oh. oh yeah, I remember now... I had a blog.
ahem, have.
I have a blog.
yesterday was my first day off in the month of July... and I'm still broke. go figure.
rather than a long list of all the awesomeness I've been creating, but rather share a few morsels.
my girlfriend (finally!) lives in the same city as me! so much love and gratitude.
trying really hard to keep positive about a few aspects of my life, and sometimes this is tough, but really what is bringing me around these days is the ideal I have created with this project.
I have started being grateful at each meal and really taking the time to enjoy my food.
I have started thanking the sun... just saying thanks in a variety of ways when I feel the urge...
Sending gratitude to people I miss, or intentionally loving people and sending them good energy, even if I am in a room with them.
I've realized there's no such things as perfect... I'm gonna be grumpy, or whatever non-happy state of being sometimes, but my ability to pull myself out of those has grown immensely from the Love and Gratitude I've been feeling this year.
So much love, ya'll.

uh oh! ten minutes til the library closes... just a quick check in, then.
my cleanse of all that is gluten-y and animal-y lasted about 2 days... it's hard. and I got whiny real fast.
words to the wise: choose one cleanse, or, as I have decided to do, just monitor and alter the intake rather than complete elimination... ways to stay un-grouchy and keep friends.
loving and gratefulness can sometimes be hard... that is a lesson this year is teaching me. finding genuine gratitude and love when I would rather be yelling at someone is not easy... not that I'm really the yelling type, but we all have our moments of weakness, don't we?
staying in touch with gratitude sometimes even makes me more mad in the instant, but in a longer span of time, I've found that nothing can call me down quite like the slice of humble pie that comes with being grateful and full of love.
oh, 2011, you lovely trickster, you.

My life feels like everything is on fast forward right now!
So much excitement!
I know I posted about PRIDE, but once again, in case you didn't get the message the first time, IT WAS AWESOME!
So... the excitement.
1. My team voted me the Team Spirit Award for our Derby Banquet! Yay! So much love and gratitude to those amazing ladies!
2. July means that this month me and my lovely girlfriend will be celebrating a year! (WHAT?!) ...and now she's going to give me a hard time for listing derby first and her second... I'm leaving it this way ;-) Love and Gratitude for a beautiful year!
3. I have been being social, like goin' out and stuff! I'm a bit of a hermit... and I am enjoying the company and the good times I have been having!
4. New job is turnin' out to be quite awesome... Love and Gratitude for all that is to come!
5. This one will sounds odd... but I am going back to being Vegan and on to a Gluten-Free diet starting today... No, I have no idea what I will eat, BUT I am excited to feel all healthy and good inside. I've done Vegan before no problem, but Gluten-Free is a new one for me, and I love pasta... but I don't like feeling icky... anyway, Love and Gratitude for the maturity in making this decision and for myself. And for not feeling gross inside. Wish me luck?

Love, Love, Love.

What a busy 13 days it has been!
Rounding out my PRIDE weekend in the Twin Cities! Wonderful times, wonderful celebrating, and wonderful organizing! Love and gratitude for the whole weekend!
Also, love and gratitude to New York!!!
I love spending entire days in pajamas with people I loved. This happened, and I am so grateful for that day!
I love car trips!
And cinnamon rolls (and figuring out how to fix recipes which I have "messed up")...
I am grateful for the new job I recently got.
I love finding old things that I lost. Read: one of my many student i.d.s I misplaced throughout my college career recently found its way out of the disk drive on my computer... yay?
I am grateful for my girlfriend... and I love her, too!
I love random adventures to surprise people!
I do not love the smell of used sponges. I do, however, love clean dishies!
I love dancing!
I am grateful for kool-aid :-)
I love spending time with friends!
Love and Gratitude, and a little extra enthusiasm!

on the loose to climb a mountain

on the loose where I am free

on the loose to live my life the way I think my life should

for I've only got a moment and a whole world yet to see

I'll be looking for tomorrow on the loose

That's the chorus from one of my fave camp songs! This time last year I was beginning my adventure as a summer camp counselor. Last summer was definitely a challenging one, but I loved my time at camp and am so grateful for the memories.

I love making up words. Grateful for my friends who put up with such quirkdom (let's go for a ride in my Fatillac)!

I love having an entire day without any obligations... I am choosing to be productive today (and thank goodness for that), but if I wanted I could have stayed in my bed all day. Grateful for me-time.

I love reading. Grateful for the reading time recently! I'm finally reading Fried Green Tomatoes!!! So. Good.

I love having someone to miss. I know I promised no mushy-ness for a while, but, this doesn't count. I am grateful for all the love I feel. xo, MJ.

Love, Gratitude and Fatitude!

I love the porch on the new place I am living. There's nothing better than coffee and sunshine in the morning. Grateful for the rays this morning.
I am grateful for this blog. I have started a new way of thinking and being grateful with this undertaking. All the lovin' is spreading to this rest of my world.
I love the lake. So much water just makes me smile. I'm grateful to live in Duluth.
Lots of lovin', yo!

I love memories and self-created philosophy.
Once upon a time there was a young woman, and though she was intelligent, she was unsure of herself. One day the woman traveled to a far away land. Ready for adventure, she left all she knew to pursue a dream of beauty. What happened next surprised the young woman. She found herself upset. Having left those who loved her she was frustrated and angry she had gone to this new land. She had drawn strength and energy from those who loved her back home. She had to take time and reflect. She learned that the strength she was lacking could be found in a different place: inside herself. Surrounded by the beauty of the new place the young woman realized that the only person she needed to feel strong was herself. That the only person she needed was herself, and that everyone else in her life was a choice. She decided from that point on to live those choices more fully. To not just be a friend or a daughter or a lover, but to fully live each of her decisions.
When I studied in Italy, this was my story. Over a year has passed since my return, and I am still so grateful for what I learned. I am grateful for the people I met on my journey, and for all the beauty I got to see.
Love and gratitude! Vivo per me... I live for me.