Jun. 5: Gratitude

Sometimes I feel grateful for things. And sometimes my friend Sherilee reminds me to blog about it.

This was a busy week, and to be honest, not the best one. If I don’t have time or energy to blog, then you know it had to be hectic ‘round here. But the worst is over—it has to be; it’s Friday—and now I can simply sit back and reflect peacefully. This bowl of ice cream in my lap helps too.

On Monday I saw my doctor to follow up on my sinus infection. The antibiotics did what they were supposed to, but there’s still lots of inflammation in my sinuses. This explains so much, especially why I sometimes feel grouchy every second of every day; I can’t freakin’ breathe! The good news, really, is that I actually feel fine and I haven’t been able to say that for a very long time.

I went almost two weeks being able to sleep only by sitting up straight on the couch with a heating pad on my back. I do not sleep well in that position. I really did a number on my spine with all that yardwork, and it took my body a long time to recover. The back pain isn’t completely gone, but thankfully, I’m able to sleep in my bed again, sometimes even without a heating pad. To make sure I don’t ever have this kind of injury again I’ve made an appointment to have my spine removed. I feel it’s best for everyone involved, namely me.

Work on Monday was good. Work on Tuesday sucked big-time. I came home grouchy, wanting to kick the dogs and lock the kids in the closet. I had spent the whole day trying to fix a broken database, unsuccessfully, and was not looking forward to tackling it again on Wednesday. But tackle it I did, and guess what? I fixed it. Yay me! I left with a huge sense of relief and a hope that I never have to see that client again because if I see that client again it means the database is broken again and I hate that particular database when it is broken because it makes me want to kick the dogs and lock the kids in the closet. Grr, I say.

I rewarded myself on the way home Wednesday with shopping trip that resulted in a new pair of shoes. They’re nothing exciting—just walking shoes—but I deserved them. Yup, I did.

Victor took Thursday off from work so he could see Jack’s class perform their school plays. After getting the kids off to school in the morning, the two of us went out for breakfast and ran errands—a task made enjoyable by the peacefulness a kid-free back seat brings. The plays were a lot of silly fun, and the first graders loved their big audience. By mid-afternoon it was uncomfortably hot and muggy, and we decided to escape the misery by going to see Up again. We walked out of the theater just before 6 p.m. and found ourselves right in the middle of a huge thunderstorm rolling through the area. There were small tree limbs and all kinds of debris on the roads, and I was scared to see what our yard would look like when we got home. Fortunately most things were just beaten down, but nothing was broken or had to be taken out to the field and shot.

Hey, did you know that stainless steel is the new avocado? If not, you probably don’t want to ask. But I’ll say this: Facebook is a big ol’ time-suck and WAY too much fun. It was a week full of exciting discoveries, fun conversations, shared graduation photos, and lots of hilarious private messages. <singsong voice> Love it!

A while ago I wrote about the field trip that wasn’t a field trip. We chaperones were given another opportunity to ride the Sternwheeler, good for tomorrow only. With the Rose Festival going on right now, and the Navy ships visiting, there ought to be a lot of good things to see while we’re out on the river. The weather isn’t so great right now, but the company will be—Lovely Lori H, Cassie, and Christina and their families, as well as whoever else shows up. Dinner afterward? Oh yes.

Things are better. This is good, because the depressing anniversary of my dad’s death is coming soon, and it helps to go into it with a somewhat decent outlook.

Peace.