"I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living now."

I’m not done Christmas shopping.

I am almost done, but not quite. Tomorrow, I will finish my Christmas shopping tomorrow. And I will try not to buy (too much) for myself.

"Look, there is a lot about ourselves that we can’t control. We can’t make ourselves look like a Victoria’s Secret model, we can’t always have access to the most coveted fashion, we can’t make ourselves taller or maybe thinner or maybe put the curves we have in different places, we can’t make ourselves magically richer or cooler or smarter. The one thing we can control is how we present ourselves and as much as everything leads you to believe these things I just listed are what will make up your confidence, they actually are mutually exclusive. Confidence is literally a choice. That’s it. You fake it till you make it."

Sparkly holiday nails, which I painted myself and I am pretty proud of. Too bad they are already chipping.

It would be so nice to go to a Cowboys game when they actually win. Last nights’ game was such a disappointment.

I feel like I have been unusually busy lately. There just seems to be a lot going on with work, with family, with friends and with social engagements. I am still feeling pretty happy though, so no complaints at all.

So what’s been keeping me busy?

• I thought the holidays would mean that things at work and with clients would slow down, but boy, was I wrong. Work is busier then ever…and I am excited to be filling in on a fun account while a co-worker goes out on maternity leave. I;m also getting ready for CES…again.
• I’ve been trying lots of new restaurants with my friend Jess. We’re determined to try all the taco joints in town (so far, Velvet Taco, which sounds a little naughty, is the best) and hit up some of D Magazine’s best restaurants of 2011.
• Holiday parties and gatherings are aplenty right now. Lunches, happy hours, dessert exchanges, Secret Santa exchanges and wrapping gifts for the homeless (for my friend Jana’s birthday…isn’t she the best?!) and my work holiday party coming up this week.
• I’ve made a dent in my Christmas shopping list, but I still have more to buy. My parents are so hard to shop for and I never know what to get them. My friends are getting some homemade goodies.
• Family drama…it never ends. I don’t want to go into it, but it can get exhausting.

More to come as the holidays quickly approach.

Happy me.

A few posts ago, I said I needed to stay positive. I don’t know that I have consciously tried to do that, but I have felt pretty happy lately.

"Give us thankful hearts…..
in this season of Thanksgiving.
May we be thankful for health and strength,
for sun and rain and peace.
Let us seize the day and the opportunity and strive for that greatness of spirit
that measures life not by its disappointments but by its possibilities, and let us ever remember that
true gratitude and appreciation
show itself neither in independence nor satisfaction but passes the gift joyfully on in larger and better form."

(Source: myownmelt)

I’m in NYC for the weekend - visiting friends/family, being a tourist and enjoying the amazing weather. It’s been a year since I have been up here for a visit and I am long overdue.

Picture taken while walking through Brooklyn.