This is my idea of learning :)

I had an awesome weekend!
So now I will brag :)

Last Friday I traveled down to Princeton NJ with the track team for a meet and stayed until Saturday night. Everything went pretty well, the meet was fun, and Princeton is gorgeous. Then Saturday night I saw some friends. Sunday I slept in late, went grocery shopping, then had a barbecue and concert at my house! The bands that played were awesome, we had a fire going, food...great time all around. Then Monday morning I went to the Boston Marathon with my mom and brother. It was a beautiful day and the spirits were high in Boston. My dad ran great and I am SO proud of him. I know a lot of people go to the marathon to get drunk and party in the streets (which sounds totally fun!) But for me its a totally different experience. My dad puts so much into running; he trains all winter long, putting in the miles early on a Saturday morning or late at night after a long day of work....we talk about his runs over dinner; he texts me with his splits....anyway, what I'm trying to get at here is that watching him run by me for all of 6 seconds during his 3hour and 30minute race is worth the trip every year.

Sooo that about wraps up the awesomeness of my weekend. Track is fun; love my friends; went to NJ and Boston; proud of my dad.
And now back to school. Ughhhh.

Page 159: This is School.
SERIOUSLY?! I am sick of school! I don't want to do all this work. I just want a repeat of my awesome weekend over and over and over again for the rest of my life! No more work. No more deadlines. No more projects. Just fun and happiness and sunshine and rainbowssssssssss!
But wait...page 159 says that if I could teach any class, what would it be?
Hmmmm....so I get to make school whatever I want it to be? Maybe this isn't so bad. I guess in that case, I would teach a class about fun and happiness and sunshine and rainbows!

But seriously...If I could teach a class I would want to teach something that makes people happy. And out of my own personal experiences, what makes me happy is when I feel physically and mentally healthy. When I am free of physical pain and mental stress. When I'm clear headed and energized.

So I would teach a class that teaches people how to reach physical and mental peace.

I'd start off with nutrition. We'd do fun things about nutrition. Not just study it...we'd do it. We'd try all kinds of exotic foods and do sensory evaluations to see how it makes us feel. How it nourishes and energizes our bodies and how it satisfies our minds and cravings. Then we'd use our energized bodies to do something physical. Nothing physical that adds stress to our lives; but something physical that makes us feel good. I would definitely teach yoga because its a practice that uses the body physically to connect with your mind mentally; so that when you are good at it...they are not two separate things at all. The mind and body are one in the same.
In this class we'd study outside.
We'd make our own garden outside and grow vegetables and then we'd have cooking class using our own organic ingredients.

(hehe downward dog yoga while planing tomatoes. Thats so me)

Oh mannnn. School would be great if I could just chill outside with friends growing tomatoes and doing yoga. I'd be the healthiest happiest person ever :)


...so who wants to be the first to enroll in my class? :)

This is what I do with power ... I let it go!

Page 141 is a "PLOT TO RULE THE WORLD."

If I Lindsey Pfau could rule the world, I would make the following changes:

Forbid anybody or any group to ever rule the world, including myself, now and in the future until the end of time.
Yes, I would not allow me to rule the world.

The world doesn't need to be ruled. It needs to be free. It needs to do its own thing. And it would be impossible for somebody to rule the world anyway. Not only can you have no control over the actions, thoughts, and life of another person...but you can't have control over the actions, thoughts, and lives of hundreds of billions of people! And never mind people; how many times have you woken up and the rain put a damper on your day; or the sun made you smile? How can you rule the world when it is actually the world that rules you?? ... think about it ;)

Page 141 reminds me of a prompt for a high school English paper. It's trying to get me to think and be creative. It's trying to give me the opportunity to express myself and let my ideas flourish.
And so some strict high school teacher may fail me for my realistic approach to the question and say that I should use this opportunity to let my imagination flow and let my thoughts be heard.

And so, I will defend my realistic approach by saying that it goes beyond the fact that I don't think I am capable of ruling the world (for a plethora of reasons. The first being that I am blonde).
But lately I've had this new appreciation for the world.
You know that feeling when you are standing by the ocean; just looking out; waves crashing at your feet. And whether you are alone on a private beach, or at a crowded beach with little kids screaming and building sandcastles right next to you ... you can take yourself away from life for a moment and just stand there; looking out at the ocean. And you get this overwhelming feeling of everything the world has seen and been through...
Who else has stood in this very spot that you are in now? Who else has looked out at this same ocean view? Who else is looking at it right at this very moment? Who will look at it in the future? What will be here once I turn around and leave? Will the waves still crash once I turn around? Have they always done this?

Sometimes people get this feeling when they are looking at the stars too. And questions beyond the earth arise. How long ago did that light from the stars shine down on me? Are those stars even here now in real time? What else is out there?

I think these are pretty normal questions that everybody asks themselves at some point. And the funny part is...the past few weeks I've been getting the same feeling as standing by the ocean side, or looking at the stars, simply by waking up in the morning!

I wake up and feel like "Wow-another day is here. And I get to live in it." Its MY life...but I live it in this world that is shared by all of us. And none of us own it. It does its own thing. And it allows us to live in it.

So NO, I do not want anybody, including me, to rule the world. I think the world should rule us. And we should be thankful for that. Its pretty generous of the world to let us live in it =) So as a return of favors to the world, for being so generous and kind allowing us to live in the world, I officially forbid anybody from ever ruling the world from here on out!

This is a Tool (hey now, thats not nice)

Page 143 I had to come up with 50 different ways that This is Not a Book can be used as a tool or a utensil of some sort.
1. it can be used as a paper weight
2. it can be used as a shield to protect yourself
3. it can be used as a mask to hide your face behind
4. it can be used as an inspirational tool for blogging
5. used as a placeholder for other things.
6. storage place to hold little things like notes and ribbons.
7. a bookmark for other books
....
Those are things that I thought of on the spot, basically because I've used it for those things before. And then I was thinking of all the things I've done with the book so far... like every page is something different. Because, lets face it here guys: This is NOT a Book. It's something else. Its everything else. Every page is something different!

8. it is a tool to pass notes back and forth with friends (like I did on page 50 with Brian Tino)
9. a recording device tool (page 2 and 124)
10. an extra tool-y friend (page 46)
11. a tool to test endurance of people (page 7).
12. an escaping tool (page 9.77,129)
13. A gardening tool for growing ideas (page 12)
14. A tool to annoy people who are tools ( page 14)
15. A desk organizing tool (page 16)
16. a tool to help make quick decisions and do spontaneous things (page 19)
17. a utensil to make things disappear (page22)
18. an artists tool (page 26)
19. a thought expressing utensil (page 37)
20. a utensil for performing physics experiments (page41)
21. a communication tool....
22. a research utensil....
23. an inventory utensil....


I won't bore you with reading all 50 things that I have used this (not a) book for because since I blog about it, you should already know everything I've used it for!

This book claims NOT to be a book. Which would make one wonder...if its not a book, then what is it? And instead of giving you a clear answer...I can give you 50!

But there are a few uses of This is NOT a Book that I find particularly helpful in my life and that I used quite frequently.
I often use it as a tool to think creatively and express my thoughts.
I use it as a tool to find inspiration for blogging.
I use it as a tool to do things for no reason but for enjoyment
I use it to combine reality and fiction
I use it as a tool for introspection
I use it to find meaning in the little things in life

And that's all that really matters to me. Whether it is a book or not. Or a recording device. Or a surfboard. Or a postcard... It's what I make of it.

This is random

Page 156: This is a Random Adventure

First off I'd like to say that my sisters and mom think that I say the word random a lot. Apparently I always think things are random. I personally don't notice it that much ... but I think that in general, I just find life's happenings random.

Webster's Online Dictionary of Random: Lacking a definite plan, purpose, or pattern.

As much as we try to make sense out of things ... as much as we try to find reason behind why people do things, why people feel things, how our blood flows, why the grass is green ... I truly and honestly feel like its all just random! It's just how life is.

Even if you have a plan for your day; a purpose of going to school to get a degree; or a pattern of waking up at 8am every morning ... everything that happens around these plans, purposes, and patterns is still random. You can plan to do things in your day, but the day will happen and play itself out randomly and you have no control over it. For example, you can plan to go to the gym at 2, but you can't plan that today running on the treadmill will feel slightly harder than it did yesterday and that your shoelace comes untied at mile 1.7 and a drop of sweet is falling perfectly at the tip of your nose, and you don't see anyone at the gym today even though you ran into 3 people there yesterday .... I think that all of these things are random. No matter how hard you try, you could never plan to have that exact same experience again.

I suppose that others (including my mom and my sisters) would just say that these things are normal. And I do too. They are normal. They're things that happen in life. And I think life is random. So that's why I say it a lot.

Moving onnnnn... like I said page 156 is a Random Adventure. At first glance I would say that this is not actually random because I am doing this adventure because the book told me to (a purpose) and I did exactly what it told me to do (the plan): I went outside, walked until I saw something red, took ten steps from that location, and looked down at my feet to describe what I see.

However the adventure itself is still random. Because I don't know what is going to happen here. As much as you try to stick to a plan, you can never predict what will happen along the way.

So as I stuck to this plan, my right iPod earphone randomly fell out.
I randomly sniffed.
And a few random cars drove by.
I have no idea why, I don't know the purpose for any of that happening, and I didn't plan on any of it happening.

Then when I reached my ten steps after the red street sign ... I saw a random crack in the sidewalk. It was pretty big. The crack spread all the way from the left to the right side of the sidewalk. The left side of crack was wider than the right. The shape was random. Its direction was random. It wasn't straight or smooth .... just a big old crack. Right in the middle of where I was trying to walk.

Isn't it kind of random that EXACTLY 10 steps led me to step on this crack? I think it is. I wasn't even a centimeter over or under. I didn't lengthen my stride or take baby steps. I just walked 10 steps and randomly stepped on this big crack.

And in my head, I just thought to myself, "yeah...I would step on a crack right now." Life is full of cracks. Bumps. Holes. Life is full of ruts that get in the way of your path.
And I can't plan on when they will come. I can't rationalize a purpose as to why they are there. And I don't show any patterns as to how I deal with them when they come or how I can avoid them in the future...

These cracks and bumps and holes in life just come randomly.
And then randomly, I decided that I had enough time dwelling on this crack in the sidewalk, and I continued walking.
I can't predict when I will decide to walk away from the cracks in life, because I can't plan on anything in life. But just as random as they come to me, they will randomly leave somehow...

a REAL spring break?!

College spring break. In March.
For those of us who have lived in New England their whole lives, we know... March is NOT spring.
Last year for spring break, I went to Florida. It was the greatest thing ever to get to nice weather for a week. But this year it didn't happen. But I feel so overwhelmed with school, trying to find a job, money ... that the truth is: going home and doing close to nothing was everything I ever dreamed of. And to top it off, the last three days have hit 70 degrees.

70 DEGREES! In Massachusetts. In March. I'm pretty sure it snowed on Easter last year...and yet it was over 70 today. Who needs Florida when I can grow my freckles right in my front yard! (Yes, I said grow my freckles. They grow in the sun. Or are re-born. They just hide for the winter time and then come spring/summer/March they POP back out!)

Anyway.. I took advantage of this beautiful weather by being outside as much as possible. So yesterday I went to the park for a nice walk by myself.
A) I needed to blow off steam after being rudely talked to by a CVS worker, but wasn't ready to exercise yet because I just ate breakfast and
B) I really had nothing else to do. Mom and Dad were working, brother in school, friends non-existent ...

I brought along NOT a Book because I had a page in mind I could do:
page 133-134:
A MULTI DIRECTIONAL UNIT
1. Go to a place you would like to explore
2. Open This is NOT a Book flat
3. Place on ground. Spin
4. Move in the direction of the arrow (there was a giant arrow on the page saying "Go this way")
5. Repeat whenever a choice of direction presents itself.

So I did. Which is risky in a big forest park. It was surely an adventure. The first choice I came across was a 3 way stop in which there was a paved road of the path well traveled; a paved road which was blocked off; and a dirt path leading who knows where...
And the arrow pointed me to the dirt path leading who knows where.
Well after 5 minutes, you know where it lead??
Some body's backyard. Ya. I turned around, and followed the paved road of the path well traveled.
Next there was a really cool looking dirt path...but the arrow told me to keep on the paved road of the path well traveled.
Next a T in the road. Arrow told me to follow the road leading to "Trestle Pavilion". Which I did, until the next directional change where the arrow led me to the restrooms.
I was appreciative of the arrow to consider my biological needs on our adventure.
After a quick restroom break, the arrow led me to the pond, which was actually a very very sad dried up measly little pond. Then to a parking lot, to a path into the woods, to a bridge, to another bridge, to the riverbank.
I had to turn around at the riverbank, and went further into the woods, up a steep steep hill, and was stuck at a dead end at the remnants of a concrete bridge.

I dillydallied here and then took out my ITINERARY on PAGE 120:
1. Go to the closest park ... check
2. Spend 10 minutes looking at the sky. What do you see?
.... ummm I saw the sky.
.... there were no clouds, leafless tree tops were partly in my view.
3. Document yourself standing under a tree ... check
4. Arrange something you find into a circle
.... I made some weird circle out of little sticks, rocks and acorns.
5. List the number of people you see ... I saw 12 people and 3 dogs total on my park trip
6. Leave something of yours in a secret location

... well all I had with me was my cell phone, camera, and NOT of book. NONE of which I was going to leave behind. Otherwise, I had paper, pen, plastic comb ... that would all be trash if I left it in a park!! BUT then I remembered that page 118 was a: PUBLIC SPACE, where my friends were allowed to add anything they wanted to the page. And one of my friends attached a candy cane. (Yes, I've had a candy cane inside my book for over 2 months now). So I broke off a piece of the cane and left it in the middle of my circle because its food, so its not littering. And I hope that maybe some cute lucky squirrel came across it and enjoyed a special treat :)

Anyway, it was about this point were I honestly felt a little bit lost in the woods. And I decided that its probably not a good idea to take full direction from an arrow on a book that's not even a book. So I used my own brain, and backtracked and made my way safely out of the woods.

Well, its my last day of spring break and I'm already stressing about school work again :-/
Which is why I'm going to go to bed thinking about my walk in the park. Thinking about how no matter how much homework I have... the trees will keep growing, The ground will always be under me. And, no matter which path I choose to go, I will always have the choice.

This is the unfortunate events of a quite fortunate girl - looks long but trust me you'll laugh. Worth reading even just to feel better about yourself

I usually like to post at least once a week, sometimes two or three. But some quite unfortunate events have occurred to me recently that have prevented me from doing so. And even in the times when I was physically able to blog, I was mentally unable to, due to the stresses of these unfortunate events.

I will first start off with technology. Yes, gosh darn technology. My generation is SO dependent on it. And when it fails you, it is as if you no longer belong to the world. You are lost. You can't figure things out. And you are too distracted by the fact that you are lost to even begin to start finding yourself again.

So were going to start off my series of most unfortunate technological events with about 2 and 1/2 weeks ago. There was a big snowstorm, a wire fell from our house, and I did not have Internet or cable for over 2 days. Now is this the end of the world? No. We could still watch movies, and go to the library or our friends houses for Internet. Mostly we just chilled without it, sort of taking it as an opportunity to not have to rely on Internet. But it felt off. As me and my roommates sat and talked, we couldn't just IM somebody or check wikipedia real quick or do our homework which is 95% online these day. We couldn't do what we wanted, when we wanted. It was inconvenient.

Then during those same 2 days that Internet and cable was gone, my phone mysteriously broke for about 8 hours. Just shut off. I had no way of contacting anybody except for my roommates at home. Turns out something was just wrong with my charger and I was able to fix it. And then 3 days later ... my computer mysteriously died. For 24 hours, it just decided to rest and not turn on. Which meant I was freaking out about my whole life that is stored on that computer and not knowing whether I would ever get it back or not. But I did. Thank goodness. 24 hours later it decided it was done resting and came back to me.

Then a few days later, I left my USB disc in a computer classroom which was then locked. About 10 minutes later I went to give my oral presentation with a power point that was on the USB disc...and I didn't have it. (thank goodness I also saved it on the web! So I then had to log online and save it to my friends USB disc) Moral of the story: without a friend's USB disc and the Internet I would have been screwed. Then the next day I retrieved my USB disc... only to find it is now broken. Won't work. So all that homework saved on there must be re-done. That night our power went out again. I had to go to the library to do my homework.

And for the best of all ... last Wednesday... I have a test in just a few minutes, I really have to pee. I check my phone, its 10:08. The test is at 10:10. I put my phone in my coat pocket, sprint to the bathroom, pee, turn, flush the toilet, and PLOP, FLUSH, WOOSH, CLUNK! My phone is gone.
Down the toilet.
Gone in the blink of an eye.
That toilet just sucked it right up.
I stared at it for a second or two. Nothing else was really going through my mind besides "That just happened."
Then I had to run off to my test where the first 10 minutes of it i just stared at my paper, not even holding my pencil, saying to myself "That just happened. Fuck. That just happened."

I spent the next 3 days without a phone. I now have my dad's old phone, but no numbers in it. I also was gone for the whole weekend visiting my sister so I haven't been online in 5 days....

My life has just felt so discombobulated for the last 2 weeks. I can't keep up with everyone else. I'm just off doing my own thing with nobody knowing where I am or what I'm doing. I went to practice whenever I could since I didn't get emails about when I was supposed to go. I did my own workouts since I didn't get emails about what the workouts were. My mom was worried sick and not sleeping at night because she had no way of contacting me to make sure I was alive. We had people over our house and I didn't invite anyone because I have no way of contacting friends. I have had to make plans way way ahead of time because the chances of people reaching me on the spot are quite small.
And you know what ... I'm alive.
I'm not alone. I'm safe. I'm happy I'm healthy.
I'm getting more ME time. More Lindsey time.
I only talk to friends who have found a way to contact me...which is nice. I'm not getting smothered by facebook updates 6 times a day. Emails can wait to be responded to. I gotten out of doing homework a lot. It's not the end of the world like everyone thinks it is. Somebody told me recently that their phone's battery was dieing and they were freaking out and I just laughed to myself and wish I could share with her the wisdom which I have recently attained: Life goes on without your phone!
:)

Oh and the best part of all:
I been bringing my Not A Book with me almost everywhere lately. I've known that with my screwy computer and technology in general failing for me that I wouldn't be able to blog ... but I assumed that a good old fashioned book and pen could survive in my life. So yesterday while waiting for my sister in NY I opened the next page and it says

THIS IS AN UNDERGROUND ORGANIZATION
1. Go to www.thisisnotabook.org
2. Enter this code: JT25261
3. Receive your mission.


Seriously??! Even the book needs a computer to survive in this generation now!
Well, NOT a Book, you will have to wait until I'm done with my technology free alone time before I return to you.

This is the best birthday gift everrrrr

Happy Birthday Brian Tino!

What do I do when its my friends birthday?
I give him a silly note written in code and send him on a mission to figure it out and confuse the heck out of him! Duh!
It is clearly the only reasonable way to celebrate a birthday and show somebody that you truly care and appreciate them.

But seriously, it is my friends 21st birthday (Woo!). And in the fall when I was on a scavenger hunt for This is NOT a Book, one of the items on my list was a "secret code." And one night I looked in our mailbox, and there was a note written in some hieroglyphic-like code. A secret code! Me and my roommates de-coded it and discovered that my friend Brian wrote it for me since he knew I needed it for my scavenger hunt. Awww how sweet!


So one of my most recent pages actually instructed me to write a message with a secret code and give it to a friend. Of course I just had to do it for him.

The code is pretty funny, and actually took a bit of time to research. But its not hard to understand. I don't think he'll have trouble. I would tell you what it is, but I want to give him time to figure it out before he reads in on the Internet!

And actually, the instructions on how to de-code the message are hidden somewhere in This is NOT a book, which I left it at his house. So when he comes back from his big night out getting drunk legally for the first time he is .... probably not going to care at all. But maybe tomorrow morning!!!

The title of my message to him is: This is NOT a Gig. When he figures out the code, he'll know what "Gig" actually stands for...

As I left my (not a) book at his house I got a bit nervous because the last time that I left it somewhere overnight, it was never to be found again. But at the same time, I now know that despite the tragic disappearance of Not a Book #1, I did acquire NOT a Book #2 and was able to continue my booking/blogging adventure.
So I suppose you could say that I didn't learn my lesson because even though it was stolen once, I am continuing to put it at risk of thieves a second time. HOWEVER, I did learn a different valuable lesson: that even when bad things happen, life continues and there are alternative ways to make up for it and/or move on. So if NOT a Book #2 does not return to its rightful owner this time around, then I suppose its just an opportunity for me to begin NOT a Book #3. And it all works out in the end.

Not that I want to. I'd prefer Brian just figure out the code and return it to me. But I'm just trying to be optimistic here!

this is a really short rather pointless post! Hey, its friday!

The postcard was removed from my mailbox. Hence, it is en route. (cross your fingers!)

And my friend found a link for me with a whole bunch of palindromes! (Palindromes were a part of my scavenger hunt on page 33 for those of you are are like "why the heck do I want to read a list full of palindromes?!") I really could have used it back then. And so, in case you ever need to find a palindrome in the near future, I have already conveniently provided them for you. You're welcome.

They're funny. check em out:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1nwirF/people.howstuffworks.com/15-palindromes.htm
My personal favorite: Go hang a salami. Im a lasagna hog.
Next time somebody says something snooty Im gonna be like "oh just go hang a salami!"
They'll be like "wwwhat?"
And I'll be like "yeah. Im a lasagna hog."
If you don't get it, it's not you... its me.

this is mail time mail time mail timeeeeee

Remember how I said a few weeks ago that despite what the book told me to do, I couldn't actually use it as an excuse to avoid things ...? Screw that. I am totally using this as my excuse to avoid studying right now. And I am enjoying every second of it :)

So page 150 is also "not a book." In fact, it is mail. Page 150 is a postcard. Have you ever made your own postcard? I never even thought about it. The book told me that all I have to do is glue the page to cardboard and send it out as mail! But I was a bit nervous ... U.S. mail can be pretty picky. Remember all those anthrax scares? Mail delivery became some sort of terrorist threat! And the whole system was shut down and all the innocent citizens didn't get their mail. Bills were overdue, pen pals lost touch and everybody was scared to open a letter because they feared for their lives.

I didn't want to risk any of this.

So I did what any curiously intelligent young female who wants to do the right thing would do ... I googled it. Wikipedia. eHow. You tube (that one was unsuccessful).

Turns out I was right. There are a few guidelines as to sending a postcard:
It has to be rectangular and no smaller than 3.5 inches tall, 5 inches long, and 0.0007 inches thick. But it can be NO larger than 4.5 inches tall, 6 inches long and 0.016 inches thick. No worries guys, I whipped out my ruler and made my postcard U.S. mail appropriate.

And just some fun facts here: The post card was patented in 1861 by John P. Charlton of Philadelphia. He did it because he was looking for an easier way to send mail. (I suppose at the time envelopes were difficult because they didn't have the cool sticky ones or licking ones that we have now...) AND the U.S. Post Office was the only company allowed to print and mail post cards until 1898; at which time Congress passed the Private Mailing Card Act which said it was okay for private companies to also sell and send postcards.
So this is good and bad for me. Good because I know its okay for other people other than the Post Office to send postcards ... bad because I'm not a company...I am an individual person trying to send a handmade postcard. But ehhh what the heck, I'm gonna send it anyway and see what happens!

I sent it to my sister Kristen in North Carolina. I did this because...well, she reads my blog and North Carolina seems cool. Also because I sent her a chain letter (which was page 37) and I don't know where it ever went. I know it went to North Carolina to see her and then to California to see her friend ... and then I never heard from it again :(

I figured that would happen. People seem to find chain letters a nuisance. But I thought mine was special.
I really though it would succeed and last until the end of time. But as the days continue and I hear no response, I'm afraid my chain letter may have just vanished into thin air ...

I hope that my homemade postcard makes it. And if it doesn't then I will buy a real postcard and send that. Because I've decided post cards are fun and I like them.

If this works, I will definitely be making my own post cards more often because you get to put whatever pretty picture that you want on the front of it! It's a fun craft. I'll keep you updated on its arrival (or not) to NC; and when it does I'll host a craft night at my house and teach everybody how to make fun homemade postcards properly so that you aren't accused of being a terrorist.

p.s. the title of this post is after the Blues Clues song "Mail time Mail time Maaail timeeeeee. Here's the mail it never fails it makes me want to wag my tail. When it comes I wanna wail MAIIIIILLLLLLL"

This is a Valentine's Celebration

Okay so it was Valentines Day and me and my roommates wanted to be surrounded by our loving friends ... so we hosted a valentines day party! And amazingly page 138 was my chance to create a celebration! Directions were to
1. Come up with a theme
2. Make a festive dish or dessert
3. Wear a special outfit
4. Play music i like
5. Decorate

Mission complete! Technically we were totally planning on having a Valentines party, with or without page 138 ... but sometimes life just works out perfectly that way.

Theme: Love. obviously.
Festive dish: Oh my goodness ... me and my roommates played Betty Crocker hostesses all day and made so much food! Meatballs, pita chips, dips, cupcakes, cookies up the ying yang, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered strawberries ... chocolate chocolate chocolate. A Valentine's feast indeed.
Special Outfit: I wore pink tights. That's pretty special.
Music: Love songs
Decorations: So tacky, but oh so beautiful for valentines day =)

In addition, page 89 was a guest registry. So I left out my (not a) book for everybody to sign it and leave comments while at the party. When I look at it,it just makes me smile :) My friends are not only interested in what I do and very caring, but they're also cute as heck and hilarious. I got some very loving messages, and some very graphic ones as well (I would expect nothing less out of my friends). And all the comments were most appreciated! (Even the naked drawing).



I felt a little bad that we only invited a select few people, but it was a Sunday night and all. And even though I wish we could always invite everybody we know ... the truth is that Valentines Day is supposed to be a special day, dedicated to showing people you truly care about them. So this was our special way to let our closest friends know we care. I hope you had fun, and if you missed out, then you will be invited to the next party!

Honestly, I had such a blast getting ready for it and preparing for it. It totally gave me something to do; a point to my day. Instead of sitting around saying "It's Valentines Day and I don't have a special somebody" ... I spent all day with 25 special somebodies. What could be better than that?! And I had so much fun making the day as special as I could for them, that just their presence was enough for me. I think this was my most favorite Valentines Day ever. Seriously. There was love all around.

Pictures posted for proof. If you ever need a personal party planner, you know who to call ;)