Whimsy

When I feel like I’m not enjoying a season enough, I turn to Bella Grace for advice. Just one quick browse of their seasonal suggestions, and I remember what I’m supposed to be doing: feeling gratitude for life. So here on this hot and humid summer Friday is a Bella Grace list of 25 ways to enjoy the whimsical nature of summer. Enjoy!

If it is sunny today, then take 10 minutes to bask in the glow of gratitude. Bring nothing but a thankful heart with you outside.  If you can free up your schedule, then invite a friend over for lemonade and scones. Make it fancy with striped straws and lace napkins.

If you haven’t called home lately, then do so and tell the person who answers a favorite summer memory they were a part of.

If you are hungry, then go to an ethnic restaurant you’ve never tried before. Invite a friend to dine with you and pretend you are food critics. Tip well out of sheer kindness.

If you want to dip into your boho style, then go to a local string of vintage/antique shops and put together an outfit worthy of your unconventional elegance.

If you are feeling ordinary, then recognize what an extraordinary privilege it is to be so! Go to the magazine racks and imagine if your face were on every cover. Buy big sunglasses to avoid the imaginary paparazzi, and go dwell in your extraordinary ordinary day.

If you feel like you’re missing your youth, then go to the library and rent all of the favorite books you read as a child. Curl up with your old teddy and read the stories aloud in the characters’ voices.

If you are near a cemetery, then take some time to honor the lives that have passed before you. Walk slowly, and read the names of those who walked this journey and have now moved on to the next. Imagine what their lives were like.

If you are feeling adventurous, then get in your car with no phone, no map, and no agenda of when to be back. Get lost on purpose; turn by turn, just drive.

If you need some love, then take the afternoon to go to a local humane society. Take your time meeting new furry babies. Snuggle and surround yourself with purring perfection and puppy kisses. If you have some spare change, then donate!

If you have a new notebook and favorite pen, then make it a dedicated space for lists. Make one page a list of favorite people. Make another page a list of the places where you want to travel. Try to compose a list of the sounds that make your heart beat faster. Fill the rest of the pages as inspired list ideas come to you.

If you have a significant other, then spend a day together where everything is their choice. Be as selflessly, arduously in love as you can be. Get lost in the bliss of not needing to make a decision and delighting in the company of only the two of you. Schedule another day in the future that is all about you. If you are single, then be bold in loving yourself! Make confidence your mate, and take yourself on a well-earned date for one. t If you are feeling nostalgic, then go on a photo treasure hunt. Seek out pictures of past loves, long-ago friends, and lost family. Allow yourself to slip back into the memory captured in front of you, and reminisce at the beauty of that moment.

If you’re in a bad mood, then create a loud-song-only playlist. Sing along until your throat hurts. Turn up the volume until your ears ring. Soothe your soul with listless lyrics that feed your feisty spirit.

If you’re missing cooler weather, then celebrate winter for the day. Watch holiday movies. Make frozen hot chocolate. Crank up the air conditioning and make a fire in the fireplace. Wrap up in cozy blankets and get your comfort on.

If you have vacation days to spare, then call a few friends and plan an impromptu trip. Pack a bag and go! Meet somewhere between your destinations and make it the place to be. Rent a room at a bed-and-breakfast, book massages and mani/pedis. Grab the newest bestseller and recharge together!

If you feel like learning, then explore the museums in your city. Take a weekend to tour two or three of the leading art, science, and history hot spots around you. Take notes. Take pictures. Immerse yourself in the culture of which you are a part.

If you have a sweet tooth, then find a new local bakery to visit. Order the most delectable thing on the menu. Didn’t you know summer-sweet calories don’t count?

If you are blessed with a thunderstorm, then embrace every moment of it! Turn off all the lights in your house and burn candles. Cuddle under a blanket made of only the softest material, and sink into a new novel that you read cover-to-cover.

If you’re feeling restless, then have a get-up-and-go day. Pack a backpack with water, snacks, a book, and sunscreen. Leave the moment you wake up and don’t come home until well after the stars have come out. Track your day hour to hour and see just how much you can accomplish when you’re on the go.

If you feel the sea calling you, then answer your inner mermaid and find the water. Whether a river, pond, lake, ocean, or puddle, put on a cute suit and own your inner magic.

If you are sad summer is ending, then be in denial. Watch a marathon of summer movie titles. Go to the beach one more time. Build a sandcastle. Grill summer squash and carve a watermelon into thick, ripe slices. Refuse to say goodbye to the sunshine and watch it boldly as it slips down the horizon line.

Ruminations

My brain is tired, give me a break this week, I beg you. Tomorrow I will talk about holiday desserts, but for now, here are some things I texted myself this week:

Barbie houses are still cool, I don’t care how feminists try to demonize Barbie and the color pink. What’s so wrong about looking hot and wearing pink? The Pink Panther does it.

Why don’t Legos have price tags on them? Why hide the price on the wire shelf, like we don’t know plastic bricks cost 29.99?

Why would an orthodontist need a truck with his logo on it? Is he making house calls?

When you talk on a cell phone in public, really loudly, knowing people hate you for it, do you take pleasure in that hatred? Is it a free will thing? Or were you dropped on your head as a baby?

Why does a Christmas cookie with morning coffee seem so indulgent before Christmas, but so nefarious after?

$20 gift idea for a sister, mom, aunt or GF: the winter issue of Bella Grace magazine. Bella Grace is more like a photography book than a magazine, and it’s the perfect reading material for her to curl up with, along with a blanket and a cup of tea. Oh, and I have an article in there on page 106.

‘Tis the season to be self-serving, fa la la la la, la la la la.

I Do Declare

The most recent issue of Bella Grace magazine has an essay entitled “21 Simple Declarations to Get You Through the Day.” Here are some:

  • All is well.
  • It hasn’t happened…yet.
  • I am enough.
  • I choose love.
  • Embrace my flaws, and call myself “Flawsome” (Oh dear God)
  • With every breath I release my stress.

I adore Bella Grace magazine. It’s just that their declarations seem a little hands-off. Perhaps you’d prefer some of mine:

  • (Behind a car at a traffic light as it turns to green): “Green means go, asshole.”
  • (Eating wings at 10:00 a.m.): “Here’s to protein.”
  • (Considering greedy, dumb, awful people): “I’m going to enjoy it when they’re in jail.”
  • (Drinking a beer with a wedge of lime at 11:00 a.m. on a hot summer Saturday): “Beer is wheat, so it’s like toast with jelly.”
  • (Booking another trip before I’ve even gone on the next one): “Carpe freaking diem.”
  • (Getting 200 Facebook notifications): “Fuck OFF.”
  • (Diddling my pitch up onto the green): “Fuck me.”
  • (Responding to work emails): “Fuck you.”
  • (Smiling into my bathroom mirror with a mouthful of toothpaste at the end of my day, proud of my ability and refusal to take any active part in the manifestation of anything even remotely social): “That’ll do, Pig. That’ll do.”

And to send you off to your weekend with some feel-good vibes, here’s a little Double T for ya. Travis Tritt is just as cute, magnetic and gorgeous in person as he looks in the video, and I was AT this concert, or at least a concert on this tour. Yep, I was one of those swooning women in the audience, but I didn’t get to shake his hand. I tried. If you had been there, you would have swooned too. Even the men were swooning. TT’s got X-Factor up the yin-yang, and I couldn’t love him more. So here’s to making some homemade soup, getting a new tattoo, taking your boat, truck or bike for a cruise, or growing a Foo-Manchu, if that’s what turns you on. And turn the music the hell up, there’s no other way to listen to this song.

And remember: it’s a great freaking day to be alive. Ah WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!