Juice Glass
The juice glass. A band tradition. What did I do with my juice glass today that’s so remarkable?
I actually drank orange juice out of it instead of beer, pop, water, or various other drinks that I’ve used it for (none of which include juice)!
This makes me feel old. And somehow like I’m following directions.
marissahenry.com
It’s here. And the new home of my blog!
Years ago my dad realized I might want this site, and I’ve kept it but never did anything with it – until now! I’ve finally decided to use my domain name for a good cause – blogging to the world! So welcome to the new home of my blog!
I have a confession to make.
My favorite TV show is The Bachelor (or Bachelorette or Bachelor Pad depending on which is on at the time). My favorite part of the show? The drama, the ridiculous premise, the egos, and… more drama.
Despite watching for the drama I really do find myself wanting (most) people on the show to find love. Deep down the hopeless romantic within me wants at least one successful relationship to emerge out of every season. At the same time I love the drama and ridiculous idea of the show. Talking about how your relationship is progressing and only how your relationship is progressing for a few weeks while one is just trying to win a contest with a proposal as a prize seems like probably one of the worst ways to attempt to find love. Which is what makes The Bachelor so wonderful! Throw in the drama of 25 women dating the same guy and living in the same place and I’m hooked.
This season’s been a bit different. I find myself not wanting Ben F to find love. I didn’t like him on Ashley’s season. I don’t like him now. He’s not a very interesting conversationalist (which of course makes for terrible TV), has terrible hair, and is kind of a jerk. And he keeps Courtney around (a psycho beyond anything The Bachelor has seen yet). So why am I still watching it?
Moments like this (start watching at 3:30):
Super Bowl weekend. A weekend advertisers and pizza companies dream of the rest of the year. But is the Super Bowl really the best sporting event this weekend? No.
That award goes to the puppy bowl. The cutest sporting event of the year! For those of you who don’t know what the puppy bowl is you really need to view some of last year’s puppy bowl:
watch?v=f9ZGOLs-7uE&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SPDCB040E4FF4964D4
This year’s puppy bowl has some exciting changes! There’s now going to be a piggy pep squad and a tweeting bird! I agree with this video that this will likely be the cutest puppy bowl yet:
Who could resist watching puppies attempting to play football? Not me. If you’ve never watched the puppy bowl you really should tune in! You can watch it this weekend before the Super Bowl, or you can watch it later – the full replay is available on Animal Planet’s website!
Happy Puppy Bowl VIII Weekend!
Today I hit a milestone. For the first time since early October I was able to run a mile. While this would’ve seemed like nothing to me 6 months ago, today this mile means a lot. Why? Because I’m back!
I’m not someone who gets injured often. When I was a kid I never broke a bone. Not until late middle school did I even sprain an ankle. Having to hobble around at work on crutches, wear only flats to work (once the lovely black shoe/boot thing was off), and not being able to go out because I didn’t want to hobble a long ways from a train stop – these things were hard for me. But now I’m back!
Biking and ellipticizing and yoga have been great, but I’ve been going crazy the last few months not being able to run! When I could finally run I was only able to go extremely short distances. I don’t like being confined to a gym as my only option, and now depending on the weather I can once again make the great outdoors my gym!
So today, with my new(ish) shoes (Pink! Thanks Dad!) I finally hit the mile mark. I don’t have to consider my runs a warm-up to an elliptical session anymore! Now, my elliptical is a warm-up for running. And most importantly I can enjoy watching the US Marathon Olympic trials today without thinking “I wish I could run again.”
So for those of you that don’t know I’m attempting to read the 1001 books to read before you die (http://booklit.com/blog/1001-books-to-read-before-you-die/). I’m only 3.6% of the way to my goal, so it’s very much a work in progress.
The last few months I’ve been reading many books not on the list – including the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. I want to see the movies, and I HATE watching movies based on books when I haven’t read the book. But now it’s time to get back to the list. So begins my eternal question – which book should I read next?
I’ve always loved reading, but for some reason being restricted to what I “can” read is making me want to read more… just not what’s on my list. While I’m of course not opposed to reading things not on the list, at my current rate I’ll be 60 by the time I finish! I have two 8+ hour flights next week, so I’m hoping to finish at least one if not two books in that time (sleep will of course fill up a large percentage of the flights as well).
The last book I read from the list was “Blonde” by Joyce Carol Oates. How can I follow up a uniquely written book about the life of Marilyn Monroe (sort of)? Do I go for something completely different – a classic? Or go with a book by one of my favorite authors – Toni Morrison? Do I stick with the uniquely written books and read “Like Water for Chocolate”?
When I wasn’t reading from a list I read whatever I had sitting around. Now that I have so many things I need to read my decisions about what to read next have become much more complicated!
The last few years I didn’t need to do much Christmas decorating since Notre Dame did more than enough to make me feel festive. Now that I’m in the real world it’s up to me to feel festive. So what did I do? After a few trips to Target and recycling some dorm room decorations I have established a winter wonderland in my apartment… all for less than $200!
It all started with a $20 tree. Once I got the tree I wanted a tree skirt, and I immediately gravitated towards the ones with sequins. The tree skirt matched my purple tree from my dorm room, so I decided to get another small tree to match it, which led to buying a fourth little tiny tree. Naturally all of these trees needed the sequined tree skirts.
Then it came to ornaments. My number one criteria? Glitter. Lots of glitter. And big enough ornaments to make my tree look fuller than a $20 artificial tree. Once I found ornaments I of course needed a glitter-filled tree topper to match and the many other random accessories scattered throughout the apartment. And I can’t forget the silver mardi gras beads as garland…
My biggest struggle in developing my Winter Wonderland? The lights. I stood in front of the lights for a good 20 minutes trying to decide between the LED lights (Target was out of the color I wanted) or the pink normal lights. Eventually I decided that, while I love pink, it’s not a Christmas color, so I went with the blue lights for outside and the blueish white lights for inside. While I realize those of you who made it this far in the post probably don’t care about the color of my Christmas lights, I felt I needed to share the results of my most major Christmas purchase dilemma to date.
Now there is still one major thing missing from my Winter Wonderland. Snow. I’m not sure how to make it snow, but I assure you if I could I’d make it happen. Until then I’ll continue to pray for snow while enjoying my Winter Wonderland.
p.s. As a reward for those who read this far and might actually be interested in my glittery Winter Wonderland… I’ve included pictures!
Tomorrow I go back to Iowa for a week. I haven’t been home for a week since June. I’ve been to Notre Dame, Holland, and Minneapolis for more time in the last couple months that I’ve been home.
While I’m used to not being home very often as a result of attending college in a different state, I’m still excited to go home. What am I looking forward to the most? The surprising answer is watching my dad get this hilarious smile on his face and proclaiming it garbage night.
My dad decided when I was younger that to combat only child syndrome he’d make me do chores. Though of course I was always a perfect angel and did lots of cleaning around the house (I can almost see my mom reading this and rolling her eyes), but for some reason the one chore that stayed constant was collecting the garbage on Monday nights.
I’m not sure if it’s because my dad didn’t want to climb the stairs, combine the garbage, and repeat again in the basement, or if it’s because he enjoyed sitting in the chair and watching me actually do something that resembled the chores he did as a boy that have (undoubtedly) been exaggerated more and more as the years have gone on. He would of course deny both.
In middle school I had a theory for awhile that he used it as a way to take the remote away from me and watch on the good TV what he wanted. I quickly realized if he really wanted to watch something he’d watch it whether I had the remote or not.
So I’m not sure why it stuck, but garbage night was one of the more constant rituals of my childhood. Things like doing the dishes and cleaning happened, but not as a ritual like garbage night. So when I go home I’m looking forward to garbage night. Why? It’s a tradition.
This garbage night I’m looking forward to that smile of my dad’s and the announcement of garbage night. I even have grand plans. Dad – if you’re reading this consider yourself warned, I might have a good joke up my sleeve. It might be a chore and a tradition, but I’ve been away from the tradition for awhile and I want to come back in style!
Today I started celebrating Christmas.
Those of you who know me well know that I HATE anything Christmas that appears before Thanksgiving (probably my favorite holiday of the year). Stores forget about Halloween and Thanksgiving and all the wonderful colors and scents of fall. I usually avoid department stores between whenever I hear they’re putting out Christmas items (which sadly might as well be year-round anymore) and Black Friday. Today I made an exception.
Macy’s had a big luggage sale today. So, I headed to Macy’s and bought some luggage (an early Christmas present from my parents)!!! I needed normal sized luggage. When I was little I remember getting my purple luggage set (which I still used this past week) as a gift. I remember expecting an American Girl doll and instead getting luggage… big let down to a young girl. Don’t worry – Santa came through for me and also got me the American Girl doll.
Now as a 22 year old in the real world who sometimes needs socially appropriate (read: not purple) luggage, I appreciate my early Christmas gift more than I can explain. Thanks to the luggage sale and my parents, I was able to get two pieces of luggage that normal people would expect to see a 22 year old rolling around the airport!
When I was little Christmas and birthdays were times to look forward to new toys. Then as I got older new gadgets. Now, as I become a (somewhat) fully functioning member of society, I really enjoy the practical presents that I probably wouldn’t buy myself. The last few holidays have involved presents such as an iron, vacuum, microwave, and kitchen supplies (shout out to Grandma Henry for practically providing everything a 20-something could ever need in her kitchen plus some – all in super cute colors!!!). I know, these all sound extremely boring, but these are probably some of my favorite Christmas presents.
I love that my family recognizes what I need, yet might not be willing to spend my money on. I don’t hesitate to do some shoe shopping therapy every once in awhile, but an iron? My mom knew I’d just continue to use Wrinkle Release if it were up to me…
So Christmas came early this year in the form of a practical yet really exciting gift. The stores of course forgot fall and went straight to Christmas, but I braved my way through for an early present. Oh and don’t worry, while I was shopping I bought a few pairs of shoes (Dad: $10 off coupon, and yes I had some areas of my massive shoe collection that needed reinforcement). Some things will never change…
“Where are you from?”
I hate that question. Responding to that question is only becoming more and more difficult. Yet I get asked that question almost daily. Do you want to know where I was born and raised? Where I live now? Where I went to school?
There are a variety of factors complicating my response to this seemingly easy question:
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