[The Rules - *I challenge you to make your own list. The only catch? You can't include a single person you know on your list. No "I love the way my husband laughs" or "I love hearing my little girl call for me." It'll be tough, I know. But this particular little exercise is about stripping away everyone who defines you and figuring out what you (not his partner; not their mother/daughter/sister/friend) love.] i love feeling deeply. i love thinking things over late at night. i love the stillness and solitude of night time. i love looking up into the night sky to see the constellations that have been there illustrating the sky like a storybook since i was a kid, and that i will get to read that same story when i am eighty. i love my french press coffee in the morning. i love that it is smooth and strong and enjoyable right to the last little sip. i love music that moves me - moves me to harmonize, to stop, to cry, to feel, to dance. i love to be genuine, and happy, and sarcastic and silly. i love to strip pretense away and see reality. i love the thrill of making new friends. i love seeing a photograph in my mind's eye at every turn. i love that i can share those photographs with the world. i love sunsets. they take my breath away. i love bokeh! i really love the rain, and standing in it, and letting its earthy sweet wind surround me. i love creating amazing food. i love driving fast with my windows rolled all the way down and blasting led zeppelin and feeling badass because of it. i love led zeppelin. i love wearing pajamas every chance i get. i love reading children's books out loud with funny character voices and accents. i love handwritten notes and mail. i still check my mail every day with hopes. i love france, though i have never been there. so maybe i love the idea of france, the idea that i will be there someday, and knowing i will totally cry when i first lay eyes on the tower eiffel and the mona lisa, too. i love that i have experienced really hard things in my life and that i have been made stronger and better for it all. i love my life. and i love that i finally, truly do love my life, and everything about it.

3/365: What's Beautiful Well, this didn't at all turn out how I'd hoped it would. I wanted to to be more serious/funny... but I'm not good at being serious. And it got dark outside and I hate using flash. I'm a natural-light kinda girl. Story behind this one... well, I came home from work and there's usually a pile of mail on my bed that madre/padre puts there for me. Usually bills, sometimes fun things from Amazon.com (like the external battery pack that awaited me today!), and lots of advertisements. Today was a Victoria's Secret magazine full of holiday, uhh, "pajamas" and sweaters for winter.... Don't get me wrong, Vic's has lots of very comfy products. However. I have a problem with seductive and overly sensual photos when they're modeling FLANNEL PAJAMAS and freakin TURTLENECKS.... I mean, IT'S. A. TURTLE. NECK. I had a free underwear coupon, went into the store wearing skinny jeans, a Yankees jersey (woot), and vans, hair freakin' everywhere, and they treated me differently than when I've gone in there with a more "feminine" facade. I got the "WTF are you doing in THIS store wearing THOSE clothes with THAT hair?" glare. Oh gosh, I guess I must've missed the "We only accept model figures & faces" memo. Woe is me. What ever will I do. I want my freakin' free underwear, lady! Alas, after flipping through the magazine and getting annoyed at the glossy pages, I decided I'd make my own edits, and use it for my 365 inspiration. In short... women: you don't need to be who the world tells you to be. Just be you, & you'll be beautiful.