Why not ….

• Forsake that shrieking alarm clock for the song alarm function on your phone? Wake up and smell the Coldplay! I have this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDRrqcZbdPU set to wake me up everyday at 6:30. This way, I wake up feeling like a sparkly-eyed scrapper… rather than the snarky, coffee-chugging troll that I sometimes am.

• Keep an eye out for used, hard cover editions of your favorite books. They’re usually pretty cheap and in a few years, you’ll have a beautifully eclectic library. And you won’t have to be one of those tools who buys books by the yard to fill up their bookshelves

• Have secret sheets! Do you engage in grown-upp-ily modern and minimalist bed dressing? That doesn’t mean you can’t be business on the outside, party on the inside! I love to tuck riotously colored sheets under my sedate white duvet. Mixing stripes and florals? Yes, please.

• Wear your brightest skirt or trousers and paint your toe nails to match. Because sometimes matchy-matchy is fun.

• Look through your sent email folder from 2004? Look how far you’ve come! You totally got over what’s-his-name, stopped wearing those super low rise pants that gave you muffin top and got through that awful class. Here’s a little gem from my 2004 folder, to the BFF

Dude,

I have two important announcements for you.

1) I have discovered the perfect hairdo, for both me and you. It looks sexy and slightly tousled, but kind of dressy and professional. Basically, I just put styling creme in and then put all hair in loose buns/french roll at the nape of my neck with various tendril falling out around face and down back. Oooh.

2) There is a girl from Willmar, Minnesota on the next Top Model! I think her name is Christie Anderson – or some such - she's an 18 year old electrician whose birthday is on x-mas eve. However, I've seen a picture and she's not super cute.

Also, I got a white under-the-nail manicure pencil in my attempt to look more 'polished' and 'put-together.' will let you know how that goes.

Okay. So maybe I’m not that different.