What makes you happy?

I would love to know what makes people happy... Please comment...

Today has been a rough day, so I need to remind myself of my favorite simple pleasures.

I'm a big fan of...
Notebooks that have never been written in and are waiting to be filled with ink and sin.
Knowing every word to a song, and better yet, having a friend who can strum it on the guitar.
Making my own smoothies in my ultra-high-powered glass blender.
Eating Thai food in Uggs and PJs after a long day at work.
Passing out on the couch watching TV and waking up to the sun streaming through the window that has no blinds because Jen broke it.
Being at work alone late at night and seeing an overseas friend sign onto MSN or Skype.
"Excellent" wireless connections that I didn't pay for.
People who let me randomly pet their puppies on the street without looking annoyed.
The sound of fingers clicking on a keyboard.
Chai.
My Yahoo Launchcast Radio Station.
Paul's hugs.
Either passing out cold or getting a bunch of work done on airplanes.
4th of July weekend in Connecticut.
Getting caught in the rain on a summer day with someone I love.
Grilled cheese and tomato soup.
Getting mentioned in someone else's blog. If it's nice, that is.
Jen calling me when I travel to make sure that I got in okay.

Good stuff!

Have you ever had someone smile at you in a subway? It can either make your day or creep you out big time.

Someone New

His name is Will and he's been my best friend for the last six years.

I went to Colorado this weekend to see two of my Aiesec friends get married. It's funny what weddings will do to people. I was reunited with Will along with a slew of other old friends. It was just SO GOOD to see him again. It'd been almost a year. But we picked up our friendship as if we hadn't been apart for a day.

Will and I met each other in the dorms our freshman year. I liked him immediately because he was from Oregon and talked like a Californian. He was born a Brit and lived a chunk of his childhood on a boat that his family sailed around the Mediterranean and eventually over to the "New World". A real live Pilgrim! When I met him he'd been living out the past year working in a video store in Estes Park in order to get Colorado residency to go to CU. Just by looking at him, you could tell that he bled snow from all of the skiing he'd done in the past year.

We shared an apartment with a few other roommates our junior and senior years. Paul lived with us the first year, and then it became the House of 'Ill where Jill, Will, Phill, and...well...Laura resided. It was the year of the Practical Joke War when Laura and I put up For Sale signs all over campus trying to pawn off Phill's motorcycle. His cell phone number was listed with a note saying, "Only call really late at night and early in the morning!" The boys got us back though by stealing my car and parking it in another parking lot, allowing me to panic out of fear of having gotten towed. But in the end, the Femme Ruled, when I'd hidden every single pair of underwear Will owned. I'll never forget the look of surprise on his face when I asked him if he was going Commando one day. He thought I could somehow tell!

Being with Will again last weekend brought all of those memories back. I'm realizing for the first time that our friendship doesn't diminish simply because we're adding a new dimension to our relationship. It is pretty weird kissing your best friend. (Ask Jen.) But this may just have potential to last. How cool is that? Maybe I'm not as relationship-challenged as I thought.

When one door closes...

Another one opens? Well, it may be too soon to tell, but I am optimistic.

Running for MCP of Aiesec US has to have been one of the greatest (and most stressful) experiences of my life. Looking back on August of last year when I decided to run, I realize now that I didn't have a CLUE what I was getting myself into. I knew it'd be challenging, but I seriously didn't know HOW challenging. I never realized how much self-examination would be required. But it's been very similar to what I imagine therapy is like. You are forced to see yourself through new eyes... You're forced to see every FAULT, every FLAW, every WEAKNESS. And sometimes...that sucks. But you also see the light inside of yourself that isn't letting you give up. The light that is forcing to fix all of those flaws, and GROW!

And in the end... Even after heartbreak... You can't help but smile. Because who you are now is not who you were then.

Thank you to everyone who encouraged me to take on this challenge. I may have lost, but I feel like I've won because I am far more WHOLE than ever before.

Despite all of that self-reflection and growth though, I have to admit...it is NICE to relax a bit. For a while I felt like I was back in school. Staying up late into the wee hours of the morning editing my application, writing my MCP speech over Christmas break and rehearsing it at night when everyone else was partying at WSC, and then studying over pages and pages of notes before the oh-so-dreaded MCP interview. After my interview, I felt like I had just walked out of finals! Only instead of anticipating my report card, I was awaiting the Board meeting on Monday for the final verdict. Although not the verdict I'd hoped for, I am definitely looking forward to a little bit of chill time back in the homefront of Colorado. The one thing that made the MCP Election different was school is that I never worked that hard for a class! Then again, I never cared near as much about school as I do about AIESEC.

Tomorrow morning (at the break of dawn), I'll be headed home to see my old roommate, Nate, get married. He just so happens to be marrying another friend of mine, Kate, who lived in my dorm freshman year. Nate and Kate (yes, their names rhyme) were both on the EB of Aiesec Colorado. So for those of you who say you've never heard of an Aiesec wedding (if any of you exist), here you go! The No-Aiecest Rule never phased these two, and this weekend they will be taking vows that will join them for life.

How weird is that? I mean, it's GREAT that they are tying the knot. But seriously, I am the most relationship-challenged individual out there, so I just can't see myself in their shoes. I have not been on a real date in almost TWO YEARS!!!! I guess that's not entirely true (there was that one time...), but it is true that I haven't been on a date with anyone in New York, and I've lived in New York for a year and nine months.

So dysfunctional love life? Yes.

Man, look at me, I'm like diarrhea of the mouth (or keyboard?) today. I guess that's 'cause I haven't been keeping up with this weblog thing over the past few weeks because I've been traveling so much. And my travels are a whole other story! But not tonight. I will save the Wheat 'n' Rye and Trainee Reception Week for another blog. Right now I have to leave this office and pack for my big trip tomorrow.

Sweet dreams to nomadlifers around the world! ***