Wednesday, February 24, 2010

What do you have to smile about?

Okay, as someone who writes daily lists of things that make me smile, I really couldn't resist the "What do you have to smile about quiz?" this morning.  And the results are fairly accurate.  I may not have a huge number of friends, but the ones I have I value immensely, and even just thinking about them often brings a smile.


You Have Your Friends to Smile About





You are truly blessed to have good people in your life. Your friends get you through the good times and the bad times.

You can't help but smile whenever you're around your friends. Even thinking about them brings a grin to your face.

You feel like everything will be okay in your life, as long as you have a support network.

And you get a lot of happiness from supporting your friends in return. You believe that people truly do need each other.

Limbo

I feel like I'm running out of things to say.

This week is kind of like limbo.

Three more nights sleeping in my current apartment.  But most of the belongings that made it "home" are already gone.  The living room is now very nearly empty after the sale of my couch and loveseat the other night, and our voices echo as we stand near the door, talking in the mornings as we don layers of clothing for the morning commute.

The person I dreamt about who was sick yesterday, is still sick.

I think my friends have welcomed their baby to the world, though I have only the unofficial "facebook" confirmation of that.

Last night I chatted online for a while with a very dear friend.  Events in both of our lives mean that our formerly regular communications have been haphazard and spotty for the last several months.  Emails most days, but rarely the real-time conversations that we'd consistently shared online or by phone.  I don't think I'd realized how much I'd missed chatting with her about all of the stuff big and small, going on in both of our lives.  It was so good to talk with her that I very nearly cried.  And, we're planning to fit a phone conversation in, sometime in the near future.  That something to look forward to is a beautiful thing right now, in the midst of this odd week of limbo.

Tonight there is a bit more to pack.  And maybe a little bit of time catching up online with my favorite television shows.  I won't need to watch olympic coverage tonight.  It will be all about the hockey game.  I have a very strong dislike of hockey.  It's not the sort of dislike born of not understanding.  I was raised around hockey and have a fairly solid understanding of the game.  I simply don't like it.  (Though, to be fair, I tend to always prefer individual sports over team ones anyway.)

I read this blog post last night, just before sleeping.  I found her words to be profound, especially these: "In the midst of my pain and sadness in life, my sarcasm often brews. I usually don't mean what I say, but I say it because it feels good and the wit it takes to concoct something halfway funny and caustic distracts the part of my brain that feels pain. And because I'm sad, I usually don't feel guilty for biting satire."  Yes.  I am definitely that person too.


This morning I'm just grateful that our receptionist is back in the office.  I wasn't relishing the thought of another scattered day like yesterday.
 
And with that, I'm off to dive into a long list of "to do's".

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Daily 5 - Day 195

Today's Daily 5:
  1. Chatting online with a very dear friend tonight, on her birthday, the first time in a while that we've managed to connect for more than a very few minutes, or by email.
  2. The transit connections were incredibly lucky running errands after work tonight, and it didn't take nearly as long as I thought it might.
  3. One of my errands was a trip to the library.  I have three new audio books to start listening to on my work commutes (especially nice since next week after the move the round trip commute is going to be about 3 hours).   I loaded the first one onto my ipod tonight, and I'm excited to start listening to it.  It's about a father who connects with his autistic son through horseback riding, and some sort of crazy traveling adventure in Mongolia also involving horseback riding.  A true story, and so up my alley, involving mental health, family relationships, animals, and travel!
  4. I made perogies for supper.  Because of my unexpected extra trip to a the grocery store last night, I was in the grocery store that carries the most genuine perogies I've had, so I bought a bag and cooked them for supper tonight and lunch tomorrow.  It's been ages since I've eaten them, and they were great!
  5. Lots of times of deep prayer through what was a bit of an odd day.
  6. Listened to an interview with Sara Miles on my ipod on the way home from work tonight.
  7. Managed to do errands via transit and still get home before dark - that means the days are getting longer and spring must be on it's way.
  8. Was dreaming of travel again this morning.  High on the might actually happen this year list - the BC coast, maybe Ontario again, and California.  (High on the I'm still dreaming and will make it happen sometime in the future list - New Zealand, Peru, Rome, and maybe even China and/or Africa.)
  9. Contemplating getting an iphone.  The idea of being able to surf the web while on transit - especially with my commute about to get so long - is a very appealing one to me.
  10. Dad stopped by the office this morning and picked up a few boxes I'd saved for packing and moving.  I can definitely use them, but there was no way I was carrying them home on the train.  Since he was in the area, I asked if he could stop by, and he was willing.  Grateful for family who are willing to help out with the smaller details.

Day Interrupted

There are several people out of the office sick today.  Including our receptionist.

That means the phone calls and client drop-ins, and deliveries are MY problem today.

Day interrupted.

I'm getting NOTHING done because I'm being interrupted by a phone call every other minute.

Plus, with several others out, it's hard to track down someone to actually put the calls through to. 

It hasn't been that long since I was the receptionist, but answering the phones and tracking down someone to take the calls was the part of my job that I liked the least then, too.

It is feeling like an incredibly unproductive day.

But hey, it's nearly lunch time, and someone else will answer for an hour or so while I eat, and then there's less than half of the day remaining!

Strange Days, Redux

The dream I wrote about yesterday morning is still having odd effects, as other bits and pieces of what I saw while I was sleeping play out in my waking reality.

Someone I saw in the dream, who seemed quite ill, leaving me concerned and praying as I woke, is in fact, quite ill today.

It's a bit strange, this playing out of my dreams in waking moments.

I'm waiting for news of the friend who was in labor yesterday, waiting with her husband, and working to welcome their first child into the world.

Another very dear friend is celebrating her birthday today, and I'm thinking of her and praying.

And so today I find myself again in that odd, deeply prayerful place.  Praying for Haiti, for the person who is ill, for my friends and their child, for my dear friend as she begins another year of life.  And for so many other things on my heart.

Strange days indeed.