Oh hey! It’s National Chicken Dance Day, and I want you to celebrate! You know how it goes… (Extra points for doing it super slow, Jess Day style!) If you send me pictures or videos of you dancing, I will post them. I’ll be dancing from my car seat as I drive back down to Virginia for a stage presence class.

Something I realized this week is that I’m not going to make another birthday to birthday goal list this year. Instead, I’m making more of a bucket list which I will add to and cross things off of as I go. It’s reflective of how much more relaxed I am than this time last year.

It’s been a great week, and I’m really grateful. It’s been a good time for connecting with friends and being in the moment. Here’s an incomplete list of things that have made me happy in the past week.

+ the view of Richmond from a distance
+ taking my first class at Boom Boom Basics
+ going to a mail social
+ Hawaiian food

+ twinkle lights on a roof with the greatest view in Fells Point
+ leaving RAOK envelopes for waiters and waitresses
+ stealing a yellow balloon from a guy’s belt loop in an alley at 2 am
+ my new red polka dotted Keds
+ this e-mail from Bianca:

“I actually referred to your work in an essay I wrote this week about ‘Art of the Everyday’ – I had to reference artists whose work connected in with ideas of the everyday leading to seeing beauty and understanding the world and it fit perfectly! I wrote about art as experience, the ‘accidentally miraculous’ and Bourriaud’s relational aesthetics in relation to your work – thanks for being awesome enough to reference in an essay!”

+ this picture Jason took of me at Baltimore’s Playground, under the parachute
+ Brad cooking us steak and eggs
+ Ash and I feeling like we were Brad’s manager for the day
+ talks of life and politics

+ altering Ashley’s shopping list while she wasn’t looking
+ phone calls with friends
+ when someone else handles a spider situation for me
+ eating outside at Blue Agave

+ open mic night (and how hilarious this picture is)
+ the font that Glamour Kills brand uses on shirts at Zumiez
+ getting a shimmery red pedicure, a hair cut, and re-dyeing my hair
+ checking out the store that moved into the old WalMart building

+ the fact that a town called Spotsylvania exists
+ someone I just met telling me I live life like it’s a holiday
+ the best peanut butter fudge cup I’ve ever had
+ Jimmy Fallon’s thank you notes

+ my first photobooth with Richard
+ deliriously stretching in a DSW store and telling a Books A Million cashier that he was part of a giant conspiracy
+ Ikea with R, pretending I’m Zooey Deschannel’s character in 500 Days Of Summer
+ amazing new socks (sloths and unicorns)

+ new purchases (jewelry, make-up, and an aquatic themed perfume)
+ Bug showing me a lot of love
+ finding out that April and I have the same favorite episode of Arrested Development
+ friends’ reactions to reading their living eulogies, and Brad writing me one:

“Mary, I can not begin to tell you how great it is to have you in my life. You walk in the room and brighten my day just to see you. You have the most amazing aura/feeling about you. It’s addicting. I just feel this unbelievable connection to you. In high school, we had the greatest times together and now I feel like that is happening again. I’m so much more of a happy person because you’re in my life. It’s so easy to tell you that I love you and I love everything about you. Thank you Mary. Thank you for our years of friendship. Thank you for being in my life again and thank you for putting up with me. I need you more then you know.”

+ finally getting in water after feeling disconnected/mermaiding
+ how much Ashley enjoyed the Secret Spot
+ writing “Mary + Ash” in the sand
+ taking steps to get in better shape

What’s on your happy list this week?