You finger-picked between standard options and boring choices to find that hidden gem of deliciousness hiding way down in the corner. Now when anyone asks about the food and nods politely you can smile a sneaky smile, clear your throat, wipe your napkin across your lips, and scream out a great big word.
AWESOME!
Send your awesome story and photo to 1000awesomethings [at] gmail.com
— Email message —
“Six years ago when I was a junior in college, I received an interesting parcel in my mail. It was a notebook of graph paper describing a friendship between me and someone in my creative writing class. The strange thing was that, although I admired this person, we hadn’t really spoken. The first page in the notebook suggested beginning a friendship through letters, to be written in the notebook and passed back and forth. To my delight, we spent the entire year writing each other, sharing stories, photographs, poetry, and all sorts of things. We each added 25 items every time–from “Soft Pretzels” to “When I’m Driving in My Neighborhood and I See Someone Bent Straight over While Gardening,” eventually totaling 500. It was a bright spot in an otherwise dark time. Every new “Awesome” post on your blog reminds me of my friend, and that, in itself, is pretty awesome.” – Lindsey
I don’t really know why I only own three bowls but when I moved downtown two years ago I only had three bowls and I never bothered to bowl up. One for my cereal, one for my soup, and a spare in case of Emergency Ice Cream Sundaes. It’s seemed like a solid plan.
But last night Leslie and her sister were over for dinner and we whipped up some soup and salad. Who loves soup? I do, do. And salad? Me, me, me. Yes, it sounded like a perfect meal, well planned, well tossed, and well … delicious.
It wasn’t until Leslie forked out three heaping bowls of salad did I realize the error of my ways. My delicious soup was getting cold fast on the stove without any bowls to pour it in. Passing around a pot and taking sips seemed a bit too Cavemany and waiting till the salad was done to wash the bowls seemed a bit too Slow.
But then it suddenly hit us.
Mugs!
Yes, mugs really are the backup bowl of the kitchen. Scramble an egg in there, soupify your ice cream, they don’t care. Nope, they are loyal and versatile Ceramic Warriors — ready for war, battle, or holding things, any time of the day.
So after quickly splash-pouring the soup into mugs I tossed each one into the microwave for some good ol’ fashioned nuking to warm them up. And when the ding dinged a few seconds later our dinnertime masterpiece was complete with the mug handle pointed perfectly towards us.
Yes, when the mug stops perfectly with the handle pointing towards you it really is a beautiful moment. Doesn’t matter if you’re heating soup, warming cold coffee, or hotting chocolate. It’s just a tiny sign that the universe is unfolding according to plan.
“hi, Im from costa rica, and I just read your article about kids helping their little brother or sister across the street, I just want to share this pic with you, My kids running to the sea, I hope you like it.” -Melissa C.
“Over the summer our teacher read your book, now Room 10 at Waihi Beach School are creating the Kids 100 Awesome Things. The kids make suggestions, then vote for the most awesome idea. Miss Hardley our teacher types like a maniac as we talk, then we check and edit her typing. Our site is http://kids100awesomethings.wikispaces.com/” – From Miss Hardley and Room 10 Waihi Beach School, New Zealand.
There’s something beautiful about watching kids holding hands as they cross the street. You’re seeing someone small grow into someone tall. Those hands are the bridge from the stroller to the future, from walking with their parents to walking by themselves.
And those brothers and sisters helping them might be the people they know best their whole lives. From beginning to end, through curves and bends, they’ll remember holding hands on early walks to school, inside the scary movies, and coming home from the pool.
Brothers and sisters helping little ones on their way is a sun-smiling moment of beauty and a tiny little drip of
When I was growing up there was a Sunny D commercial on TV where a gang of kids in backwards caps and jammer shorts roller skates home before helping mom bring in the groceries. When they go inside they search between a fridge packed with cola and purple stuff before pulling out a jug of Sunny D to big cheers. Later they’re chilling under a tree when mom returns with an armload of Sunny D. As the scene closes one of the kids screams out “You got a cool mom!”
And despite the cheesy cheese quality of this old commercial there really is something sweet about finding out your friend has a cool mom. Cool moms are often detected in the wild after displaying some of these familiar characteristics:
· Anywhere, anytime sugar. Cool moms have candy and sugary cereals you don’t have at your house and they’ve got no problem filling your bowl with Corn Pops after a sleepover or letting you drink a big cup of Coke with dinner.
·Grease runs for fun. Loud cheers from the back of the station wagon and the Minivan Applause-O-Meter guide cool moms to ice scream shops and McDonald’s drive-thrus. Six-year soccer teams get sundaes or chip truck fries whenever cool mom is driving them home.
·Steady behind the wheel. Cool moms drive your friends all over the place. She’s your taxi to the mall food court, baseball diamond, or movie theater. Cool moms also take care not to embarrass you in front of your friends by controlling the bad jokes and goodbye kisses. Sometimes they slip you an extra fiver, too.
·Lax sleepover policies. She knows you and your teenage friends will watch the R-rated movie in the basement anyway so cool mom doesn’t fuss much with the ratings or the extra half hour of TV before bed. Let the kids talk a bit during the sleepover, she figures. Nobody’s getting hurt.
·Anonymous phone-a-friend always open. Cool moms give off sparkly vibes of open-mindedness that let kids know their questions won’t be judged. Cool moms take your friend for her first tampons, help you call the neighbor after tossing a ball through their window, and are always around to chat about anything serious.
When you have a friend with a cool mom you’re loving it lots, baby. They’re usually found upstairs at that one house everyone always hangs out at. Now, if you’re a cool mom your house sure is full of big smiles, loud laughs, and happy kids. You value the best things in life and live to love for years and years and years.
Hey, cool moms! Guess what? You’re
AWESOME!
— Email message —
“At the beginning of spring semester, I put up a sign in my dorm’s community bathroom. It said “This is the list of 1000 Awesome People….Every person is awesome in their own way, and they need a little shout out!” The girls on my floor took this idea and RAN with it. We hit 400 before midterms! The list was completed the 2nd week of April and is comprised of everybody from Cookie Monster, to a lady who helped us dig out a car from the snow, to our Resident Advisor, and the girl we saw wearing a “Virginity Rocks!” shirt. It’s pretty much the best thing ever to be able to list 1000 people and have a “spill over list” of even MORE people that rock…. in fact, I’d say it’s AWESOME.” – Sarah
You grab the meat, I’ll grab the veggies, meet you at the front.
But after completing your Mushroom Mission and racing to the checkouts you suddenly find yourself all alone in Lineup Paradise. You can’t hang onto the awkward armload of plastic baggies for long so you trek out on a classic grocery store Hide And Seek Hunt.
Now you’re running around the store peeking your hopeful head down every aisle — hoping to spy your friend agonizing over salsa choices or sampling cold cuts way down the distant lane. You scramble forwards and back again before the big moment finally comes.
It’s your friend way, way down at the other end of the store.
And they’re waving.
AWESOME!
Wow! The Book of Awesome was just named a New York Times bestseller! Thank you everyone! Our awesome movement rages on.
— Email message —
” While at the cottage reading the original book of awesome things I happened across this page and couldn’t help but sigh and think of how awesome life was at that moment. Enjoy the attached picture. :)” – Olivia from Ottawa
Suddenly your milk gets classy, your orange juice gets refined, and your chocolate milk feels more sophisticated. When you’re a kid you suddenly go from ten years old to thirty and can legally show up at the dinner table with heavily slicked and parted hair, a handkerchief puffing out of your pocket, and cuff links.
“My name is Arvind and I am in 9th Grade. In the past few months, I’ve gone through hard times in school and out. I am an avid follower of TED and won’t hesitate to say that your talk, which got me into reading your blog, has changed my life. In High School, I’m surrounded by negativity every day, from the omnipresent rumors to the crying and screaming that come with hormones. These feelings of negativity that (no matter what) made it into my mind were only amplified when my parents and I discovered a few months ago that I had a malignant infection spreading through my spine. After four surgeries and no positive outcomes, I began to lose hope. Watching your TED talk gave me a flicker of faith, both in my making it through my health conditions, as well as staying true to myself in High School surrounded by all the mixed feelings around me. After that I began to read your blog; day-after-day I went through it from #1000 down, finding ones that I loved (#526, 629), ones that I would never forget (#566, 546), ones that gave me hope (#340). One day during an appointment with my doctor, he told me that there was a way to get rid of my infection; it involved a more complex surgery as well as a 3-week-long interferon treatment. There was only one problem: its 55% success rate. Sure, the odds were in my favor, but just barely. After days of contemplating (and reading 1000 Awesome Things), I told my parents that I wanted the procedure. The physical and mental pain the infection (and associated ‘medicines’) were causing me was not worth my entire life and all my goals, and though I knew I had a 45% chance of failure staring me down, I proceeded with the surgery without ever looking back. I am glad to say that the surgery was successful; I finished my interferon course last week and the infection has entirely disappeared. I came back to school last week as well, and found the atmosphere completely changed. I no longer felt the negativity pressuring me. None of the rumors or comments being spread around really mattered to me, nor did the social ‘niches’ that inevitably form in High School. I feel like I finally have a grasp on my life- that I can get through whatever hardships it throws my way. Through the storm of my health complications and friend troubles, I found myself. Without 1000 Awesome Things, I would never have had that final push that allowed me to conquer my troubles and continue to live my life with head held high and a smile on my face. Thank you. p.s. The first day I came back into school after my treatment, I received a standing ovation from everyone in my grade. I think that, is truly and entirely, AWESOME!” – Arvind
Since we first hung woolly mammoth furs from forest branches we’ve gotten used to getting comfy when we settle in somewhere. Just look at babies in those curly fetal poses in their flannel onesies, napping in sunhats, shades, and shorts in strollers, or cuddling up to mom in cozy carry-ons.
Folks, it’s like I always say: We can learn much from The Baby.
Digging out your own little wading pool in the sand when you’re at the beach is another beautiful moment of climate control. You strip down because you’re hot, take a dip to cool off, chill out in the sand… and are suddenly hot again. Now it’s time to get digging and fill your in-ground Sand Chair with water to cool off those nether regions so you can relax and have it both ways.
AWESOME!
— Email message —
“A co-worker and I have been going back and forth for months over who is more awesome. I’ve bought her both Books of Awesome and thought there was no way she could one-up me there! Well I come into my classroom one Monday morning to find a gift bag on my desk. There was a note that said “Now you can be awesome every day of the week!” In the bag were several shirts all using the word AWESOME in some way. I put all of my awesome shirts into one picture. Being awesome every day of the week and having a shirt that says so? AWESOME!” – Jenni
We all know that slippery wet pile of steaming sauce and steaming cheese doesn’t usually hold together when you jigsaw it out of the pan. Nope, after you yank it out of the burning hot tray the rectangle hole left behind quickly fills up with lasagna swamp water.
Sure, your soaring lasagna piece flies high with elegance and grace until the moment it lands with a sad wet slap on your plate. Limp dark mushrooms slip out of noodle chokeholds and smear and slide across your plate in a slithery mess of mush.
But that’s what makes it so great when your plated piece of lasagna actually stays together. That’s when it’s time to celebrate the saucy noodle integrity of this beautifully delicious dish.
“I live in Kiev, Ukraine. and work at the YMCA where I meet lot’s of nice people. One of them was a girl who gave me The Book of Awesome when she was leaving Ukraine. My friend Bob is a Peace Corps volunteer and he is leaving in 19 days from now. He’s a great guy and I will probably never see him again. But a part of me will go with him in the form of The Book of Awesome. Here is a picture in Kiev, Ukraine.” – Maria
That’s a phrase my friends used in high school to express our casual annoyance with minor problems. Extra homework for the weekend? Ten goods. Cafeteria sold out of panzerottis? Ten goods. Tennis ball stuck in the gutter during road hockey? Ten goods.
Now you got it.
Ryan started saying it first and Chad caught on and soon it became one of those made-up phrases we used all the time. It was a secret code, scrambled joke, and private head-nod with its own set of rules on how it was used.
For example! Minor things such as falling off Rainbow Road were shortened to the simple ‘Ten’ with sarcastic eyebrow raise and one-second lip curl. Major things like getting assigned an essay just before the long weekend was met with the long drawl version of ‘Tehhhhhhhhhhhn.’
I’m not saying it made sense but it made sense to us.
Yes, when you hang with a tight pack of peeps long enough it’s amazing how new words start filling the tiny cracks between sounds and sentences. It’s strangely beautiful to see language evolving before your eyes and be part of its creation. Brains suddenly push past booky norms to create clarity in dark vacuums of vagueness.
Just remember — every word we use today came from a group of friends who started using it long ago. So to those long gone packs of chatty teens and wordy queens we say thanks for helping us understand…. everything we’re talking about. And when your group of friends comes up some good ones… make sure you keeping using them and shout ’em out.
“Over Easter weekend my friend and I were hiking along a gorgeous trail in the Slocan Valley, British Columbia. We were almost back at the car when and I needed to use the facilities…well, the wonderful folks who maintain the trail also have out-houses just for people like me! I opened the door and SQUEALED with delight because there, resting above the fully stocked toilet-paper dispenser, was The Book of Awesome!” – Jackie L.
Good work, Menu Detective.
Photo from: here
