The Quality of Being Authentic

This week was rough. There wasn't one distinct moment that made it worse than other weeks, just as a whole it felt long and very tiring. Although it was sprinkled with good moments here and there. One of those was Thursday night when I got to join 5 of my other Mandarin Colleagues at Radio Lollipop. Radio Lollipop is a radio station located inside Miami Children's Hospital. It opens 4 nights a week and it really is a wonderful thing. Basically it staffs volunteers each night. These people give up 5 or more hours a week to bring a little bit of joy to a few sick children. The way it works: There is an activity each night- for example on Thursday Mandarin brought the activity and supplies which was to make Fans out of construction paper. After all the volunteers are briefed on how to make the activity and their supply baskets are stocked off we go. 3 of us to each "wing" of the hospital. I was chosen for the cancer wing. Once you arrive you go door to door and ask the k...

Hello all my friends and readers, I hope the end of summer is treating everyone well. I have missed you all- I have had a little writer's block since my last inspirational 1AM post. :) This past week has been exciting though. Z and I have been busy buying things, we are quite good at that. We purchased ourselves a new bed- king size as you may have guessed. It's amazing it was delivered on Tuesday and I have been in sleeping heaven ever since. Sleeping is such a past time of mine, that this makes it even more delightful. So because of the upgrade our apartment has been turned upside down! We sold all my queen furniture on Craig's List, and that included night stands dresser and bed. So I am having a bit of a storage issue- as in all my clothes are on the floor. So that will need to be the next purchase, a dresser. During all this moving we sold a lot of our unused stuff like old DVD's and movies and books. We ended up making like $400 on used stuff. So that was an excit...

Well its 12:40AM on a "school" night and I can't sleep. For those who know me well, they know that this is a very rare occurrence. I have always been a good sleeper ever since I was a baby. Sleeping through the night at a very young age. And then moving into my elementary days, I could sleep for 12-14 hours a night on average. My friends and relatives would always tease me, telling me that I was in hibernation. To be honest I have always been a little embarrassed of my sleep habits. I feel like Life is Short and I have slept away more than the average person. But I digress. I always feel like when I can't sleep its an opportunity to get things accomplished. So tonight I am trying to do just that. This weekend was one for the books. Zach and I's first wedding anniversary! What an achievement. As I was thinking and looking back at this year I was trying to pin point what has made it so successful. The thing is I don't feel "married" as I feel this is ...

I have to tell you about my amazing experience to the amazing Harry Potter World. I woke up at 5:15Am on Sunday morning, and my sweet hubby drove me to the airport for my 7AM flight. I landed in Orlando in at 8:30A *As a side note I flew Spirit Air, it was interesting- cheap- yes, but lots of fees too. They charge for carry on bags- so I only had my one bag which was traveling light for me. Also NO leg room at all. So if you are going on a short day trip like me its perfect if not then maybe pay the extra for a nicer airline. So I digress- Olivia picked me up from the airport and from there we picked up the rest of the gang (Courtney and Katie and their sisters Amanda and Taylor). It was a sister trip. We went directly to Island of Adventures and then straight to Harry Potter World. This place was amazing- the detail was incredible and I was in heaven. I totally let go and gave in to my Harry Potter nerdy side and had a ball. A few highlights. Got my Wand from Olivander's, Ate Lun...