The Evolution Continues – What’s your Happy?

I’ll start off by saying that my first resolution for my 42nd year SHOULD have been “I’ll blog more”.  I’ve been letting my online transformation diary slide.  For the five people who read my posts, I’m sorry.  I’m also sorry that you’ll probably have to suffer with my transformation into my 43rd trip around the sun, because, well…Hulu.

So a recap on my amazing summer.  Last post reported an impending trip to Mexico, with my friend Amanda.  We had an AMAZING time.  We have both vowed we need to go back.  It turns out that amazing ideas happen in the Mexican sun drinking mimosas and Coronas.  I’m not going to lie, we were friggin’ brilliant (just ask us!).  I was also a crispy lobster when we came back, and that’s ok.  Part of being Scandinavian is still having tan lines in September.  Truth.

Then came June, when Amanda and I hit the road to join a thousand of our closest friends at Nile Supreme Session in Ohio.  I learned a few things:  Always road trip with Amanda, she’s awesome; Humidity really, really sucks; neither of those statements has anything to do with the profound lack of a coffee maker in our room until Amanda spent an hour in a valiant attempt to keep us awake in a week where we would desperately need it; The Millennium in Cincinnati needs more elevators; my friend Mary is super human and a force to be reckoned with; my counterparts across the country make me smile and laugh like no one else can, and I continue to be in awe of my friend Heather and her awesomeness.  Supreme Session Two did NOT bring injury (as did Supreme Session One), it only brought Joy.  Even with the humid.

July passed by quickly as I planned for another spontaneous surprise trip.  Unbeknownst to Mary, I was planning to kidnap her and take her to Vegas.  Remember what I said above about her being Superhuman?  You don’t know the half of it.  She is CONSTANTLY doing things for everyone else and never asks for anything in return. After watching her rock life beyond anything I’ve ever even seen her do before while we were at Supreme, I decided someone needed to take action and give her a relaxing weekend.  As word spread (this is the beauty of Nile – 30 people knew where we were going, and NO ONE told Mary!) it amazed me how much EVERYONE appreciated Mary, and several people sent along things to make Mary’s trip super special for her.

For 38 days prior to the trip, Mary received a hint a day – she knew we were going somewhere, but had no idea where.  Those 38 days were a huge part of the trip for me – as I formulated my hints, I got giddy about all the fun we’d have. I should also be clear:  Wednesdays were not hint days, they were Wenis Wednesdays.  (You knew Matthew Perry would show up somewhere, admit it.)

The day of the trip, my friend Heather met us at the airport to send us off and Mary found out about the surprise.  Many surprises for Mary continued – a “stupid mistake” on my part of scheduling our ride an hour later than I should meant that Amanda and Talia had enough time to land, find each other, and converge on us at the airport, champagne in hand.  The four of us had an amazing time – we saw a show, the Titanic exhibit (from which I got some awesome pictures from Amanda and Talia), we enjoyed some good food, Mary and I enjoyed some spa time, and we did a LOT of laughing and smiling.

I decided to treat myself to a new experience while I was in Vegas – at the spa, I got a Cocoa Butter treatment.  This hour long treatment involves a super hydration of your skin, then they wrap you in warm towels and give you a 20 minute scalp and shoulder massage, and leave you then to sit with your thoughts for a few minutes.

I swear to you that never in my mind prior to this event did it occur to me that cocoa butter would smell like chocolate, and that I would come out of this experience with my hair looking like Hades (from the cartoon Hercules) and I would smell like a warm brownie.  Not bad.  I will be repeating this in December.

So now here I am in September.  It’s back to school time here, which means back to work, back to blog, and back to doing things for me every once and a while.  This summer, although not intentionally productive, taught me something very important.  I found my happy.  My happy is making other people happy.  I will plan relentlessly to do so, I will do whatever it takes, and I WILL succeed.  And when I sit here and think about it, writing fits in there.  I like to think that I amuse the people who read this, which makes me happy…and hopefully you too.

So I spent an entire summer finding Happy.  Once you find happy, things start to fall into place.  My soul is quieter, my brain is focused.