Happy things
I'm getting into a dark mood so I'm going to tell you some happy things.
1. See that statue in my icon? I have that statue. I can see it from here, I have it sitting in the bottom tier of a plant stand. It's very cute.
2. My roomba makes me smile nearly every day. Seriously, a year later, I'm still happy nearly every day that I bought this $500 robot vacuum cleaner. I can't even explain why it's so delightful, but every time I empty out the bin and see how much it just moved around doing I'm just HAPPY. There's a stark contrast to how helpful the seasonal part-time staff are that I shouldn't explore right now, but the point is, the Roomba has just one job and it does it without me having to make it or supervise it or motivate it or listen to excuses why it didn't or train it or coach it or ANYTHING. It simply vacuums up my floor every night. And, yes, the fact that I was completely unable to get my receptionist to vacuum and I literally replaced her with a robot (two, actually) is emotionally conflicting but not THAT conflicting because I seriously love that robot.
3. I'm pretty thrilled with Google Voice, too. (That's the other robot.) It screens my calls, it transcribes voicemail into emailed messages, it turns unidentified numbers into names from my rolodex. Combined with an app called "NoMoRoBo" I'm actually happy with my telephone answering system, after years of trying things like call centers and seasonal receptionists to cover phones.
4. Small Boy is so cool. I really love his sense of humor. He has good internal controls and is an effective adult, but he's not OCD or neurotic like me.
5. We have a running joke about the mail on Saturday. Sometimes I'll need to go to the bank on Saturday morning and I'll wait as long as I can in case there's a check in the mail that I need to bring, but the mail never really comes until 12:30 and the bank closes at 12:00. So there's a lucky version of Murphy's Law where the mail comes while I'm at the bank and it inevitably has a check in it. This week the check was a $100 lottery winnings. I actually won the lottery on Saturday. It makes me smile.
6. I've been exercising. The doctor read me the riot act and told me to get on my bike several times a week, so I am. I even get to the gym to weightlift once in a while. I've been weighting myself weekly and been grumpy about the lack of progress (I'm watching my diet, too) but then I just realized that I've lost three pounds in 3 months instead of gaining three pounds in three months. Those months included Christmas. I think I'm going to take the win on that one.
7. I've got new clothes and new make-up and my haircut looks good and I'm generally looking well-put-together lately.
8. My dog had a birthday: she turned five. She's still A LOT OF DOG, but she's also a good dog and she's my dog and it's good to have someone who loves you the way a dog loves you.
9. My adult son and daughter are thriving. That's part of what has me down - I miss them - so I won't dwell on it right now, but I'm glad they are thriving.
10. Small Boy has only been accepted into two of the many many colleges he's applied for, but they're two that I can afford.
11. I have a really nice man in my life who makes my life easier quite a lot of the time. He's traveling this week and I miss him when he's gone. That's a good thing, I think.
12. I have sold the horrible building and I'm no longer being required to generously provide housing for indigent people as a public service. I just freed up $300/week from my budget. This is an enormous relief and I keep taking deep breaths just because suddenly I *can* take deep breaths. The burden has lifted. Hallalujah. I should go to bed and dream about this a bit now.
1. See that statue in my icon? I have that statue. I can see it from here, I have it sitting in the bottom tier of a plant stand. It's very cute.
2. My roomba makes me smile nearly every day. Seriously, a year later, I'm still happy nearly every day that I bought this $500 robot vacuum cleaner. I can't even explain why it's so delightful, but every time I empty out the bin and see how much it just moved around doing I'm just HAPPY. There's a stark contrast to how helpful the seasonal part-time staff are that I shouldn't explore right now, but the point is, the Roomba has just one job and it does it without me having to make it or supervise it or motivate it or listen to excuses why it didn't or train it or coach it or ANYTHING. It simply vacuums up my floor every night. And, yes, the fact that I was completely unable to get my receptionist to vacuum and I literally replaced her with a robot (two, actually) is emotionally conflicting but not THAT conflicting because I seriously love that robot.
3. I'm pretty thrilled with Google Voice, too. (That's the other robot.) It screens my calls, it transcribes voicemail into emailed messages, it turns unidentified numbers into names from my rolodex. Combined with an app called "NoMoRoBo" I'm actually happy with my telephone answering system, after years of trying things like call centers and seasonal receptionists to cover phones.
4. Small Boy is so cool. I really love his sense of humor. He has good internal controls and is an effective adult, but he's not OCD or neurotic like me.
5. We have a running joke about the mail on Saturday. Sometimes I'll need to go to the bank on Saturday morning and I'll wait as long as I can in case there's a check in the mail that I need to bring, but the mail never really comes until 12:30 and the bank closes at 12:00. So there's a lucky version of Murphy's Law where the mail comes while I'm at the bank and it inevitably has a check in it. This week the check was a $100 lottery winnings. I actually won the lottery on Saturday. It makes me smile.
6. I've been exercising. The doctor read me the riot act and told me to get on my bike several times a week, so I am. I even get to the gym to weightlift once in a while. I've been weighting myself weekly and been grumpy about the lack of progress (I'm watching my diet, too) but then I just realized that I've lost three pounds in 3 months instead of gaining three pounds in three months. Those months included Christmas. I think I'm going to take the win on that one.
7. I've got new clothes and new make-up and my haircut looks good and I'm generally looking well-put-together lately.
8. My dog had a birthday: she turned five. She's still A LOT OF DOG, but she's also a good dog and she's my dog and it's good to have someone who loves you the way a dog loves you.
9. My adult son and daughter are thriving. That's part of what has me down - I miss them - so I won't dwell on it right now, but I'm glad they are thriving.
10. Small Boy has only been accepted into two of the many many colleges he's applied for, but they're two that I can afford.
11. I have a really nice man in my life who makes my life easier quite a lot of the time. He's traveling this week and I miss him when he's gone. That's a good thing, I think.
12. I have sold the horrible building and I'm no longer being required to generously provide housing for indigent people as a public service. I just freed up $300/week from my budget. This is an enormous relief and I keep taking deep breaths just because suddenly I *can* take deep breaths. The burden has lifted. Hallalujah. I should go to bed and dream about this a bit now.