Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 172

Today's Daily 5:

1. waking up after a rough night and realizing that my usual escape for the weekend starts today
2. a nectarine for breakfast
3. birds actually singing in the trees on the university campus
4. finally (after several stops) finding a place that could process my student loan documents.  there should be money arriving in my bank account in about a week or so, so that I can pay off the line of credit with which I temporarily paid my tuition.
5. made a new recipe for dinner, and made the cake for tomorrow's new recipe attempt.
6. realizing that the sting I was expecting wasn't in some things.

Weekend To Do's

Just because I feel the need to write this stuff down, somewhere, preferably public, because I have a thing about saying publicly that I'm going to do something and then not doing it, that tends to lend to actually accomplishing the items on my list:

• yoga workout at home on Friday
• yoga class on Saturday
• bake an Almond Joy Cake using the recipe a friend who knows me well sent my way
• go to the post office to get student loan documents processed
• finish reading and write a review for my latest booksneeze book
• make significant headway on, if not finish, making notes on a reading project I completed a while back
• budgeting
• finish up the Greek assignments for this week
• update my resume and apply for some jobs
• watch the newest episode of Grey's Anatomy and transcribe the monologue
• watch the newest episode of Private Practice
• do some online research to create a term paper topic/thesis statement for one of my history classes (is it bad that I'm leaning towards choosing a topic solely because there's a Monty Python quote that I'd like to work into the paper?)
• Finish up the reading from this week for my random introduction to social sciences class
• Make some progress on reading the latest travel memoir I'm tackling - I have a time limit on this one since it's borrowed from the library.
• Attend a ladies gathering with some women from my house church and other house churches

Those are the big things.  A couple of them are totally flexible.  Some of them absolutely have to get done.  But really, I'd like to manage some productivity and get most if not all of these done over the course of this afternoon, evening, tomorrow and Sunday.

Technological Friendships

Those of you who know me well, or who have been reading here for a while know that my closest friends are scattered around the planet.  It's a rather inconvenient way to conduct friendships, when you can't sit and sip tea together, and give and get hugs.  But, we make it work, thanks to technology.

Yesterday I spent two hours talking to one of my closest friend on skype.  We even had video.  Most of the time we can't be together in person, and, as we talked, we were actually experiencing two different days.  It was Thursday afternoon for me, and Friday morning for her.  But, thanks to skype, we shared a meal - I'd just finished lunch, and she was having a late breakfast, and we hung out and laughed for two hours or so.

And, one of the things we talked about was this - how thankful we are for technology and the way it allows us to maintain friendships.  We can email and know that the other is going to get the message the same day.  We can use text messages or facebook.  We can phone and skype and know that we'll have a decent connection - the ability to hear each other and maybe even see each other.

And I'm so thankful for that.

Thankful that I can share the day to day stuff of life with my dear ones who are so far away.

Thankful that I can quite literally have a coffee date with a friend on another continent.

Thankful that technology lets these far away people that I love stay in contact with me, and me with them.

It means a lot when your dearest ones are scattered primarily at great distances from you, to know that there is a way to stay more easily connected.

I'm thankful for it.

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 171

Today's Daily 5:

1. blog comments exchanges on other blogs - I love when there is a reply to a comment I've left
2. a lazy morning on a day with no classes
3. breakfast in bed
4. my neck pillow
5. the sweet smell of my favorite fabric softener on a clean hoodie
6. skyping with L this afternoon
7. laughing. hard.  so good to have a friend to laugh with.
8. an unexpected chance to accomplish an errand
9. cooking a new recipe with some of my favorite music playing (little bit of Kristene Mueller, David Crowder Band, Sara Groves, Kim Walker, Amanda Falk, Karla Adolphe)
10. working on a scrapbook page for my one little word - managed to mostly finish January, now on to February

10:10 am Thursday

It's 10:10 am on Thursday morning as I sit to write this post.

I'm still in my pajamas, still in bed.

I have, however, had breakfast, and spent 45 minutes with my SAD lamp.  (I like that lamp - I really think that starting my day with it every morning, while I'm still in bed, just puttering online, is making a difference.)

By 11:00 I will be at a bus stop, waiting to head to mom and dad's for the day.

Because that is what I do on days when I am not attending class.  Because their house is a better place for puttering than the one in which I technically live.

Today needs to be a productive day, full of things like making a budget (read: how little income can I actually survive on?), updating a resume (read: I realized the other day after applying for several jobs, that my most recent Christmas stint at the charity isn't there, and it should be), applying for jobs (read: money is dwindling and I need to be able to pay rent), and doing greek homework (there's nothing to read into this, greek homework is just, well, greek homework.)

In between though, there are things to look forward to:

• There is a skype call this afternoon with one of my favorite people on the planet - one of the ones with whom I laugh most easily
• There is making dinner - another new recipe to try.  Chicken and portobello mushroom paninnis.  (And, a sweet friend who knows me very well sent me a recipe for "Almond Joy Cake" - that is going to be a project for this weekend!)
• There is house church tonight, which, upon consideration, holds all it's usual promise of friends and laughter, and perhaps the promise of just a bit more laughter than usual tonight.
• And there are weekend things - things like new episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice which will air tonight and be online for me to enjoy tomorrow night.
• Oh, and a superbowl party on Sunday.  Not that I have any enjoyment of football, but, well, Green Bay is playing, and I wouldn't be the daughter of a Wisconsin farm-girl if I didn't at least pretend to be interested.  Plus, there will be VERY good food there.  I know who's cooking and they're the real reason I'll be attending!

And, with that, it's probably time to pull myself out of bed, so I make that bus, and can kick off the "need to be productive" part of my day!

See you tonight for the Daily 5!