My Obsession with Speech, Baby, Bump.

I spend a lot of time rambling through YouTube these days.  It is one of those sites that you can witness the whole spectrum of the world wide web that not only did you not know even existed, but that is extremely popular in a way that seemed unfathomable not that long ago.  I mean, did you ever think you could spend an entire evening watching hilarious cat videos? Gives a whole new meaning to "crazy cat lady" - now you don't even have your own, you can be a super secret cat fanatic of virtual felines. Scary thought.

Anyhoo...I never really knew about vloggers, or video bloggers, before stumbling across a hilarious review of something on YouTube, which made me curious about that person's other videos, which then led me to watch videos from their friends, and before I knew it, there was an entirely new time sucker-upper which I certainly do not need, but enjoy nonetheless. One of my favorite vloggers is Carrie Hope Fletcher (https://www.youtube.com/user/ItsWayPastMyBedTime) , a seemingly sweet "unknown" who liked to talk about her love of books and cakes, at least that is what I thought when I began binge watching her videos.  Part of the YouTube experience is that the sidebar has these handy "recommended" videos for you. After watching one of Carrie's videos, I noticed one of these recommendations was a video called "My Wedding Speech" in which the groom sang a delightful song to his wedding party and left me in complete awe.  Little did I know that the groom was Tom Fletcher, Carrie's big brother, and a member of a popular band from England.
It's such a strange thing to realize the smallness of the world sometimes. I went from having no idea who any of these people were, to finding delight in being able to witness their joyful life celebrations.  Now maybe this is a really long post just to say that I find this couple completely adorable, but I've been meaning to share it with others for a while now. Because that is the true joy of this small interconnected world in which we live; finding a bit of your own happiness by sharing in the happiness of others. Isn't it? And if my own recommendation doesn't cut it for you, maybe you'll listen to someone I never thought I'd have a lot in common with and yet, he manages to sum up my feelings for the Fletcher family pretty perfectly.     

Spring Awakening

Silver white winters that melt into springs, these are a few of my favorite things...

I really need to update my ipod. Yo Yo Ma's version of this song from his Christmas album came on the other day while walking to my office. However, it did remind me how often I forget about the simple pleasures in life. And to cheer the bleep up.

For some reason, I always get the blues at the very end of winter. Not the regular humdrum in the middle of January, when the holidays are all but forgotten (except for the extra 5 pounds gained from all the sugarplum feasts of the month before.) Always when winter is still fighting to hold on to it's last freezing breath before the warmth and renewal of Spring.

I used to blame this on the increased viewing of Academy Award nominated films -- I think it's a prerequisite to have films that make you want to stick your head in the oven as Best Picture nominees. However, I was a bit lacking in getting all my films in this year. I'll blame the increase in nominations, but really, I just couldn't bring myself to watch Precious. Still haven't.

Anyway, humdrums aside, Spring has sprung! And with it, a little glimmer of hope and a renaissance of dreams put aside during the long winter's slumber. Like the daffodils pictured above that I was certain I killed while debating the slim pickings of corned beef the night before St. Paddy's, sometimes we need a little pruning, a little nurturing, and a whisper of kindness to bloom.

It also never hurts to remember a few of your favorite things. A few of mine:
the warmth of freshly made copies, the smell of Lady Grey tea, the simple, unabashed love of a pet, a dollar bunch of daffodils splendidly in bloom.