Let’s hit the suburban roller coaster.

When you’re a little kid riding backwards in a wood-paneled wagon there’s few things as fun as hitting a gut-twisting bump over a little hill on the highway. Or maybe you’re at the back of the schoolbus, bouncing like jumping beans as you ride the waves, laughing with your snot-nosed pals amongst the slippery nylon seats on your way to the science center. Or maybe you’re just cruising down dark roads, slipping through shortcuts, and winding off the freeway and rolling over those small hills gives you a small little lift on your long drive home…

Bumps in the road make life more fun.

AWESOME!

Photo from: here

Gardening ain’t for sissies.

Nope, if you’re getting down with the kneel down you know planting flowers, growing herbs, and trimming hedges is tough business, baby. Sun’s beating wavy rays, dirt’s clumping in your eyes, and worms squiggle in all directions as you attempt to plant petunias.

Those weeds are the worst of all.

Sharp stems and jagged leaves spread in all directions they slowly smear across the garden — devouring pristine patches of grass and gobbling up innocent tulips.

That’s why it’s a great feeling when you pull a weed and get all the roots with it.

First you eye it slowly and grab as close to the base as possible. Next you gently yank and wiggle it a little bit to lower its defenses and loosen it up. Then it’s time for the big moment where you quickly pull it straight up and outta the dirt.

Seeing a long trail of dirty roots hanging below that weed you just pulled out of the garden?

Say it with me now.

AWESOME!

Photos from: here and here

Nose, what’s your deal?

We’ve been cursing you for the past hour for your snotty head-plugging ways. Breathing wasn’t happening and we were left mouth-gasping for air every few seconds to bypass your thick bulletproof wall of headglue. And you remember when we tried blowing our brains into some tissues to clear your salty facejam, right? All we got for our troubles was wet Kleenex bits stuck to our upper lip and a pair of eyes popping from the pressure.

So we gave up, we gave in, we gave it our best shot. We figured you won the war so we slumped our shoulders and walked away with our noses red like Rudolph and our jaws dropped like Big Moose.

But then after wrestling down our defenses you decided to suddenly just … open up without warning! Big winds rushed and gushed through our lungs and the weight of the world was lifted. We leaned back and sniffed in deep breaths, fresh air, and a whole new life.

We don’t know why, we don’t know how, and we don’t care. Nose, thanks for the random drips, thanks for the sweet relief, and thanks for the big giant breath of

AWESOME!

Photos from: here and here

Ding-dong.

The door opens to you on the porch in your just-washed jeans and crispy clean shirt staring into a sweaty sea of strange faces. You walk in and stumble past a pile of shoes and a kissing couple while awkwardly scanning the room for some friendly faces. Stepping a bit deeper into the anonymous bass-thumping scene you move past empty bowls of chips, slippery wet countertops, and loud laughs … wondering for a second if you’re in the right place.

Then it happens.

You make laserbeam eye contact with a close friend smiling across the crowded room.

Suddenly it’s all confirmed.

You belong here.

AWESOME!

Photo from: here

Drift and dream into that crispy clean.

It’s always good when you can leave the sheets outside and let the sun do what the sun does best: be hot, heat things up, keep being hot. Just clothespin your business to the line, point up at the giant fireball in the sky and say “Over to you.”

Soon you’ll be spreading those sun drenched sheets over your mattress and curling into their warm wind-swept arms as you slip and fade into a cozy little world of

AWESOME!

Photo from: here

Midnight is long gone.

Maybe you’re crowded around a kitchen table pasting construction paper onto poster board, squirreled into sleeping bags on a cold basement floor, or drinking cold coffee and leaning over laptops before tomorrow’s big deadline.

Either way, it’s time to face facts: you’re up way too late.

Your eyes burn a bit, your head spaces out, random arms or legs starts throbbing, and maybe your scalp gets really, really, really, really itchy. Point is, you’ve ignored your body’s Go to Sleep signals for hours so now you’re hunched over a walking stick squinting deep into the foggy darkness of four, five, six in the morning.

The good news is your brain has developed just the system to charge you up with extra juice and help you power through. Yes, we’re talking about massively lowered Standards of Hilarity which help make everything funny. Someone steps on Styrofoam Jupiter, kicks a can of Coke onto the pizza, or accidentally deletes the Powerpoint slides, and suddenly everyone looks up at each other with tired raccoon eyes and… just starts cracking up.

Late night laughing is a beautiful moment because we’re letting ourselves stand up and step back from whatever’s keeping us up. Gone are the stresses of the group project, hanging dread of the deadline, and tensions tying us together. Now the differences dissolve and we realize we’re all part of the same Bleary Eyed Giggling clan — telling bad jokes, laughing till it hurts, and smiling till sunrise.

AWESOME!

Photos from: here, here, and here

Believe it.

It’s your girlfriend at the lunch table doing her dad’s lecture with a bizarre sailor with a sore throat inflection. It’s your grandson at Thanksgiving pretending to be his angry first grade teacher, hitting the squeaky high notes with fist thumps and furrowed brows. It’s your best friend giggling on your bed about her new college classmates who sound like they’re all from a tiny island off a made-up country.

There’s just something hilarious about watching a good friend tell a story with a horrible accent. If you’re lucky the terrible impersonation becomes a new joke itself and you end up laughing in a neverending cycle of

AWESOME!

That was a close one.

Last night you hit the pillow without a safety net and fell into a free-falling slumber with no end in sight. You could have slept all day, you could have slept all night, but somehow you got up just in time. Yes, you sprung up like a Jack-in-the-Box with your heart beating, eyeballs popping, staring in shock at your curiously quiet clock.

But that’s when you suddenly tap your temple with your finger and nod a slow nod at the genius of your own brain. Thank goodness that pink fleshy lump knew the deal and stayed awake counting seconds all night so you could pop up right when you needed to.

AWESOME!

Photos from: here and here

Embrace your inner monkey.

Dirty crumpled socks, dropped Doritos, rogue pen caps: We see you there. Yes, we see you right in the crosshairs of our toes and we’re about to scoop you up with a good old fashioned foot scrunch.

Bending over is overrated.

Picking things up with your feet is

AWESOME!

Photo from: here

Time for some fun in the sun.

Spiking volleyballs in the backyard, tossing frisbees at the beach, or just running around in your bathing suit on the scorching sand, it’s always fun getting hot and sweaty before racing to the edge of the dock or tip-toeing to the front of the diving board. Now with your forehead dripping, eyeballs stinging, skin sticky and sweaty, you stare into the deep water and smile before splashing right into a cool refreshing world of

AWESOME!

Photo from: here