The Book of Awesome

Recently, my sister introduced me to this book called The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha. Basically it is a collection of random ideas that when you think about them, they are awesome and they make you feel good! I flipped through and read several of them and found myself nodding along, smiling, and sometimes even laughing out loud. It is definitely a feel good book if you are ever looking for a pick me up! Here are a few snippets from the book.

Sometimes it's easy to forget the things that make us smile. Sometimes it's tempting to feel the world is falling apart. But awesome things are all around us: 

• Popping bubble wrap 
• The smell of rain on a hot sidewalk 
• The other side of the pillow 
• Hitting a bunch of green lights in a row 
• Waking up and realizing it's Saturday 
• Fixing electronics by smacking them 
• Being the first table called up to the dinner buffet at a wedding 
• When the cashier opens a new lane at the grocery store 
• The moment at a concert after the lights go out and before the band comes on stage 
• When you're really tired and about to fall asleep and someone throws a blanket on you 

Just thinking about these ideas brings a smile to your face, but then your read this author's hilarious perspective on each one and you find yourself in a full blown chuckle! Here is one of my favorites:

• When you manage to squeeze enough toothpaste out for one last brush 

Say you wake up Monday morning and realize you forgot to set your alarm clock. Now not only did you miss out on some quality snoozetime, but you’re late for work to boot. You jump out of bed, jump on the toilet, jump in the shower, jump into some clothes, and run to the bathroom to brush your teeth before running out the door. But then you see it. That thin, rolled-up toothpaste tube laying completely empty on your counter, the life completely squeezed out of it over the past few weeks. Your jaw drops and your memory flies back… … you vividly recall making the first soft dent in the tube’s cylindrical purity, back when the paste was flowing like water, just waiting to come out. It seemed like it would never end. Over the next few weeks, there were some great moments, like: The time you forgot to put the lid on and had to squeeze real hard through a tiny pinprick hole in the center of the congealed toothpaste wall the next day. The first time you had to roll it up, coiling the thick, once-mighty toothpaste anaconda into a tightly wound fraction of itself. This was foreshadowing, but still — the paste kept flowing and you thought nothing of it. The time you thought you actually were out of toothpaste, but you managed to unroll it and slide it real hard across the edge of your bathroom counter, completely coaxing all the minty green molecules up to the front door. Oh, those heady days You smile slightly at the foggy memories of those better days, before your brain quickly jerks you forward to the present. Which is right now. When you’re late for work. You stare into your empty tube of toothpaste, you glance quickly at your watch, and you decide to just for go for it, one last time. You grab your brush, grit your teeth, and squeeze your thumb and forefinger together as hard as you can, right on the head of the toothpaste tube. You squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze, your thumb pounding, your brow pulsing, your brush pleading… … until it finally comes: that very last, very weak, very small little dot of toothpaste, just peeking its head out the front door of the tube, just in time for you to swipe at it with your toothbrush, swab it around your mouth, and spit it out. AWESOME!