Happiness Project and other updates

There is this blog on Slate called The Happiness Project. I started reading it cause it is updated a lot and the posts are short and kind of interesting, but I always thought it was sort of trite. It recommends all kinds of too-easy solutions for how to make yourself happier, some of them are downright offensive to my way of life, especially her suggestion that making your bed everyday will make you happier. (!?!?! Nothing makes me angrier than making my bed! What a pointless routine! I am only going to make it messy again in 12 hours!!! What a ridiculous construct of society that we have to make our beds! No one sees them! Who cares! ahem...anywayyyy...that's how I feel about making the bed.) But anyway, I kept reading it, and I have found myself thinking back on tips and things that I have read on there pretty often. Like one of the posts was about how its important to get up and move around the office every so often; it makes your work day happier. So during my 8 hour work day I plan out when I am going to get up and walk around, whether it's to go to the kitchen, or to see my boss, or to stop for a minute and do some volunteer-style jobs like sorting the food in the pantry to get up. And I try to spread out my "get up and move around" activities so I don't become sucked into the computer screen of zombie-ness.

Anyway, so yesterday I found out that I didn't get this internship that I very much wanted and felt confident about. And I found myself thinking back to yet another Happiness Project post, where she quoted something her mom told her when she became editor of the Yale Law Review:

"That's so wonderful! Be grateful, because you worked hard for what you got, and you deserved it, but others also worked hard, and people don’t always get what they deserve."

I think this is a real truth that is very comforting and humbling. When you are hired, or elected, or chosen, or what have you, it tends to feel like a validation of how awesome you are and how you're the best. Which makes it feel like crap when you are on the other end of that stick. When the reality is, that there are too many deserving people for most things, so your being picked for something is a validation in some sense, but it's also just that you got lucky a bit and you should be grateful for that bit of luck that pushed you over the edge of the other people into getting the award/job/whatever.

Now that ends the philosophical portion of this blog. Now it's time for...

Updates on my life!

Major one: I am going to INDIAAAA. and I am very excited. It'll be for about two weeks over Christmas break. The itinerary includes Varanasi, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Ranthambore, Agra, and Udaipur. Anyone with travel tips please post them! The itinerary and planning stuff has not exactly been a piece of cake. It is quite something else to plan an international trip. This is obvious, but it just becomes oh-so-clear when you have to actually do it. It's fun though, and I am excited to hear Bollywood music in the streets (I have been taking a Bollywood DanceFit class--it's awesome--and I get so pumped for the trip after class every week) and see the sights and the tigers and the whole shebang.

Car: I have a headlight out, and apparently its an electrical problem. The dealer wanted me to pay $1100 to fix it. Soooo that's been a fun project in my life trying to figure out how to fix it without paying that completely ridiculous price. I love my car, but I am buying a damn Toyota or Honda next time.

School: Midterms are over! Insanely happy about that.

New life goal: To intern at the White House Domestic Policy Council this summer.

Pie/other food: I recently made a mixed berry pie for a dinner with all my housemates. It was delish.

I made this dish a few nights ago and it was also delish. And easy. And cheap. It's from GroupRecipes. I omitted the olives, cause olives are gross.