Do What You Love!

I don't think I say this often enough but I have really amazing and inspiring friends. I have friends that unabashedly love the things they love. I have friends that are geeks and proud. I have friends that are not geeks and are proud of that. I have friends who are sports nuts and friends who are book freaks. And I love it. I just love it.

So today I want to share with you some of the things my amazing friends are doing.

Let's start with Jason. He has a website and has started blogging again. I can't tell you how excited I am about this. Jason's blog used to be one of my favorite things to read back in the day (back in the Myspace Days... yep... it was forever ago...) Anywho he's started a new one and it's phenomenal! You should probably check it out.

Fluxtaposed

Next I'll move to Lucas. Now I've plugged Lucas' site before. He has started a production company with his business partner. First of all I'm so proud of Luke for pursuing something he's passionate about, it's unbelievable inspring.

True Myth Media

New to the blogging world with brand new blog pages are Jess and Dannette. Dannette and I worked together to set her page up and I'm looking forward to reading some great things about her teaching adventures. Jess posted her first post the other night and I can already tell I'm going to love it. Jess has a unique perspective on everything and oh yes, she can tell a story!!

Jess - And P.S.

Dannette - This Super Life

Amanda! Oh Amanda. She has one of the most unique outlooks on life and her passion for her art is insane. I am forever inspired by her. She recently created a website that you should absolutely check out... like now!

Amanda's Site

On the subject of photography Chris! My good friend and former roommate Kendra married Chris last year (the wedding was adorable) and recently I have had the pleasure of being his student while learning the fine art of photography. Chris' pictures are absolutely stunning! I bet you can guess what I'm going to say next, eh? YES!! Check it out!
Chris Vanderlip Fine Art Photography

Okay I could probably go on and on and on with more and more people who do amazing things, but for now it's sleepy time.

Much love

E

OMG! This is my 30th post. YAY! Good times. Thanks for reading :)

Surprise!

I'll say I hate surprises, but that's not actually true. I want a surprise. Surprise run in with an old friend. Surprise party thrown in my honor. Surprise present "just because". Surprise me!

But make it a true surprise. Make it something that I have not even the slightest of inklings about.

Don't tempt me with little details here and there.

That kind of surprise drives me crazy!

For example, let's pretend it's my birthday month (I'm really digging deep into the depths of my imagination for this scenario) and you know what a friend of mine is getting for my birthday. Don't tell me I'm going to love it. Don't tell me it's the greatest ever. Don't tell me it's perfect for me. I don't want to know.

Anything.

At all.

I don't even want to know that someone got me a present until it's literally being put in my possession.

Then you can tell me all about how you knew I would love it. 

Just leave the suspense out of it.

This might be why I hate suspenseful movies... I don't want to anticipate. I don't want to wonder what it could possibly be. I just want to know... and I want to know NOW!

Yes this might make me the slightest bit of a brat... 

I'm okay with that because it's just a tiny flaw and it's one of the more lovable ones, right?

Oh also... You can take your horrible surprise that will make me hate everything about everything and shove it. I don't even want that in my life in any way.

This has been your daily uplifting message about hope and love brought to you by Ericka...

Okay really I'm not even crabby today. Today was a good day. I just really wanted to share my aversion to surprises and I thought today was the day to do it.

The real kicker?

I absolutely, positively love love love to surprise other people! HA! Isn't that just the most ridiculous thing even. It's probably because when I'm surprising others I am "in the know". And by golly I just love being "in the know". Overload me with information. It's good. I can handle it. In fact, the more info you have on something, the more I want!

Much love

E

To be clear, this is not based on real or true events that are currently taking place in my life. Just a rant that needed to happen.

Writer's Block is a Bee

Writer's block is like insomnia for authors...

I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else, but it's how I feel.

I want to imagine. I want to create. I want to write.

My brain however has other plans.

So I sit and I stare at the screen... for seconds... minutes... hours... days... 

I read inspriation pages in hopes of gleaning just a sliver of the promised stimulation to start turning the wheels. And nothing.

Maybe it's because my house is like a sauna tonight and I just can't use brain power to create when it's all used being miserable? Maybe it's because of the mindless reality television that's currently playing in the background? Maybe it's because I've already used all my creativity for the night on my vlog and my photo-a-day challenge? 

Can you use up your creativity? Is there a limit to how much someone has for their life?

I'm a firm believer that some people squander their creativity in exchange for a boring, safe existence.

What if the wasted creativity of the safe floats around in the world until it senses creativity and it latches on... Maybe that's how some poeple continue on...

Sometimes I wonder where my brain goes.

Much love

E

Brain... Not... Braining...

Exhaustion has taken over my life. The lack of sleep and insomniatic tendencies I have been experiencing are making for incoherent thoughts and a complete lack of anything worth while to say.

This is has been my day.

Tomorrow marks the half way point for this month.

Holy moly.

Also that means it's almost my birthday.

This makes me happy.

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

Much love

E

Expectant Expectations

Sometimes I just want to lay in bed, eat truffles all day, and play on the internet.

This is not a thing that I can do on the regular.

This is not even a thing I can do on the random.

But... it's something I would like to do.

Sometimes we have to make choices that are not necesarily the most fun... but they are the choices that make you a functional member of society.

Sometimes I don't want to be a functional member of society.

Sometimes I would like to just be mediocre.

The mediocre don't have expectations thrust upon them.

Oh expectations.

There are the expectations that are thrust upon by ourselves and outside sources. The battle is finding the balance between the two. I've heard many times, and I've even said before that I don't care what others think of me. And to a degree that is absolutely true. But on the other hand what other people think of you and what their perception is of who you are dictates different aspects of your life.

It's quite the tight rope walk.

Much love

E

Another late night post...

I'm so glad it's Friday... 

This week has been super draining. Nothing particularly crazy or nutty happened. I wasn't overly stressed at work. I just felt like this week took forever. Like it was more than 5 days...

Okay, yes I know weeks are 7 days, but clearly I'm talking about the work week.

Anywho, we're 9 days into "Ericka does ALL THE THINGS August" and so far I've kept up on everything fairly well.

Sure the blog posts might be after midnight.

And maybe one or two videos have been uploaded a little late.

Okay, yes and I'm consistently a day behind in my photo a day...

Hm...

Alright. Maybe I don't have it quite together!

Good news is I still have plenty of time to rally. And I am good at the rally.

This weekend is going to consist of yard work. I am dreading this slightly. But I'm excited about having it done. Right now the yard is shambles. Maybe I'll take some pictures or a video tomorrow and you can see the transformation! Biggest projects are the patio and a retaining wall/garden bench. The wall/bench is a gift from my parents, so I'm pretty excited about that. :)

More on that tomorrow I'm sure!

Much love

E

Shopper's Remorse

As I sit here in my bed typing out yet another late night post, I'm reminded that a few weeks ago when visiting my friend Meredith in Novi that, while shopping at the ever popular IKEA, I wanted to purchase a lap desk.

I don't know why I let myself get talked out of purchasing said lap desk (by myself, no one talked me out of it but me... I'm my own worst enemy or something like that). We passed many different styles and colors. And yet when I walked out of that store I had bed slats and a salad spinner.

So I guess I don't have "buyer's" remorse so much as I have "wish I had bought it" remorse.

The bed slats are great, my box spring had been broken for years due to my brother jumping onto my bed to wake me up shortly after moving into my house (such a brat), and the salad spinner has come in very handy! But as I prop my iPad on two pillows and position it just right so the keyboard registers, I find myself in a very non-ergonomic position trying to keep everything balanced.

I think the stupid thing was only like $10, which makes it even more ridiculous that I didn't just "splurge".

I do really enjoy the bed slats though... that was such a good purchase.

Much love

E

Juicing is Still a Thing, Right?

Today I ended up at Cassie and Brooke's new house.

Brooke was out of town for work so Jamie and I decided to go keep Cassie and baby Cole company. What ended up happening was an epic night of epicness. I made a recipe that was posted on Doorganics blog (www.doorganicsgr.com) which consisted of baked zucchini and parmesan cheese, Jamie brought cookies, and then we broke out "The Juicer".

Now this wasn't just any juicer. This is the big daddy juicer! Jack freaking Lalanne's juicer! (That's a juicer that means business.)

I went a little overboard with the celery but overall we ended up with a pretty decent juice! Apples, a mango, and plums. Who knew?

I already told Cassie I was looking forward to the next juicing adventure!

It's late and I'm tired.

SO MUCH EXCITEMENT! 

Much Love

E

Damn You, Candy Crush!

Hello.

My name is Ericka.

And I'm addicted to Candy Crush.

PHEW!

That is a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I mean like... I feel like I've been carrying that one around for awhile.

I'm sure no one noticed that I spend every spare moment (when I've replenished my lives by waiting precisely 2.5 hours from the first death...) trying to beat level after unending level. Like seriously it never ends... And every time you get closer to the end they just add more sadistic levels to taunt you with.

Alright, alright. I see you judging me through your Words with Friends loving eyes, but I bet you're a closet Crusher, aren't you?

I wasn't always this way. Once upon a time a person whom I thought was my friend that shall remain nameless to protect his - or her - innocence *cough* mattpete *cough* talked about this weird game called Candy Crush that was "totes all the rage" (that's totally how Matt talks too... I mean I'm not exaggerating or making any of this up) and he talked about it non-stop, like incessantly, until one day he downloaded it on my phone. (Now clearly I had to put in my game center password... but it's really his fault... don't take that away from me.) At any rate I went home without opening the game and told my roommate about it.

"Do NOT play it. Seriously, don't do it."

I did not heed her words of wisdom as one who had already been sucked in.

Alas,here I sit before you, 178 levels in, hating chocolate, especially self replicating chocolate... which should never be how someone feels about chocolate, especially self replicating chocolate. IT'S FREAKING CHOCOLATE! SELF REPLICATING CHOCOLATE! I cross my fingers for a move that results in a continuous barrage of points. I scream and growl at my phone when I just need ONE MORE MOVE! I cry out in rage and swear like a sailor (although swearing like a sailor is something I do even when I'm not playing CC so that might not be a good example).

I am completely sucked in.

It's also the reason why, yet again, I am writing a blog post at 11 PM when I should be sleeping.

This is my life.

Much love

E

Pretty sure some lives have replenished at this point... I might be able to beat it this time!

One of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days where you are pretty sure no matter what you do or say it's going to be wrong.

You know... one of those days...

Today was that day for me.

It's left me feeling uninspired and more than a little underwhelmed.

So instead of droning on and on about how horrible everything went today, this post is going be super short and sweet... And I'm going to try to bring on some positivity.

Today I am grateful to good friends who will meet you for a drink because you had a crappy day and instead of judging you or trying to fix you they just listen. Even when a quick drink turns into hours of sitting and listening to venting on top of more venting that probably (ok definitely) sounded like whining at times they just listen.

Do you have someone like that in your life? I'm lucky to have quite a few good friends like that. So there's your positivity.

I'm going back to being grumpy now, but tomorrow will totes be better, right?

Much love 

E