I love...birthday weeks.

I am typing this while curled up on my couch in a leopard print Snuggie, thinking of the birthday week that was last week. I know, a birthday is only supposed to be for a "day", but this year there was a lot that happened, so I used a week: I aged. I wore leopard print. I was on TV. I ate pizza...lots of pizza (I love pizza).
"How could all this activity have been packed into one week?" you ask.
Well, I'll tell you. Let's start with Monday...

*****

 

DAY 1: Scarf
 

MONDAY
With my birthday quickly approaching, my sister Lisa invited me to join her for pizza and beers at our favorite pizza spot, Edison's in Tremont. We ordered a pepperoni and banana pepper pizza plus several beers. As we were winding down the night I decided to use my newest addiction to record the night: Instagram! Then I realized I was wearing a leopard print scarf and since the week was leading up to my leopardy birthday party (see "Saturday" below) I decided to wear a dash of leopard print everyday for the rest of the week, Instagram it, and call it "7 Days of Leopard Print".

*****

 

DAY 2: Bracelet

TUESDAY
Tuesday, September 25th, was my actual birthday. I woke up feeling older, wiser, and ready to take on the day! My friends and family sent me birthday wishes. My office bought me a cake. My birthday was off to a great start. Not only was I aging on this day, but that evening was the premiere of a new season of one of my favorite shows...New Girl!!! I planned a watch party for the event at Rivergate in the Flats. This watch party was to serve several purposes: 1) so I could watch the show and hang out with friends at the same time; and 2) because there was a possibility that I would be shown during the show as the New Girl Fan of the Week (an honor I had applied for several weeks earlier)! So there we were, I was wearing a pink boa (cause why not), the show was playing on several TVs, I had my friends around me, we were eating calzones, and the sound for New Girl was on full blast. Then...BAM...during a commercial break: "Jenny is the Fan of the Week"!!! I nearly fell off my barstool. This was the icing on top of my birthday cake. (And aside from all that, the show is laugh-out-loud hilarious! I laugh every time I watch and re-watch it. If you don't already watch it, you should!) Then I went home and ate half of a leftover slice of pizza.

*****

DAY 3: Sweater

WEDNESDAY
Still high off my New Girl moment of fame, I woke up ready to celebrate my post-birthday day. That evening I finished the other half of my pizza slice for dinner, then headed to the Winking Lizard for bowling league. My team entered me on the scorecard as "bday" and my first game started out awesome, with spare/strike after spare/strike. Then that ended and the rest of my game was...eh. But the popcorn at the Lizard tasted great.

*****

DAY 4: Headband

THURSDAY
Some friends and I went downtown to watch the Cleveland Browns game. While the game didn't end as we might have liked, our night was a good time. We ended the game at Map Room, where a friend and I split...pizza! Surprise! Someone jokingly asked me if I'd had pizza every day that week. I laughed that I hadn't. Then I stopped and thought about it and realized I had indeed had pizza every single day of the week. Awesome...and oops.

*****

 

DAY 5: Shoes

FRIDAY
For lunch I had leftover Map Room pizza (I couldn't stop myself). Then that evening I went with a coworker to a candle party. We ate some yummy food, smelled some yummy candles, drank some yummy white sangria, and made it an early night. I was home and in bed by 11p.m., and I loved it.

*****

SATURDAY

DAY 6: Dress

I woke up early and decided to immediately go to the gym before I could change my mind. After a week of eating pizza and drinking birthday drinks, a gym visit was needed. That evening I had plans to gather with friends at the Speakeasy in Ohio City to celebrate my new age, and in doing so I asked that everyone wear a dash of leopard print (because, well, I love leopard print). My friends didn't disappoint. One by one they walked in with scarves, shirts, shoes, dresses...Ohio City was oh so fashionable that night. We spent the night drinking, dancing and just being leopardy! As the night ended, I did not eat any pizza - but I did get Taco Bell, which is an excellent second choice in my book.

*****

SUNDAY

DAY 7: Hat

After sleeping in, I met friends for brunch at Southside. Bloody marys and mimosas flowed and I pointed out every leopard print item that people we didn't know were wearing. After that my friend Niki and I started walking home, then got sidetracked by hot chocolate and a two hour walk around the pretty streets of Tremont. The weather was perfect, the trees were Fall-ish, and you couldn't NOT be outside. I didn't eat any pizza on this day, but I did pass by Edison's, so I was hugged by its delicious smell. Finally, I was ready to head home and spend quality time with my couch, and that's what I did.

*****

 

YAY: Snuggie

Now I'm nursing a leopard print hangover with my leopard print Snuggie and feeling very thankful for a great birthday week, great friends & family, great TV shows, great pizza, and a great year ahead in my new age.
"What is going to happen in the year ahead?" you ask.
I don't know for sure - that's what makes it exciting.
However, I'm sure it will be filled with dashes of leopard print - that's what makes it Jenny.

I love...imagination.

I am writing this from a secret island, while Ryan Gosling gathers firewood for our sunset dinner.

J/K...I'm not really on a secret island and Ryan Gosling isn't gathering firewood for me (as far as I know), but I can imagine that it's true.

I am a big fan of the imagination. I guess it started when I was little.
There were the empty boxes that became cars or houses.
When my parents mopped the kitchen floor and put all the furniture in the living room I'd be ready with blankets to create my own fort.
My friends and I would cook amazing "dinners" from dirt, grass and water, while using frisbees as our plates.
Or we'd lay in the grass watching the clouds pass by, pointing out the shapes and animal forms we saw in them.
Now I write short stories about animal towns and crazy squirrels or adorable miniature ponies.
I have a box full of greeting cards that I thought of and created.
And I'm always up for using my hairbrush as a microphone while I dance around singing whatever song is on the radio.


Maybe my love for the imagination is the reason I love Shel Silverstein, or maybe my love for Shel Silverstein is the reason I love the imagination. He created wildly ridiculous, touching, never before thought of stories that didn't follow along with any norm I'd known. He put the stories down on paper and now his imagination lives on with every turn of his books' pages.

Luckily, people of all ages are still using their imagination on a daily basis. Do you know about Caine's Arcade? A little boy named Caine used old cardboard boxes to build a whole bunch of arcade games. He imagined it, created it, and then - well, watch the short film about it. Warning: my eyes got a bit watery during this one. As a person who rarely cries at movies, I had to ask myself what about this ten minute film got to me? The answer: watching this little boy talk about his arcade. The happiness that comes out of him when he talks about it, I couldn't help but be excited and root for him and his imagination from the start.

What about you? What do you imagine? The thing about your imagination is that it's all yours. No one else can imagine what you can imagine. I don't care how old you are, the imagination is always in style. Whether you're using it to create your future or you just want to daydream away a sunny afternoon, it's ready to go. Use it to be silly, creative, outrageous, hopeful - whatever you need. Shake up your head, clean out the corners of your brain, and throw it all together to see what you can come up with.

Before I head back to my secret island, let me leave you with this quote from Albert Einstein: “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."

So go forth to imagine the heck out of your imagination and find out where it can take you, you wonderful imaginator you!

I love...future Jenny.

In life it's important to take the time to think of someone other than yourself. How do your words affect your friends? How do your actions affect your neighbors? And let's not forget...how do your words and your actions affect your future self?

Or in my case, how do my words and actions affect future Jenny?

Like last summer when I was choosing a popsicle to enjoy. I found I had one grape popsicle and one orange popsicle left in my freezer. Though I preferred the orange over the grape, I went with the grape. Why? Because I knew that in a few days, future Jenny would be happy to have the orange one.

In the past I have bought clothes and not worn them right away. Then one day months later, as I'm looking for something to wear, I notice the perfect unworn top pushed to the back of my closet with the tags still on it...that's right, I had shopped for future Jenny!

Now that I think about it, thinking about future Jenny may be the perfect diet plan. Sure, I may want that piece of cake today, but future Jenny won't be so happy when her pants don't fit tomorrow. A moment on my lips, a lifetime on future Jenny's hips.

So remember, what you do right now will eventually affect your future self. But don't stress out about it, the last thing your future self wants is to have stress lines all over your face.

p.s.: Hi, future Jenny! Don't forget to buy milk...