encyclopedia of an ordinary life

A peek at my life if you were reading about it in an encyclopedia:

AUTHOR
I just finished reading a book called Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. It’s her memoir, and it’s written in encyclopedia format. Which, if you ask me, is a genius idea. (Why couldn’t I have thought of this?)

see also: Ideas

BAROQUE MUSIC
I like how majestic-sounding Baroque music is.

CANDY, SEASONAL
Have you ever bought a package of M&Ms in the winter and, because you were waiting to eat them until you had a chance to snuggle next to the heating vent with your book later that evening, carried them around in your backpack where they got cold and hard? I have. M&Ms taste so much better when they are almost, but not quite, frozen. Skittles, on the other hand, taste awful cold and hard. Which is why M&Ms taste better in the winter and Skittles taste better in the summer.

COLD
My hands and feet get cold very easily. And not just a little cold. We’re talking icicles. I think I passed the cold gene onto my son: when the doctor touched his little hands during his routine checkup the other week, he made a point to remark at how cold they were and even grabbed the intern who was with him to come feel them, too. (Then he assured me that my baby was still normal. Whew.)

see also: Swaddle

GUEST BOOK/LOG
My aunt in Massachusetts keeps a guest book in her extra bedroom and requests that her visitors sign it before they leave. This is cool. And now I want to start one to keep track of all the visitors we will get during our years in New York City. Visitors so far: my parents, Kristeee, and Tom From Muncie.

HALLOWEEN COSTUME
There’s something about having to ride to the ward Halloween party on public transportation that made me think twice about dressing up this year.

IDEAS
All of my best ideas come as I’m falling asleep or while I’m in the bathroom.

see also: Author

LAUNDROMAT
I think I’m the only person at the laundromat who doesn’t fold my clothes on the counter there. When my clothes are done drying, I stuff them back in my laundry bags and haul them home. It’s not that I don’t care about my clothes. I do care. I just don’t like having to spend more time at the laundromat than is absolutely necessary, especially with a baby strapped to my front. And for the record, I do fold my clean laundry. I just do it at home.

LIBRARY FINES
I’m too responsible and in touch with my library to ever wrack up library fines.

see also: Ramona Shirt

NEW
I like to keep things new for as long as possible. That’s why I don’t wear new clothes the day after I bought them, why I keep shoes in their shoebox packaging for months, and why I leave items in their original packaging, or, in the case of clothes, with their tags on, until the last possible moment.

NICKELS
Sometime during high school Fate decided that January 31^st should be Lucky Nickel Day because on that day for several years in a row I kept finding abandoned nickels on the ground. While this seemed incredibly fortunate (after all, nickels are better to find on the ground than pennies), I can’t help but wish that Fate picked that summer day I rode my bike up the trail to Bridal Veil Falls for the first time and found an abandoned five dollar bill on the ground.

PANTS, FEELING LIKE I’M FLYING BY THE SEAT OF MY
Motherhood is a wild ride.

see also: Weekends

PAPER
I have an almost unhealthy addiction to paper and blank books.

PAST, MY
I keep running into my past on the internet. This is both cool and scary. Cool because who doesn’t like to run into old friends? And scary because I’ve spent the better part of my post-high school years trying to dust off the person I wanted to be, but awkwardly wasn’t, as I was growing up. Will these people recognize the New Me, or will they only see me for who I once was?

RAMONA SHIRT
I secretly like wearing my Ramona shirt on days when I go to the library in the hope that some librarian – preferably the one in the children’s department – will notice and make a comment.

see also: Library Fines

SMILE
Sometimes I smile when I think I should be crying (a defense mechanism?). I don’t really like my smile because it shows off more gums than teeth (my teeth are abnormally tiny) and, even after years of orthodontia, my teeth are still a little crooked. Even so, someone once told me, within five minutes of meeting me, that they liked my smile because the corners of my mouth turned up even when I wasn’t trying.

SWADDLE
When I’m cold, I want nothing more than for someone to swaddle me in an enormous blanket.

see also: Cold

V-NECK SHIRTS
In 8^th and 9^th grades I wore a full corrective back brace to keep my spine from continuing to grow crookedly. The thing was a beast: bulky, uncomfortable, and embarrassing. Part of the design included a bar that wrapped around my neck and screwed in the back. To hide that bar, I took to wearing polo shirts and, considering the risk of looking like nerd totally worth it in this case, buttoned them all the way up. So when my mom bought me a simple v-neck shirt from Old Navy the summer between my freshman and sophomore years (when the doctor started letting me wear the brace only at night), I was thrilled and let it quickly rise to the status of Favorite Shirt. I wore that thing ragged – literally. I was still wearing it the summer after my freshman year of college when one day, cooking with my friend Emily, I spilled a bit of enchilada sauce on it. As I pre-treated the stain later that night, I actually scrubbed a hole into the shirt. But that (unfortunately) didn’t stop me from wearing it. Because the screws on the back brace had a tendency to tear holes in my clothes, I was an expert mender. So I fixed my Favorite Shirt. And I wore it for another year or two.

WEEKENDS
I like that my routine changes on weekends. Garrett, on the other hand, does not. It’s hard to find a middle ground.

see also: Pants, Feeling Like I’m Flying By the Seat of My