verklempt with happiness!