Angel in a Blue Sweater

This morning stunk. Well, to be fair, this morning had the greatest potential to stink, but did not. Hence the earlier-than-normal post.

I woke up naturally, without the alarm clock and lounged in bed for almost an hour before I needed to get up. My husband got home from work and got in to bed, signaling to me that I was not (as I believed) getting a ride into work today and that my hour of lounging would prove to be ill-advised. I ran through my routine, resigned myself to the fact that my hair would be a wreck today no matter what I did and hustled out the door.

To fully understand my gratitude today, I should share a quick bit of history. When I was in high school I had a pretty long commute. I would walk about a mile to get my first bus...then one transfer and an hour later I'd be at school. It sounds like more of a hassle than it really was, because most of the trip was spent with friends. The tough part was the walk. I was alone...it was long...the last 1/4 mile was uphill and if you missed the bus, you had the pleasure of watching it zip across your line of sight. It could be a bit demoralizing, to say the least.

Now my walk to the bus is shorter and it is all downhill, but you still run the risk of watching the bus fly by as you're walking down. The stop is also at a busier intersection that has no control for pedestrians crossing, so there's that. As I walked down the street today (in the rain) I saw the 27 zip by. Sigh. As I got closer to the intersection, I saw the 9 coming, but I still had to cross three streets to get to the stop. The first two were easy-peasey, but the third looked hopeless. Traffic was moving well in both directions, so the bus wouldn't be held up, and the lane I had to cross wouldn't give me a chance to sneak through.

Then, I noticed something. The bus was not moving. There wasn't anyone getting on, but it was not moving. Traffic in that direction had come to a standstill. Why? Because my angel in a blue sweater had seen me trying to wrangle my way through traffic and was waiting for me. I've missed enough buses in my day (including ones that I was standing next to, pounding on the side of, begging to be let in) that I assumed that there was some kind of system-wide points system for how many people's spirits could be crushed in a single day. Today, my faith was restored.

Puppy Love-the aftermath

This is a somewhat lazy...completely appropriate follow up to my puppy love post.

Rolling around on the floor with the dogs when you've had enough of reading federal grant guidelines is awesome, but it leaves you looking a bit disheveled. Things started looking up when my husband stopped wondering about the scratches all over my body, but the issue remains that I wind up wearing half of said dogs' coats on my clothes.

So....yay, lint rollers!

Puppy Love

I love dogs.

I don't have a dog...and I can't tell you when I think I'll be able to have a dog, for a lot of reasons. But, I love dogs.

These two fellas are my boss' dogs. I get to see them most days when I'm at work. I joke around that I view them as an employment benefit. Just like health care or a pension, these guys area pretty attractive part of my job.

As much as I love my job, it has its moments. There are certainly bad days. You know what fixes a bad day at the office? Puppy kisses.

Fool. Proof.

And these two seem to understand their role in office morale.

Caffiene-nation

There has never been a time in my life that I could have been described as a good sleeper. My mother is never at a loss for a tale from my youth, from infancy to the teenage years that addresses my difficult relationship with sleep. Whether it was her walking a mile loop from the kitchen to the sun porch and back only to be met with my head popping up from the coach just when she thought I had finally settled down, or her horror at realizing that nights spent at her mother's house meant that I saw the late show, the late late show AND the million dollar movie after mom-mom had finally pooped out because the chair that I would sit in was big enough to obscure the fact that I was sitting in front of the TV rather than laying in bed...the bottom line is that neither authority figures nor the rising moon have EVER been able to dictate when I'm going to sleep.

Things are no different these days, really. Except, of course that I'm now working full-time, taking nine credits a semester and attempting to maintain a household. This is to say that these days, I not only need to be awake, I need to be fairly high-functioning for most of those hours. Enter my super strong iced coffee. Although I may be cursing it when I'm still tossing and turning tonight, I wouldn't have made it this far without it.

iPhone-aholic

Truthfully, I hope that the outcome of this little project is that I grow to realize that the little, unconventional things are what, ultimately make me a happier person.

That said, seriously...I don't know what I would do without my iPhone. It helps me do everything from actually picking up everything I went to the store for, to being on the bus stop on time, to providing music to drown out the inane conversations of other passengers on said bus.

I'm hoping to keep the materialistic posts to a minimum, but I am totally thankful for this little electronic miracle.

Girls Night Out

This was taken during a night on the town with my niece. M. and I went to see the Nutcracker, then out to dinner and dessert at Max Brenner.

If M. was underwhelmed by The Nutcracker she was anything but underwhelmed at the restaurant. It was so fun to sit there while she poured over the dessert menu, making sure to pick the best possible one, and then her making sure I took pictures of each thing that she ate so that we could show everyone when we get home.

She's such a good kid...it's always great to have a fun night out. And, for that...I am thankful!

The Calm (Between the) Storm(s)

Today I'm thankful for the absence of something. Is that in the spirit of this project? Maybe not.

But sometimes thankful is mistaken for relieved, and if it makes the day a little happier, than I say it counts.

What do you see in this photo?

Live. Television. Radio.

Horse Racing. College Basketball. PGA Golf. Auto Racing. Lacrosse. NBA Basketball. Boxing. Hockey. and, although you don't see it on the schedule, EVERYONE is thinking about baseball.

What do you not see in that photo? Football.

This is that most wonderful time of the year when there is no football going on, anywhere. Football is big in my family, and it brings a lot of people a lot of pleasure. But its downside is big too, and during these few months, the downside isn't as in our faces. And for that, I am thankful.