112. Lightning storms – rare as they are in Colorado, we had a beautiful one last night. I wish I had taken a picture,

113. An uncle who argues with me about EVERYTHING, but always with the best intentions for me.

114. An aunt full of stories and life.

115. Another aunt full of generosity and life.

116. Matzo balls, Kugel, that weird salty egg soup…

117. Health insurance

118. Jeans and Chucks

119. Proper Russian parties.

120. Self-serve frozen yogurt.

121. Julie Andrews’ voice

122. Fingernails

123. Pillows

124. Smiling people in the audience when speaking.

125. Environmentalists. Activists.

126. Ms. Lyons, my 11th grade composition teacher. Thank you!

127. Mr. Newell – 8th grade Algebra.

128. Giraffes

106. ice cream

107. plumbing/ hot water/running water

108. wine

109. photography… just imagine a world without the photos…

110. spring – today was just awesome.

111. This fox:

Cute Fox

92. Brunch – it’s just a great idea.

93. All the notebooks and sketches I’ve saved and the fact that I can scan most of them now and throw the physical pieces away.

94. A boyfriend with a server- having control over my own intellectual property with the security of not keeping it on my computer or in a bunker under my bed is priceless.

95. Capitol Hill – it’s a lovely neighborhood.

96. Smart people – in general – thanks for existing.

97. Chocolate covered coffee beans.

98. College.

99. Friends.

100. Tea.

101. Scholarships.

102. A creative and open-minded upbringing.

103. Making peace.

104. Bears.

Bicycles

91.b.My bicycle.

My Bicycle

91.c. My bicycle going west on this block and every block within a block of it.

Capitol Hill

91.d. Riding my bicycle down Capitol Hill in the March sunshine.

Sunshine

91.e. Riding my bicycle (a fabulous invention) around Capitol Hill (particularly, down Capitol Hill), in the awesome March weather,  listening to Roger Miller (singing a little sunshine song).

90. The Cherry Creek trail- good for walking and bike riding and such.

For instance, I learned yesterday, that Yves St. Laurent designed the first women’s pant suit. In a time when women were expected to be dainty, he pushed a masculine look. In a time when women were treated like objects of entertainment, dressed up for everyone to admire at the party, Yves St. Laurent created an elegant pant suit, that made women comfortable and perhaps a bit more able to enjoy themselves for their own sake. It’s definitely an interesting and educational experience, particularly for those of us who didn’t even know that we were interested in these types of things.

Also, if you’re not sold yet, the  Denver Art Museum, as always, has some fun interactive experiences for kids (or adults like me) to partake in. We discovered a workshop equipped with light tables, supplies, figure templates and tracing paper…

Fashion Sketches

You can just call me Coco.

80. The Art Museum. Good, old fashioned, inspiration, education and entertainment.

81. The Library. Good, old fashioned, free information.

82. My Dzyed (grandpa), who always walked with us to the park and talked to us and loved us a lot.

83. My Baba Polya who saved everything for us and worried for us; and made the best and most delicious everything.

84. My Baba Lea, who spent so much time with us and was always so kind and framed our drawings on cardboard wrapped in gift paper.

85. My Aunt Ana, who encouraged us to be smart and take care of ourselves. She encouraged us to write and brought us stickers from the drug store every week.

86. Apples.

87. This window.

My Window

88. Thick, clean, comfy, white socks.

68. My upcoming trip to Maui.

69. The breakfast that my job buys every other Friday.

70. The relief I felt upon discovering that my new boss is, in fact, really nice.

71. The existence of a thing called brunch.

72. The rain that is about to fall.

73. My cute, healthy new nephew.

74. The future and all its possible forms.

75. The ability to let things go.

76. A man who can make (very) good pancakes.

77. That random teenager who saved me from drowning in the wave pool at Water World sometime in the early nineties.

78. The book, ‘The History of Love‘. Thanks, Nicole Krauss. And also, while we’re at it, thank you, Jonathan Safran Foer (Ms. Krauss’ husband), for ‘Everything is Illuminated‘.

Phew! That was actually quite easy… I’m a lucky girl and I’ll be back soon.

58. Getting to the stop at the same time as the bus. This has been happening to me a lot lately. Also, since I have the option of taking a couple different buses to get close to home quickly, but some come closer than others, I appreciate it when the best bus comes first… does that make any sense? Basically I’ll hop on the 0 or the 6, but I like it more when the 6 comes first because it’s door to door service. Realistically, I should be walking my lazy ass home, but that’s beside the point.

59. My personal life experience. I keep looking at people who have lots of money or are really good looking and despite their advantages, I don’t want to be them. I like who I am because of every experience I’ve had, positive and negative.

60. The positive trend of my existence, thus far. I don’t mean “positive,” in that everything has been fantastic all of the time, but rather positive growth, like in a function. My outlook on life is positively correlated with my age. In most terms, things keep getting better. As opposed to someone who’s pinnacle is behind him, I  anticipate mine to be in the future. My personal growth as a human being has provided me with a consistently improving ability to enjoy life. (At the same time, as spend more time being alive, I learn more and more about the horrible things people do, and that’s hard to deal with. However, I’m concurrently gaining the ability to deal with it, so growth is a double edged sword.)

61. First world living conditions. I’ve probably already stated this in so many words, but I’m tremendously grateful for easy access to basic necessities and luxuries.

62. Growing up bilingual. Not that my Russian is perfect, but it’s definitely there and it’s helped me absorb other languages more easily. Plus, looks good on a resume and sounds cool.

63. The ocean. Did I mention I’m going SCUBA diving. No? Well I am!!

65. In the same breath, but on the opposite end of the spectrum, space. I don’t think I will be flying out of the atmosphere in my lifetime, but I appreciate the mystery of the cosmos, nonetheless.

66. Evolution; the real weirdness of critters that is beyond the depth of my imagination. I’ve mentioned biodiversity previously, but I’m referring to something different here. In that post, I was focusing on the intertwined ecosystem that makes everything work. Now, I’m talking about the individual animals that exist, I believe, to impress me…

67. The jade plant scraps that the lady who lives by Cheesman Park left for the taking last summer. That was a really nice gift to give to strangers. Shad took several pieces, performed some kind of voodoo, and he turned them into a plant!

Jade Plant