So, I've been in a rut, a big muddy rut. Can't get out, don't really want too, don't really know how. But regardless of it all, I've been in a bit of a sad, rundown, filthy rut. But yesterday all that changed with my daily visit to Starbucks. Who knew that while I was saving Starbucks during this economic mess that they would save me as well. I've decided that mornings are the best time for people watching. Take yesterday morning for example. My usual pre-work Starbucks is packed with a very unusual crowd of people. Take this one man- with flat-ironed hair down to his butt. He was sitting in the big lounge chair right as you walk in, dressed in a fancy button down shirt, nice jeans and his cowboy boots. He looks at everyone who walks in as if they're his long lost love and he greets everyone with a big smile and a hello as if he owns the place. Then there's the girl that refuses to believe it's November and still 95 degrees outside dressed in slacks, a long sleeve shirt and a huge scarf. Lady, it's 915am and 80 degrees out, it's not getting any colder today. But the best had to be the lady behind me in line humming, louder than the jazz music blasting throughout the store, 'Black Eyed Peas - Tonight's gonna be a good night.' Humming with wide-eyed abandon, occasionally swinging her arms side to side. It was fantastic. After all that craziness at 9am I realized something. This morning made me realize that happiness comes in all forms and sometimes all you have to do to find it, is open your eyes and look around. We're constantly surrounded by amazing, inspiring and sometimes crazy things, people and situations. Just look around - look hard, don't stop till you find it. It'll be there, it might not be as you imagined, but it will be there. So thank you urban cowboy, snow-bunny-wanna-be, and the next Mariah Carey - you pulled me out of my rut. This morning, you saved me.

I'm sitting here watching Zoey 101 and the only reason I am, is because it's filmed at Pepperdine and by watching it, I feel like I'm a little closer to home. Today is the beginning of New Student Orientation at Pepperdine. Last year I was a NSO counselor, cheerfully greeting 800 anxious, new freshman as they were about to start their adventure at Pepperdine. I meet all kinds; nervous, excited, arrogant, amazing, beautiful, all of them with big hearts ready to start their college career. And today, it all starts again, except I don't get to see it. I don't get to experience it.

Everyone's starting school. Yesterday I met Whitney and Afton down at ASU to grab coffee and I was so jealous. The rush of the first day back. You can smell the excitement, the new books, the curiosity of a new boy in class, new friends, new clothes, a fresh start. To me the first day back is this new opportunity to start new, regardless of the fact that it might be your senior year. It's a chance to clear the slate and begin again. It's a deep breath, its one big step towards something great and I'm jealous. I'm jealous of everyone starting back up. I'm jealous of the new, fun things they're going to experience this year. I would do pretty much anything to be a senior at Pepperdine again. Maybe this is me, living in the past, not accepting the future, refusing to move on... blah blah blah, but I do. I miss it, I'm living in my past. I'm wishing I was back in Malibu, Villa Malibu 223 to be exact, about to start my adventure. And maybe that's the challenge of this whole growing up thing. It's finding my new deep breath, my new big step. It really is all about living in my present and my future - It's about growing up. I guess the thing I'm struggling with the most is that I miss my Pepperdine friends. I miss my amazing roommates, Kate&Kate, all my beautiful sorority sisters. I miss running into people at Starbucks & Ralph's. I miss the people I got to see every day in the Com building. I miss my professors. I miss the routine of it all. I miss the daily grind. I just miss Malibu, and guess it comes down to the fact that I'm jealous that other people are there experiencing it all and I can't seem to admit that its all over.

Carly and I used to watch X Factor try-outs on Youtube for hours, lame, I know, but I love them. I watched a couple today and this one was amazing. Enjoy (click here) - I get by with a little help from my friends.

I woke up this morning in Arizona, preparing for my hour and 10 minute flight back to Malibu. My mom was making me eggs and guess what? out came two eggs from one shell, after she told me good luck I was on my way to the airport, only for all my luck to disappear. So, I’ve just been stripped searched by some grumpy old lady because my 3 tiny gold bracelets don’t come off and heaven forbid I give her something to do. But I have to pee. I walk into the bathroom and find a stall where the doors not broken. I walk in and of course there’s no place to hang my purse. So I’m trying to balance my purse while I put the toilet seat cover on. I finally sit. Then some fat lady next to me slams her door and mine flings open. I freak out and scramble to close door before my whoo-ha is exposed to the public. Then I get back up, all while balancing my purse, and wash my hands. I finally get out of the shit-whole (literally) only to step in a giant puddle of who knows what. Guys have no idea how easy they have it. zip-stand-zip. Ridiculous.

After that traumatic experience and a soggy boot, I start out on the gate search. Something happens, the heavens open up and “AHHH” Starbucks. After walking (or possibly jogging) to the counter, I order my usual, “tall soy sugar-free vanilla latte.” After being charged $7 I walk to the counter, patiently awaiting my warm goodness. She hands me my drink, sip, it’s regular milk (I’m dairy free…). I kindly walk back and tell the lady I asked for soy. She smiles and remakes it, sip, its regular milk, again. After the 3rd time, in her broken English, she says, “Sorry we’re out of soy.”

About this time, all I want is Gate C13. I find my seat, all alone, with my coffee and my blackberry, perfection. Along comes this (no joke) 300 pound, sweating man in a Bigdog XXXL t-shirt and an under-armor hat. He sits down next to his (what I later find out) son and says (very loudly), “that definitely took care of that problem.” He’s most likely going to be my row-partner. Awesome, it gets better. He starts telling his son, yes son, about how many “ladies he nailed this weekend.” Right, try, how many porn sites did you frequent?

I learned more in my hour and a half journey through sky harbor then I did in most of my pre-pubescent years. I learned that public restrooms are never clean, no matter how much the cleaning lady “mops the slops.” I learned that there are job opportunities for all in an airport Starbucks.

And mostly I learned that life is all about perceptions. Take for example the Floridian “cowboy” with the mullet and Frye boots. Or the grandma who looks like she’s going to a formal event in her black crushed velvet blazer - and she’s most likely yelling. My favorite though is the guy in the extra-tight diesel jeans, black leather-bound shoes, ed hardy t-shirt with a zip up ed hardy sweatshirt. He’s walking around so everyone can see him with his $40,000 smile, probably thinking his shit don’t stink, when he probably just left the bathroom.

It’s amazing how people want to be perceived. The airport is like one big day-time television episode. It’s full of drama, love, tearful goodbyes and fakes. At least it makes things more interesting before I have to board the sweat box and glide over to LA.

Maybe we give to much thought to how we’re perceived and not enough thought to how we actually are.

“ But there are many spots on the globe where it’s tough to find a Starbucks. And these are precisely the places where banks are surviving, in large part because they have not financially integrated with banks in the Starbucks economies. In the entire continent of Africa, whose banks don’t stray too far, I count just three (in Egypt). We haven’t heard much about bailouts in Central America, where Starbucks has no presence. South America’s banks may be buckling, but they haven’t broken. Argentina, formerly a financial basket case and now a pocket of relative strength, has just one store. Brazil, with a population of nearly 200 million, has a mere 14. Italy hasn’t suffered any major bank failures in part because its banking sector isn’t very active on the international scene. The number of Starbucks there? Zero.

— Daniel Gross, who claims that “the higher the concentration of expensive, nautically themed, faux-Italian-branded Frappuccino joints in a country’s financial capital, the more likely the country is to have suffered catastrophic financial losses.”

this quote, courtesy of my [other] favorite blog.

http://147xxxx.tumblr.com/

it’s bomb. check her out. drink starbucks.

have you tried the new hot chocolate at Starbucks yet? well today I was in there for the third time today and the 17th time this week, and my usual (god bless him) barista was there to greet me. Normally I rattle off my, “grande skinny vanilla latte” hand him my card and I’m on my way, but today I was feel a little daring.

So, I stood at the counter, being that annoying customer who nevvverr knows what they want. I was craving something sweet, was super hyper and didn’t really need caffeine and that's when it hit me. It’s (kind of) cold out and I want a hot chocolate.

After making this hard decision, I asked his opinion. Little did I know there are THREE kinds of hot chocolate. yeah. I was a wimp and picked the “signature hot chocolate.”

It was amazing. Go to Starbucks right now and order one. I’ll rock your world.