this 'n that

When I feel like writing a post I always have music playing before I start typing. Not so much for inspiration as I just love music. Today, Mazzy Star's "Into Dust" is in my background. It makes me want to blow a kiss to the day.
It's been one of those "I don't want to turn the t.v. on, but just be still" days, a book is waiting for me after I finish this.
I was very sad to wake up this morning to hear about the devastating storms that hit the midwest in the wee hours. It seems as though Mother Nature is starting early this year, with a vengeance similar to the Spring of 2011. Branson, MO my heart goes out to you, as well as Kansas, Illinois and even parts of Indiana.
North TX had a beautiful Spring day today, so I had to spend some time on the patio. I can't believe there are people swimming in the pool that is my backyard, but that's this crazy, unpredictable weather for you.
Now that I'm back inside I think I should have worn sunscreen, oops. Yes, it's that warm.

All day long I kept thinking that we are on extra time today. It's LEAP day after all. Extra time. I feel like I should have done something BIG with it, then I thought, but it's been such a perfect day, that's big enough isn't it? Working from home, taking mini breaks on the patio, makes me more productive than if I am sitting in an office where I can only imagine how fresh the air smells, but I can't know for sure because the windows aren't open there.

But they are here. And I love it!

Tomorrow begins a slightly new (to me) workout regimen that has quite a bit of yoga and pilates in it. A good way to spend the month of March I say. It's my birthday month, along with bringing St. Patricks Day, and the first day of Spring. We haven't really had a winter this year, I'm pretty sure the season will pass as such. I love snow, so was disappointed we didn't have any to play in. But maybe '12 will bring some, never know.

So there you have it. My little corner of the world was rather quiet today. I'll take more of this please, Universe, if you're listening.

See you soon friend,
Tiffany

PS I chose this video for the song today because I think the pictures are way cool.

I love so many things......

I was talking with a friend today about the meet and greet phase with someone that she just started dating recently. She said, "I didn't have one single thing to say about myself when he said, 'well tell me about yourself'".
I replied "But you have so many things to say! It doesn't have to be a grandiose thing, you can begin with something as miniscule as "I love tacos" and go from there. Talk about what you like, what you're passionate about, even if it seems that it will appear small and insignificant. What you love is who you are after all".

I love so many things. Some are small. Some, huge. A few favorite bloggers have posted with their loves, likes, and even hates in list form. It made me think about what mine are.

So this post, will be my likes/loves. Who wants to start with hate, it's such a strong word anyway.

I love taking towels out of the dryer when it has just stopped, when they're still warm and smell like fabric softener. I love wine bottle corks that have quirky sayings on them, or deeper than-quirky quotes. I like text messages from my sisters that make me laugh uncontrollably, a reminder that our sense of humor is identical.
I love tomatoes picked from the vine and eaten right there in the yard they are grown in. I love the smell of sea grass, and the view of the tide rolling in at sunrise. I like long piers that stretch out over the ocean. I like margaritas on the rocks with salt on the rim of the glass. I love the smell of freshly mowed grass. I like coworkers who say the exact same thing to me every morning when I arrive, "goooood morning Tiffany, it's going to be a good day today because you're here". I like movie lines that make me pause the movie and write it down because it was that good. I love the Chuck Lorre Productions vanity cards that display after every episode of The Big Bang Theory. Related, I love The Big Bang Theory. I like that I can listen to pretty much any genre of music and find one song that I fall in love with, country music included which is my least favorite genre generally speaking. I like watching Michael Phelps swim as fast as he can during the Olympic Games. I love people who hold the door for you when your hands are full. I really love people who are nice to the elderly. I love friends that I can sit with, and not talk, but feel so comfortable doing so. I like finding the big dipper in the sky at night. I love the moon, at all stages, whether it's a crescent, a full circle of ethereal marble, or a harvest moon, appearing orange in color. I love Halloween and the season it comes with, Fall. I love watching football games. I love reading books that make the world around me disappear because I become so engrossed in them. I like sparkly necklaces and bracelets. I love the sound a dove makes when it's cooing. I like how turtles never rush anywhere. I love the smell of fresh Stargazer lilies wafting through the house. I like noticing quiet confidence in someone. I love St. Patricks day, and leprechauns and the color green. I like that first moment when I understood the scene with the cat at the end of Breakfast at Tiffany's. I love when a guy can make one word, "hi", seem charming. I like watching Basketball games. I love bunnies with lop ears. I love going to Starbucks. I love coffee, but I like tea too. I like pizza that is piping hot in a cardboard delivery box. I like that I can be alone in a full day and enjoy my own company. I love sleeping in, but I also love rising before dawn so I can see the sunrise. I love Peanuts, both edible and the gang that includes Snoopy. I love Christmas and the smell of pine trees. I love dusk and lit candles throughout the house. I love thunderstorms even when they include lightning. I love the cheese shop in Paris on Rue Cadet that you can smell way before you are standing in front of it. I like taking pictures of things and people. I love playing music really loud in the car, and singing along with it even if the windows are all the way down. I like taking long walks. I love collecting sea shells. I like drinking ice water. I like when I know the right questions to ask. I love the smell of wood burning. I like buying prints from a local artist from wherever I happen to be visiting, away from home.
I love Eddie Vedder. I love watching snow softly falling.

I love knowing that, "the best is yet to be" - Robert Browning

See you soon friend,
Tiffany

PS We have an extra day for breakfast at tiffanys this month, THAT is exciting!

Don't say no, say YES. To everything.

If I were making a status update in Social Media today, it would be this:

Be excited. You're alive, the spring weather is around the corner, already here for some of  us. Take a walk today and ask yourself the right questions. What do I want to do, where do I want to go, who do I want to see, and how will today be even better than yesterday.

I've been chatting this morning with my best friend Brian, about how the sunrise over an ocean transforms me into someone else. I have no problem setting my alarm to rise before dawn, get dressed, and be on the beach so I can sit quietly with coffee and watch that sun appear on the horizon. We both fell in love with Charleston, SC when we visited last May. To the point of seriously considering moving there. We're in the planning stages of going again, so coupling that with discussions about my sisters wedding (Jekyll Island, GA) and a trip home in October for Mizzou homecoming, I'm travel twitterpated right now.

I think I've got to the point of "don't say no, say YES". To everything.  Go NOW, not later. See everything I can, and if I'm invited to go to another country (hello Paris, I miss you) or somewhere with a beautiful beach or gorgeous mountains, I'm going. I would rather buy a plane ticket than twenty pairs of shoes I don't need, or trinkets that will sit around the house and collect dust.

I still haven't been to Seattle, or Maine during a cranberry harvest, or Manhattan, or Italy! But I want to check these places off my travel wish list. Australia....and I think the Virgin Islands is a must too. I could go on for hours.

I hope I've left you dreaming of your travel wish list places. And, I hope you get to go to at least one of them very soon.

See you tomorrow!
Tiffany

PS Tea instead of coffee with breakfast today, do you drink tea?

See you on the other side........

About a month ago, or so, a friend tweeted a link to an article discussing a guy that decided to give up social media AND his cell phone and email for ninety days. You can find that article here: http://news.yahoo.com/90-days-without-cell-phone-email-social-media-015300257.html
It was interesting to read about how he went about this endeavor, because I thought that ninety days seemed like a long time to cut oneself off from the world as we know it today. I think we live in the "now" network these days. Texting, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.....it's all encompassing of "I can know what's going on with just a few clicks" right.....NOW.

Jake Reilly felt that we spend more quality time with gadgets and keyboards than we do with the people we really care about.

I hear ya Jake.

It made me ask myself if I could do that too. Ninety days. Hmmm. With family spread out from the West coast to the East, I don't think I could give up texting or email. But social media? Sure I can.
I've always said that twitter is my news source. I'm pretty sure I was made aware that Michael Jackson left us before he actually did. (RIP MJ). I'm a big fan of handwritten letters, so I thought to myself, I could write to my friends, and have them write to me. Or I could blog more, about "a day in the life of Tiffany".

I gave up Facebook for lent two years ago, solely based on the fact that a friend said I would never be able to do it. When I hear "you can't", I immediately change it to, "I will".

I was fortunately able to visit my sister again recently, in Satellite Beach, FL. Determined to keep my face out of my cell phone, text messages went unanswered for a few days. But I updated both Twitter and Facebook a few times, leaving me with the feeling that maybe I AM a social media addict. At one point I was answering an email from a friend, while my soon-to-be brother in law was talking to me at the same time. He asked who I was texting in a joking manner. I realized right then, that even though I had heard every word he said and was replying accordingly, that I was being rude. I didn't care for that feeling so much. (He was fine, this was my feeling alone).

So, here I am again at that lent crossroad.

I'm not Catholic. But I like the idea of giving something up that would appear to be difficult to let go of. A few Catholic friends have told me that it can be anything from Diet Coke to red meat.

But in 2012, I choose social media. Again. Only this time it will be both Facebook and Twitter. Google Plus, I'm not intentionally leaving you out, but I don't visit you very often I must admit.

As midnight fastly approaches, I'm ready to say a bien tot which means, if you're French, "see you soon" to social media.

Maybe I'll learn something while I'm away. Maybe my relationships will be the richer for it. Maybe I'll read more which is my most favorite pastime. Maybe you will receive a hand-written letter from moi!

Or maybe I will prove that Jake is on to something. He said "when you don't have all that stuff, you expand your mind about what you want to do with your free time".

Indeed.

So facebook and twitter friends, I will "see you soon".

And blog, oh friend of mine, maybe I will "see you MORE".

See you on the other side friend,
Tiffany

PS Breakfast at Tiffany's should be enriched with "live" conversation without my cell phone alerting me every three seconds about the thought-at-the-time of my social media friends. Great people I must say. I'm glad this is temporary.

If such a love exists....

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.


I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day's

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 
Happy Valentines Day my friend,
Tiffany

all things apiphany

"Why the 'all things apiphany'?" he asked.


Well, I'll tell you. Many days I feel like everyone else, blending in with the crowd, giving only my share to the Gross National Product.

But there are many more days that I want to not be like anyone else, and give more than my share, to everything, not just the GNP. I don't necessarily want to stand out in the crowd, but I won't conform to something I don't want to do, or believe in, just to blend in. In the very least, I've got that much figured out. "To thine own self, be true" my mom has always said to me.

With a fierce love for certain words, epiphany has always been a favorite.


"A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something"
 
The aHA! moment that comes when the light bulb goes off above your head because you've just come to understand something. It shows up every once in a while for me, that moment.
 
So, taking the favorite word, and making it my own, I change the "E", to an "A". You'll find me on Twitter as apiphany, and my email addresses are always a form of apiphany in some way. Even online bill-paying includes apiphany in various forms. Stick to what you like, so they say.
 
After I explained to my friend that asked the "why?" he said "oh good I was going to advise that you spelled it wrong. But YOU are Apiphany, so it's correct"
 
Yes. Yes I am.
 
See you soon friend,
Tif....wait
"Apiphany"
 

PS Breakfast at Apiphany's doesn't quite have the same ring does it? aHA! Ah well. Let's leave it, "at Tiffany's". When warmer weather arrives again, back to the patio we go, preferably just as the sun is rising.