One of my friends, Neil Pasricha, is good people. He’s one of those people who understands that sometimes I disappear for months when my brain goes dark but is there to talk for 90 minutes straight when it lights back up. He is one of the few people who can write genuinely happy things that don’t make me mad. This sounds ridiculous but personally I struggle with books about appreciating life and that’s sort of what he’s great at and usually those kinds of books make me go, “Well this is a person who has clearly never lived in the real world” except that Neil has lived in the real world and understands so many of the same struggles I’ve had and his books are less “YOU SHOULD BE THANKFUL THAT YOU’RE ALIVE, YOU UNGRATEFUL TURD” and more about, “You know what’s awesome? When you totally should have gotten a parking ticket but didn’t.” In fact, his newest book (OUR BOOK OF AWESOME) is all about that. Just lists of awesome, small things that make you smile. And that’s lovely because it’s like a gratitude journal that I don’t even have to write, and even more lovely because when I open up to any page and read a few and…honestly…I don’t feel grateful. Instead I feel nostalgia, which is better. This sounds weird but when I read “awesome” things that exist in the world when I’m feeling down it I’m often too deep into a depression to appreciate them and instead I feel this cognitive dissonance of knowing that my emotions aren’t working correctly. But when I read the “awesome” things in this book while I’m feeling down I instead use it to remember moments when I was really happy and in that way it reminds me I’ll be happy again.
I read “Making disgusting slurping noises while eating a really juicy peach” and go, “Gross.” And then a second later I remember eating peaches from my grandmother’s peach tree and how we’d make homemade peach ice cream in the backyard and for some reason my sister or I always had to sit on the antique wooden churn while all my aunts and uncles took turns hand cranking it. Why did we have to sit on the churn? I have no idea. But remembering it gave me a warm feeling in my heart. It was like the gift of a memory and the reassurance that there are wonderful, small memories I can still unlock and that there will be more that I’ll make in the future.
I read Neil appreciating “The sound of a needle hitting the record” and I think, “Who still has records?” but then suddenly I’m 10 again and discovering that my library lends out records and they have the Yentl soundtrack and I loudly sing Papa, Can You Hear Me over and over in the living room, so much that father is finally like, “OH MY GOD, YES JENNY WE HEAR YOU! THE NEIGHBORS CAN HEAR YOU. IT IS LITERALLY 6AM. PLEASE NO MORE YENTL” and so I sigh and put Yentl away and replace it with the Annie soundtrack and loudly sing that song about how I betcha my real parents are probably pretty awesome and will be coming back to get me one day and then my dad was like, “You know those headphones I said to never touch? Just take them. For the love of God, take them.”
I read Neil appreciating “When you cook something new and everyone likes it” and I turn to the next page because I can’t relate because I guess everything’s not all about me but then he’s like, “Successfully blaming your fart on the dog” and I’m back in.
Anyway, all this to say that in a strange way it’s helped me this week because several times I found myself seeing these little moments of awesome in my own life and enjoying them and wanting to share.
When an onion ring ended up in my bag and I didn’t even order onion rings.
When I found tweezers when I actually needed tweezers.
When you clean off a counter that’s been all hoardery for so long that you’ve forgotten that it was ever actually a counter and then the next morning it’s still clean and it’s like a little gift to you and you keep going back to it because, damn, that’s a good looking counter, y’all.
When Victor facetimed me from Japan last night because he wanted me to see this doll shop that I love but the noise of the phone ringing makes Dorothy Barker howl so I put the phone in front of her like she was answering the phone and I was going “Awoooo!” along with her because it’s cute and then I hear Victor explaining to the shop worker that he’s not recording the dolls and is just letting me shop from Texas and he’s like, “See, it’s my wife” but is unaware that he’s actually showing them a video of a small dog howling and he’s trying to explain it in Japanese but the shop worker is like, “What is going on here?” and then I figure it what’s happening and quickly take the phone away from the dog before Victor realizes that he’s been telling people that he’s not a weird grown man recording pictures of dolls, but is in fact, asking his wife – a dog – which one she wants.
Anyway, I reached out to Neil to thank him for sending me an advance copy of this book that I didn’t know that I needed and he was so happy that he was like, “Awesome! Want me to send some advance copies to your readers?” because he’s full of amazingness.
So if you want an advance copy leave a comment here about something awesome that you love or something awesome that has happened to you or something awesome you’re looking forward to and he’ll pick a few randomly to send a few advance books to. (Make sure to leave your email address. I won’t use it for anything except to give to Neil so he can get your address from you if you win a copy.)
And you can pre-order your copy now right here.
PS. This isn’t an ad. I’m not getting paid for it. I just thought you might enjoy. 🙂
I would love one.
My husband NEVER EVER cleans. I’m the one who has to clean. ALL.THE.TIME. It’s like a bomb went off after he has finished cooking. (He is a great cook, though!) The other day I was feeling crummy and he cooked for me all day and cleaned up afterward. THAT was awesome!
Something awesome I did to my husbeast: heavily pregnant, right at bedtime id pull the covers up to my neck and stream up the blankets with hot pregnancy 🤰 farts, waiting for him to get in bed. He’d rip up the blankets and jump in bed, choking, gasping trying to escape the fumes hollering “is the dog in here, what died in here, it’s so so bad…” and I would just die laughing. Revenge is a dish served cold, my daughter had the most god awful diapers and can still clear a room at 11.
What’s awesome is when the pharmacy actually has your kid’s adderall in stock 🤣🤣
my random memory that always makes me laugh: once i was in a tanning bed and sneezed, which made me slam my face against the top, and then i started cracking up. of course it was the one time i didn’t turn on music, so from outside everyone heard ACHOO-BANG – HAHAHA!
So here’s one that happened this week (again) and it never fails to make me think I’ve won at life. I was folding clothes from the dryer and right as I got the last piece out the load of clothes in the washer stopped. Laundry switch. No waiting.
Being on the last leg of a journey home and the anticipation of being back is awesome.
I had a phone interview today at an organization that sounds great, so the crap at my job seems a little less miserable today, because there’s hope in a new job elsewhere.
I don’t want to be a buzzkill because this IS an awesome thing that is mixed in with a not awesome thing…but I’m super looking forward to being done with chemo in the next month or so. And I think maybe reading awesome things will help me remember how lucky I am.
I would love a copy. Today’s moment of awesome was a parking spot right up front and a short line to check out when I had almost no time to run into the shop before picking up my son from school. Also awesome, the nap I took that went a bit too long and led to me running late.
My five year old grandson told his PreK teacher that I’m his best friend because I know more underwear jokes than anybody & that he thinks it’s sweet that I tell him I can be a girl Spiderman.
My funny/awesome thing: the mom unit and myself had to stop at CVS today. Before we left we wanted to peek at some of the toys. As we walked down the aisle, there was a total farting noise. I knew it wasn’t me, and looked at my mom, but she too, denied it. Walking back and forth a few times, and hearing farting noises each time we finally found the culprit. A toy on one of the shelves called a Fart Ninja. Did we leave? No! We walked by a bunch more times giggling!
Awesomeness for me is a memory of this one particular drag show I went to 20+ years ago and made a new friend. We’re still friends now and he’s very important to me.
I love when I’m taking the trash to the dumpster (which is a task I hate) but then I meet a cute dog on the way back to my apartment and I smell interesting to them and they love me.
Oh wow, this book sounds great! My small piece of awesome came last week when I was in Germany for work. I had gotten lost for the 35th time in 2 days and was desperately looking for someplace open at 8:30 pm on a Sunday night. I go around yet another roundabout and see this little Greek restaurant. They were super nice and didn’t bat an eye when I told them I didn’t speak German. I had a really great dinner all by myself.
Email address is jsnow0@charter.net
Being back to singing with my church choir, my work chorus and my community choir! COVID shut us down for awhile and now we’re all back singing our hearts out. Its the BEST!!
When your dog just had a massive poo and you have dutifully (doodifully? too juvenile?) harvested it into a little bag, but you’re blocks from home and it’s Friday, when trash is put out on Wednesday and then you see it… someone’s trash can is still out! And you know they have a dog and will understand!
Awesome is when someone in line in front of you buys your coffee. Awesomer is when you buy someone else’s.
Love it! What a great idea for a gratitude journal, its pre-written 🙂
ankisaxena@gmail.com
This looks very fun. Something awesome that happened to me recently: https://twitter.com/kim/status/1587936024813895680?s=46&t=rlPLIohEjPunX_IeLU5u6g
That moment your service dog starts licking your hand in church because she’s trying to be quiet and stay in place but she still knows you need help. And then you go to eat and the waitress totally doesn’t know there so a dog under the table until you leave!
Or when you go to get your Thanksgiving turkey and think all the medium sized are gone and you’re going to be stuck with a 24 lb bird, but there’s one smaller bird that got pushed into the next section!
I just had coffee with someone I taught with 40 years ago and probably haven’t seen in 30 years. Would love to won an advance book copy!
I hate taking the trash/recycling out in my apartment complex. But I love when after I’ve done that I meet a cute dog on the way back to my apartment and they love me because I smell interesting. Its the best feeling.
The sound of my dog snoring is awesome.
When my cat lays down with me and I rub his tummy and he purrs, and then falls asleep, and then does a little sleep-sigh.
My D&D group, arguably 5 of my favorite people on the planet, just decided we’re going to do a Friendsgiving next year at the Gaycreage (like an acreage but my DM and her wife live there and it’s full of rainbows and acceptance).
I’m grateful that my child hasn’t asked me to smell his fingers recently.
I love when I your roomba successfully completes a cycle without sucking up a bra and dragging it all around the house.
I don’t know if I’m good with gratitude myself but you’ve sold me, I’d love to check it out
The most awesome thing ever is missing your kid who just went to college but then texting with her all morning about nothing and everything and you get no work done but haven’t felt this happy in ages! <3
Finding I’ve still got apples from the local orchard in my refrigerator!
I’ve been curled up in bed with some stupid cold/flu thing and my dog has been absolutely glued to my side, making sure she’s leaning on me or touching me in some way at all times. I live by myself and it’s just made me feel oh so very loved when I would otherwise be wallowing.
It’s awesome when you dig out your Winter coat, and you find a 10-dollor bill in the pocket, and it makes you feel like you won a wee lottery. Also, I would love an ARC!
I’m excited that my three children (plus my son’s fiancee!) will be able to join us for Thanksgiving dinner next week <3
OMG! I can do relate to the hoarder counter-y thing! The most awesome thing that happens to me is when my kitchen counters get ALL cleaned off from the cluttery mess!
And … YES! I would LOVE a copy of Neil’s book! Duh!!!
You know what’s awesome? When I’m out walking on a nice fall day and I feel something fall on my head and I start cursing the bird who pooped on me, but then realize it was just a falling leaf. And then I give the bird a bite of my croissant to thank it for not pooping on my head.
When the cat is about to puke in the middle of the night, and you jump out of bed and manage to successfully hold them over the trashcan or toilet just in time, and there is no mess to clean up.
Holding a hot cup of coffee in my two hands and feeling with warmth, smelling the aroma, anticipating the deliciousness about to hit my mouth…
I’m grateful that when I went to Publix today, I realized it was sushi Wednesday. Dinner? Solved. It’s the little things….
I’m looking forward to my first grandbaby in February, and thinking a book like this might be perfect for my depression-prone daughter, to hopefully help stave of post-partum despression.
Took granddaughter to school and hit all green lights. She said, “Grandma you should take me everyday.” Sweet but 7:15a.m. Is not my time of day. Green stoplights are not going to make me a morning person. Sorry sweetie.
Your peach story totally reminds me of how I use to scold our now 17 year old son about slurping noodles when he was younger. He subsequently taught our now 4 yr old daughter how to do it and everytime she does it, in my head I just think, “Fair play, you got me on this one” knowing now that of all the things I should be worried about with the two of them, slurping noodles isn’t one of them
I hate putting clean sheets on the bed. It’s a chore I usually put off until I have to get in the bed. It’s especially hard when you don’t have the mental energy to do much of anything. But getting in a bed with fresh sheets is one of the best feelings to me.
Totally suck up answer, but hey, im not above it. One of the most awesome things to happen was a friend pointing me to your book Let’s Pretend This Never Happened when I had an Audible credit I needed to use. It’s been love ever since. I have found laughs, tears, and encouragement through your writing, and I’m always on the lookout for that lonely shoe riding the elevator. And your book Broken, In The Best Possible Way brought so much comfort to a dear friend of mine. So it truly was a small but awesome thing.
So, the most awesome thing that has happened to me lately was last weekend. It was my husband’s birthday and I was on a work trip in Nashville. He flew out to join me and we walked into a packed restaurant and asked if there was any hope of getting a seat. The host pointed to the bar and said “You can use your Jedi Mind Tricks to get two people to get up and you can eat there.” We looked at the bar and miraculously two people got up and we had an amazing birthday dinner!
I’m so grateful that there are little things that can make me happy. Learning to appreciate them more has helped me feel better most of the time, too. In no particular order:
1) Hearing one of my cats “sigh-purr” as a sign of contentment when I’ve been cuddling them for a while. (This makes me feel like I’ve been absolved of some sin to boot.)
2) Being on my front deck during a full moon and seeing the beautiful shadows of the dogwood tree branches on the wall.
3) The scent of bergamot from my favorite Earl Grey tea.
4) Watching fireflies at night, especially high up in the dark tree canopy.
5) The peace and beauty after a new snowfall.
I hope everyone can find a little smile somewhere today.
Petrichor in a drought.
Thanks, Jenny! This sounds like a great book that I would enjoy and get a copy for my daughter to enjoy.
Visiting my daughter is awesome in itself but so is her making me tea when she thinks I need it. (merecaver@yahoo.com since I’m following the instructions)
When you actually remember to get the clothes out of dryer and fold them before they sit and wrinkle.
I would love an advance copy of Our Book of Awesome—you and Neil make it sound so good!
Something awesome that I love is my pet ball python, Milo. So many people don’t understand (read “think I’m crazy and that he’s gross”—for shame!) why I have and love this little nut. But I’m allergic to pretty much every other creature, and not only does Milo not make me sick, but he also doesn’t make a sound, he only wants as much interaction as I’m willing/able to give (their default setting is NONE, but he and I are close, so we chill together), he’s super low-maintenance (only eats every 2-3 weeks, doesn’t need to be walked, doesn’t leave fur etc. all over the house), he’s fascinating, and he’s freakin’ adorable! My life is so much richer with Milo in it!
Oh, and that onion ring thing? That’s the dream, isn’t it?!
[If I’m lucky enough to score a copy, Neil can reach me at debby@joyblue.com.]
I’m at a new job which seems really scary but actually it’s wonderful and I’m ecstatic to be out of my old toxic workplace
Playing the road sign alphabet game on a long family trip car and they just built a Sizzler in your hometown
I’m not one for a gratitude journal either, but I do enjoy doing a “Today I Love” list when I’m not feeling stabby. This book sounds great, I’m happy you enjoyed it!
I’d love a copy. I’m a nurse and work has been crazy but I’m so excited for Thanksgiving!
I would love an advance copy. I just went back into therapy after being very resistant for several months. (Well, more like years, off and on.) And I could appreciate a book that doesn’t take a great deal of concentration right now.
I’m grateful for my husband, who listened to me jabbering about how much I loved getting crayons for Christmas when I was a kid. He brought me a brand new box of 64-Crayolas for a surprise. The sight and smell were nostalgic. I’ve added making time to color so I don’t have to think so much.
Slipping in to fresh bedsheets and touching every corner with your hands and toes before snuggling into the pillow – which is also fresh – and savoring that this textile hug is yours, all yours!
When there’s only 2 left of [insert grocery store item]. I know most people would say getting the last item but I like to think about the person after me being absolutely delighted that that one item is there and they can cross it off their list. There’s a good chance the need that small win today. Yay, you!
When my grandson told me my chili tastes like Heaven with meat in it.
thwheelerlpn@yahoo.com
When I folded my laundry this week, none of my socks were missing!
When I turned 21, my mom took me to the fanciest hotel on the planet. But, because she snored she asked if they had adjoining rooms. She said even a room that had an adjacent area with a roll away bed would be fine.
We checked in, walked around with our mouths hanging open, pretended like this was all normal and we were super rich. We get to our room and my mom opens the door to a smaller adjacent room with a roll away bed. Perfect! We stayed two nights. Luxury.
We spent very little time in that room (the hotel even has a movie theatre where we watched Emma together) and ate and swam and shopped. So when we were packing up to check out, I noticed a door at the end of our palatial room. Opened it to find THE ADJACENT HOTEL ROOM WITH A REAL BED, FIREPLACE, AND COUCH. My mom had been sleeping in the closet. A closet that was so big we just assumed it was a room.
I have never laughed so hard in my life. I bet housekeeping thought I was the devil. We rolled around for 15 minutes with tears streaming down our faces with laughter.
I lost my mom just 4 years later. And to this day, seeing a roll away bed in a hotel room makes me laugh until I cry. It’s the best memory.
OMG… I had a Yentl fixation as well. I even made a bulletin board with cut out images from the movie. Also… your “dropping the needle” reminded me of the suitcase-style record player that we used to have. I would listen to Bobby Sherman(!!) while reading Nancy Drew books. Lol…Happy memories.
Where I live we have wild ducks that spend the winter, my landlady feeds them every morning. She out of town so I went down today and fed them. It was awesome watching them excited about the little things.
I realized today that when I laugh at my own jokes in my head ,it’s not my laugh at all but a dear friend’s “cackle” laugh and my heart literally glowed at the thought
What is awesome to me is the beautiful, colorful sunrises and sunsets we’ve had lately, and believing in Who is responsible for them. And remembering to say “thank you” to Him.
I like the way my classroom smells after the janitor cleans it during the weekend. It’s fresh and not full of fart. I can’t blame these on the dog because she’s not allowed at school but sometimes I pass them off on some of the boys and everyone believes it.
When it’s really raining hard outside, and the sound of the thunder and rain is muted because I’m curled up with a cat, a cup of tea and a book which I immediately put down (not the cat) because it’s raining and that means NAPTIME.
Oh my goodness, I would love one. I try to make little happiness lists of my own all the time, but I feel like this book would be a great jumping off point for me!!
I would love a copy. I just had to have surgery on my butt and am having a rough recovery. Butt surgery sucks.
Moving back in with my parents for a bit until the depression assholes get their shit together. I’d love a copy!
This sounds like exactly what I need right now. Feeling overwhelmed and burnt out, taking mental health days like it’s my day job (and it might be soon…ack).
Something I adore is laughing with my two kiddos (19 and 22) so hard that I can barely breathe 😊
That book sounds a “must add to the seven books on my nightstand right now!” Some of my favorite things are: vinyl records (my collection doubled over the past two years), road trips, TV shows about paranormal hunters featuring hot dudes named Jensen Ackles, classic cars, and old rusty peeling-paint things from bygone eras. Oh, and squirrels! ❤️
Going home after being away for a long trip is awesome.
Today was a day filled with frustration and righteous anger at a hit piece I read online. But the awesome thing was that I drank my coffee out of a mug that just says, “No,” and it was so perfect for my mood today that it made me laugh.
A friend sat me down and put a bowl of sour cherries with sour cream in front of me. *It was totally awesome*
The day after my suicidal ideation when my niece, who was 2 at the time, climbed up into my lap and said “I love you” to me for the first time. It’s become one of my patronus memories (things I think about to banish my depression like it’s a dementor and I’m conjuring a patronus). And, actually, I think the concept of patronus memories is pretty awesome, too.
When you are driving yourself crazy trying to remember what you wanted to buy the next time you are at W@lmart, and your favorite blogger writes about tweezers, and you realize that tweezers are exactly what you were trying to remember!!!! Now, if I can just remember long enough to get to the store and buy them, it will be extra awesome.
I fell in the street the other day and a complete stranger stopped her car to help me get up. And she took my garbage cans up my driveway. Truly a good Samaritan. khansel@bellsouth.net
When you’ve had a bad day and on the way home “Smells Like Teen Spirit” comes on the radio and you head bang your way back into a better mood!
My son did not win the talent show last night. He won the “Crowd Pleaser” award because he is the confident, outgoing, “I am absolutely going to sell the shit out of these coals to the coalminers in Newcastle” kind of person I’ve never been. I adore him, and I adore you because I did a wine spittake about the dolls, and I did it despite my strong feelings about wasting alcohol.
I made a goal to do one thing off my Pinterest horde each week. I’m really good at saving pins, not so great at following through. I’m on week two of my cranberries fermenting in honey and even though I don’t like cranberries and will never eat them, the thought of my family and friends enjoying them makes me happy. As does the small feeling of accomplishment. Yay for awesomeness!
When I have to go out and realize I left my gloves on the south-facing enclosed porch, and they have been pre-warmed by the November sun. Heaven.
When the cat, who loves midnight, sleep shattering pounces, startles herself awake and jumps off while napping all snuggled on my lap. Giving me all the delight of payback without the guilt while freeing me of the ‘can’t move while the cat sleeps’ rule.
I would love a copy. Also I love when, in the morning, I ask Google to play me a happy song & she plays weird, bizarre songs and they DO make me happy!
Thanks. You just inspired me to clean a counter. I can’t tell you how long it’s been. Really.
I am grateful to have hit a major weight loss goal, as of this week I’ve lost 100 lbs in the last 53 weeks, I was shooting to do it in a year, and don’t make nd that extra week! Also, always grateful for the great book recommendations from the bloggess- cinnamonsugary@gmail.com
Finding a hole in not one but BOTH of your socks, so you can get rid of the pair without keeping a stranded, single sock out of guilt or some misguided presumption that you will use a solo sock. (You won’t.)
Seeing 12:34 on a digital clock. Taking a nap. New books!
It’s been a rough couple of days here. So, when I went to clean out the car after the dog got sick in it, I was thrilled that the machine started after $.50 and not the advertised $2.00. It’s the little things!!
I opened a bottle of lemon oil the other day preparing to (gasp!) To do some dusting and was instantly brought back to the fourth stair step on the staircase leading up to the second story in my grandmother’s house where it turned the corner and you could smell the lemon oil on the banister. So awesome!
That book sounds awesome all in itself! I’d love one. My awesome moment is squirrels. It might just be the one I call Squirrelly-Dan-you-lil-shit, but the squirrels in my neighborhood have come expect the seeds & nuts I started putting out during 2020. If the food spot is empty for too long Squirrelly Dan goes on my porch & knocks around the couple plants I have there. I’ve caught him in that act & we’ve had words about it, but it happened again just today. It reminds me that there’s so much awesome around me & it takes me out of my head for a minute.
That book sounds awesome. I’ve had a lot of skin cancer surgeries over the past year. My last one was yesterday. I put a photo of the big scar on my forehead up on Facebook (because why not & also because I have no real friends). My FB friends were all commenting “hugs” and “take care sweetie’. Then my siblings get onto the post and remark “haha frankenstein’s monster” and “that’s a hell of a way to lose weight”, and I’m sad, but I’m also really HAPPY, because that’s the way we roll in my weirdo family.
Something awesome I’m looking forward to is seeing my daughter for Thanksgiving. Even though we live in the same town I don’t see her often. Her boyfriend doesn’t want her to see us but this year she is choosing to be with us over his family. I’m so happy I’ve cried and I know I will when I see her. This is not just awesome but is making my heart happy again.
A couple of days ago my mom told me that my brother told her that I’m a good daughter. It was just so out of the blue. Oh, and did I mention, my brother and I are in our 60s.
I have caterpillars turning into monarch butterflies in my yard and it is awesome!
My favorite is when I inadvertently bail future-me out, like when I find a hair tie or tampon squirreled away in my wallet or purse and only find it when I’m in dire need of one and, out of sheer desperation, happen to look in that one compartment where I’d never usually look. High five, me-from-6-month-ago!
It’s awesome when you’re driving and accidentally drop something and all you can think about is getting it before it slides under the brake pedal and kills you but then you get to a red light and easily scoop it up and smile realizing you’ve outmaneuvered death.
I found some cheerful,laughable stuff I wrote about 12 years ago. Hello, former me! Fun to look back.
When my grown up son, who is taller than me, pats me on the head. For some reason, the idea that I made this whole adult person, like kept him alive and everything, is just hilarious. I can’t even match my socks.
I’d love a copy, but this is a lot of copies.
I can always use an uplift.
What happy do I remember? When I totally messed up playing onstage for a local production – and a lady afterward said “You have such a good voice” – and NO-ONE mentioned the cock up with the chords. (4 shows and I only got it “perfect” once.LOL)
I could use a pick me up! I went out of state for work recently and should have made time to visit a friend in the area but I was too down. But I’m hoping that I’ll be up for it when I go back in the Spring.
When I learn a new word and then see that word everywhere! That’s awesome!
I’d love one and will definitely have to pick up a copy either way 🙂 my good thing from this week is that my brother and I picked a weekend at random to go to lost maples (the texas state park and hiking trail), and we were worried about the weather forecast, but it changed so that there won’t be any rain, and the cold snap means all the leaves will be changing colors right on time for our trip!
This sounds like a wonderful book/gift. Your peach story reminded me of when I was very little and my brother and I got in trouble for taking the neighbor’s plums (I didn’t know what they were!) and squishing them because they were lovely to squish. That was not well received by the grown ups.
Laying down in your bed on clean sheets.
Hitting every green light on your way home from work
I think we all need little bits of awesome even when (maybe especially then) we are so deep in the darkness that we can’t appreciate them! I’d loooove one.
Something awesome I love is when my dog wags her tail in her sleep. She’s a very happy girl but she’s not much of a tail wagger but when she does it in her sleep it’s the cutest thing ever and always makes me smile.
When my dog finally settles to sleep and gives that shuddering sigh.
And when she comes up to me to let me know she needs to go outside, but is absolutely up for a cuddle first.
My life has had its ups and downs, however I choose to be grateful that I can remember the hard times and still be grateful for all the goodness in my life. I would certainly enjoy reading the book about awesomeness. Thank you .
This book sounds phenomenal. I had a moment of resonance with this yesterday, a scenario which is honest if slightly NSFW. I went to the drugstore last night in the icy rain because someone in this house ran out of tampons. Their cycle showed up a few days early because they’ve been deeply stressed because their car got stolen. The women’s health aisle looked like End Times, totally decimated. But there was *one* box of the multipack she needed and I swooped them up and felt like the world was back on our side again.
I was listening to a new to me series and the day I finished book 3, book 4 released on Audible. (Dungeon Crawler Carl btw is AWESOME and must be listened to because Jeff Hayes is a narration GOD. And book 5 is also now out.)
The other day there was a bird trapped in a pipe/utility cage thing. It was dusk, so I knew the bird would be trapped in there all night. She’d probably be hungry and cold. The awesome thing is that there was a discarded cupcake nearby. So I put crumbs in the holes of the pipe/utility cage thingy. The bird woofed them down, frosting and all. The next morning, she was gone. Free. And cupcaked.
Making a little thundercloud with your breath on cold mornings. I’ve lived in cold climates most of my life and don’t like the cold — but I do like that.
I would love an ARC of this awesome book, but I’ll be buying it if I don’t get one.
After having my kitchen floor demolished because of a water leak, the restoration company walking off the job and leaving me stuck in a hotel for 3 months, it is finally finished and I am home. I had to trash my bed because after the house being open to the elements it was gross. Yesterday I built a new bedframe and got my new mattress on it and OMG! It was the best night of sleep I’ve had, in like, Forever. So grateful to be home, able to sleep again, and for the wonderful company that came in and finished the job in 3 weeks so I could get home.
Yesterday my pre-order of Life Moves Pretty Fast: The John Hughes Mixtapes arrived a week before the delivery date, and I spent a happy day at work today singing and dancing to the music of my teens. And no one caught me, so i wasn’t even embarrassed!
How about when you are smelling stuff at a store (candles, lotion, 93 deodorants) and all a sudden a scent hits so powerfully that you’re transported to childhood? Here’s looking at you Strawberry Shortcake indescribable chapstick scent.
Having a crown on a tooth come off while eating leftover Halloween Starbursts, because you already ate the chocolate and the Twizzlers, and being able to go to the dentist and have him glue it back on, saving yourself $$$ all for eating Starbursts in the first place.
I would love one! And I think my random awesome thing is watching quail run- their little head feathers bobbing makes me happy every time!
Okay I neeed this book please!!!!
How awesome is that!?! You had no expectations and got something special out of his book!
Mine is when neither my husband nor I think driving to Newark sounds like fun, but our daughter wants to see BlackPink and we just go. We stood in the rain for 45 minutes before we got in the arena and had shitty seats, but it was a lot of fun and I’m glad we did it (but please not in Newark again)!
Something awesome that happened to me today was I brought books to a Muslim middle school to tell them about, and one book had a girl with a hijab on the cover, and all the girls’ faces lit up because they got to see themselves represented on a book cover. <3
Your mentioning going back to look at the clean counter reminded me of my daddy’s rule for home-improvement projects (besides “measure twice cut once”)—you should always take AT LEAST as much time to admire it as you took to do it. Which was hilarious because, after we’d accomplished something together, one of us would randomly grab the other and drag them to stand in front of the thing and ADMIRE IT. Daddy died unexpectedly back at the beginning of the pandemic, and I miss him, but it was a memory that made me grin. Thanks.
Omigawd, I would LOVE this!
But if I don’t luck out, I’ll settle for this week’s “affirmation” (I don’t do either gratitude list or affirmations, both of which I find eeky), which is:
“I love today.”
It makes me smile.
Something awesome I love is the sound of baby giggles. It literally fills my heart with joy and laughter. It makes my day on the hatreds of days.
I love the smell of the house a few hours after baking. When it’s not that full-on fresh baked goods but rather the smell is kind of the house’s memory of them? Yeah, that.
I just got tickets to a play called Every Brilliant Thing. This book reminds me of the premise of the show too! Looking forward to both!
I’m grateful to know I’m not the only one who hates gratitude journals!
When my 13 y/o joyfully exclaimed how beautiful the sunrise was this morning as we were driving to middle school at oh dark thirty. At their age life is…………you know…………and it was just so awesome to get a little taste of unbridled joy from a sleepy teen.
My husband claims that he doesn’t like our dogs. Or any dogs. But it’s beyond awesome when I catch him talking to them and petting them when he thinks I’m not looking. He recently saw two stray dogs hanging out at a gas station. He went inside and bought two sausage sticks to feed them. Yeah, the man doesn’t like dogs, at all. Totally awesome.
I’d love a copy! Really struggling recently, a friend unalived themselves this past weekend. My random awesome is that my best friend and I are going to see nerdy improv tomorrow night and I can’t wait to laugh at the silliness.
My bit of awesome was going on a hike that I thought would kick my tail and it turned out to be just a relatively easy walk through beautiful trees that smelled so good. How lucky am I?
It is awesome when my dog hears the clock radio alarm go off (yes, I still use a clock radio as an alarm clock), and she decides that it’s her cue for cuddle time.
It is awesome when I grab a random cookie recipe out of my “to try” pile, and I have all the ingredients in my kitchen.
A 31-year old friend has two albums but no record player. He brought them to my house so that he could listen to them on my record player. Before he came over, I tested the record player with Foreigner 4 and danced around the house like I was back in junior high.
That moment when a friend needs a thing and you realize you have the thing, because grabbed it when you were offered it a year ago, even though you didn’t need it, and you put it in the donation box two months ago that you haven’t delivered yet because you keep forgetting. Knowing my hoarding combined with my procrastination helped a friend is totally awesome.
It also gives me yet another reason not to get rid of things….but let’s ignore that part and focus on the happy part.
So my 9 year old kid is going through a poop phase and she’s been singing Alexander Poopelton in perfect pitch all day and sticking poopy lyrics in all over the place.
When some stranger holds the door open for you or the elevator.
When your elderly mother loves her birthday present you gave her.
When you were a kid and making the bed with clean sheets and raising the top sheet high in the air and letting it float back down on top of you in the bed.
Reading under the covers with a flashlight so your parents don’t catch you not sleeping.
Reading a book you can’t put down with a satisfactory ending.
Definitely getting the bonus onion ring in your French fries or tater tots from a restaurant.
A good hot cup of coffee or tea on a chilly day.
An empty laundry basket because you finished all the laundry in it.
A clean counter or corner of a room that has been hoarding clutter that you procrastinated fiercely about until you finally found the willpower to clear it.
Finding that your favorite blogger and author is sharing joy with the world and giving you things not to be annoyed by being grateful about.
All the commenters sharing joyful memories to be grateful about even when we are feeling down.
Thank you all, I needed this.
I love it when the cat snuggles up to the small of my back and stays there long enough for me to have a nice afternoon nap!
I’m not sure I deserve one because my awesome is my amazing husband who picks up all the slack when I’m feeling bad and never makes me feel guilty about being sick and how could I ask for anything more after that? But I would like one anyway, if possible.
It’s been a rough couple months so finding the awesome has been hard. But I’m doing a cross stitch for my husband’s Christmas present that is way outside my comfort zone (a zillion colors with one stitch here and one stitch there and then one stitch around the block). I switched colors today and all my old stitches lined up! I was so excited that 1. I could count when I did the previous colors and 2. I can still count today!
Would love a copy of this book.
This post made me tear up. I’m also bad at gratitude journals and being positive about life. My awesome thing today is that I managed to get Taylor Swift tickets, even though yesterday was a massive fail and I figured I wouldn’t be going. And I get to go with my best friend I’ve known since pre-school, and haven’t seen since Covid hit. That’s also pretty damn awesome.
I, too, along with my cousin, had to sit on the ice cream churn! Thank you for bringing back that memory from summertime with my grandparents!!
Awesome is finding random things in the parking lot and using them. I found a metal pencil sharpener in 2006 that i still use and think about the place i found it, a big pink eraser that sits on my desk at work, and a toy dragon that sits in the windshield of my car.
That sounds like a fantastic book to have.
I think it’s awesome when I am able to send out winter holiday cards. So many people struggle with the holidays. I hope the card reminds them that they aren’t alone. That some one out there cares.
Many years ago, I made a list similar to that of 101 Things That Make Me Smile. It’s mostly based on things that tantalize my senses (but some are just wacky fun stuff).
Whenever I’m in the pits of depression I seem to come across that list. It does the same thing for me. I am pulled back to first time I experienced it and I can feel it encircling me and I feel a little glimmer of hope.
I’m suffering deeply right now and your post reminded me of my list and I feel a little more connected and a little spark of hope I’ll pull out of this again.
Thank you for that. I appreciate you immensely.
I’ve been a recluse since March 2020 and the McDonalds drive thru was the place I’d go when I needed a break from home and I’d get a Diet Coke, which was fine, but not my favorite. But then a month or so ago they started carrying Coke Zero! The place with the best fountain pop (yes, I’m from the Midwest) for the best price now has my favorite variety!
Awesome subway moment of having the train arrive just as you get down the stairs AND there’s a seat AND you take a quick nap but wake up without overshooting your stop.
Reading all the comments here has lightened my mood on a dismal day—awesome!
I can totally relate to the counter thing. Also, records are back. My soul is happy about that.
My bit of awesome is when I start my robot vacuum cleaner and it successfully vacuums without getting stuck in a corner or sucking up something I left on the floor.
It was awesome to find a yellow butterfly alive in the house (just as the weather turned to ice and snow outside)!
I’d love a copy (because I’m a book dragon) but there are so many other great entries. I’m excited because I ordered an old book of poetry off thriftbooks for less than $5, and it arrived and is a HARDBACK FIRST EDITION. No dust cover, but I guess I’ll survive.
Also, this is my fourth year of keeping a gratitude journal – daily! – and it’s sometimes so very *very* hard to come up with anything to write – but then I can flip through all the volumes and turns out despite my chronic illnesses that keeps me partially bedbound, there are some beautiful things and people in my life.
For me – awesome is when I don’t get any calls on pay day (I process the payroll so I only get calls when something is wrong).
When you’re supposed to be working on something but you’re spending time reading the internet instead BUT THEN the thing turns out to not be nearly as much work as you were planning so you managed to both have fun reading the internet AND finish your work.
The other night in bed, I looked over at my husband (who claims to hate our cats) sleeping soundly with our younger cat sleeping on his chest. It made my heart smile.
I love when I’m working (WFH thank you jesus) and my dumb little kitty comes up and sits right in front of the keyboard JUST so she can plop her face in my cleavage and purr at me. Definitely one of the cuter things my cleavage has been used for.
November delivered its seasonal punch, pretending like it’s gonna go easy on us and then, wham! How ’bout some feezing rain, motherfkrs? I begrudgingly got out my less-than-flattering-but-warm-and-dry coat and went outside. No mittens, I shoved my hands in my pockets and… a $10 bill, smilling at me like a gift from last winter. Awesome.
My cat – Wiggles – always wants to be in the “knee pit” – like armpit but behind your knee – every time I sit down on the sofa. I get comfy, legs up and bent to the side and cover up with a blanket and he comes and settles in with his head on my knee and falls asleep. Very comforting. Cynthiadspann@yahoo.com
I work in a pharmacy and it is really awesome when I have your kiddo’s adderall in stock
What’s awesome in my life this week:
Making homemade chicken pot pie and having total bakery PTSD but then remembering this is the first year I dont work at a bakery in 10+ years so it’s the week before thanksgiving and I’m actually NOT up to my eyeballs in stress and piecrust and holiday orders, and knowing I’ll actually get to enjoy the holidays with my kids this year 💜
I’m deep in tech week h*ll right now and have been working fiendishly to get everything done, including a side project, that are all due at the same time. Which means slogging home work every night and staying up late running the sewing machine. My husband, who is amazingly awesome has been picking up all the slack with the kids, and housework, and cooking me food all so I can get my work done without stressing over the things I don’t have time for. He is the best, and I’d love a copy of this book to gift to him.
Cool! Grateful for learning about a new-to-me author. One thing that made me quite happy this week, made my soul sing, was the recognition and praise I received for a professional paper I wrote.
My something awesome that just happened is my dog, who is a therapy dog and we volunteer at the Inner City Learning Center with children who struggle to read, just got his first influencer deal. He has more friends than I do. 🙂
Cats purrs. And when they get airplane ears and crazy eyes right before the zoomies.
I can so relate to this article. We are close in age I assume because I was like yes! to do much of this. I am one of those sickening FB posters because it doe make some folks smile. Not because I am that positive but because I know some need a little pick me up at times. I would love a copy of this book! ❤️❤️
Today is my birthday and that’s awesome because; people remembered and, I made it through another year.
Ifawn@yahoo.com
My teenager hugged me this morning and said “you smell like a bookstore”–is there any higher compliment?
I would love one. I love
It when I don’t have to mediate cat disputes about sitting on my lap and they just cuddle together on my lap instead.
The very most awesome thing I love is where I live. It’s rural, the views are to die for, there’s not a lot of people, and it is so very HOME.
That when I hate myself more then I can love myself, that I can find myself within the pages of my favorite book and remember that I don’t have to feel like this all the time
I need this book. My awesome story is I had to find a new home for my horse because I couldn’t afford to take care of him anymore. I wasn’t crazy about the woman who ended up adopting him through a local rescue but she had a great place where he would have access to a huge pasture and I had turned down other people who wanted him and time was running out. She had originally agreed to let me visit him (she lived a couple hours away) but reneged on the agreement when I took issue with her sending him, a 24 year old, away for “training” as soon as he arrived. A year went by where I thought of him very day and wondered how he was doing. Then in March of this year I got a text from the rescue who handled the adoption saying the woman was returning my horse (and another one she adopted from the same rescue) because he (and the other one) was “dangerous!” Dangerous my foot. Anyway, he ended up being able to live at the rescue’s 40 acre sanctuary where I pay a small sponsorship fee, which I still can’t afford, but it’s 12 minutes away and I see him all the time now and know he is safe and happy, living like a horse should, in a herd of other horses and lots of room to move. It’s been a miracle I never take for granted.
There was only 1/2 cup of coffee left when I got up this morning. I made fresh, put a load of laundry in the machine while it brewed, then enjoyed a fresh cup while chatting with my 89 y/o dad.
My bed is the most wonderful, cozy place, so when I’m having a bad day, I can think about how I get to curl up in it come bedtime. I would love a copy of the book! aprilgarner1@gmail.com
I’d love to have a copy. Your post is an awesome thing that happened to me. I’m always happy (grateful!) when you post about your depression because it normalizes it for so many people. You are a wonderful mental health support (as well as being so freaking funny). Love you, Jenny.
When my little am running group all realized that we’d rather go an hour later from now on! Bonus:it was both light AND sunny this morning
My awesome today: Getting one of my students to turn around his attitude in class by coming to an agreement and seeing him give me a thumbs up today in the hall. BTW middle school level 🙂 heslaj@hotmail.com
Five minutes alone in the car park drinking my coffee after dropping the kids at school and finding lovely thoughts like these to read while I drink.
I love how I was wishing the book was already out so I could go buy it or get it from the library but then I was sad for a minute because it isn’t yet but then this comment section was like reading a whole-ass book just like the one I can’t have yet and now I’m less sad:)
When you compliment a stranger and they get a huge smile on their face.
I feel the same as you about gratitude journals, so I would be open to having someone change my mind. My awesome thing is that I thought I had taken on too much ghostwriting work, but I just heard that my customers all loved it, so that makes it better.
Because I’m painting the house right now –
It’s awesome when you use painters tape, paint, then remove the tape and it actually results In a crisp, perfect line.
When the trees look just as beautiful bare as they do with leaves.
Getting in to your car after a full-service car wash.
When I have to go into my office, which I dread due to social anxiety, but I remember I get to come home to my dogs with the most happy, wiggly butts at the end of the day.
I teach a music class for infants/toddlers and their grownups. My awesome thing for today is that a little girl who has been very standoffish for the past three months decided to come sit in my lap today. It’s such a little thing, but made me so happy.
When you’re running late for work and that one light that is always red is actually green and you get to ride right through it.
I sew, and an awesome thing that happens sometimes is when you are making pants and the crotch seams all line up perfectly. But it is sadly a private awesome thing bc l it is pretty weird to non-sewists to yell “Look at my perfect crotch seams!!!”
At 1:30 AM this morning, my pittie woke me up with an urgent need to be taken out for potty. She took a massive dump that required both hands to pick up (with bag, of course!) and it was awesome because i imagined the relief she felt and we both went back to bed feeling most comfortable.
I walked into the washroom and saw that someone had helped themselves to nuggets in the litter box, leaving one behind. I squawked and the cat and two dogs raced over. The cat’s eyes widened with outrage when she spotted the turd. She then whirled and faced the dogs, before stalking toward the male and sniffing his chin. He took a step back but the cat, having spotted the bits of litter in his teeth, batted at his muzzle and chased him, meowing indignantly.
I got a screw in my tire today wilhich would be a bummer but then I remembered I had a tire policy and it is covered in full 🙂 I’d love a copy of the book!
I would like a copy of this book. The onion ring thing made me laugh. I got a random onion ring in my bag the other day. I looked and said, “What fresh hell is this?!” and pulled it out. The look on hubby’s face was priceless. I know he was thinking they put dog turds or something in the bag. It makes me laugh just to think of it. My awesomeness today is a coworker and I went for a walk in desert during lunch. It was just what the doctor would have ordered if the doctor wasn’t in big pharma’s pocket!
I’m grateful for Jenny’s blog and this weird little community that somehow makes me feel less weird and little ♡
My small awesome for the past few months has been watching the first 4 pomegranates grow on a plant I bought 10+ years ago. My mom always said it must be an ornamental variety, but no, the gardeners just always trimmed it during the flowering season and it never got a chance to produce fruit until they forgot this year. I harvested the first one and it’s delicious! Double vindication!
Needing to find a winter coat for my 11 yo and finding one that is the right size and heaviness (not too thick Mom!), in a color he actually will wear, in stock, AND it was on sale!!
It’s awesome that my semi-retired husband makes dinner for me almost every night because I still work full-time.
Coming home after a shitty day at work and being greeting by squealing, yapping, tail wagging so hard she is almost falling over, slobbering tongue kisses from my dog who is overwhelmingly happy to see me. Best feeling ever.
What’s awesome for me is when one of my teenagers or my 20-year-old just gives me a hug because they can tell I need one. It happens rarely, so when it does it’s amazing. The hug part is rare…me needing one is not so rare.
Yeah yeah I get it and then….
Papa, can you hear me? Papa can you see me?…. at the top of my lungs….
Yes! A film that NO ONE I know likes EXCEPT ME and I LOVE IT! I know all the words to all the songs by heart. It calls to me so deeply.
Okay. You got me. Now I have to get the book…..
An advance copy of this awesome book would be brilliantly awesome. 🙂
I love these cookies that this bakery sells in my hometown that are frosted to look like Cookie Monster and other Sesame Street characters. I have loved those cookies ever since I was three. (I’m almost 50 now and my mom still buys them for me when I visit.)
I’m so grateful for the 25 year friendship I have with my 5 now middle-aged gaming pals who are scattered across the country. We are not close enough that we are in each others’ business but we are there to offer one another encouragement or commiseration when life is being a booger.
I just got a new puppy for work. The delight that I see everyone’s face is awesome. Not just the children, but also their parents and teenagers. Such a small happy ball of joy that brings joy to others!
I would love one and I’m really grateful that today I got a record player and dug out my old vinyl records and heard a song by my favorite band that I had never heard before on an obscure b-side!!!!
When you finish a spicy fantasy book and realize that maybe your kink is actually burly fae who respect women, and you look at your husband realizing how broad his shoulders are when he’s washing his own dishes and asking me about my day and just like that your dry spell is over.
I’m grateful that my dog didn’t accidentally throw us both down the hill while attempting to catch a squirrel on our walk today. I mean, she’s old and has no teeth. What exactly was her plan??
I would love a book. After a long day of working then coming back to my house with my 2 90-something parents, I’m grateful to have a large cat sit on my chest and purr in my ear. It does the trick every time. I grateful for such a loving cat, and that a purr in my ear is sufficient to make me forget why I’m ticked off and pissy.
I am totally feeling like you with the gratitude journal, I think that it would be amazing to read these and to have like you said those happy little thoughts. Lately it feel like most of the thoughts are not very happy!
On Veterans Day my friend took me out to get my free meal, paying for hers (as she’s not a veteran), then to my favorite stores — giving me coupons, then home to her house for dinner, all the while thanking me for my service and reminding me that it was “my day.” Super awesome.
I was having a sad day, but my big cat curled up by my side and my kitten curled up on my chest…and then promptly sneezed right into my face. Kitty boogers and all. Still awesome!
I am looking forward to the day I can walk without back pain again. I’d love to read this while I heal, your post cracked me up.
Today I went through a local drive thru and ordered cheese fries. Then took them out of the bag and promptly dropped them on my shirt. I I told myself I was worse than a toddler.
Awesome is when your cousin from Louisiana comes to visit and brings an ice chest full of boiled crabs!
Going to an early morning class at the YMCA even though I’m on the waitlist. Usually I get in anyway. But not today. I leave dejected until I realize I am up and dressed early enough to get to the bakery that is always sold out early. Way before I get up and dressed normally.
When my 4 year old granddaughter calls me her best friend and facetimes with me at 10pm while hiding under the covers so she doesn’t wake up her dad.
I think I need this book now.
It is totally awesome when you hear your dog making gagging noises and manage to get them outside before they puke on the carpet!
The next best thing is already having your mom’s steam cleaner at your place when you don’t get the dog out on time.
My son is a special effects makeup artist who loves what he calls his “goblin aesthetic”. My 75 year old mom has requested he make her over as a goblin for Thanksgiving, and I AM HERE FOR IT.
I also suffer from depression and need reminders like this!
I’m was having a bad day. Pain, exhaustion, anxiety, depression…the whole kit and kaboodle. What’s awesome is that I still went out in the cold to drive to therapy. While driving I ended up singing along to the Encanto, and it was such a pick up that I needed.
Awesome I am looking forward to – today I booked ziplining in Costa Rica in February. I am unbothered by silly details such as my crippling fear of heights and can’t wait for the endorphins when I FLY out of my comfort zone!
thanks Jenny for this. I’m on my 2nd edit of the novel i’m writing and will keep some of this wisdom in mind. The people in my novel are mountain climbing and looking at the world in another awesome, unique way, that only mountains and mountain lions can create (oh and mountain jays that like to steal scrambled eggs out of small frying pans in the morning).
My latest awesome was (as a cookbook lover) finding a cookbook in the free book section of the library and really not sure, but hoping you didn’t already have it…and finding that I don’t! AWESOME – a freebie I can use and add to the collection. ggravett@tcsg.edu
At grandparents’ day, my 6 year old grandson told his teacher that what he loved about me was my chocolate cake. He’ll be here for thanksgiving, and we will have chocolate cake 🥰
I’m grateful that friends have brought necessities and a friend of husbeast took our dog to get bathed. I’m having so medical issues, and it can be hard to do many things I could once do. I would love a book to try to continue still seeing the less sucky side of things.
What’s awesome is my mom paying for a house cleaner before the holidays!
Every time I see Butter Pecan ice cream at the grocery store, I remember eating it for dinner with my grandparents when I would visit.
I would absolutely LOVE a copy!
And then a bunch more copies to send to LGBTQ youth that I send care packages to through a volunteer organization. 🌈
Today’s awesome thing was having a pleasant lunch at the ramen shop with my teenager, who is absolutely not pleasant most of the time, and home even less. I mean, good ramen with veggies is awesome. Ramen with my kid, even more so.
When visiting a friend with my son, I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and overheard my friend and her husband talking about what an awful parent I am. (They thought my son needed a spanking not a time out).
I went back to our room crying and gave my son a hug. He barely woke up and said “I love you mom” for the first time and went right back to sleep.
My dad is coming to stay with us for a few days at Thanksgiving. It is awesome and I am looking forward to it because it’s the first time my dad has packed his suitcase and gone anywhere overnight since we stayed in the hotel near the hospital to be with my mom almost 15 years ago when she was dying. Just the promise of making happy memories at Thanksgiving is just so magical and special to me and I am beyond grateful. Thank you for thinking to offer some ARC’s of your new book. 🙂
After so many years of decidedly NOT awesome this year has been frantically trying to make up for it. You guys will appreciate when I say that we had been looking for a home to buy – our first! – and found a formerly abandoned church across from a hundred fifty year old graveyard! Ours now. We are filling it with love, and just added a couple of lovely rescued dogs. We are planting things and planning to grow more. I am cooking again in my own kitchen. And my wonderful mother in law has moved in with us, and she is awesome. She is also struggling as she learns what being safe and cared for feels like for the first time in many decades. I would love to share this book with her, and will definitely purchase it in any case. Everyone in this house struggles with physical and mental broken-ness, and communities like this one inspire us.
When our puppy decided I was no longer terrifying (suspected mistreat by by previous owner) and decided that snuggling up with me to stay warm is the best thing ever.
When the grumpy cat chooses YOUR lap to sit on and purr!
I’m grateful I got to spend time with my mom and my favorite cousin at a vacation cottage in New England this summer! It was gorgeous, I got to hear loons for the first time in real life instead of TV shows set in Canada, and I got to connect with my cousin as adults. Such a blessing!
I got up today to a nicely cleaned couch because yesterday I had enough energy to clean under my cushions, and I’m really glad all those crumbs and trash are not living under there anymore. 🤣
A bit of awesome that happened today: My two year old niece not having any fucks to give. She leapt out of her Pop-pop’s arms and trampled two of her cousins in her rush to get to her favorite person (me) while yelling, “Auntie!” That’s my girl.
I was in a long line of vehicles on our two lane highway, which was coated with ice. We were all being responsible and carefully motoring along. Agitated lady in the big suburban was tailgating and trying to pass (as usual). She ultimately decided to pass the whole lot of us at an extremely high rate of speed. Alas, the state patrol was right in the middle of that line of traffic. Needless to say, he passed a few cars to pull her over. Woohoo!
I woke to doggy diarrhea on the floor. Our poor Damon. I woke to let my husband know, so he went to work cleaning it up. Then I realized that I was being a bit of a jerk by standing there watching him, so I joined in. That honestly felt awesome.
When my husband and I are watching tv on the couch and he reaches over the empty seat to hold my hand.
When you make a new friend online, and they become so important to your life that you forget that you’ve never actually met them in real life.
When the cat chooses to sit on *my* lap, instead of my husband or son’s, I feel like I’ve won the lottery.
There’s this huge tree, way behind my house. I live behind the zoo, so I think it’s on their property. And in the fall it turns yellowy orange and I can see it from my kitchen table. And it’s awesome to look out the window, for just a few weeks of the year, and see this blazing gorgeous tree that feels like it grew there JUST so I could admire it with my breakfast.
Every one liked dinner tonight!
Donnafiona@hotmail.com
I would adore these pearls of wisdom. In an unrelated note, I just learned my daughter the park ranger has just relocated to an area in SC positively inundated with alligators. What does this mean for Thanks a Lot Giving dinner? Pass the gators, I mean taters? Mom, why is the turkey so tough? Doomed I tell you, doomed.
The ding of Messenger reminding me that people care about me and are checking in, that’s a good sound.
My dogs will come give me a significant look because I’m supposed to know what they want so I start to get up and they run 10 feet ahead and then turn around to come get me because I didn’t get up, and they are all, “dude, you were supposed to follow us”. This makes me laugh, which is evidently the signal for them to wrestle and they are just so darned cute.
After 22 years, my mom, dad and my two brothers got together in Newfoundland. It was awesome and celebrated the love between us all.
When I get home from work and the dogs go crazy barking and talking and bounding against my legs in excitement. Also coming home to see my 5 week old grandbaby and kissing his delicious tiny cheeks 😻
My moment of awesome: When I wake up to pee in the middle of the night and the cat comes and jumps on my lap on the toilet so I can’t go back to bed until she’s ready to get off! (lauren@laurendahl.org)
When you’re running late for work and you make all the lights!
When my grandmother was in assisted living she was always grateful that it never rained when she was walking to the dining hall.
I’d love a book
Something awesome that I love: my husband does all the cooking and grocery shopping because he knows I hate cooking and grocery stores, and if we order out he almost always goes to get it. And lately he’s been bringing home flowers quite often as well. He’s pretty awesome!
I would love to have an advance copy of Neil’s book! eazbailey@gmail.com
I just spent a week with my family and only cried once. #win
Camille.clements13 at gmail.com
Realizing I am broke and have three more days until pay day, then reaching into my purse for chapstick and finding $20 I stashed in there and forgot about. Would love this book. Sedsmom@msn.com
I had a tooth that had become abscessed and my jaw was extremely swollen and hot to the touch AND it was late on a Friday. I couldn’t find a dentist open. On a whim, I drove down the street in my town where there are doctors and dentists for several blocks. I saw a new dentist office but it didn’t look like it was open yet. I stopped anyway and went to the door and it was locked. As I was walking back to my car a women opened the door and asked if I needed something. Then she saw my face/jaw and had me come in. She was the dentist and was just there to start setting up the office. She brought me in, did an x-ray and looked at the guilty tooth. She gave me a script for antibiotics and told me her office would be opening soon and to come back. She never even asked for my insurance card much less any money and was the nicest person ever. That was truly awesome.
My favorite awesome thing is when a cat gets his face super up close to sniff you for several secondhand quick breaths… they’re almost close enough to touch you, and their breath and the tiniest tips of a few hairs tickle your skin. Bonus points if when they pull their face away their mouths are still open as they finish pulling all that scent I to their heads.
The cat starts that horking noise and you sigh and think, “Ugh, now I have to clean up cat vomit,” but then you feel guilty for being annoyed about cleaning up puke and/or damp hairballs when the critter is clearly suffering, and it’s (probably) not their fault they have to throw up, and they look so pathetic all hunched over making that dreadful sound and then…nothing. The cat stops and acts as if not a thing happened and walks off and you question whether you imagined the whole thing, but also, NO CAT VOMIT CLEANUP. WOOHOO!
What a great Idea for a book!
One day I found a kitchen utensil (I think it was a spoon) that I didn’t know I misplaced. That was awesome. Suddenly, I had hope I would I would accidently find other items I misplaced that I either knew were missing, or didn’t know.
When my black cat that I rescued 8 years ago comes to where I am working and pats my leg for pets and then eventually stands with his front legs up like a small child because he want me to ‘pick him up’ and he sits in my lap and watches the computer screen while I work. Also kitty snores.
This book sounds amazing – would love a copy!
I sent my husband to the bus stop today to get our daughter, but she wasn’t there because she had art club that she has every week, but I forgot, but it was good he was there because our neighbour’s daughter WAS there even though she wasn’t supposed to be and so he brought her to our house til her mom came home. So if I hadn’t forgotten art club, she would’ve been down there alone with no ride and a dangerous dog on the way if she’d tried to walk. So for tiday, it’s good I’m an idiot sometimes!
I’d love a copy of the book. It sounds like something I could really use in my life! Thank you for the chance to score one!
I was waiting in line for 20 minutes, watching (in amazement) the woman/customer in front of me buying an entire cart full of random Halloween costumes and decor for 90% off. And she knows the price everything should ring up and corrects the cashier when it is wrong! The cashier is patient and manually overrides the prices to make sure the customer gets her 90% off. Then to top it off, I ask the customer if she is a
teacher or something and she tells me that she works for Children’s Hospital and is buying Halloween stuff at discount and she saves it for the pediatric hospital patients to hand out next year. How amazing is that! It was worth every extra minute in line at the cash register!
For me, it’s the feeling when my senior in high school daughter is really stressed and she asks me to just sit with her while she works. I read or scroll while we sit next to each other in the kitchen, just being together.
There’s nothing better than when a dog decides to come cuddle with you in a room full of people.
I would love to win one please! That would be my something awesome!!! But also… when my dog falls asleep on top of me and his snores gently lull me to sleep. That’s awesome too!
Sometimes I forget to lock my car in a parking lot and it is so AWESOME that my car and the stuff in it are still there.
I would love a book of awesome.
Awesome thing(s)
Driving down the highway at night when there are big fluff snowflakes and with the headlights on, it looks like you are in star wars flying though the galaxy.
The smell of butter, onions, celery and seasonings in the frying pan. This is the smell that precedes making turkey dressing (stuffing). It is the smell of Thanksgiving, Christmas and family.
When your dad accidentally butt dials you and leaves a 10 minute long voice mail that is just him humming and muttering to himself as he putters around in the workshop.
Sliding into a freshly made bed with freshly shaved legs.
It’s awesome when you randomly find a piece of a collection! Even if that collection is something silly, like a dice collection, when you’re lucky enough to score a hard-to-find set of dice, the feeling is pure awesome!
Our town finally has an independent bookstore and I am making friends with the owners and clerks and it is bringing me so much joy…almost as much as I am spending there.
The fact that when asked about Thanksgiving dinner dishes, my 13 year old niece, who doesn’t like anything, said she had “high expectations” for my mashed potatoes.
I would love a copy.
Oh my goodness, I just got pushed out of my job ($750 mo for a commute? No.), but my rent just went up (nominally), but now I know I made the right decision!!
My cats. Gosh, how they make things better.
I remember my first peach when living in SC. And my first pineapple visiting HI. 😋
I’m grateful that during a strong bout of depression when I needed to tell my doctor’s office I needed pre-authorization and didn’t that they did it anyway. That my insurance covered my doctor sticking a camera into my colon. And I’m grateful I don’t have colon cancer.
I love this!
This is going to sound odd so bear with me, we have been estranged from my father in law for many years. He was a bad bad man (that’s all about that). He passed away this past Friday. After I heard the news I looked to the sky and the sunset was the most magnificent I think I have ever seen. It was like a gift from my departed mother in law saying karma finally won. Many in the family saw the same sunset and had the same feeling.
crystalchadwick25@gmail.com
Driving to work this morning I saw a puppy and an adult dog gleefully wrestling. They were both clearly loving it! I laughed out loud.
I’m in a far-gone dark hole state these last few months and this post and book is/are exactly what I need right now. I finally laughed. Thank you both.
Simple unexpected kisses from a dog that likes my husband better then she likes me. I would love a copy
Finding the right pot for the right plant, color, size, shape, attitude. Awesome.
Finding a five dollar bill in the pocket of a jacket you haven’t worn since last year
Seeing a rainbow.
I retired from a job I loved, and had not one but TWO awesome bosses. I have a house and can afford to live in Santa Cruz Calif., my version of paradise! Most important, after a childhood of being an outsider/outcast I have many wonderful friends.
hzcole@gmail.com
When I’m having a dark, cold day and notice my clematis has 5 bright, blooms on it is awesome. Also, when I’m running late and my husband heats & brings me lunch so I can eat is awesome.
My son just cleaned off my whole counter for me! It looks great!
The sizzle the spray starch makes as a hot iron runs over it. -I rarely iron but when I do, that sound and smell being me back to Sunday evenings and my grandmother.
I would love a copy of that book!
I tried doing a gratitude journal but it became just another thing I had to force myself to do, and that was the opposite of what I needed. Some days there just isn’t any joy when severe depression rears its ugly head. You know how some people are like “You’re sad? What the hell could you possibly have to be sad about?” As if depression only shows up for a good reason. Only it was me saying it to myself each and every time I forced myself to come up with something to be grateful for.
I think reading someone else’s gratitude list would do more for me than trying to come up with my own.
Last week I drove home and all the lights were green. 🙂
rediscovering how much i love my snow boots and their ability to keep my toesies warm.
The awesome thing that happened to me today was I tweeted @TheBlogess and SHE LIKED MY TWEET!
I love that I still have a bunch of Bloggess pen pals (from the US & Canada!!) that send me the best cards and letters! I have made friends for life that I wouldn’t have even known existed if it weren’t for you, Jenny! Thank you, thank you, thank you for making us a weird, but inspiring, little family.
Monday night I was putting the big pot of soup I’d made in the fridge, but it slipped out of my hands and at least half of it sloshed all over the kitchen! I called my little dog, who was happy to lick up what she could, but she got full too fast. So I called my neighbor, who brought over her 2 big dogs, and they finished cleaning the floor while she and I laughed at “The Adventure of the Soup.” What started out as a disaster ended up with 3 happy dogs, 2 giggly friends, and 1 small pot of delicious soup left over.
I’d love to read the awesome things are in that obviously delightful book!
The awesomeness of when I’m jokingly being a terror and some wonderful friend fully leans into it. “Oh yes, the snow today means the weather betrayed you personally how DARE the universe?” “Your favourite beer is not in season? This is an outrage and we must storm the barricades!” There’s nothing like knowing they’re game to play along.
Also when you’re running late and the bus shows up exactly the second you need it, magically winning you back some time.
ps Jenny I’m still occasionally getting letters from the address exchange earlier this year and it makes me gloriously happy every single time. Thanks for making that happen!
My awesome is waking up with SEVERAL hours of sleep left – it is the best. Kisses – melissamstewart@comcast.net
This sounds like exactly the book I need right now. My family has been going through one of the hardest times we’ve ever experienced and I’ve been finding it hard to read because life is just really depressing these days. I would love this book to make me remember that not all of life is hard and sad.
When you realize you’re turning into your mom — and it’s a good thing.
This weekend, I get to finally give my mother the birthday gift I bought for her in July because I knew it would spark joy for her and she’ll be less annoyed about me giving her a gift because I bought it while it was on super sale.
The sound when you walk of crunchy leaves.
Saved my favorite crooked necked duck from the jaws of a coyote today, all death metal hollering, tie dyed Jammie’s wearing, pan banging me- that was awesome.
The coyote took one look and was like “f#@% that!”
When you’re having an “I’m an idiot and a fraud who’s about to be found out and fired” kind of day, and a coworker asks you a question, that you not only answer, but get thanked for “explaining it so clearly”. And you remember that maybe you’re actually pretty good at your job. Those moments can turn a whole week around.
I completely resonate with the counter comment. I also feel that way about floors as well. If I pick up all the dogs little chewed pieces of paper, I end of admiring the carpet for the rest of the day.
Three sad things: I am unable to read paper books unless they’re large print and most good stuff isn’t, I haven’t found an indie bookstore that sells ebooks, and apparently the audio won’t be selling in my country. The hopeful is they might later.
The awesome is I just read I Choose Darkness by my favorite author and laughed myself silly, which led to actually changing the sheets on my bed. How’s that for fucking awesome?!
The awesome thing that happened to me today was getting to FaceTime with one of my best friends who moved across the country a month ago. In general, freshly shaved legs on freshly washed sheets is one of my greatest pleasures.
You are awesome and I love you!
Belting a show tune in the middle of a conversation because it triggered a lyric and getting “what kind of drug are YOU on” looks from folks who don’t speak “show tunes”.
My 6 year old voluntarily brought me a brownie at a church function.
I could use some pick me ups right now- we’re old & having some health issues.
Anyway, don’t you just love the awesome feeling of seeing someone else put up their holiday lights, so now you’re free to have your own up
It’s so AWESOME when you accidentally set your alarm for an hour early, and you wake up only to realize you get to sleep in for one more hour! I did this for the first time this week 🙂
Jumping in someone else’s big pile of leaves made me laugh like a kid 🙂
When babies, of any species, stretch. Kittens stretching with their little toe beans spread is so cute. Puppies stretching is adorable. Baby humans stretching makes me tear up because how cuuuute!!!!
Finding a book that’s been on my “I want to read” list at a Little Free Library.
Do you know how sometimes your worlds just collide and you’re left thinking… “OF COURSE these two spectacular human beings are friends…”
For my moment of awesome/nostalgia…
When you actually pick the exact right size of Tupperware to store your leftovers… It always makes me think of my Gramma and the little whoop of victory she’d give when the soup came right up to the brim without spilling over. I still hear her cheering when I manage to pull this miracle off. ❤️
It’s awesome when my girlfriend did not eat my chocolate ice cream when she swore she is not eating sweets which normally means she will totally eat my chocolate ice cream.
I’m meeting a group of moots for the first time at a pirate themed restaurant on Saturday night. I’m so excited.
When my dog talks in his sleep.
That feeling when you win a contest and actually want the prize! I recently won 2 of the 3 Geicoween Funko Pops.
I never expected to get one, let alone two! Yay!
I rarely win contests. Ok like 4 things in the past 40 years, so this is HUGE! 🤣
Finding another roll of toilet paper when you think you’re out.
When I’m feeling crummy and my asshole cat comes and sits in my lap.
One of many awesome moments growing up in a family with six smart kids with dominant shitshow genes in a very cramped house …
My dad was an alcoholic and loved to smoke filterless cigarettes and listen to classical music VERY LOUD, even late at night. We loved him, but he was not a nice man when he drank. One day my brother went to the magic store right next to the Boys’ Club (they knew their audience) and came home with exploding loads for cigarettes. Eager to try them, he snuck a cigarette from Dad’s pack and stuffed one inside. “Maybe one isn’t enough,” he thought, and added another. And another. He stopped at five.
When Dad had settled in to crank up the radio, five of us kids stood silently around the corner that opened into the kitchen as Dad lit the cigarette. The music swept him away and soon BLAM!!!! We heard him yell from behind us “Goddamned kids!” as we dashed to escape through the front door, climbing over each other and knocking over furniture and yelling like screaming goats.
One of my fondest and most awesome memories …
Oh, yes, and I’d love that book. (You can imagine what our childhood years were like. I’m still medicating.) 🙂
When you walk the dog and find the glove that fell out of your pocket from the previous walk. (Took gloves off to pick up poop, stuffed into coat pocket. The gloves, not the poop.)
I would love a copy! My husband and I just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary and there have been many small joys over the years. This book could be helpful in revisiting some.
A recent bit of awesome for me is: I recently exhibited a quilt that I had made at our state fair. The quilt was blue and yellow in honor of the current Ukrainian fight to defend their homeland and contained the Ukrainian flag in the pattern. A woman purchased it as a birthday present for her friend who had been a nurse in Ukraine for many years. I’m so glad my quilt will have a good home!
Putting on a warm bathrobe right out of the dryer. Heaven. Just a blissful, soft, warm hug.
My awesome for today was snuggling with my kids reading bedtime stories! I know it won’t last forever and they will get to old to snuggle someday. Hopefully they get happy memories and a love of reading out of it!
The other day I was driving through a tunnel of trees and suddenly the wind hit and WHOOOOOOOOSH all the leaves were fluttering and flying over my car, and pasting themselves to my windshield and I thought to myself, “THIS! This is why I am still alive!” and sometimes that is the best feeling in the world. I want a copy of this book, and will happily order it if I don’t win one.
guest teaching in a 3rd grade class a kiddo says: I don’t want to be a teacher when I grow up… how do you do it? (they also drew in response to how would you make money them rubbing a magic lantern with a genie and they are asking for money)
I’m not feeling awesome lately, and I no longer have the ability to concentrate on books much anymore, but I really appreciate that you would take the time to tell us about this wonderful book. Thank you, Jenny, for being You! ❤️
When a trick-or-treater is mesmerized with your ghosts on your door, and misses the big bowl of treats. While another tot yells I GOT COOKIES! Halloween success.
Your comment about the counter really hits home right now. I’m still unpacking from moving and any time I can clean something off, I feel so absolutely special and accomplished! A couple of months ago, I opened a box in the kitchen and found my Swedish Rosette irons. Which bring back that sniffle happy-sad feeling because my maternal grandmother taught me to make Swedish Rosette cookies ( think crepe batter, but thinner, with a hot flower-shaped iron dipped in it and then deep fried. You end up with this super thin, crisp cookie shell in the shape of a flower or a snowflake. We would eat ours with thawed strawberries (so they are just swimming in strawberry juice) and a sprinkle of powdered sugar. My grandmother died of cancer a very very long time ago, and she and I had a really rocky relationship. But things like the cookies are the sparkle that make me miss her and all the good parts of our relationship. Maybe over the holiday I’ll buy some oil, make some batter, and then deep fry some snowflakes and flowers… I don’t have strawberries, but I do have a ton of frozen peach filling for cobbler and I have frozen blueberries… I’m sure that one or the other of those can take the place of strawberries. 🙂
Thanks for both making me cry and smile. It’s been a while since I thought of that.
When I take one of the two cups I inherited from my grandma’s apartment after she died and every time in my head I can hear her clear, loving voice asking “would you like some tea?”, which is in Polish so it sounds so much better: “napijesz sie herbatki?” and I have this warm feeling of being loved and that she is somehow still there for me, offering me love and tea anytime I extra need it.
Amazingly reuniting with my kid who I gave up for adoption at birth. He’s now 37 years old and a very handsome man. I’m so grateful to his parents for raising a fantastic and interesting person.
That fleeting moment after it rains and the sun comes through the clouds, and you don’t know why, but EVERY. COLOR. IS. MORE. VIVID. AND. IT. SMELLS. LIKE. COMING. ALIVE.
So many awesomes here!
ANYHOOO… MY biggest awesome is finding my birth mother when I was 34 years old, and oh yes ohyesohyes, she is immensely awesome! 🙂
Climbing into bed for the first time after washing the sheets
I’ve done the cooking one. The last time it happened I dropped an f bomb after the first bite. Not that f bombs are rare for me, it’s just never happened for good food before.
My wife’s boss gave us some halibut he caught and I had to go look for a recipe for it. It was like the perfect blend of spices and cooked for exactly the right amount of time. I also made roasted Brussels sprouts for it and some rice a roni.
When I need a smile I remember my mom hosing the dog turds off the patio. We called it S**t at the Races & made bets on which one would make it off the patio first.
When my 18-yr old daughter (who is gone most of the week for college and work) walks in the door a day earlier than expected simply because she wanted to come hang with me for the evening so we start picking out a movie or anime to watch but never really get to it because she is rambling happily about her week and showing me dog/cat/capybara/goat videos on TikTok that made her smile and running through the fridge for something to eat and leaving her socks in the floor by the couch and chasing the dog around the living room and reminding me of all the things I miss now that she is gone these days but still giving me warm fuzzies because she chose to come home to me rather than be with her friends for the night.
When you show a funny Instagram video to the person next to you who just watched you laugh, and they laugh too.
So…this morning at 5am mind you, my puppy Enzo McNugget decides he needs to go potty. I’m groggy, not thinking…I let him out the back door and follow him out with my pooper scooper, when low and behold the steps are icy! Luckily, I was able to catch myself, so my good thing today, I didn’t fall! (deigrl8@yahoo.com)
One of my awesome things is that my 4-year-old has become a knock-knock joke wizard, and yesterday told me approximately 347 jokes that had a punchline involving his penis or just ended with him licking me. I could not stop laughing, so I assume we’ll be getting more of that subject matter in that oeuvre!
When your spouse is away on business and the bed is so much colder and then one of your kids climbs in with you in the middle of the night.
When you’re walking the dog (who poops) and you luckily have one last poopy bag to pick it up with because you know THAT neighbor is watching.
getting into work late and then finding your boss has called in sick so you don’t need to make up a ridiculous excuse. My husband (then boyfriend) was late for a date once and told me he would have been on time but there was an earthquake and he had to drive around the long way round!!! We lived in Jo’burg 🙂
Yes please to me book. This feels like my mind of thing. Love this all around!
Cyamaeker112@gmail.com
Waking up to my cat, Big Kitty, sleeping snug next to my legs, instead of on my back. Warm love on the side!
That time I dropped an antique bowl full of rocks and CAUGHT IT before it hit the ground and I didn’t even drop a single rock and nothing was broken! That was awesome!!!!
Jen.eason0428@yahoo.com
Seeing your friends who are so close they’re like family after a long absence. If I get a book, I’ll be sending it to one of them, actually, it sounds like a lovely gift, and she’s been having a hard time lately. 💜
Opening the dishwasher in the morning to find that your teenage son actually loaded it and ran it last night without being asked so you can have cereal in a dish instead of a mixing bowl! Life is good.
I want to see what doll Victor bought you.
I found half of a chocolate bar in my work bag. It is not often that I forget about the good dark chocolate so quite a nice surprise and gift for having to be at work.
Awesome is having students who come up after class to say thank you.
When you pop open the microwave 1 second before it beeps.
We all need more awesome! It’s awesome that after reading this post, I was able to download a copy of one of his previous books (THE Book of Awesome) from my library and start reading about Awesomeness right away, even without winning. Though I’d still love to win 🙂
When the 26 year old kid you never hear from calls you out of the blue and we end up talking for over an hour.
Getting a surprise offer for a free book on the day your pet dies.
When my shower door catches the sunlight just right and I am treated to tiny rainbows on my wall.
One moment of awesome that I love: when you finish a page in your coloring book and it turns out just the way you hoped it would
I have 2 best friends who both have multiple siblings, and in the past 2 days a sibling of each of them has “needed” me. A good reminder of how helping people can make you feel good.
You are awesome and I love you 💖
Those little moments of absurdity that you catch in weird places. Like the other day, I saw a man combing his hair while driving a convertible.
I would use this book to inspire my High School Costume Crew. I celebrate when they break a sewing machine needle because now I can show them how to change it. I high five mistakes they catch themselves because now I don’t have to secrectly fix it.
I am so grateful for my husband who works from home and walks over to me and pays the kiss toll.
Once we packed up two kids and a puppy and drove round trip from MA to Denver and back for my brothers wedding. To pass the time we listened to audiobooks. We listened to “Inkheart” on the way home and I kid you not, after thousands of miles, and dozens of pit stops, it ended exactly as we pulled into our own driveway. It was magical.
Yesterday I received a “I’m grateful for you” note from a coworker. :*)
I am grateful that my supervisor shares my dark sense of humor
When I’m having a hard morning but then I look up and see a particularly puffy little cloud and it makes me smile.
When I thought we were going to be late to my daughter’s jiu jitsu class because the I noticed the washing machine was leaking right before we walked out the door, but we weren’t late after all.
When you wake up 2 minutes before your alarm goes off and don’t have to actually wake up to that awful noise. pugghml1@yahoo.com
I drive a blue Toyota Tundra named Babe the Blue Ox and it always feels especially awesome when I parallel park, like a pro, on the first try.
My best friend is on dialysis. I’ve NEVER wanted to be an organ donor until now. Seeing her life being taken away is heartbreaking so I’m going through the living donor program in hopes that I can help her get her life back.
When you live in Alaska, and even though you know it’s climate change and it’s not good, but the weather is warmer than it should be in November and the sun happens to come out while you’re free to be outside and you can feel ACTUAL warmth on your face. In November. It’s so awesome. And you know that spring will come again, eventually.
From the time I was brought home from the hospital until my parents passed away, our house number was 519. Every time I happen to catch a clock at 5:19, I have a little chat with my parents. A little happy secret I’ve never told anyone until now.
I found my dog and cat sleeping in the sunshine together today. So awesome.
I’m probably too late, but something awesome that happened to me recently – my disability case was finally approved, after years of fighting 😄🎉 (well, technically I don’t have the official approval yet, but the judge actually told me in the hearing that he’s approving my case, which is not something that usually happens). It’s definitely helped my stress and mood levels, and I (mostly) don’t feel like a phony when I say I’m disabled anymore
When you adopt two geriatric draft horses from a dude ranch in Arizona and you relocate them to Wisconsin and watch them cavort – somewhat slowly and arthritically – in the newly falling snow.
When the cat sits on my chest and purrs so loud it feels like I’m purring.
The best thing to happen to me recently was this: I managed to get our 2yo foster daughter to fall asleep in her “big girl bed” (read: no more crib, she can escape now! 😱) with no fighting, crying or protests AND SHE STAYED IN IT ALL NIGHT LONG. I felt like I won a goddamn Mom of the Year Trophy for that one! The first time ever to get her to bed without any drama at all!
It was awesome when my Tiffany necklace that was missing all year (I figured I must have lost it at our January beach get away to celebrate our anniversary) turned up in a box of Christmas gift boxes I had stored in the attic.
This cracks me up because I read “Eat, Pray, Love” because everyone was RAVING about how wonderful it was and how this woman was an icon for her journey to discover herself, and as I read it I got more and more angry because WHO THE HELL CAN JUST TAKE A YEAR OFF IN LIFE TO GO DISCOVER THEMSELF IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY? Did she win the lottery? I am not this fortunate and now I’m bitter and hate this woman (actually, I don’t… but you get it).
THEN, I was watching Tik Tok the other day and a lady was listing just little crazy things that are better than sex, and all of them made me unbelievably happy (my contribution was when you peel the protective layer of plastic off new appliances, etc. IT JUST MAKES MY BRAIN FLOOD WITH ENDORPHINS) and that’s how I imagine this book would be on every single page. Thank you for letting us in on this treasure!
When you actually manage to wake up earlier than your toddler and can sit and watch the sunrise and drink an entire cup of coffee while still hot and no one else is awake and you don’t have to do one. damn. thing. Then she wakes up but just sort of curls up with you still kind of sleepy and just says, mommy I love you…and amazingly goes 10 whole minutes without asking for anything . And you watch the sunrise together and it’s glorious… (can I have an ARC pleeeeaaasse. That book sounds perfect for me!)
Yesterday I was having a bad day and then my neighbour randomly messaged me in the afternoon and was all ‘I need you to come over when you get home from work because I have something for you’, so I did and she had made Dulce de Leche cheesecake. And gave me a hug. And then things were less bad.
Finding money in a coat pocket then wondering if I put it there to find it later to make me smile like I won the one dollar lottery!
Walking into a lit house, with the smell of something delicious cooking on the first dark night after the time change. And because you live alone, realizing you’re pretty smart to have put that all into motion that morning!
Thats awesome. Sounds like a great book. I think its awesome i can still make my parner laugh and smile. He has a hard time seeing the bright side. At times i do too so i try to remind myself of one positive thing. Reading your blogs is always a positive and so relatable
A gratitude journal sounds like a punishment, so I’m grateful the rest of us will never have to do one and can replace it with awesome accidents of fate — like the time I did not shoot my eye out with a BB gun, but hit my friend in the face instead…
It’s so satisfying when I finish a discretionary-length knitting project and manage to time it juuuust right so that I have enough yarn to bind off cleanly but not enough (wasted!) to have done a few more rows. (E.g., sock leg, scarf, throw.) I feel proud for have gotten the maximum possible yield from my yarn.
You know what is Awesome? When you’re caught short out on a hike and thinking there’s no one around you duck behind a convenient bush, at which point the whole thing lights up in a ball of flames and starts talking all bibley like (in the suspiciously soothing voice of Neil DeGrasse Tyson (( who claims not to believe in all that stuff, but in reality may actually be the human manifestation of the Almighty)) ). After having your eyebrows singed off the realization dawns on you that God is always watching and you can never be comfortable going pee in the woods again.
I can say that this was such a great synapsis of your book that I am beyond excited to read it! I’m grateful for many things, I really try, but I, not unlike Jenny, can feel overwhlemed in this very intense world, but for me, every day when I come home I’m grateful to our new 2 yr. old lab mix dog that we adopted. He LOVES my husband, which lets me off the hook to be overly in love with the 4 month old kitten we adopted 2 months ago. I am normally the animal person in the house, but the dog loves my husband, so I can give all of my love to this annoying, monsterish, super lovey, ginormous (7.8 pound, 4 1/2 month old kitten, he’s a weird giant), kitten that would prefer to be wrapped around my shoulders while I am doing ANYTHING in our house, from cooking, to doing dishes, watching tv, when I sleep, he just does the oppsosite and lays across my neck, so basically he’ll eventually suffocate me when he hits 15 pounds in like 3 months! So even though I have a great husband & job, I’m most grateful for the dog who loves my husband, so I can love my kitten. I can’t wait to read your book Mr. Pasricha, so PICK ME!! I’m kidding, I’d love for your to pick me, but I’l your book either way!! Thanks for your time 🙂
I am getting ready to spend Thanksgiving week with our son. I am so grateful for that time with him and the fact that we can make the trip.
When you see a teenager doing their happy thing in public and it makes you smile and then you realize it’s YOUR teenager and your heart swells 3 sizes because holy cow, that’s your kid.
Last night I got to put my grandson to bed and he fell asleep in my arms as I rocked him. I held him while he slept for another half hour even though I know my daughter (who is a sleep expert) puts him to bed before he falls asleep so he learns to go to sleep by himself.
Sounds amazing <3
Spontaneous hugs from a preschooler are awesome! Especially after being apart for several days, for the first time in their life.
Yesterday I had two blessed hours free of morning sickness.
I’d love a copy! I’m ordering one too, and I’ll give it to my DIL if I am lucky enough to win. My small piece of awesome is after my dog is groomed–she’s a Bearded Collie mix–she gets sooooo fluffy and pretty and just prances around, and smells amazing, too. She makes me smile to just look at her.
So every year during this season my mother and I would look forward to getting Stayman Winesap apples. They are the best, crispest, sweet/tart apples ever! Well last year I lost my mom in September and I could not bring myself to buy apples. This year I just happened to stop at a roadside stand to pick up some tomatoes and they had a bushel of Stayman Winesap apples. It felt like a gift from my mom. When I had the first bite of the first apple this year I started crying, but in a healing way, because I miss my mom so much I I’ll never get to share apples with her again, but I have GREAT memories of all our years of enjoying this season, and getting our apples. Thank you Jenny, for reminding me to be grateful for the “little” things that aren’t so little. The book sounds amazing and I will be getting it, even if I don’t get picked. 🙂