(001) Awesome Things

My mom recently sent me a book called The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha, author of the famous 1,000 Awesome Things blog. I'm not usually the one for novelty books and at first look, I was a bit skeptical, but a few chapters later? I was hooked.

The book is about simple, awesome little things that make you feel like a million bucks like the crazy goodness of bakery air in the morning, taking a shower at your friends house and sampling all the shampoos or pushing those little buttons on soft drink cup lids. Yeah, you know you love doing it. There is something awesome in this little gem of a book for everyday and every occasion but more importantly, if you just need a reason to smile, this book has one for you. Actually, it has many. And after you read it, you feel a bit more appreciation for the other little awesome things in life.

Last night, Jeremy and I shared an awesome moment:

(001) when you find the cup holder in a dark theater on the first try.
Because you know how it is when you stumble in through the dark, popcorn, ice cream cone, and purse in one hand, umbrella under your arm, hair falling in your face, and a big sweating cup of Coke in the other. It's like trying to empty a hole puncher--you just know you're going to drop your crap all over the place.

But then, your little echolocation antennae send out the signal and instinctively, you know. You scoot in, raising your hands up in the air so you don't hit anyone in the head and without thinking, plop yourself into the seat and just as easily as touching your nose, you put your cup down into the holder. "Station secured," a computerized voice announces.

But it's not always like that. Sometimes, your bat senses are off and you drop your umbrella, bend over to pick it up while simultaneously dumping popcorn down the back of someone's shirt, hit the same man in the head on the way back up with your purse, flop down into an upright seat which doesn't seem to fold down no matter how much you wiggle, and so you reach for the cup holder but you can't find it. You test and test and test like that silly Chuck E Cheese game where you have to bat the mole when he pokes his head up. You finally just give up and put your drink on the floor because you need to pull yourself together. However, you know you' risk kicking that drink and creating a popcorn-coke soup beneath you, so you restrict your arm and leg movement to 5cm from your body and it thus take ages to get settled.

Yeah, no good.

So when the antennas are up and the sensors are good, and you absentmindedly put your cup down in the holder without hassle, you know it's going to be a good night.

Awesome!