Week 5: Awesome Week in Sacramento

One of the many blogs I read having to do with happy stuff is: 1000 Awesome Things.  The author of this blog, Neil Pasricha also wrote several books including "The Book of Awesome" and hosted a TED talk. I especially like the quotidian entries which are written so articulately that I can often conjure up happy feelings by reading about these every day occurrences..  and those, of course, remind me of how many quotidian experiences I enjoy myself each day. (By the way, I also really like the word, "quotidian" which I learned when reading a review for "The Book of Awesome.")

When I started reading this blog, my first thought, of course, was that I wanted to write my own book of awesome. Not only does it tie right into the popular "gratitude exercise" of finding things to be grateful for each day, but it also presents a writing prompt. I feel much more confident about my writing skills than I feel about my photography skills, so a blog post a day about one awesome thing should have much more substance than a photo a day, I reasoned.  However, I've discovered that it's pretty hard for me to do anything every single day unless it's something like "brush my teeth." (I have to admit, as much as I thought "floss" every day shouldn't be much more of a stretch, I can't even manage to do that every single day.. But I'm getting better.)

I've settled on this weekly blog post, but, of course, if I'm doing this "Book of Awesome" style, I have to choose one happiness event, and that's hard for me! If I pick just one moment or experience for the week, I feel like I'm neglecting all the other happy moments that I don't write about.  So, more often, I've been writing about an experience that's spanned over days.  For this past week, this has been for me, my trip to Sacramento.

I've lived in Colorado for 22 years now - longer than I've lived in Sacramento which is where my family moved when I was 12. But my Mom still lives in that house we moved into in 1972 and I go back at least once a year, so that place holds a lot of memories for me.

Last week, I was especially lucky because I got a teaching gig right in Sacramento. How cool is it that I was able to get paid to teach a class in practically right in my old neighborhood? And I got to miss a snowstorm back in Colorado!

Here are some of the Happy Memories I have from Sacramento this past week:

* The special meals Mom made for me including chicken crepes and lemon cake
* Dancing with my brother at a Rock-a-billy band
* Visiting with friends from my past
* Working from his office and remembering Dad
* Teaching an Agile Boot Camp class to a fun and engaged group of people