Everything I know I learned from Girl Scouts.

When I was in Girl Scouts we used to sing a song about how friends were flowers in the garden of life. I can almost picture singing this song with my fellow Brownies, clutching each others' hands as we belted out the lyrics in a semi-circle. Girl Scouts felt incredibly important in grade school - maybe it was the sash - but I took it all to heart. Maybe that's why, 20 years later, girl scout songs are still belted out in my shower on a semi-regular basis.

I have fabulous friends who despite distance and time I still keep in close contact. Even those I don't speak to regularly are still held on my mantel shelf of awesome. I am incredibly proud of the people I choose to keep around me. And it sucks - incredibly - to be far away from all of them right now. I only hope that the new friends I make will be half as good as the ones I already have.

I checked my google reader today only to find this online shoutout on one of my favorite blogs, thanks to Lizzie. Who doesn't love a little online love, now and then? Despite the Austin heat, I still appreciate the warm fuzzies. And speaking of warm fuzzies...

Friends are like flowers, beautiful flowers

Friends are like flowers in the garden of life.

Are you a Daisy? Are you a Rose? Are you a Dandilion?

You can be what you are and I willl be what I am

We can be friends in the garden of life.

Are you gagging yet? Pish posh, get over it - a little joie never hurt nobody.

good day, sunshine!

I know many would disagree, but one of my favorite times of day is morning when the sun is rising and peeking through your window - mother nature's own alarm clock without all the annoying beeps or traffic reports.

However, I can also appreciate those weekend mornings when the sun streams through your window and you can open one eye, appreciate its beauty, and promptly fall right back to sleep.

One of the major drawbacks of my current digs is a lack of direct morning light, something I grew to love about my apartment in Missouri. Now I've learned to angle my bedroom door just the right way to get a steady stream of light in from the living room come morning. Morning sunlight has become important to me over the years. It's those few stolen moments you can enjoy before dragging yourself into the shower and head off to work. It's all very joie de vivrey.

don't panic.

This blog has been a little quiet lately. For the past couple of weeks, I've been packing up my life and all of its belongings, heading to a new city where no one knows my name. I can obviously recognize the adventure of it all: a new beginning, new surprises at every turn, and everything yet to be discovered. Still, despite all of the excitement, it's difficult and lonesome, too. It's easy to let joy take a back seat when you can't find the nearest grocery store and turning the wrong way onto a street can send you into a spiral of tears.

I've never been any good at bottling up my emotions. If I feel sad, I will be sad, period. I've never figured out how to contain my feelings, and as the years pass, I realize I wouldn't want to even if I could. Being so transparent has its drawbacks, sure, but my tears signal that I need to call someone on the phone. Feeling nervous reminds me to put things into perspective. A clenched fist tells me to take a deep breath.

Today's joie de vivre is when you finally learn not be so hard on yourself. Feel things, experience them fully, and then keep going. You're doing great - and so am I.