Perspective Made Me a Monster (or How I Failed a 5k)

Perspective can change everything.

Perspective is the reason we feel victorious or defeated.  Perspective is how two people can look at the same situation with two very different sets of eyes.  Perspective is often a matter of life experience, of looking back or just a matter of circumstance.  Perspective is more than being an optimist or a pessimist.

The last 4 or 5 days have been a lesson in perspective for me, but let's only focus on one example:

Thanksgiving Our Way (or the Highway) - Note: Epic Length Follows (T.W.he.S!)

**Warning, this is a long post, which is why it's being posted on Wednesday rather than Thursday...thought you could use an extra day to read, love and appreciate it.**

While Thanksgiving is a National holiday celebrated by Americans all over, it stands to reason that each person celebrates the same holiday quite differently.  While some families have ham, others have turkey and still others may have a Turducken.  Chander Bing has grilled cheese sandwiches and Funions.  Everyone is different.  So regardless of if it is generic and similar to every one of my readers' holiday weekends, I've decided to describe Thanksgiving as it was celebrated by my family.

Our Book Club is Better Than Yours

Reading.  I've always enjoyed reading.  When I was little my dad used to read to me every night.  Even when I learned to read myself, my dad would read to me.  He'd come in and let me pick out a book for him to read.  Through my advanced powers of persuasion (i.e. saying please, being adorable and the baby of the family) I usually could get him to read three or four a night.  I would make all kinds of promises about cleaning my room and getting up early just so daddy would read to me more.  He read every Dr. Seuss book I had and Berenstein Bears books...and my personal favorite: The Very Hungry Caterpillar... backwards.  Yup.  Backwards.  My dad is and was amazing.  I would often continue reading after he left me to go to sleep.  My parents would wake up to a pile of books haphazardly thrown onto the floor next to my bed.  I was voracious.

Frat House 2.0: How Friendships Navigate 7 People Using 1 Bathroom

Yesterday, a wonderful thing happened: my super-friend, Karen, came into town for the weekend.  I use the term "super-friend" with ginger and earnest considering the entire basis for our friendship boils down to a 4 day weekend in which I invited 6 strangers to live in my house with me while we came together to play in a kickball tournament.  When we went out for the pre-tournament bar crawl, I was really excited.  So was she!  When I was ready to go home and pass out, so was she!  When after the tournament was over everyone wanted to go out while I wanted to sit on the couch and drink, so did she!  Naturally our 4 days together formed a super-friendship, and a super-handshake.