(as with all my photos, rest mouse pointer over picture for caption.)

Vicky called me earlier in the evening and asked what I’d been doing all night. I told her that I’m in the middle of a ton of stuff, irrate that so little of the tasks I had at hand were done.
Vicky: Like what?
Me: I have a week’s worth of mail I was going through, and partway through I saw a letter from Citibank telling me they were gonna change my account unless I called this number, and my phone downstairs doesn’t work so I went upstairs to call, and while I was up there I saw my luggage I still had to unpack so I started doing that, and half the stuff was still damp from the humidity in Hawaii so I’m rewashing everything. And then halfway through that, I realized I had to take some stuff downstairs I’d need tomorrow so I came down, and saw that my mail’s still unfinished so I sat down to do that, and then Dwaine called so I was talking to him, and then Andy called so I talked to him, and then I decided to eat a little something so I turned on the TV and now I’m watching that for some reason, and then you called so I’m talking to you. Nothing’s done!
Vicky: So life’s pretty good, huh?
Me: [pause] Yeah. Life’s real good. I’m all tan from Hawaii and I have the luxury to do my chores really slowly, and I got to talk to my friends who called to say hi.

I’m pretty happy, despite the fact that I’d called Josh around 7pm (5pm Hawaii time) to ask what they were doing. He said they’d just gotten back from a hike where they saw waterfalls, they were waiting around about to go out for dinner, and then they thought they’d go hang out in the hotel’s hot tub afterwards. “I’m so jealous! Work here sucks!” I wailed. He said, “Yeah, I’m sorry, we wish you were here, too.” And then I heard everyone in the background of his phone telling me hi. But even work wasn’t too bad. We started a criminal trial today, but that didn’t come until after lunch, and during lunch, I met up with Mr. W and we napped off our jet lag exhaustion in his portable hammock, set up in the shade of a building on a private rooftop. After work and starving, having last eaten at lunchtime before my flight back Sunday, I hit up Vons and filled up a grocery basket with a tub of cashews, 2 packs of honey twist pretzels, Fuji apples, variety of yogurt, loaf of sprout grain bread, spicy jack and baby Swiss cheese, eggs, canned corn and margarine. $30 with a Vons Club card! I should grocery shop more often than my two or three times a year. They say to never shop when you’re hungry, and it’s a good thing I limited myself to one handheld basket, or I would’ve added ice cream, powdered hot chocolate, cereal, milk, chips, and cookies to the mix. I ended up eating a couple handfuls of cashews, some honey twist pretzels, yogurt , a slice of each type of cheese and 2 apples for dinner. That pretty much hit all the food groups, and was faster than what I’d planned to have but was too hungry to wait for — creamed corn egg drop soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. And I did manage to unpack, catch up my checkbook to all the debit card purchases I made in Hawaii, get through all my mail, and spend quality time with some friends on the phone. I also spent quality time with the Doey boy (who’s asleep upstairs on my bedroom floor right now, curled up in a cookies n’ cream colored ball) and changed out an ugly wall switch plate for a prettier mosaic one.

What a frazzled, aimless post. My point is that recognizing my small increments of successes brings me a sense of accomplishment and happiness that I’m glad I didn’t let pass by unnoticed.