5 Things That Make Me Happy

What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?

I saw this prompt from WordPress and decided, why not? Then, I gave the question and its answer some serious consideration. A couple of my responses are no-brainers. The others…well, they are small things that I suppose I take for granted, but nevertheless, they make me super happy!

1. Family

All-encompassing, huh? Okay. Let me get specific. One of my absolute favorite things in the world is ending my day with my mom, watching either true crime or cooking shows. And I love listening to my dad tell stories about him and his brothers when they were younger. And I love hanging out with my brother and sister-in-law, playing video games or watching documentaries.

2. Music

Music ties in directly with family because my parents are responsible for my love and vast knowledge of music. I can’t live without it.

3. Books

Reading brings me so much joy. I’ll usually choose to read a book rather than watching TV. Curling up with a good book and a cup of coffee (or tea) is my idea of Heaven.

4. My cats

I mean, come on. Duh, right?

5. My coworkers

So I don’t always love my job, but I do have a pretty amazing team around me, which sometimes extends beyond the walls of our workplace. My favorite coworker story? The first time my mom had a seizure, we called an ambulance and rushed to the ER. Well, I had been sending snaps to my work bestie, Rocky. He was at the gym, and when I told him what was going on, he asked if I wanted him to come to the hospital. Before I even had the chance to answer (to be fair, I wasn’t staying on top of Snapchat at that point), the outer doors opened and I looked up to find Rocky walking into the waiting room, still in his gym clothes. It was only about 15 minutes later they let us back to see my mom, but the fact that Rocky sat with me and my dad for those 15 minutes told me that we were really friends, and not just on the clock.

And those are my 5. I’m a simple girl. It doesn’t take much to make me happy. I have to say, though, that this list probably would have been fairly different a few years ago.

Mom ❤️
The brotato
Dad 💙
Marceline
Vlad
Rocky
One of my work moms 🩷 (She loved that shirt so I ordered her one.)

Back to Reality

I just spent six wonderful days with my brother and his wife in Colorado, and I am devastated to be back home. Well, actually, home isn’t the problem; work is. My job sucks, but I won’t whine here. I’m sure everyone has complaints about their places of employment. Lol.

Anyway, I flew to Colorado Springs last Monday. My brother (Rick) and his wife (Jayne) picked me up from the airport. We had lunch and drove to their house, where we watched “The Osbournes Want to Believe” and ate dinner. We crashed pretty early, and once I’d caught up on sleep, my vacation could fully begin.

Tuesday was relaxing. We got coffee and did a little sightseeing, including the Catholic cemetery in town, then binged “Outer Banks” and made these really delicious grilled cheese sandwiches with blueberry jalapeño jam, smoked cheddar, horseradish mustard, and caramelized strips of bacon. Yes, it was as good as it sounds. Then, we hauled ass down to this really small haunted house, because it was Halloween and we wanted to do something in honor of my favorite holiday.

Wednesday was exciting, as it was the day we traveled down to Albuquerque for the Wednesday 13 Performs Murderdolls concert. This was the main reason for my trip, though I extended it into a nice family visit instead of a two-day run for nothing but the show. I’m going to write a review of the concert, so I won’t go into details in this post. Let me just say it was worth the 4 hour flight and 3.5 hour drive. Meeting Wednesday 13 (and guitarist Roman Surman) was everything. I’ve been a fan of Murderdolls for 20 years, and I thought I might die. Haha! Wednesday could not have been nicer. I told him that he’d always been my favorite Murderdoll and he said “So give me a hug since I’m yours.” I melted. Oh, and he said it was obvious I wasn’t from New Mexico because of my accent.

Ok. I’ll stop. You can read the rest when I share my review.

Thursday was another lazy day. Rick smoked burgers for dinner and we watched TV. He and Jayne had to work on Friday, and I used that time to do an interview with Adam of EverFelt and bond with their cats.

Rick and I stayed up late, finishing season 3 of “Outer Banks.” When I got up Saturday morning, Jayne was at work and Rick had already found our first college football game of the day. Now, this may seem strange to y’all, but this was the thing I was most excited about, besides the concert. My brother and I haven’t been able to watch football together since he moved to Colorado. Our whole family are huge Alabama Crimson Tide fans, and this past weekend was a big game: Alabama played LSU. Jayne was bored, but Rick and I were happy, especially given that Alabama won.

And then it was Sunday and time for me to get on a plane and return to Alabama. I had two more days off work, which was lucky because I came home with the flu. Now I’m back in the swing of real life and I kind of hate it. Just counting the days until my next trip…

Today Was My Monday

And I felt it, starting at 4:15 a.m.

I woke up with my alarm, rolled out of bed, and stepped just beyond my bedroom door, straight onto a hairball. I guess Marceline was leaving me a message, but I have no clue what I did to piss her off. (She’s shedding terribly at the moment, and she tends to pull out hair, so I know the cause of the hairball itself, just not the location.)

Marceline, otherwise known as Queen of the Hair Ball

By the time I cleaned up and got ready, I was running late. I’m responsible for opening and it was a near miss, yet I had everything done on time.

The first half of my shift wasn’t that bad. Then I went on my lunch break and managed to dump half of my five cheese ziti down my front. -face palm- So then I had to clean that up and finish my day with tomato sauce on my shirt, pants, and shoes (yeah, I made a mess).

Luckily, some of my favorite coworkers were there and spared me from an even worse day. I came home, took a short nap, and fixed dinner. Now I have showered and am half-asleep and I get to do it all over again tomorrow…hopefully minus the hair ball and the loss of most of my lunch to the floor. Lol.

On the bright side: I bought tickets to see Ghost, Mastodon, and Spiritbox, so I guess it wasn’t all bad.

I hope this post finds all of you well, and that your Wednesday was just a Wednesday. Oh, and because I know he’d hate to be left out: here is my other baby, Vlad.

He’s a furry jerk, but at least he doesn’t hack up hairballs right outside my door.

Because furbabies…

I don’t share a lot of personal things here, but I’m gonna give up a small tidbit today.

I have had a rough month. I can’t explain it, because even I don’t fully understand. Suffice it to say that it’s been a daily struggle for just over four weeks. The only things (besides music) that have brought me joy are my furbabies: Marceline, Vlad, and Elwin. And so I’m basically dedicating a post to them. Because furbabies.

Marceline

Vlad

This basically shows their personalities. Vlad is a ham and adorable, while Marceline is dignified…and kinda grumpy.

Elwin

Another personal blog…

IMG_20151009_202544

She disapproved of me staying out so late…

IMG_20150925_190643

But she forgave me 🙂

IMG_20151002_173205

My Jack Skellington dress ❤

IMG_20151009_225143

The bestie

IMG_20151009_135128

Pine Torch Cemetery

IMG_20151009_134806

Pine Torch Church

IMG_20151009_134529

Brushy Lake

IMG_20151002_071835

Sharing a mirror while getting ready for a day out

IMG_20151003_214152

So as you can tell, I’ve been spending time with my BFF (as always) and relaxing with my cat. The bestie, her husband, and I went out exploring on my last off day; that’s where the pictures from Brushy Lake and Pine Torch Church came from.

Other than that I’ve just been working and waiting on a friend to get back from his exile to another state. He moved for a job. Insert sad face here…

Oh! And of course I’m counting the days to new music from Almost Kings and Lynam. 🙂

Just Pictures

I’m not a photographer by any means, but I do love my camera! I simply felt like sharing some things that make my life what it is…and a couple of random selfies.

Just playing around with makeup and hair extensions. 🙂

me

The latest in my collection of Almost Kings merchandise.

ak

Did you know you can make an egg stand on its rounded end during the equinox???

equinox

Easter

friends

Ivy ❤

ivy

Swinging with Ivy

ivyagain

Marceline

marcy

Mother’s Day ❤

mom

Walking around Sparkman Park

park

New outfit and new hair

newhair

redhead

Things I Love [A Personal Blog]

Let me start off with this.

Image

I love Jacob. So much. And these five…

Image

I love the way Ryan Yunker [closest to the camera in the photo above] always likes my statuses on Facebook.

And the way we can talk about Avenged Sevenfold constantly.

I love the way Kevin Compton [third from the front in the same photo] told me I was one of his favorite people.

Speaking of the band, I love Almost Kings. That’s them with the broken down van. Ha!

I love this goofball.

Image

I love Lynam. And Within Reason. And The Velcro Pygmies. And Rearview Ghost. And Shallow Side. And Super bob. And Avenged Sevenfold. And Alter Bridge. And Pink Floyd.

I love music, okay?

I love this girl.

Image

And the fact that she sent me a text telling me to be careful and that she loved me one of the last times tornadoes came through Alabama.

I love riding in a car with her, windows down and music up!

I love Harry Potter.

I love books!

I love watching movies with my dad.

And cooking with my mom and my brother.

And hanging out with my best friend Tiffany and her husband and her adorable daughter.

And how cute my cat is when she cleans between her toes.

Image

And dancing onstage.

Image

And singing…

Image

And Alabama football.

I love vegging out with my girls, eating junk food and mocking lame horror movies.

I love video games.

I could go on and on, but I’m going to stop here. Sometimes, I think it’s good to sit down and list the things you love and are thankful for, just to make sure they still outnumber the negatives in your life. Right now, I’d say I have a lot of reasons to be here. =)

Random Update on Me

I know my posts have been sporadic recently, but it’s been hectic here. I haven’t had the time or, to be honest, the access to a computer to do what I intended to do when I started this blog. However…I am hoping to sort this out soon. I’m already working on my next “Bands You Should Know,” which will feature Lynam, and I may be doing a review of the new Slash/Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators album, World on Fire (though I don’t think I need to tell you how amazing it is; it’s Slash and Myles Kennedy, for cryin’ out loud).

Hmm. I don’t think there’s anything else relevant to share, so here’s a picture that makes me happy:

100_9805

This is my beautiful kitty, Marceline. She wiggled her way beneath that mat even with my mom standing on it. As far as she was concerned, she was hidden. Ha ha! She’s adorable.

Anywho, I should be back next week with a post about Lynam!