you are beautiful

1. productive day...sort of. finished a paper that is due tuesday and found out that my other two assignments due tuesday aren't due until midnight, yay! and the take home exam i have due on tuesday is only supposed to take me 1.5 hours, so i will knock that out tomorrow.
2. had a fun post-sleepover morning with my friends and then went back to the mall to shop with them, but i did not buy anything. all the snow melted but it was still pretty in some shady parts of town. 
3. talked to my boyfriend today for a not-so-happy reason but all is well now and that is good news. also talked to my parents and they seem to be loving NYC at christmas (how can you not?!) so i am happy for them. and a wee bit jealous...

4 weeeeks. YAY YAY YAY YAY. if you couldn't tell, i am very excited. and in less than 2 weeks i will be home for christmas break! yippee! i feel like once i get past tuesday, things will start looking up. they are not bad now, i just have a fair amount of work to get done. and then a pretty nice exam schedule time-wise that doesn't involve toooo much work. i am still on my everyone-should-be-grateful-this-holiday-season kick so that is what you get to read about tonight. my roommate and i talk a lot about the issues we have with this country. i think they are all legitimate concerns but i always feel a bit guilty. i am so fortunate to live here and to have all the blessings that i do. when those blessings are thrown into jeopardy on a day like today, i realize that even more. it's important to remember that life can change in an instant. i know all this stuff is so cliche and everyone is over it, but it's true. i get irritated when some things become cliche because then people stop listening. but that doesn't make them any less applicable just because they are overused. so just remember, especially this holiday season, to be thankful and quick to happiness and slow to anger. it's all about living side-by-side with those around us and livinglovinglife. because, after all, it*s a beautiful day. i wanted this item to be ambiguous because i want it to be something continuous as opposed to something to just tick off a list. so...bucket list item: help those around me see the beauty in their lives.