more syrupy reflections

I tell ya, I've been experiencing some pretty amazing confirmations that life is darn good everywhere I turn:

• All my friends are hale and hearty and for the most part in good spirits.
• I just got offered an incredible summer position at our local museum running kids' camps from now until I'm probably too senile or tired to do the job
• My daughter's fund raising efforts have blown both of us away! We have both been incredible humbled by the show of financial and emotional support she has been given thus far.
• In spite of the intense anxiety-laden news saturating the news lately, I feel like Teflon and haven't allowed any of it to touch my core of optimism (just call me Pollyanna!)
• I'm physically feeling like I have pounds to go before I can reacquaint myself with my optimal pants size, but honestly, I could care less! I still run three times a week, play field hockey every Monday and can hustle through the school hallways without breaking a sweat.
• I can find just about anything to laugh about everyday.
• My kids' antics have me rolling my eyes instead of making want to ship them off to Siberia. I've only just realized that I have less than a decade before (feasibly!) they'll all be gone and living on their own.
  
• My husband is still a great guy to be around ... even after 18 years and three kids.
• I'm really appreciating the "now" ...
  

So as far as I'm concerned, life is good!

headache with a side of encouragement

I'm thinking that seasonal allergies are for the birds ... big, ugly vulture-like birds. You feel like doo-doo and you constantly take medicine in the hopes that you'll feel somewhat normal.

Which is never the case. Until summertime, when the sun can sizzle out all the bad sinus beasties.

Anyhoo. I'm feeling a bit under and slightly stressed and rather silly for feeling either of these things.

But in spite of my pounding/aching head, I did mangage to do some really good things recently: I made an appointment with the dermatologist to check all my suspicious spots, I helped my daughter launch a major fundraising initiative (it's going to be called: "D.C. or bust!"), I had all the friends over for pizza night last week (even though the place was a pit!), and somehow I have no laundry to fold and put away in my bedroom!

*phew*

Now I just need to refocus my energies and motivate myself to finish reading the six books I've started (namely Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution: and How It Can Renew America) and sooner rather than later I need to make a decent stab at storyboarding this 'fiction brew' I've got cooking up in my head ... along with all the other nasties causing my brain to feel likes it's about to pop off!

feeling good

and looking tan! That's what a week in Florida will do for ya, boys and girls!

The drive there and back (two days each way -- no small commitment, folks) was bearable and thankfully uneventful. We ate tons of crap food (I don't think I want to ever see McDonald's ever, ever, ever again until time lapses and time crunches force me to darken the golden arches' doorway once again!)

As a family, we bonded, watched a total of 47 1/2 movies and totally trashed the van. We took pit stops in some of the nastiest little gas stations off of I-95 to be found between here and Santibel, FL.

We played with friends, went bike riding, played rollicking rounds of beach volleyball and managed to consume not one but three birthday cakes for my daughter's sweet 16.

We dined in. We dined out. And we certainly dined well.

We played hard. We slugged thoroughly. And we truly enjoyed having no real schedule.

Upon our return, the bunnies were found to be alive and well; the dog was thrilled beyond belief. And I, yes I, am struggling to make my way through 379 pounds of post-vacation laundry before we return to school tomorrow.

Yippee!