How to Survive Self-Inflicted Torture

My alarm is set to go off at 6am. I hate the sound of all alarms, so I have it set to radio. My choice of station is NPR. Soothing voices are a-okay with me first thing in the morning and I swear NPR has some of the smoothest sounding voices (not including CarTalk).

At 6am this morning my alarm went off and the soothing voice from the speakers immediately declared, "Its 6 degrees at 6am on this Friday morning..."

Why would I want to get out of bed after hearing this, no matter how smooth the voice is?

I've had to coach myself over the past few years on how to deal with winter and how to make it through. Honestly, I don't mind winter, cold, ice, or snow. I do mind how long Chicago's winter is. It's torture, but the self-inflicted kind since I do live here by choice.

The beginning of winter is so nice. Hot chocolate, Christmas, Christmas cookies, cinnamon, nutmeg…and then depression and negativity abound.

Here's how I cope:

1) House Hunters International


This show is great. My true favorite episodes are the European and Asian destinations, but thankfully (during winter) those are few and far between. Since this show mostly features families looking for vacation homes or retirees looking for sun, most locations are tropical.


Roatan


Costa Rica

Ooooooh. Let's go.


2) Craigslist – Los Angeles

I used to live in LA, and although it’s not my favorite place in the world, it’s warm right now and I’m not. I get on Craigslist a lot and look at rental properties in parts of LA I could never afford. They have to have pictures in the ad. The pictures remind me of LA and the climate and I can actually visualize myself being there since I lived there and know the ‘ol Angel pretty well.



This is not a rental in LA, but a lovely house on the canals in Venice, CA. Also great. You get the idea maybe.


3) Dexter.


Dexter is set in Miami. Miami is warm. Just watching a show set in a warm climate makes me feel warm. Because Dexter is also a super amazing, quality, awesome, well made show I am mentioning it.*



See how ridiculously content these people look, kind of? I mean yeah, one is a serial killer and there is a limb hanging from the boat in the background. BUT it’s a boat! On an ocean! Don’t you see? It’s warm! Who cares about the threat of serial killers? They have a warm climate and Dexter to do the bad gusy in before they hurt too many more people!


4) Salads and Fresh Fruit.


Mmmmm…


Ahhhhh…

I know I want to eat Velveeta Shells and Cheese, biscuits and gravy and fried chicken all winter BUT fresh food is so pretty and colorful and light! And healthy! I can take away the weight of winter blues with a little fresh veggie and fruit, easy as pie (fresh fruit pie).


5) Gym.


Why Britney? Why not? Working out feels so good and makes me, literally, warmer. I mean come on? And by the time people see me in the spring they gonna be so shocked. I actually have the beginnings of a 2 pack. I’m not joking right now.

There are plenty more things that remind me this time will be over. Even if it really never will be over because it won’t because it feels so cold and I’m dying…wait. No I’m not. I will live through it and so can you. Negative thoughts, leave me alone!


*I am refraining from talking about Real Housewives of Orange County. Yes I watch it. Yes I hate myself a little bit for watching it. At the same time I love myself a little bit for watching it. Don’t watch it though. It rots your brain.

This Too Shall Pass

Click here.

I hate it when you can't embed videos...grrrrr...

Alright. That moment passed.

Book Love: Lush Life

I've been reading the book Lush Life by Richard Price. I love it. It's very riveting. It's a homicide/mystery (but not really?) set in New York City. It's written so realistically I actually feel like I'm living in the book, which is scary because it's about homicide.


Here's the thing. I kept describing this book to people as The Wire, if The Wire was about homicide and set in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Last night a friend asked me about the author so I opened the book jacket and began reading about 'ol Richard Price. Guess what? He won an award for co-writing episodes of The Wire. I feel like a semi-genius for recognizing a similar writing style. I'm not, but I feel like one.

Now go read this book.

Possibilities?

Maybe?

Hmmm?

I still don't know. This poor fireplace wall is gonna start resenting me for being so indecisive. It's only because I care so much Mr. Fireplace.


photo credits, top: Benjamin Moore, bottom: Apartment Therapy

Attention Molly's Condo:

MISSING SWEATER

I am missing my giant purple sweater. You must have it somewhere. I know you know the one, it's giant, purple, goes almost down to my knees, can look really casual with jeans, or with leggings can be passed off as a dress even though it feels more like big comfy pajamas. Please return it.

Thanks.

Your humble owner,
Molly

Newest additions to Casa de Molly...

As some of you who know, I am redecorating and painting and all-together make-overing my home. It's taking a long time. I don't have a lot of excess funds to do this with. I do however have my two hands and a chipper spirit towards the whole endeavor. Who cares if I've only painted 50% of the walls so far? That's 50% more then I started with. This month, thanks to Christmas, I have some excess funds with which to get moving again.

Here are my 3 most favoritist recent additions to the homestead:

A lovely new mirror from Pier One.


Lovely new bedding from Target.

A lovely new art print.

That last one is my personal favorite, probably because it is the most recent item purchased. It's a print done from a watercolor/acrylic illustration by the talented Katie Daisy. Check out her Etsy shop and swoon.

It feels good to make my place my own. This weekend my goal is to clean out my closet and storage unit to make room for the things I actually need to store, not things I threw in there when I moved because I was too lazy to sort through everything at the time.

I am still having issues deciding on a paint color for my fireplace wall. I just can't make up my mind. Hopefully sometime soon I can make it to Ace in between cleaning out mess piles to get some paint samples. Then maybe I'll make my mind when I see them taped/painted on the wall. Or it will just make me that much more confused.

We shall see...

Inspiration for the day...

Click here.

If they can find peace and common ground, why can't everybody?

For A Day Like Today...

May today be filled with the kind of happiness and rosy cheeks only the bubbly can bring.

It's all too much...

I'm addicted to entertainment. What's going on? I currently have 2 library books, a third on the way, 2 books borrowed from people, 2 books I have been reading for 2 years, an entire season of Futurama and Chuck Season 1 borrowed from friends, along with 2 discs of The Wire to watch from Netflix, a DVR full of various TV shows and movies, a design blog addiction, and a Nintendo DS with two games left to beat: Super Mario Brothers and Professor Layton and the Diabolical box.

The funny part? My life is kind of like this right now. I work 3 jobs up to 6 days a week, I'm on 2 improv teams, one of which rehearses twice a week, I play piano, I write, sing and probably my favorite part are the auditions and acting related events. Not to mention I am enrolled in two classes, one improv, one acting, a gym nut, try to cook regularly, bake sweet things and am smack dab in the middle of cleaning out/painting/re-furnishing my home.

Sometimes I sleep too. Honestly all I care about are my family, my friends and my boyfriend. I would like to take all of them to an island where we can live together, read together, watch movies together, make funny short films, form improv teams and start performing together, cook meals for each other, make music together, watch whole seasons of great TV shows on DVD for at least 5 hours a day...and...that solved nothing.

I'm not complaining at all or trying to prove that I'm busier than anyone else so please don't take it that way. I just would like to simplify my life. And I'm going to. I just need to finish this episode of Modern Family I'm watching while playing Professor Layton and checking my Farmville.

Words of Wisdom?

This entire thing is worth watching, but for this blogs sake start watching at 2:57-3:29. Harvey Keitel is honoring De Niro.



Hey, it's the truth.