I Know I Can

I'm thankful for people who discourage and make you question yourself and your ideas. Encountering such people puts your aspirations to the test, leaving out the unnecessary things and making space for the worthy ones, and it also makes you really appreciate those people in your life who give you strength and make you believe in yourself and what you do.

Practice What You Preach

I'm not going to point fingers at anyone, but I'm thankful to one of my family members for unknowingly and unwillingly teaching me a very good thing - not to tell others to do something a certain way if I don't do it this way myself. By always giving me advice they themselves don't follow, they really taught me to always practice what I preach.

Laundry Service

So, as finding the good in the bad is one of my specialties, here I'm bringing to you yet another of my silver linings. I was just wondering yesterday what I'd be missing about living at home once I move out... I have no problem with supporting myself, with cooking, cleaning, being on my own, buying groceries etc.- the kind of things a lot of my friends like to rely on their moms to do. One thing I'm not so used to doing is laundry. Whenever I want to wear something and it needs to be washed I'd just go and wash it with my hands - no probem with it either. But for some reason I never really had to even plan any grand laundry days, this is something mom has always done on her own. Thus, while I still can, I am thankful for not doing the laundry.

If you want to find some good in something bad of your own, come ask me and let's figure it out together!

What's Hot Stays Hot

One of the many things I like about our current hot weather is that when you sip on a cup of hot tea your tea stays hot for a much longer time! How awesome is that?.. Talk about silver lining!

Be Smart & Have the Balls

On my way home from work yesterday I got caught in a pouring rain. And if you've been thankful with me for a while and remember those other funny work related things that happened to me this year (like this one time I ended up being bare legged at work or had my butt covered in chocolate), I'm guessing you anticipate another funny tale. You're not going to be dissapointed, and this time I even have a picture!

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So, I got caught in a pouring rain and I absolutely couldn't bear a thought of my shoes getting wet, so I just bought two plastic grocery bags and put them on my feet and walked home like that... making quite a few passerbies smile, as you can imagine!.. Thanks universe for putting me near a grocery store at the time when it started raining heavily!

Tricks, Tactics & Technics

I'm thankful for a) having a brother and b) for my brother's not so easy personality type. See, I'm not married and I don't have a live-in boyfriend but I still get to learn the essential skill of how to live with a man on a pretty much daily basis. Having tried so many different tricks, tactics and technics already, I know how to get things done my way while still staying on the friendliest of terms. I can truly say I've mastered the skill better than I could have hoped for by this time, and I swear I'm better at it than my mom already. Looks like I'm definately not lying when I say I love to learn all sorts of things, ha!.. Knowledge is power, people.

"There is no knowledge that is not power" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Winner Takes All

Due to health reasons I had to call in sick today, and even though not feeling well can't be considered such a good thing, I, of course, found something to be thankful for.

Firstly, if I felt sick yesterday, I wouldn't attend that fancy party I was very curious to attend and glad I did (even if the whole thing didn't live up to my expectations), and secondly, if I didn't have to stay home today I would miss half of the World Cup (I'm talking football/soccer) match of my most favorite national team (Netherlands, and we won, yay!). And even if me being sick has a potential of ruining my weekend plans (something we've planned for 2 weeks), I'm sure that if I don't sweat it, I'll manage to work around my situation... The winners take all!

P.S. Just so you don't get any ideas, me not feeling well doesn't have anything to with that party I mentioned - just saying... Ha!

Mondays

This might sound unusual, but I realized I liked Mondays. They're like new beginnings - bring new hopes, new goals, new accomplishments. I'm thankful to Mondays, because I get to wake up early and enjoy my early morning breakfast, not feeling sleep-deprived like it sometimes happens later in the week, and I'm thankful to Mondays, because I get to reminisce about the good weekend that passed but is still fresh in my memory, and I am thankful to Mondays, because I look forward to an upcoming weekend with a positive attitude and determination to spend it even better than the one just passed.

I Burned My Tongue

Back when I was about 14 I burned my tongue really bad at my school canteen. They used to serve us tea that was only a little above room temperature so when I grabbed a glass and downed almost half of it in one go (I remember I was very thirsty) I didn't expect it to be as hot as tea could only get... I burned my tongue so badly, but it's kind of funny how I still remember that episode of my life and how I keep being thankful for this hot burning experience - I'm thankful, because due to it I've developed such great tolerance for hot foods and beverages, and it's kind of useful.

Long Distance

As much as distance can make people grow apart, it can equally make their bond grow stronger. I can really say that some of my most valuable friendships wouldn't be possible if they didn't have to stand the test of long distance. Miles and kilometres between put a friendship to the truest test, helping you see another person under a whole new light. It takes some wholehearted dedication to keep such friendship alive, and if friends go all the way it sure means something.

Unfinished Business

By now you probably know that I always look for a meaning in everything, believe that everything happens for a reason, believe in destiny, signs and coinsidences and all that, and could care less what so many people think about it - it just works for me, I'm not forcing it on anyone. So, for a while now, there have been quite some weird and inexplicable things happening in my life, that kept preventing me from doing certain things I wanted to pursue. And I kept wondering why and I just couldn't find the answer. Until just a few days ago something not so pleasant happened. At first I got frustrated, but being the way I am, I really tried digging deeper into it. How thankful I am now - that thing that happened, no matter how unpleasant, is all I needed to be able to figure out all the recent why's. Once you know what the problem is you can get down to solving it. It was all about some of the unfinished bussiness, which I will now take good care of. It's no longer a problem, I know what I need to do and I'm going to make sure I learn from my mistakes.

Think Positive

Imagine the situation.

I’m at work. I’m wearing light gray pants. I stain my butt with chocolate.

It doesn’t look pretty.

But I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later – eating chocolate behind a desk might not be the best idea. Looks like a piece of my dark 85% cocoa Lindt Excellence chocolate bar broke off and fell on my chair when I wasn’t looking… Then I sat back and now it’s all over my behind.

Thankful thing I happen to wear a cardi over a tee today, so at least I can tie it around my waist to cover this mess up and go home without having to expose those suspicious brown stains. I'm a true chocolate lover for real.

If It Wasn't for Bad Luck, I Wouldn't Have No Luck at All

Okay, I was pissed off at first, I must admit. Didn't quite get on my own thankful bandwagon right away, BUT I am thankful now. So, the deal is, for some unknown reason Vichy has had a problem with filling pharmacy shelfs with my usual Oligo25 facial cream... I kept checking on it almost daily and was starting to get irritated at its seeming sudden disappearance from Russian market. I was pissed to have to look out for a new cream, but not having much other choice I ended up trying their Aqualia Antiox, and I LOVED it. In fact, loved it even more than the one I used before. So, thanks for disappearing, Oligo!

P.S. Isn't the saying in the title of this post is just so true? I have it proving itself to me pretty much my entire life.

I Miss You

It's not always easy to find something good about missing someone when you have no idea when you'll see this person again, or if you're going to see them at all. But as I have to find something to be thankful for and document it on a daily basis, I realize that very having someone to miss at all is a blessing in itself. After all, we only miss the good times, and having a person to miss I'm reminded that I'm the type who is able to have genuine feelings.

Simply Packaging

I'm thankful for this awesome book on packaging design called Simply Packaging I got at this super awesome bookstore at 10 Corso Como in Milan. The 10 Corso Como place is an awesome concept in the whole and in general, and I might be thankful for it some time later, but now I just want to focus my attention on the book. I'm thankful to it for keeping me company on these days when I'm not feeling well and have to spend time mostly in bed. I, then, open the book and go through the pictures, reading the notes on the side. It helps me get distracted from the body's unpleasant sensations and keeps my mind inspired, so that when I'm back to the working mode I'm actually ready to have the work done. It puts me in a better mood too, since it brings all those good memories of that trip to Italy... It might come off silly, but when I realized how helpful this book had been I intentionally never opened it on other, normal, days, so I guess in a way I now have something to look forward to even when my body and system could use some rest. Talk about silver lining!..

Uninspired State of Mind

In all honesty, I'm sitting here and feeling very uninspired right now, staring blankly at my computer screen... But, at the same time, I realize this quiet time is much needed, for I had such rough last days at work that week. I even feel now that this uninspired state of mind is a good thing - gives me a great chance to just really relax finally. So I'm thankful I don't have to keep up with all those thoughts racing through my head at least for a day.