I love...bobby pins.

Over the past few years I've enjoyed using bobby pins to try out some different hairstyles. I'll pin my hair into a high bun, a messy bun, half up, I even had a brief affair with the Snooki-style pouf (well, it was more like a mini-Snooki-style pouf).

Eventually the bobby pin became my new best friend. I bought them in bulk, and it wasn't long before bobby pins took over my life.

It started out innocently enough. I'd climb into bed and realize I still had a bobby pin in my hair, so I'd place it on my nightstand. Or I'd be getting ready to leave and throw a couple in my purse in case my hair needed reinforcement later in the day. Or I'd be holding five in my hand and one would slip out onto the floor without me even noticing.

Now there is probably a bobby pin in every purse I own. There are bobby pins on my nightstand, on my floor, in my car, in the street next to my car, in my pockets, in my desk drawer at work. Sometimes I'll be in a checkout line and take my wallet out of my purse, only to accidentally fling a bobby pin across the counter...they're everywhere. If I'm ever lost, it's probably a fair bet that you can follow a trail of bobby pins to find me.

But they do their job and they keep my hair in place. And if MacGyver is ever looking for a sidekick, he can always call on me: Bobby Pin Girl! I'll always have a bobby pin to help him pick a lock or diffuse a bomb...or to keep his hair out of his face while he picks a lock or diffuses a bomb.

I love...ending bad jokes.

You may find this hard to believe, but sometimes I manage to tell a bad joke. I know, I know...that sounds impossible, but it's true.

Perhaps this happens to you, too? Well, the next time you're in the midst of telling a joke that you realize is not going to end well...never fear, Jenny's Bad-Joke-Ending Suggestion is here!

Here's an example of a bad joke, followed by my suggested ending:
"Hey, don't stand under that garage door ... cause it might fall on you!" Then, just before the crickets set in, I follow it up with a finger point, an awkward hip shimmy and a weird sounding 'Haha aahhh!'

That way I break up the silence and people don't remember me as the girl who told a bad joke.

Instead I guess they remember me as the girl who dances awkwardly and makes weird noises.

I can live with that.

I love...Zukey.

This weekend I watched my friend Cami's dog. His name is Zukey (short for Zucchini), and he's pretty awesome. Here are some highlights from: The Jenny & Zukey Weekend of August 2011!

FRIDAY
I picked Zukey up after work and got him settled into my apartment. I have a bright pink floor pillow that I put out to make him feel comfortable. I think it worked.

SATURDAY
We woke up earlier than I enjoyed, which led to a late morning nap on the couch. Then I took Zukey for a long walk around Tremont. He peed on everything in sight. A couple in a car stopped to ask what kind of dog he was, I told them he was a miniature pinscher. They didn't believe me because they didn't think he had the right coloring for a miniature pinscher. I told them I was pretty sure he was a pinscher, but he wasn't my dog and I could be wrong. Hours later I thought of an even better comeback: "Hey, don't question me!" Later that afternoon we watched Sex & the City while I painted my nails. I think Zukey is an Aidan fan.

SUNDAY
My friend, Carrie, is moving out of her downtown apartment in a couple of weeks, so Zukey and I went to keep her company as she's now in serious packing mode. On the walk to her place Zukey and I took a detour by where "The Avengers" is being filmed on East 9th Street, hoping to catch a glimpse of Robert Downey, Jr. We also walked by a hotel where a valet guy knelt down to pet Zukey. I chatted with him for a minute, but then he exceeded his "appropriate petting of a random dog on the street" time, so Zukey and I moved on. We hung out at Carrie's for a bit, then got hungry and all three of us headed back to Tremont for a calzone from Edison's (delish!).

Then the text came through...Cami was back in town and ready to reclaim her lil' doggy.

I had two options:
1) Tell her I was home and she could come pick him up.
2) Not respond and hope she'll eventually forget that I had him.

I went with #1.

But here's looking forward to The Jenny & Zukey Weekend of August 2012!

I love...growing up.

When I was little I wanted to grow up to be a Barbie.

I loved my Barbies with their perfect make-up, their clothes, their accessories, their constant 90 degree-angle arms…but I digress. I wasn’t sure exactly what “growing up” meant or when I had to do it by, but I was sure that adult-Jenny would love to grow up to be a Barbie.

Somewhere between then and now I started to grow up. I went to college, made great friends, moved out on my own, got a job and then another job, and I continued to ask myself what I wanted to be when I grew up.

But with all the concern around figuring out what to be when you grow up, maybe there's a second question that we're supposed to be asking ourselves along the way: What do I want to be while I grow up?

Sure, it's important to find a goal in life. But what will you be while you're working towards it?

Will you be kind?

Will you be funny?

Will you fall down?

Will you get back up?

Will you love?

Sound like simple questions? Maybe they're supposed to be.

So as I continue “growing up” I’m going to enjoy what I’m doing along the way.
My own wish list? Well, I want to be kind, I want to be funny, and when I fall down I want to get back up. I want to be giving, I want to be calm and I want to love. I want to be understanding, I want to be goofy and I want to be honest. I want to be Jenny.

And maybe, every once in awhile, I'll still check the job boards for a position listed under: "Barbie". I can be "Happy Barbie" or "Jenny Barbie". I'll practice holding my arms at 90 degree angles, just in case.

I love...aprons.

I'm not much of a cook. At my old apartment, it was a friend who discovered my oven was broken when she tried to prepare some food before a party.

However, I do enjoy wearing an apron. Especially after my friend Colleen bought me this adorable one with cupcake designs on it for my birthday a few years back (she also happens to be the same friend who discovered my broken oven - wonder if she was trying to tell me something?).

Sometimes I wear it when I'm washing dishes. Or when I'm cutting up vegetables. Or when I'm warming up leftovers in the microwave. Or when I'm making macaroni and cheese. Or when I'm dancing around my kitchen trying to decide what to eat.

It makes me feel fancy...and chef-y, which makes me want to try cooking and baking more often.

I wore it the last time my parents came in for an Easter visit. I was baking some of those easy cookies where they're already sliced and ready, you just have to put them on a tray and pop them in the oven. I had already put the cookies in the oven when my parents arrived, so I greeted them in my fancy apron and we caught up a bit. I kept checking on the cookies, but they always seemed like they needed just a few more minutes, so I left them a few more and a few more and then, well, I burned those "easy" cookies. My dad told me not to worry. He said they just tasted like burnt popcorn.

As far as my cooking skills go, hopefully practice will make perfect.
But until then, if I'm going to burn things, at least I'm doing it in a fancy apron.

I love...the "!"

Ah, the exclamation point!

It's a shout of excitement wrapped up in an upside down "i".
It's the hot sauce of an email, or the fireworks of a text message.
Where's the party? It's at the end of this sentence...!

I'm aware that I may tend to overuse the exclamation point (if that's even possible), but I want people to know when I'm happy or excited about something. And I'm happy or excited about a lot of things. Sometimes I try to monitor and/or decrease my exclamation point usage, but it's difficult to decide when to keep it and when to lose it.
Just look at the difference an exclamation point makes in the responses to the following question:
Q: "Want to meet for dinner at 7?"
A1: "Okay." <read: "Fine, that's not the time I would have picked, but whatever.">
OR
A2: "Okay!" <read: "I'll be there, can't wait!">

There's a lot of emotion in that little exclamation point. If you're full of emotion, too, then I say go ahead and use that exclamation point until you wear the "!" off of the button on your keyboard.

Happy Wednesday. I mean, Happy Wednesday!

I love...vacation.

I spent last week on vacation, hence my lack of new posts.

I was in Hilton Head, SC with my family and some family friends for most of the week, then we drove to my parent's house in Hickory, NC and then drove to Nashville, TN for my cousin's wedding. It was a great vacation!

Since I didn't post anything new throughout the week, please accept these vacay tidbits to make up for it:

Airplanes
On an airplane I prefer the window seat. You can watch as the ground beneath you gets smaller and smaller and then finally you're up in the clouds. For that time on the plane you're in limbo from where you just left and where you're about to go - and you can look out to the clouds and dream of what's to come. On my flight out to Hilton Head we happened to be up in the clouds as the sun was setting. The sky was pink and it looked like we were flying through clouds of cotton candy. After we landed I got my bags and walked out of the airport with a stomach full of airplane peanuts and a head full of cotton candy dreams.

Beach
My Beach List:
Beach chair - check
Beach towel - check
Beach book - check
Beach beers - checkity-check-check 

A Good Book
I like to have a good book to read on vacation. This particular vacation I headed to the airport with some old books to read, but wanted to find a new one at the last minute. I stopped in the airport bookstore and went in search of one particular book. Unfortunately they didn't have it in the store, but the person helping me suggested another book I might like - "God Never Blinks" by Regina Brett. I skimmed it, bought it and I didn't like it...I loved it. It's a book about 50 life lessons that Regina Brett has learned so far and had posted in her column in The Plain Dealer. The first lesson had me tearing up by the pool and a later lesson had me laughing on the beach. If you haven't already read it - I highly recommend it. It was just what I needed on this vacay.

Mean Girls in White Dresses
One afternoon I was heading up from the pool to get ready for dinner. As I approached the elevators in the parking garage of our building I noticed two little blond girls in white sundresses standing outside the elevator doors. They were holding one of the elevators open and smiled at me as they said, "You can get on this one!" I smiled back as I stepped on the elevator, "Well, thank you!" - what sweet little girls. I went to press the button for my floor and that's when I saw it, someone had pressed all of the floor buttons. Those little girls in white! I quickly stuck my arm out to stop the doors from closing and jumped out just in time to see the girls turn the corner with their arms around each other - giggling. I waited a moment and then pushed the button for a new elevator. While I waited, the two little girls came back around the corner (ready for their next victim, I'm sure) and they looked stunned when they saw me standing there. "Hello, girls," I said with a smile.

Nice Girls in White Dresses
On Saturday my cousin Stephanie married her husband Allen in Nashville. It was a lovely ceremony, my cousin looked beautiful (I could go on and on about her dress) and they threw an amazing reception with lots of personal touches, delicious food, dancing and sparklers. It was a great day - congratulations, Stephanie & Allen!

New Friends
My family arrived in Nashville on Friday evening. We ate a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant and then my sister Lisa and I decided to grab a drink at the hotel bar. That's where we met Gary Plummer, a former pro basketball player. He bought us a drink, we chatted (he, of course, brought up LeBron), then he convinced us to go out in downtown Nashville with him. We cabbed it to the bars together, waited in line together, got a drink together and then...Lisa and I lost track of our new BFF. However, we woke up with some lil' headaches to remember him by the next morning. 

Coming Home
I do enjoy a vacation. It's nice to take a break, go somewhere else and spend time with family and friends. But there's something about driving down the highway, seeing the Cleveland skyline and knowing I'm almost home. On Sunday, I went from the airport to my friend's house in Parma to pick up my car. She caught me up on what I missed while I was gone. Then I headed home. As I got closer I saw the Cleveland skyline and decided to take a detour to drive through downtown and get reacquainted with my city. Then I headed back to Tremont to see if my apartment had melted in the Cleveland heat while I was gone. It hadn't. It was there waiting for me to come home.

That night I fell asleep with memories of a great vacation and some cotton candy dreams still lingering in my head.