Rest. Busy. Rest.

Midway through last week all of the events of the last month and a half caught up to me and my introverted self put its foot down.

Turns out that several major family medical emergencies, exploring and wrestling with whole new faith convictions while visiting friends in another country, starting a new semester of nursing school in a brand new area of practice with a steep learning curve, starting to wean off my antianxiety meds, working part time, making changes in diet and exercise practices, and just generally trying to maintain a personal, social, and spiritual life can be exhausting.

I know I'm overwhelmed when I sit in a nursing class before the lecture begins, and the voices of all those women (and a very few men) talking and talking and talking grates on my nerves to the point where I kind of want to scream at everybody to shut up, or I might lose it!

With all that in mind, I set this weekend aside for rest.  (Mostly.)

I am thankful that this semester I have three day weekends in which to actually manage rest a bit more fully.

I slept late on Saturday morning, got up and did a bit of housework, took a long nap, did a bit more housework, and then went to bed.  It was pretty much divine.  I think I only saw one other human being the whole day, and talked to one on the phone.  Perfect for my tapped out self.

Sunday was kind of the opposite.  I had breakfast with a long time friend (stuffed french toast - not the best ever, but not bad). Then we did a couple errands together.  I followed that up by going wedding dress shopping with one of my oldest friends.  She's getting married in February, and I'm her maid of honor, so I joined her and her mom to start the process of finding "the dress". And then I followed that up with a family dinner of sorts with a few extra people, which is pretty much the norm for our family.  Lately family dinners have sometimes been hard - they emphasize that even though I'm the oldest sibling, I'm the only one who is single, without any current prospects, and that goes to a different church than the rest of the family.  Those dinners sort of emphasize the ways in which I often struggle to fit within my family, and if I'm honest, I was kind of dreading this one when my mom called to set it up.  That said, it was lovely!  The addition of the extra bodies this time served to keep it from being quite so awkward feeling, and even though I was tired, it felt good to laugh with my family. I rounded off the day by borrowing mom's car so I could tackle my grocery shopping for the week, then caught a ride home and pretty much crashed.  (Though I enjoyed every bit of the day individually, the sum total of all that people time was still a bit much for my exhausted introvert self.)

And then there's today.  I pretty much slept until 11.  I know, I know, lazy, right?  I justify it by reminding myself that for the next four mornings this week my alarm will go off at 4:15, 4:15, 6:30, and 6:30 to kick off very full days.  I laid in bed for a while catching up on email, and then planned to kick off my day with the last of my pre-made smoothies.  Alas, the smoothie was off, so I tackled the first recipe on my list of cooking for the week - pina colada quinoa.  As I'm sitting to write this, I have a bowl of it in front of me, and it's not too bad!  I'm cooking a lot of quinoa these days in the midst of the effort to eat less starch, and mostly eliminate gluten from my diet, and this is definitely not the best of the quinoa recipes I've tried, but it's edible, and hey, I get to add another recipe to my list of new recipes I've tried this year.  I'm planning to round off this day with a few errands, and a coffee date with a friend, and then some homework.  The first quiz of the semester is happening this week, and I have some policy and procedure documents for neonatal care that I need to work my way through.  Oh, and I'm finally going to hopefully make some progress on the baby blanket I'm making for my future niece or nephew, since, you know, he or she is now two days overdue and likely to show up any time!

Rest. Busy. Rest.  That's my weekend, and while I could use maybe one more day of lying low, the fact that I'm now aware of just how drained I'm feeling is a good thing, and will let me manage my energy and schedule a bit more carefully for the next couple weeks while I work to recover some equilibrium.  Sweet deal.

And with that, I'm off to finish off my breakfast quinoa and get started on some of the little things that I want to do while I'm puttering around and resting today!  Happy Monday!

J + R = Wedding!

Last Saturday my middle brother, J, married R, in a ceremony and reception perfectly suited to their personalities as individuals and as a couple.

True to form, they were surrounded by friends (6 attendants a side), loads of family and well-wishers, and one "flower boy".

You see, J quite seriously felt that he should be able to get married while wearing a panda costume.  His sense of humor is like that.  The need to interject a great deal of laughter into every situation is just who he has always been.  When R informed him that a panda suit was not acceptable, he proposed the compromise of a flower boy.  Lest you conjure an image of a small boy throwing rose petals, let me assure you that was what J had in mind was for our 23 year old cousin, M, complete with a mustache, tiara and flower adorned suspenders to fulfill the role.

And fill it he did!  He entered the church to the song from The Lion King that starts the video below, and "delicately" threw rose petals down the aisle as he made his way into the church amidst much laughter.  It was easily my favorite part of the day, simply for the way the laughter and the crazyness of the moment so perfectly reflected the qualities that come to mind when I think of J and R.




They topped their day off with an awesome reception, fun speeches (including a laughter filled one from our baby brother T, who served as best man), and a dance that kicked off with a live band, led by T.  Around 10 pm, as they danced the night away, they arranged for a huge delivery of pizza, to curb the late night hunger caused by hours of dancing.  The party wound down in the wee hours of the morning, when we finally turned the music off to finish the clean-up for the evening.

Other highlights for me included the chance to participate in their ceremony by reading scripture, watching J's face as he caught sight of R entering the church, the looks on my mom's face as she watched her son get married, and the moment during the ceremony, which my dad was officiating, in which dad choked up and spoke through tears as he described both the blessings and challenges of marriage.  Knowing the many things my parents have walked through together in the last 33 years, that moment is especially poignant.

All in all it was a fun way to celebrate a marriage, and I wanted to take the time to tell you about it here.  You can find an awesome preview from the professional photographers, Scott and Jaime Gage )who are both extremely talented photographers as well as dear friends of J & R) here.

I also wanted to share a few of the photos I took, but blogger seems to be temperamental today, so I'll have to share those with you some time next week!  Make sure to check, since I definitely have some fun shots of most of my favorite moments, including the flower "man" as he preferred to be called!

Donuts

You'll forgive me if I don't write a substantial post today.

I sort of have plans.

My brother and cousin and I are putting our combined kitchen talents together and tackling a family recipe that is the stuff of childhood legends.

Grandma's yeast donuts.

The plan is to make a double batch and then split it between three families.

A double batch should make 8-10 dozen donuts.  A lot, it would seem.

But only if you haven't tasted these little bits of heaven.

These deep fried delights that are an all day task thanks to the multiple times they have to rise and be punched down before they ever get immersed in hot oil.

But there is nothing quite like one of these, still warm, tossed in granulated sugar.

They literally melt in your mouth.

The three of us have been planning this day for well over a month, looking forward to it, and salivating.

One of the first things my dad asked when they returned from holidays last week was if we'd made donuts yet, wanting to make sure he hadn't missed out.

They are the stuff of family legends, and today we're going to attempt to scale the legendary peak.  So I can't write, I'm busy determining if it's a "soft dough" and mixing yeast, and punching down dough that's risen, and laughing with my brother and cousin, and salivating.  It's a good way to spend the day, and it will end with pastry.  Pastry that makes every other donut pale and worthless in comparison.  They're just THAT good.

Thursday

It's Thursday morning and I'm sitting in the sun in my parent's living room.

Today will be full of cleaning tasks.  Getting the basement ready for the influx of company from my mom's family that begin to arrive tomorrow.  I have mixed feelings about mom's family a lot of the time.  They all live far away, and most of the time I regret that I don't really have much relationship with an entire side of my family.  When they're here, though, (and that's rare) I remember that I find it really bizarre to be with these people.  These people who I share blood with, but not really a lot of relationship.  These people who suddenly want to know stuff about my life - lots of stuff.  I'm an introvert, and don't readily share the private stuff with even my immediate family, but I have a hard time evading direct questions, too.  And, they're intense people, these family members.

So, I'm mentally preparing myself for this.  Especially since for the first couple of days, my parents will be out of town, and I'm actually playing host.

In the meantime, it's Thursday, and I'm going to clean.  I'm going to pray for a friend grieving a fresh loss, and one remembering a loss that happened 20 years ago today.  I'm going to go to house church tonight, and pause and rest a little somewhere in the middle of the day.

And I'm remembering.  Because it hit me last night that three years ago this weekend a sequence of events that have changed me life completely were set in motion.  It's been a crazy three years, and nothing looks the same.  And I'm okay, but I'm pausing for a moment too, to breathe a little.  To absorb the stunning reality that it has really been three years. 

So, it's Thursday, and I have things to do.  Thinking. Praying. Remembering.  Resting. Cleaning.  Worshipping.  Trusting.  Preparing.  Things to do on this Thursday.

Daily 5 - Day 331

Today's Daily 5:

1. Hearing my brother lead worship at church this morning
2. Listening to my sister-in-law preach her first ever sermon
3. playing "Trouble" at a family event tonight with a couple of my cousins
4. home made black-forest birthday cake
5. falling asleep on the couch during the world cup final game... so nice to take a brief Sunday afternoon nap

Daily 5 - Day 324

Today's Daily 5:

1. Mom picked me up from grandma's this morning - this was excellent, since I wasn't at mom and dad's yesterday, and had hauled my enormous anatomy textbook home with me on Thursday night.  It was nice to not have to haul that on the bus this morning.
2. Just hanging out, helping with a number of projects that are going on at Mom and Dad's this weekend
3. Sitting outside for large portions of the day
4. more good moments with my brother J.
5. sleeping over at mom and dad's tonight - makes tomorrow, when I need to be here all day for a variety of commitments so much easier.

Daily 5 - Day 322

Today's Daily 5:

1. Playing a knock off version of the game "Battleship" on my iphone.  I have fond memories of playing a travel sized version of Battleship on long road trips as a kid.  I think they're particularly fond because it was one of the few games I could consistently beat my brothers at.  I don't think I ever told them that I won by cheating - either by "glancing accidentally" to see the location of their ships, or moving mine around while they were firing shots.
2. bottled water
3. talking for a little while this morning with a dear friend
4. time with family, sharing good food
5. chocolate - peanut m and m's in particular today.

Daily 5 - Day 321

Today's Daily 5:

1. A good conversation tonight with my brother J. while he worked on building a retaining wall at my parent's house.  The time was that we couldn't be in the same room with each other without fighting, and if I'm being honest, he's the one who's made the effort to patch things up between us.  In any case, conversations like the one we had tonight make me grateful for healing of relationships.
2. cookies I picked up at the grocery store the other night.  so good to have a sweet snack on a study break.
3. thankful for a mellow week
4. thankful that I kind of even understood the stats concepts I studied today (this is not always the case!)
5. loving that I'm eating at my parent's these days (and that they're letting me).  We're eating way better food than I generally cook for myself, simply because it's easier to shop and cook for three or more people than it is for one.  More variety, and nicer cuts of meat are making me a happy lady.  Tonight was grilled chicken salad for supper.  So good.

Bittersweet

If my thoughts are as random as the items on my desk right now, it's no wonder that I'm feeling a little bit scattered this morning.  My desk has items ranging from cookbooks, a model of a human skull painted in bright colors, a birthday party invitation, and all the various ephemera that accompanies my current lifestyle as a full time student.

Come to think of it, my thoughts might be less random than that.  They're fairly specific, actually.

I'm thinking about some people I met a few years back, in the midst of what would become the beginning of the most challenging and painful and questioning portion of my life.  I'm thinking about how I've found facebook to be a fabulous way to connect and stay connected with the lives of friends, but how it can also be bittersweet.  I looked at some photos this morning and my heart hurt a little as I thought of what was, and what I wished could have been.  It's funny how those little twinges come at moments, even over two years later, how the heart hurts, even after things have moved on, and life has moved on.

As far as broken relationships go, I wonder sometimes if there isn't always going to be that thought of "maybe if I just reach out that one more time", even when there is the deep knowledge within me that what was will likely never be again.

I spent the weekend at my parent's house.  And by that I mean that I slept here, too.  I haven't been at Grandma's since Friday morning.  It was a nice break.  Not one that I'm likely to repeat really regularly, but a nice break.  A needed one.  And it let me do things like staying up late last night to watch a movie with mom and dad - to laugh, and then still have a place to sleep.

I went to dad's church yesterday morning and chatted with a variety of people.  People who are always well-meaning and want to know what's going on with my life.  Some who I was happy to share with, and some whom it would have been rude to rebuff.  I haven't yet gotten used to answering the "are you still working at...?" question yet.  And the myriad of questions that come with it when I respond with "no."  It's weirder still to explain that right now I'm spending my days buried in textbooks, working towards admission to a nursing program.  Because there are definitely questions that come with that as well.  (It's also the reason there is a brightly painted model of a skull sitting on my desk today!)

I guess I'm feeling bittersweet today.  Peaceful and bittersweet.  Missing in some ways, the things that used to be, and looking forward to the things that are coming, and waiting, living in the present, and feeling what comes with each day - the joy and sorrows equally.

Daily 5 - Day 303

Today's daily 5:

1. fun with some friends today
2. farmer's market trip
3. pork and mango pitas for dinner
4. a brief chat with a dear friend
5. still very thankful for the role my family has been playing in my life lately.

Daily 5 - Day 295

Today's Daily 5:

1. I bought decent walking shoes tonight.  With this new life reality of taking transit everywhere, I've been doing a lot of walking.  I've been doing even more walking than usual this week because of the location of where I'm house sitting, and I've noticed that my favored shoes just aren't cutting it.  My feet and knees HURT.  I've had problems with the tendons in my feet and calves since high school, and bad shoes are definitely not helping with all this extra walking.  So, tonight I caved and spent money, even though spending money when I'm not employed kind of makes me want to throw up.  My mom talked me into buying shoes, reminding me that it would be a better idea to buy shoes sooner than later so that I don't damage the tendons and muscles and bones while I'm busy walking all over the city in bad shoes, and she even offered to drive me to the shop where I could buy appropriate shoes for a decent price.  I'll wear the shoes around indoors for a day or two to make sure they're going to work, but I'm optimistic that this pair will be the one I'll keep, and they were quite a bit less than I would have been ultimately willing to spend.
2. I spent some more time dreaming about the future, and what I want to do with my life today.  A plan is slowly taking shape within me.  Something that somehow just feels right.
3. Errands with my mom tonight, and dinner with both of my parents helped a bit with the feeling of spending too much time alone with my thoughts and not having enough human interaction.
4. I again managed to send off quite a few resumes, and I have some ideas on tap for where else I want to send some over the next several days/week.
5. I've only slept at my grandma's house once in the last three weeks or so.  I realized today that I'm starting to miss my own bed, but that I'm not at all missing that location.  I've not had nightmares in all these other places I've stayed.  And, to some extent, the fact that I've flexibly stayed and slept in a whole variety of other locations over the last three weeks is encouraging to me.  I used to only be able to sleep in my own bed in my own room.  In the last three weeks I've slept in an SUV parked at a highway rest stop, at my parents house, three different hotels - including one very bad hotel cot, on a couch at the home my sister in law grew up in, at a relative's house, in the place where I'm house sitting, and at a friend of a friend's.  And I've actually slept, not just laid awake all night, in each of those locations.  That's a miracle to me, and a huge growth thing for me to acknowledge, and celebrate.

Daily 5 - Day 291

Today's Daily 5:

1. Managed to actually accomplish a couple of "scheduled" day to day reality of life things
2. Hung out with the family, moving T & L into their new place and cleaning L's old place
3. Chinese take-out for dinner courtesy of T & L
4. Got a long walk in this morning
5. another night of sleeping actually fairly well...
6. housesitting, and thus, between family stuff and that, not being at Grandma's right now
7. laughing with one of my cousins over a particular mannerism of our Grandma

Daily 5 - Day 290

Today's Daily 5:

1. slept relatively peacefully last night
2. tears in church
3. more emails from a dear friend
4. "you give and take away"
5. time with family

Daily 5 - Day 279 - 288

Can I be honest?  I didn't keep daily 5 lists for the last 10 days or so.  At least not on paper or here on the blog.  I did sort of store them in my head and heart a bit, I guess.

I didn't actually do almost any of the things that were sort of part of the routine of my life.  Suddenly and unexpectedly losing your job, and then taking off on a very unplanned (on my part - my dad had planned for it, I guess) road trip across the continent sort of have that effect on routine.  And, I spent a lot of time in a car and/or sleeping.

But I have a list, a longish one, formulating in my head of the things that made me smile over the course of the time away, and I thought I'd give a shot to jotting it down here, and just consider that the "daily 5" for days 279 through 288.

We'll see how this rhythm pans out in the coming days... it's important to me to make these lists, but seems hard to focus on getting back into it.  It feels like the sort of thing that seems lost in uncertainty at the moment.  In the meantime, here's the longish list I was alluding to:

1. A corn dog at the gas station in Claresholm on our first day of traveling.  Seems a weird thing, but I've always kind of enjoyed corn dogs, and they're a maybe once annually treat, so it was fun to have one on the very first day of driving.
2. A smooth border crossing.  Crossing into the states can be hit and miss.  My dad says his all time worst border crossing ever (and he's travelled in Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe) was at the particular port of entry we were using.  However, this day, the guard was friendly and joking with us.
3. The occasional chances I had to check email and finding encouraging notes and blog comments from friends near and far
4. The burger at Wendy's that was almost vegetarian.  The lady working that night didn't usually work the evening shift and was really frazzled.  She managed to get my order mostly right, but forgot to put the hamburger patty on the bun!  It necessitated a quick trip back inside to get my meal rectified before we headed out.
5. Unexpected adventures - we spent one night sleeping in the SUV at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere Montana.  Mostly because when we arrived very late at the town we'd been heading for, we discovered there was a high school athletic event in town and every hotel was full.
6. Applebee's salads.  Also, Applebee's in general is way cheaper in the states.
7. Visiting over lunch with an aunt and uncle I hadn't seen in probably 8 years, and seeing my cousin (hadn't seen him in at least 10 years) and meeting his 4 year old daughter for the first time.
8. Lot's of quiet on the road.  Not much need to talk, not even to listen too much to audio books or music.  Just lots of space with our thoughts.
9. Sleeping in the car.  I sleep quite well in a moving car.  Not deeply, but relatively restfully, and I spent a good part of the first few days simply sleeping.
10. Emily.  Emily is my dad's new GPS.  She's delightfully British and has a horribly one track mind that gets very confused by food and bathroom and gas stops.   We talked to her kind of a lot - usually when we were stopping and it wasn't in her plans.
11. The Chicago detour.  We managed to arrive on the outskirts of Chicago just at rush hour on a Friday.  Bad move.  But Emily takes traffic into account, and took us on this crazy detour.  We drove through a part of Chicago we'd definitely never seen before, and saw the most beautiful cemetery and mausoleum.  Seriously, the architechture on this mausoleum was stunning.
12. Finally getting to see "The Blindside"
13. Celebrating T & L's wedding all over again with her family and friends from a different part of the country.
14. Spending about a day and a half with a very dear friend, talking, praying, being with some of her friends.
15. A hug from this particular friend.  It was so good to be in her arms again.
16. A very special gift of an antique Catholic prayer book, in Spanish.  But also the deep love and knowledge of my heart that was demonstrated in the giving.
17. reading a couple different books, beginning to end. (reading list to be updated in the coming days.)
18. being distant/separate from the routines of life while I began to process the sudden loss of my job, and the changes of life it will bring.
19. Another smooth border crossing back into the US.  Seriously, they were really good this trip, and while I've never had a terribly bad experience, the guards are rarely as kind and joking and good natured as they were this trip.
20. A slight detour to Grand Rapids and the Eerdmans publishing house bookstore.  Oh. My. Goodness.  Can you just say heaven for three people who love books as much as my dad and T and I?  I think poor L wasn't quite sure what to do with us, to be honest.  Basically it's a bookstore attached to the headquarters of Eerdmans publishing house (one of the large Christian publishers) that carries their titles, but also titles from a whole variety of other Christian publishers (i.e. Zondervan etc.) as well.  Books in general are cheaper in the states than in Canada, but the best part about this particular store is that they sell the "seconds" the copies of their books that have slight damage to the cover or whatever, and can't be shipped out to their retailers.  And they sell these "seconds" at vastly reduced prices (think around $5 a book for a book generally sold for $20.)  I spent about $100 and bought somewhere around 15 books.  According to my receipt, I saved about $107.  Sweet!  It's probably a good thing I don't live anywhere near there!
21. Time with more family.  We spent a night with an aunt and uncle and two cousins of mine in Wisconsin.  Another aunt, and my grandpa and his wife all came to join us for supper.  It had probably been 8-10 years since I'd seen my grandpa, and he's aging (86 now, I think) so it was good to see him, as well as the rest of our relatives who we see/talk to quite rarely.
22. Wisconsin cheese.  Yes, I'm lactose intolerant.  Yes, I had a stomach ache the next day.  But that cheese was just SO good.  Seriously, we just don't get cheese like that in Western Canada without spending quite a lot of money at a specialty shop, so it's always a treat to be in Wisconsin.
23. listening to "Velvet Elvis" and "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" on audio book while we drove
24. Almond Joy bars
25. Laughing at my dad's excitement to share "Culver's Butter Burger" with us.  (Culver's is a mid-Western hamburger chain that we don't have in Western Canada, and that my dad really likes.)
26. Safe travels the whole way, though we did leave temperatures of about 30C in Ontario and arrive back in Alberta to snow and temperatures hovering just above 0C.
27. A very much needed and affordable break in action as I began to absorb the changes that have overtaken my life, and the added bonus of getting to see a very dear friend.
28. Laughing at T's grin last night when Mom and Dad and I gave them the wedding gift we'd purchased.  It was a particular pot set that he'd been teasing L about getting for months, and we'd gone ahead and bought it.  It was fun to see his face as they opened it together.  It was fun, too, to take pictures and watch as they opened their wedding gifts last night and shared the process with her parents in Ontario via skype.
29. Robert Benson.  I don't think I've ever been disappointed by one of his books.  I read another one (rather timely I might add) that I bought in Grand Rapids in the car on the way home.  I'm sure it'll be showing up here on the blog in due course.
30. Reading my first novel in nearly 2 years.  It had been a while, for a variety of reasons, but this trip someone seemed the right moment to begin to gently and carefully ease some of those mostly self-imposed restrictions, and it was refreshing to do so.

Daily 5 - Day 278

Today's Daily 5:

1. Encouragement from a variety of friends
2. Closing off the loose ends with my unexpected change of employment yesterday
3. the support of my parents
4. a treatment from Mom
5. that it will work out for me to make a road trip for the next couple weeks.

Exhausted

I'm tired this morning, and not feeling well.

My mouth aches.  I have two enormous canker sores inside of it.  I get them a few times a year, with no apparent rhyme or reason, though rarely do I get two at once.  In this case, they picked Friday to flare.  And they're bad.  My lip is swollen on one side, not so much on the other.

Sleep was kind of non-existent last night, in that way it sometimes is when you've been overstimulated for too long and your body and brain just can't shut down.  Three very long days of being with people were overstimulating for this introvert, and last night I paid for it with a lack of sleep.

I'm thinking this morning about an odd dream I woke from yesterday morning, before the wedding.  A dream in which my grandpa made an appearance.  That was something new and different.

I'm thinking about my brother's face as he looked into his bride's eyes yesterday and made vows.

I'm thinking about how we don't live in a culture that necessarily believes in permanence of vows.

But mostly I'm just tired.

Spent, emotionally and physically.

Happy to have been a part of such a special celebration.

And entirely relieved that it has come to an end.

That today can be about the mundane stuff of getting through a day at work, nursing a cold and my aching mouth.  About stopping at the library to pick up a new audio book, and starting at my finances.

That it only has one wedding related thing on the agenda, and that thing will be quick, and will include a hug from my mom.

I'm also immensely glad that I am only working four days this week, and that then I get a break.  I'll be staying at my parent's house, keeping an eye on things while they're out of town for several days.  And I'll be off work for most of the time I'll be there, allowing me to rest and relax, away from the stresses of my life at Grandma's.

I'm exhausted, but grateful today.

Daily 5 - Day 274

Today's Daily 5:

1. Wearing my twirling skirt
2. Sunny weather
3. a good conversation with my dad
4. laughing with one of the other bridesmaids at the rehearsal dinner
5. seeing T's smile

Daily 5 - Day 269

Today's Daily 5:

1. A long phone call from my former roommate L, to start the day.  It was so good to laugh and talk and catch up on each other's lives.  I really miss her.
2. Standing in the kitchen, chatting with my dad and chopping vegetables for a veggie tray together, to take to tonight's big family Mother's Day gathering.
3. emails from a few different friends today
4. giving and getting a hug from my mom
5. Making my way through a significant list of tasks this morning.

Daily 5 - Day 265

Today's Daily 5:

1. Miss Vickie's Sweet Chili & Sour Cream potato chips
2. Pomegranate green tea
3. Cooked my first new recipe for the month of May tonight at Mom and Dad's house
4. A hug from my mom
5. a quiet evening with my parents, cooking, visiting, and just generally feeling the reassurance that family offers in a way other people don't.

Daily 5 - Day 261

Today's Daily 5:

1. Wearing my hair curly for the first time since I got it highlighted with a bunch of red again the other day.
2. A very much needed, long, lazy morning in bed
3. Spent about 8 hours with a friend from high school (saw a movie, did some shopping, went out for dinner, and walked for a while in my favorite park)
4. Having surprising conversations of a whole new level of depth with this long-time friend
5. Walking in my favorite park
6. bought a great new top, and a pair of black dress pants for work, both on sale
7. Really laughed at lot at the new J-Lo film "The Back-Up Plan"
8. Movie theatre popcorn.  With butter.
9. A hug from my friend
10. Setting up times to get together with some other friends and family over the next week or two, and knowing I'll get to collect hugs on most of those occasions as well.