A Very Lucky Girl

There's been an app floating around for probably a year or two now called Tinder. If you aren't familiar, I'll try to explain the basis for how it works. All users sign up through their Facebook account and the app reveals several profile pictures, the first name and age of the user, and their interests. Everything you've liked since you first signed up for Facebook in 2008 will appear on Tinder, including "Eating" and "Mama Mia." I do thoroughly enjoy both things, but I usually don't let strangers know right off the bat. On Tinder, I didn't have a choice. The language of my phone is currently in Portuguese, so I was even more at a disadvantage with how to navigate this new app. I eventually figured out how to set my preferences, and opted for people within 10 miles of me of the ages 21 to 25. If they couldn't buy me a drink they were automatically out of the running.  I added two more pictures to my profile, each user is allowed six,...

Lo and behold, April has brought some smiles to my face this year. Let me count the ways. Pedicures. Strawberry Surfriders from Jamba Juice. Good tippers and their good tips. Falling into bed after an 11 hour late night shift. Cry Baby snowcones with extra sour. Songs on repeat. Egg white omelets with bacon. Encouraging emails from MapMyRun Laughing with my dad Checking things off of my task app Writing without abandon Group texts Beating a new level on Candy Crush. Running in the rain. Effortlessly excellent hair days. The post-Easter Peep sale. Wedges (pizza and shoes). But the number one joy-inducer for A Very Lucky Girl this month is the dwindling of the day count to summer. It's so close, I can taste it. And it tastes like snowcones and sleep.

I discovered an incredibly inspiring exercise through my friend Kelky's instagram. I asked her about it and learned that it's her way of recognizing all the good and happy things in life, no matter how small, especially when she feels like the world is pummeling her with hard experiences.  I've decided to follow her example and create my own list of happiness that I can update consistently. Because as cliche as I sound right now, and as much as I'm making myself cringe, there's little sparkly bits of happiness in a lot of minute details of life.  Without further ado, My Experiment in Happiness: used books with a stranger's thoughts in the margin random texts when someone is thinking of you Fat Amy days with no plans rainy afternoon naps tie blankets sparkles old pictures handwritten notes mail brown paper packages tied up with string Troy Bolton flawless cinema romance quick wit bold colors the euphoria after finishing a morning run putt...

Nothing beats a well-thought out surprise. One that's just planned enough to be perfectly spontaneous. I absolutely love surprises. Doesn't matter which end of the surprise I'm at. I think the surpriser and the surprisee have an equally good time. The problem with surprises is that they follow Murphy's Law of wanting to bubble out and spill over, ruining the careful preparation. Yeah, kinda like that. But somehow I've managed to contain most of my surprises, and they have made memories that I hold close to this day. And some new ones will be made today ;) I'm most certainly looking forward to it. Literally CANNOT wait. Love these people. Love my life. Love, A Very Lucky Girl.