Loves, smiles, happiness

I shamelessly swiped this from another nursing blogger -- Estelle, and if you haven't already, check her out...she is one tres cool chickadee!! -- and thought it would fit here during my summer break from nursing school.  Anyhoo, the idea is to list things that you're currently loving or that are making you smile or that are making you happy.  So here we go:

• My new red hairs.  Totally frivolous, but hey, my blog, my topics, my choices  :-)  I dyed my hair the other night and went with a color that I've been lusting after for over a year, but was too afraid to try it in the event it came out horribly wrong.  Like Ronald McDonald or Bozo the Clown wrong.  But I bit the bullet and gave it a shot....and I *love* it!  It's a true RED color...think the color of red velvet cake.  I'm so totally doing my hairs in this color again before school starts.  Yes, folks, proof that I have my moments where I am quite a girl.

• My friends.  ...including local friends, nursing school classmates, friends I've known for years, Internet friends, etc.  I could go on and on here, but I'll condense it down to one sentence: My closest friends are the bestest ever.  Period.  'Nuff said.

• Running.  After my previously mentioned knee injury, surgery, and recovery, I am so thankful to be back to running.  Granted, it's short distances yet since I'm having to build up from essentially nothing, but it's still running.  I feel so much better when I'm able to get out and run 3-4 times a week.

• Reading non-school books.  My reading-for-fun habit was severely affected by nursing school last semester.  I did plenty of reading in my textbooks and notes and what not...but that's just not the same as curling up with a good bit of chick lit or romance (more proof that I am quite a girl).  I've been reading pretty much non-stop since the semester was over, both real books and on my Kindle.  I'm reveling in my bookworm-ness once again. 

• Our hummingbird feeders.  I got them all cleaned up and filled and hung out on our back porch yesterday.  The little dudes are already fighting over them.  Due to my immobility last year, the feeders didn't get put out and I was afraid the hummingbirds would remember the lack of food here and wouldn't come back.  But within an hour of getting them out, hungry birds were buzzing around.  This will be my entertainment for the rest of the summer  :-)

• Pinterest.  My fellow nursing tweeple were discussing this on twitter recently, so I succumbed to the peer pressure.  Very simple concept -- like a virtual bulletin board where you "pin" things you like.  And you can have different boards with different topics -- books, movies, food, wedding ideas, decorating ideas...just anything you want.  You can search the site for ideas or you can pin things from elsewhere on the web.  I've spent hours on it in the past few days...just browsing, pinning, browsing some more, pinning some more.  I'm developing an addiction.  (proof: when I went to Pinterest to catch the link for this post, I scrolled through the main page and started pinning more stuff,  I need help.)

• My tumblr.  I have my nursing school blog, twitter, and facebook...but my tumblr is like my own personal pensieve a la Harry Potter.  My tumblr is my therapy...where I can be raw and emotional and not have to filter my words.  It's nice to have a private place to unload my thoughts.  It serves its purpose well.

Alrighty...I think that's a pretty good glimpse at some of the things that are keeping me sane right now. 

Enjoy thy early days of June...keep cool and hydrated!