Not talking about raindrops on roses, or whiskers on kittens...

This week's episode of "How I Met Your Mother" featured Barney Stinson doing a rip on Oprah's Favorite Things, which caused me to think: "what were some of MY favorite things in 2010?"

(in no particular order)

Homemade Tortilla Chips

I have an addiction. And I've boiled it down to this: crispy carbohydrates. I love them. French fries, potato chips, tortilla chips. But these things tend to be fried and not exactly healthy for you... until I came across the idea to get corn tortillas, season them a bit, spray some cooking spray, bake for 13 minutes at 375, and voila! A healthy alternative for me to get my crunch on! One corn tortilla has less than a gram of fat, only 15 grams of carbs, and makes 8 chips. Dip in salsa, and it's all good. 

Non-fat Greek yogurt

Keeping with the healthy theme, I've been getting down on some of this stuff. Non-fat, otherwise the fully loaded kind is laden with bad stuff. But this is a great snack when you want something dessert-ish, and has double the protein of regular yogurt. Throw in a bit of crunched toffee bits for flavoring up plain yogurt, or buy the pre-fruited kind. 

iPhone 4
You already know about this. You either have one, want one, or don't care. I am in love with mine, and the various camera apps (namely, Hipstamatic and Instagram). 

AppleTV

I was skeptical about this product, but I love it. It's not for everyone, but it's been great for my particular needs. I eliminated cable TV altogether to save money, since I have my ways of downloading the TV shows I do watch anyway, and I can stream all my media (music, videos, pictures) from my laptop to my big-screen TV. I can watch one thing on my laptop while streaming another movie from my laptop to the AppleTV (and thus my living room). And it allows me to access Netflix streaming and YouTube as well. Pretty cool. 

2011 Hyundai Sonata SE
So I got a new car this year, and I'm pretty happy with the choice that I made. Not too flashy or expensive, but certainly has plenty of cool features and should serve me well as I go into my late 20s and early 30s. I think this car says "Ryan" more than my two previous trucks did. 

Camelbak water bottle

Upon recommendations from friends, this is the water bottle I decided to try and am so glad I did. It's caused me to up my water consumption like 10 fold, and I use it all the time, even forgoing the use of glasses in my own home. It's spill-proof, easy-to-sip from, and comes in various colors. 

Modern Family
A hilarious comedy. It's not saccharine-sweet like the Full House-type shows of the 90s (which I loved too), but it's got plenty of heart. The cast chemistry is perfect, the characters are all a joy to watch even when they're being silly, and it's definitely worthy of the Emmy Award for Best Comedy. 

Bowflex SelectTech 552 Dumbbells

One of the new things I've gotten that I use almost every day. Easily adjustable weights that go from 5 lbs to 52 lbs. Definitely glad I invested in these, so that I can workout in my room - seeing them right by my desk, I have no excuse to not get some sort of workout in daily. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda

I've had a man-crush this year, and it's this guy. It's not just "In the Heights" and the fact that he composed the music, wrote the lyrics, and freaking starred in it on Broadway and in the LA production (which I am SO lucky to have seen). He's just so talented! He's writing a new musical based off "Bring It On", a rap CD from the perspective of Alexander Hamilton (yes, the one shot by Aaron Burr), and in his recent wedding, he organized a rad thing at the reception to surprise his wife, wherein he and the wedding party did a choreographed number to "To Life" from "Fiddler on the Roof". Check out the YouTube video. 

Incredibly sweet, right? It's also what inspired me to write the speech that I did for...

Chris and Jordan's Wedding
I like weddings. I've had a good time at the few I've been to... but it's a whole other thing to be a part of one when it's not just one, but two of your closest friends uniting. Sure, it happens on TV a lot. But seeing it happen in real life, and seeing the expressions of love and joy on their faces...  it's a pretty beautiful thing. Inside I just kept wanting to go "awwwwww", but I had to stand still. Anyways, I'm super thankful to have been blessed by these two over the years, and it's also made me thankful for the little things from the past - such as MySpace and Spring Awakening - and reminds me to keep trusting in God's planning and timing. Because who knows what the little things from last week or tomorrow might bring?




And that sums up my 2010 Favorite Things. :) 

Starbucks Time + Old Memories

It's Coffeeshop Saturday!

I had to bring in my car to the Hyundai dealership to get some work done, and was told it would be a few hours. Knowing this in advance, I brought my trusty laptop, a book, homework, study aids, and water bottle and planned to just sit in the dealer's wait area and attempt to be productive.

And then as I drove to the dealer, I spotted the Starbucks directly across the street and thought "jackpot!" I needed food anyway, AAAAANNND (TM Jordan) I've been craving their caramel apple spice. As my cousin once stated (and I agree), "it's like melted Cinnabon in a drink!" Now if only there was a shot that fit this bill too...

Going through some old files on my laptop, I found old scripts I'd written back in high school. My senior year was 10 years ago - I still can't believe that... it's such a trip to read through things I'd written back in the day. I was a fan of the parody, apparently. This one script, for example, was for Drama class, and it was a group project. We needed to adapt a Shakespearean play, and ours was "As You Like It", and we ended up modernizing it and changed the names of the girls to "Romy" and "Michelle". It's very hilarious to read now, in that it's both intentionally funny but strangely juvenile from the perspective of a 26 year old, but the scripts I wrote always got A's. :)

Junior high English (8th grade specifically) was one of my favorite years though... My "big" script that year (which I no longer have, sadly) ended up being a kidnapping caper, but still had the parody aspect to it because it started off with a rip on "Unsolved Mysteries". That show freaked me out as a kid. I remember coming home from AWANA, and it'd be on TV with it's mysterious music, dark tales, and creepy host, who I named the narrator of my script after -- "Robert Pancakestack". The plot details escape me, I just remember they were preposterous but made for a fun time when the teacher assigned parts and we read them aloud in class. As the writer, I was always really nervous, but they always went over well with everyone - and the teacher, who gave me an A+...

Speaking of 8th grade memories, Brian McKnight's "Anytime" has been looping through my headphones. Loved that CD back in the day too!

Anyways - I think maybe I'll sign up for a playwriting class at Grossmont this semester. Depends on what the class schedule looks like, but mostly because the anatomy/physiology classes I want are already full. (The daytime ones aren't, but those won't fit with my work schedule, sadly.)