Little Things.

It's a Friday, and let's face it. I have had class all week, I am currently under the influence of about zero caffeine and I have no ideas left in my brain because my English professor sucked them all out of me. Oopps, sorry, guys. 

I have been thinking about the little things that make me happy lately. Considering I have been a roller coaster of emotions lately - just ask my friends, they will nervously agree - I am taking a minute to appreciate the positives. Breathe out the bad, breathe in the coffee...I mean, the good.

1 // When your best friends know you are having a bad day and one buys you a cookie as you are angrily typing away at your computer, and the other carries your purse, laptop and backpack through the rain when you are about to have a mental break down over a paper not printing.

2 // Dunkin Donuts having their Christmas/Winter flavors out; hello red velvet iced lattes.

3 // Having your favorite contestant on The Voice make it through, and you continue to cheer for him like a proud mama, because he can actually hear you, right...?

4 // Getting a tip from a customer that you have been waiting on for years and years and he has finally realized that you give him the best service and he slips you a five dollar bill, and you automatically know it's going to pay for your coffee in the morning.

5 // Finally getting your blog to look the way you want after working diligently on it for weeks and weeks.

6 // Being recognized at work from a play that you did with a local theater company. #applause

Another little thing that makes me happy?

Linking up with Whitney for....

I actually did something this weekend.

Hold up, wait a minute. Can we just take a moment and reflect on the fact that I actually had a moderately decent weekend and tried to document it via my iPhone. I do believe that I deserve a round of applause for said happenings.  Ah, you may be seated.

My weekend started on Thursday which was Halloween. After a totally boring shift at work I came home and hurry-scurried myself into my outfit and boom. I went out to a party with a bunch of my friends from my church and we had a fun time gettin' crazy and loud and doing the Time Warp - it was more than enjoyable.

On Saturday after work Casey and I decided that grabbing Chinese food would be a wonderful idea; oh holy yum. I am a hardcore lover of sweet and sour chicken, and a little shop talk, boy talk and funny talk always does a body good after a nine hour shift. 

Sunday I grabbed an eggnog latte - yes, it's finally time for the winter beverage menu and I couldn't be any happier, I am pretty sure I died inside when I saw the advertisement - and indulged in a red velvet donut, which is another winter favorite. Christmas can't come fast enough.

Sunday afternoon I went out to lunch with my cousin Rachel to my workplace's restaurant. I love going to visit and seeing all my friends. You may ask "Marissa, why do you go to your job when you aren't working all the time?" Well, you see, I don't have many friends and they are all my besties, so leave me alone.

Have a good Monday, y'all.

"The cheesecake wishes you a happy birthday."

Monday, we meet again. But, I am not totally dreading you because, I am not stressed to high heavens this week. So maybe I can actually sit back, relax and have a nice leisurely chat with you, maybe buy you a coffee and a donut; it's only polite.

Well, now that I addressed the Monday in the room...let's talk about our weekends, shall we? #bloggernorms

Like every other Friday and Saturday in the history of my life since I was fifteen, I didn't do anything fun because I work both those days and I come home hot, sweaty and smelling like bread. I don't have time to get all pretty and go out and do fun things. I prefer to stay at home and bake cookies and watch Undercover Boss and Shark Tank, thank you very much. And yes, that's exactly what I did do; except on Saturday night I ate Cinnamon Toast Crunch and watched David Tutera. My life is better than yours.

But Sunday was my momma's birthday, so yay! As I previously wrote about I threw her a surprise birthday party a few weeks back. But today was her actual day of birth, so with tradition in our family we went out to dinner to The Cheesecake Factory and enjoy eating. I ate so much that I won't eat again until next Wednesday. Holy cheesecake, the chicken and biscuits fill me up so hardcore. 

Photo One | Momma & I 

Photo Two | Cousin Rachel & I - Rachel came and celebrated with us.

Photo Three | Our State House lit up in pink for Breast Cancer Awareness & Purple for Pancreatic Cancer Awareness, two causes near and dear to my heart. 

I don't really have all that much else to say, because I stink at writing weekend posts because I am never all that exciting. So, go out and conquer your Monday, you fools.

Ooooh, check out the new digs around here; lookin' nice, eh?!

I'll have a mocha iced latte, with a side of happiness.

I have been having this inward struggle for happiness in my life lately, anybody know what I am talking about? Yup, I see those hands in the air - waving like they just don't care. I have been trying really, really hard to be happy through the sadness, anger and all those other icky emotions I am having on the inside. I don't want to be a grumpy, annoying person who always talks about how awful they feel and wah-wah. I don't want to be a Pity Party Polly, no thank you. I just want to be happy, and not the fake happy that you have to be when you see your old high school class mates and you have to pretend like you care. (I personally try to dodge said people, but sometimes eye contact happens and you can't avoid it, ah!) I want to be genuinely happy. 

So, today, on this Friday, I choose to be happy.

I am choosing to wake up this morning and say "hey self" - yeah, that's how I talk - "you are going to go about your day with a smile on your face and you are going to appreciate your life". I am so sick of moping through days pretending like I am happy when I really just want to watch Kardashian re-runs and eat coffee ice cream. But that's not being a productive member of society like they taught me about in middle school. . I am not going to let stupid over thinking ways, frustrating situations and careless comments affect my day. Essentially, I not going to let being a girl get in the way of my happiness! I am going to get up and conquer this day; with a little bit of espresso

Shine bright like a diamond, wildcats. 

Keep your head in the game.

Yes, I'm Troy Bolton.

Weekend Update - on a Wednesday, oh yes!

This weekend was filled with lots of loud Italians screaming, to say the least.

I was working all weekend because during Columbus Day they shut down the street in the Italian neighborhood that I work on and have a big festival/feast. All the Italian-Americans come out and eat sausage and pepper sandwiches, grab a beer and listen to whatever different band is playing at the different street corner. All hands on deck for this weekend, so everyone is working; which makes things so much fun and incredibly entertaining. 

Thankfully, I only had to work two days this weekend - booya! I worked Saturday and had a fun day with all my friends working and goofing off at every chance we could. I grabbed some grub with my girl Casey and we sat and watched our valet friend scramble parking cars on the gridlocked side streets. Oh, and listening in on their moronic conversations via walkie-talkie; our channel walkie-talkie picked up theirs and we got to here them talking to each other. Let me just tell you: men are easily amused humans.

Sunday I had the pleasure - nervous pleasure - to throw my mom a surprise birthday party. First, let me tell you how hard this was because I live with the woman. But, thanks to the help of my amazing partners in crime; my cousin Rachel, our friend Lena and my Aunty Caroline, we managed to pull this thing off! My mom was totally surprised and she ended up having a really nice time at the party. She was mad at me that I spent all my money, but she enjoyed herself for once in a long time and I was glad that I could have given her a good day to remember.

Monday was a busy day at work, and the only good thing about the day was that I was sprung a half hour early and I got walk around the actual feast with Casey and she grabbed some food and we spent some time with our favorite boys and I spent my night watching The Voice. So, that's how I spent my holiday - working.