How to Laugh like Jill Stuckey

Laugh and laugh often. Even if you have to fake laugh to get it started.
A tutorial:

The Office Goodbye: Reaction

There was a time when I was considered something of an Office fanatic.  I watched each episode at least twice the week it aired. I scoured Office fan sites, talked about it with everyone I knew, and threw elaborate season premiere parties.  I even named my wifi network "Michael Scott."

I watched it from day one when it aired the EXACT same pilot, word for word, as the British version. This was disappointing, but the British version had been so good, I understood why and still had hope. The rest of the first season is brilliant, but not the kind of main stream comedy most people go for.  

Season 2 came with noticeable changes.  The lighting was different, better. Less dismal.  The Jim and Pam romance continued to grow, and with more abandon, especially when compared with their British counterparts, Tim and Dawn. When season 2 ended with Jim professing his love with a single tear rolling down his cheek and then later kissing Pam, I remember exactly where I was.

On the floor. Because I had rolled off of my couch in shock and surprise.  That was a seriously great night of television.

And that's when I realized that I NEEDED to start throwing season premiere parties.  Cause if you have a party, it's slightly crowded and less chance of you falling off the couch.  I kid. No, I started throwing the parties so that more people would be introduced to the Office.

In recent years, the show has not been as phenomenal, admittedly.  But it had set pretty high marks for itself in the early seasons.  Still, what it gave us in those first four seasons was so beautiful, that I kept watching and hoping for the spot-on comedy to return. 

This season has been tough, as Jim and Pam have had some difficulty in their marriage.  People asked me worriedly, "Do you think Jim and Pam will get a divorce??" But I always responded that we should trust the writers, they know Jim and Pam are the heart of the show.

The uncomfortableness (but likely pretty real stuff, I wouldn't know, I'm not married) went on a bit longer than I would've liked, but in the last few episodes they've been bringing the show back to its origins.  Jim loves Pam. Jim loves to torture Dwight. Dwight loves to be in charge/powerful.  These are the three tenets that made the Office great.*

The Finale
*SPOILER ALERT DON'T CONTINUE IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED

Thankful Thursdays: a quickie.

Man, I am in a great mood this morning. Still, I'm trying to crank this out early, so it'll have to be a quick run down of the many things I'm thankful for.

Pump-you-up music
Honey suckles
Petunias
Great workouts
the Mindy Project and this breakdown of their recent fight scene.
My mama
That today is Thursday
That the weather has not turned blazing hot.
That I have a gym at work.
That my car runs, even though it does smell
That to alleviate the smell, I'm riding windows down all the time now in this perfect weather.
The interwebs
FaceTime
My curly hair.
My new lawn mower (it's a beaut. And it actually cuts grass)
That Vienna Teng is coming to Charlotte in July (Who wants to go with??)
Arrested Development is coming soon.
Scandal is amazing.
Blog comments (shameless plug)


So what are you thankful for this week?

Wonderful Web Wednesday

Man, the internet is a wonderful place.  First, it let's you do things like check this blog, AND pay your bills online.  But then there is all of the wonders you can discover.  I've run across several things this week that I've wanted to share with people, thus inspiring this post.

I saw this blog post on Facebook this week. It gives a thoughtful perspective on the life of a Christian single.  I think a lot of single people tend to live in a holding pattern, waiting until they're married for life to start.  But life is not for waiting.*

Dawson may have gotten to name the creek, but Pacey is clearly the best guy on my favorite late 90s tv show.  If you disagree, this post on Buzz Feed will set you straight.

Do you know my favorite season for running?  Honey suckle season. How does this relate to the web? Obviously, I searched out this picture of honey suckle to remind you how great it is.  But one thing that is not wonderful about the web is that you can't smell these guys through your computer screen to get the full effect.





Finally, John Krasinski and Mindy Kaling two of my favorite celebs, who also happen to be a star and former star of the Office, have been making the rounds on the talk show circuit.  Two different friends pointed out this gem of John Krasinksi lip syncing (you can skip the Jimmy Fallon parts).




And Monica told me about this hilarious interview with my celebrity best friend, Mindy.  The interview is great, but the best part starts at about the 6:09 mark in the interview when she shares that SHE PLAYED MAFIA WITH TOM HANKS! We are destined to be best friends.



Have you found anything wonderful on the interwebs lately? Let me know!


*To clarify, I am speaking of waiting in a "waiting for life to start" kind of way. I'm not talking about sex.

Birthday By the Numbers

Today is my 33rd birthday.
Turning 33 means a number of things. Specifically, these numbers:

I've made 33 revolutions around the sun.
That's 12, 053 days.
And 289,272 hours.
Which is 17,356,320 minutes.

That's roughly 35,794 meals. I don't miss many meals.

Three different home states, but only one that really feels like home.
Four different hometowns, but only one where I've been a landowner.

I've run four 5ks, two 10ks, one triathlon, one duathalon and one five-mile mud run.

I've held 10 different positions at six different companies.

I've enjoyed the company of my two parents, three siblings, two siblings in law, three nieces, two nephews, four dogs, four grandparents, 16 cousins, and 12 cousins-in-law.

I've watched 196 episodes of the Office, 180 episodes of Seinfeld, 122 episodes of Saved By the Bell, 121 episodes of LOST, 76 episodes of Friday Night Lights, 53 episodes of Arrested Development and a few other less important shows.

Plus a few other things that are kind of impossible to count like the number of Diet Cokes I've sipped or the number of times I've laughed til I cried.  All in all, it's a pretty good life.

Someone might want to check my math.  Just because it's my birthday doesn't mean I've magically become a mathematician.

Happy Birthday to ME!!

My post in honor of my 32nd birthday.
My post in honor of my 31st birthday.

Thankful Thursday: My birthday is coming!

I know I have not done a thankful Thursday post in awhile and I apologize for that.  Thursdays have become a rather busy day for me. I toyed with moving the day, but Thankful Mondays just doesn't have a good ring to it. Then I spent like half a second trying to come up with an adjective for "thankful" that would alliterate* with a day of the week well, but came up with nothin'.

Anyway, let's be thankful, publicly on the web, when we can and be thankful that it's possible!**

This week, I am most thankful, and astounded, that my birthday is next week.
Seriously, I think about my birthday way to much.  Less than a week to go!  I'll be off on my birthday (Wednesday, May 1, if you're interested), and driving most of the day to go stay with my parents for a few days.  Feel free to send me many gratuitous texts or blog comments.  Those are my two favorite forms of communication.

And if my birthday is next week, then my BFF's birthday is this weekend, which is just as good.
Because Amie knows how to do a birthday and do it right.  She has a weekend full of festivities planned, and I know I'll have just as much fun celebrating her birthday as my own.

Cinco De Moe's is coming
Have I mentioned that I love Moe's?  Sunday, May 5 they're serving $5 burritos with a drink in honor of Cinco de Moe's.

That I'm going to see my mama and daddy this next week.
I haven't seen them since Christmas and that is way too long.  Jill needs regular hugs from her parents and she's not afraid to admit that.***

I finally broke down and bought new work shoes.
I had worn holes in both pairs that I wear regularly.  Why is so hard to find shoes that are comfortable and appropriately dressy for work?

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK IN ONE MONTH!!!!!
If you've never watched Arrested Development, you should.  It is one of the top three comedies ever made for tv.  Maybe it is even number one or number two.  And they've decided to bring it back for a limited run on Netflix.  If you need to catch up, the previous three seasons that originally aired in the early 2000s are available on both Netflix and Hulu.  Do it. You'll be thankful that you did. It just occurred to me that I should be rewatching the series in anticipation. New plan for all of my free time.

For my morning workouts with friends
Even if they do make me jello-y and sore a majority of the time.  These two are a great encouragement.

For Face time
I actually don't call anyone with my phone anymore.  It's just Facetime or texting for me (or snapchatting, I suppose), and I like it that way.

I feel like there are many, many things I am forgetting, but for now, I'm just going to be thankful it's Thursday!

*Can you use that word as a verb? Yes. Because I just did, sucker!
**Because, how thankful are we for the interwebs being a reality?? So thankful!
***Jill is also not afraid of speaking in the third person.

Musings from the Weight Room

Okay, I'm not literally writing this from the weight room*.  But I have been back in the weight room twice a week for four weeks now.  I'm lucky. I've had two friends ask me to join them in their workouts, so it gets me there on a regular basis.

Anyway, because of this increased weight room related activity, my limbs have been a'quiverin' a whole lot more lately and I just thought you needed to know**. Also, I have some random thoughts from my time in the weight room that I'd like to share.

• I judge a good upper body workout by how hard it is to take my shirt off over my head afterwards.  I'm pleased to say that more than once I've been actually worried I might have to skip the shower and wear a sweaty shirt*** to work, because my arms were so jello-y.

• My Fitness Pal, the app I've been using to track calories for a couple of weeks now, does not give any "credit" for weight room activities. This is an outrage. I am sweatier and breathing harder during these sessions than I ever am by myself.

• Workouts are better with a team.  Not only would I probably just skip without my friends, but while we're there, we encourage each other.  And since I'm (ginormously) farther behind them on the fitness scale, they help me out.  For instance I can't do a pull-up on the assisted pull up machine, even with the full assistance of the machine. So one of my friends lightly supports the bench my knees**** are on as I do the pull up and the other stands there and encourages me.  

 I'm no expert, but from what I've read, a strength training routine is important, not just for being big and muscley (if that's your thing) but for being fit.  I feel like a lot of people do cardio regularly, but not very many people are in the weight room or lifting weights at home.  I understand. For me, in the past, weight lifting has been the first thing to go out the window when I get busy, but like I said, I'm lucky this time around. I can't wait to see what a difference it makes to my body. Once I stop feeling like Jello, anyway.

Do you do any weight lifting or strength training?  If not, why not?

*I'm writing this from the complete opposite of the weight room. I'm crashed out on my bed because I am so exhausted from when I was in the weight room this morning, many, many hours ago.

**Why do you need to know? I don't have any idea.  It's part of what makes being a blogger so weird. I plan to write a full post on this topic someday. Stay tuned. It will be called "Blogging is so weird."

***I have not yet had to do this. My co-workers are surely grateful.

**** Partially, this makes me feel bad.  I mean, even with the full assistance of the machine, I can't do a pull-up???!??!! But without them being there, I wouldn't do it at all.  I know that I've got to start somewhere in order to improve. And think what a great story it will be when I've moved from full assistance and a hand to only some assistance and no hands!  So great.