Gratitude, Day 12

1. new pictures of my nephew, up on his dad's facebook page
2. the mild weather that let me run longer today (2.5 miles of sheer torture/incredible fun)
3. the arrival of my new MacBook!
4. hot tea
5. friends from far away who help me find a place to live

Some people call it luck. You happen to get through the doors of the train just before they shut and you make that connection that lets you get home on time instead of being stuck on a platform somewhere. Someone calls you out of the blue because you happen to fit the bill for this emergency gig and they just know you'll be perfect for it, and you happen to be available. The perfect pair of shoes on the clearance rack, oh yes they're marked down double, and they are in your size and make your feet look small.

Well whatever it is, luck has delivered on my doorstep once more. This happened to me last year. I was standing in my friend's kitchen talking about how I had nowhere to live in Seattle and I was really starting to panic. She picks up the phone and suddenly, I'm going to live with her aunt and uncle. Well I sent out a bunch of emails and facebook messages trying to find a place to live in London. A bunch. I waded through the scary craiglist postings (No, it is NOT okay to trade "personal services" for rent, and you don't have to say "if you know what I mean" because we all know WHAT YOU MEAN and I think you should ask yourself whether or not your grandma would be okay with that.) and even started looking at housing placement services. I'm leaving in nine days. Yesterday, out of the blue, an old singer friend says, "Oh, we have a room here in the house I'm living in. Would you like to know more about it?"

Relief. Sweet relief.

AND. In just a few hours, I'll be gently caressing the beautiful white plastic exterior of my MacBook, yet to be named but I'm leaning toward Thais. I've never been a technophile (see my serious attachment to paper products and office supplies) but the prospect of this new machine fills me with such joy. I can actually unplug my laptop. For more than five minutes. Say it ain't so!

I hope everyone is having a great day like I am. I think this running thing makes me unnaturally perky.

Gratitude, Day 11

1-5: The healthy birth of my new nephew, Mason Jude Catallo. Born yesterday at 6:10pm CST, 8lbs 9oz with big hands and feet (according to his dad).

I think that's plenty to be grateful for. Happy prayers for mom and dad and baby, who are all doing just fine.

Gratitude, Day 10

1. I know how to read maps
2. My new shoes are waterproof
3. The weather was unusually beautiful today
4. My MacBook will be here in 3-5 days
5. My husband is making fish tonight

Get out the map. My husband really wants a GPS. He wants that bossy, accented voice to tell him to turn left and sound very miffed when he doesn't. And then that bossy, accented voice (Australian, perhaps?) will say, "Recalculating."

I don't believe in GPS systems. I think that a GPS system will find the most ridiculous way for me to get from here to the drugstore and I will disagree with that GPS system. Why? Because I know how to read maps and I drove cross-country long before GPS systems and so did my parents. We believe in AAA.

So tonight, on the last leg of our run when we were both wishing our new shoes weren't so new, these two guys in an SUV pull up and say that they're sure the GPS is screwing with them, because they're looking for the Cheers bar in Boston. Well I know where the Cheers bar is - it's at the corner of Beacon and Brimmer right off the Boston Common in Beacon Hill. And it's absolutely, positively nowhere near where we live in Hyde Park. But, like many people do, they punched the number into their GPS and trusted that they would find that Boston landmark right here in Hyde Park. So after much pointing and street name reciting, we sent them on their way to find Cheers bar. And I giggled the whole way home.

So learn to read maps, friends. I'm going to eat the delicious dinner that my husband is preparing.