hmm. I do believe that was a good day.

My cable has been out since the first of July (I presume) and I have barely, barely missed it. I know there will be times..esp when Colbert comes back on the air but...we deal!

Heard more Alanis Morrisette than I wanted to today but, to balance it out I heard a ton of boy-band-age. Whoop!

1) Slept through my alarm but I actually think I'm caught up now WHICH IS AWESOME.

2) Awesome and unexpected thank-you card in the mail. Gorgeous contents and humbling message.

3) Got to staff meeting on time. My boss was not there. It was not the same. I look to the future with a question mark floating over my head (if I were in a comic strip).

4) Received an awesome sideways compliment via textmessage. :) :) :)

5) I did not receive the rebuke and lecture I expected and deserved from my boss when I went in to work to follow up on yesterday's mishaps. I was surprized to hear him say that both he and his wife love me...and a few moments later that they have a lot of respect for me. I donno. I don't know what to say. I can say I am grateful that he refused to let me pay for the goods I had allowed to be stolen from him. The cash was in my pocket.

6) Made an impromptu plan to hang with a friend. Both looked forward to it and didn't think about it.

7) Noticed I have started looking away when I see a man I find attractive or who I might potentially find attractive. (Those in the second category are the ones who I either get a glimpse of or can only see part of in my periphery. I can tell a good backside by the way a man walks, coming toward me. So, I must fight, fight, fight the instinct to rubberneck when he's passed me.)
It's hard to look away or to not look a second time or to not look for more time. But, today was encouraging.

8) I stopped and had a single-woman moment this afternoon that was unplanned. A few weeks ago I was picking up groceries after midnight and in the bulk section I YESed the decision to by chocolate covered pretzels when the phrase "I'm a single woman" ran through my head as some kind of air-tight logic.

works for me.

The moment was significant because I had never called myself that AND because the phrase didn't make me cringe, it made me stand a little taller. I am who/where I am. It is what it is, as they say.

I was telling my brother this weekend about how many working women I will sell a Diet Coke and a small chocolate bar to. Mostly the bars that are pure chocolate (the ones with the nuts and wafers, etc. are popular with menfolk). I told him that the marketing is bang on. Those ads of two women secretly/happily/indulgently sharing an Aero at their desks..it makes sense. They know their customers. Still don't fully get it.

Anyways,

this afternoon I sat with an iced tea and a hazelnut brownie. They were both delicious. I did a bit of journaling and then remembered I had something computerly and time-sensitive to do. I had gone to the icedtea-brownie place to do some reading. The book was not cracked. I was OK with this. That made it more of a single-woman thing: I was stopping in for a wee break and a treat, not paying a coffee shop for use of their table and ambiance while I worked.

8) Computerriffic task taken care of (and done well).
A-booya.

9) Home for dinner (difficult to push for when you can afford ["afford"] to eat out and you are lazy/tired/itismotherhotoutandyoudon'twanttomove).

10) Sat on the couches in my living room for the first time in ever. (I moved in 21 months ago.) I love sitting on couches...I can't fully explain it. I put my head down to relax for a bit and contemplate the rest of my day. I felt myself slipping into a doze and didney fight it at all. I napped on the couch for a good thirty minutes and it was the kind of sleep that physically feels good as you sink into it. It was light sleep so I could actually be conscious of the endorphins swimping around and having a party. It was just so nice.

11) While dinner cooks, I find it easy to delve into the new chapter I've begun today. The content fascinates me. (This is a blessing -- being motivated by interest not pure "you need to do this"-ness.)

12) As I'm eating dinner, I get a telephone call the SECOND after I think to myself, "I hope my friend calls to offer me a ride," cos I was dreading having to take my sixth bus of the day. The call is from the friend and he is offering a ride. I am relieved and grateful. It even gives me an energy boost.

13) The hang-out begins in a chill and familiar way. I enjoy this. (Zero pressure!)
I was quiet but not unhappy. I smiled and laughed a bit. We didn't talk a whole ton. I liked that.
Had a bunch of heavy topics of conversation which I found difficult to navigate though I appreciated their presence. (I place a very high value on what I call "real" conversations.)

14) Played piano like I haven't in a while.... Played because I enjoyed to play, not because I was trying to say something. I wish I could sing.

15) Sat down to more reading and a suuuuuuuuuuuper refreshing drink. The drink was brought to me by someone with whom I have a fun, friendly relationship. This blessed me today, somehow. I donno.

16) Phone date!
Fun, funny and real. Tres real.
I swear I stood on at least four different soap boxes. I was listening to myself speak and thinking, "Shoot! I wish I had this written down so I could listen to it again." I was saying things that made sense..things I didn't realized I'd thought about...I was railing against this or that and I stepped out on a branch with some plain honesty. It was very good.

17) On my way TO reading and refreshing drink, I was beckoned by a friend on the "patio" of a pub. I insisted on fulfilling my responsibilities, EVEN THOUGH the Blue Jays and Red Sox were calling and calling to me from several large, HD screens. I returned around 11 for Round 2 of trivia. It was fun. I nailed the first answer to an audio clip that I heard upon entering within a few bars. Ha. Feels good to contribute!
Enjoyed chatting with my friend who I haven't seen in ages.
Enjoyed the trivia. Enjoyed being RELAXED because I wasn't behind on or being nagged by anything in particular. I was just there in that bar.

It occurred to me somewhere that music is a wonderful gift. I watched six people do a choreographed ridiculous dance to "She Bangs" by Ricki Martin and I marveled. I had a surreal moment of, "Is this really ME, enjoying my Wednesday night with friends, a pint and a laugh?" It was just something. I might have been thinking that I don't go out much. I donno.

These friends hit up the trivia often so they knew servers and the host by name. Ha. It was cool. Friend to my right beckoned the trivia host over to ask the name of a song. Before the guy could leave our table I tapped his shoulder to come back (because it was too loud for me to be heard) and he leaned his ear RIGHT in to listen. (I was half-surprized because we are strangers. It occurs to me that I don't know bar culture very well.)
In fact, in one swift movement he turned, put a hand on my shoulder, then on the bench behind me and put his ear to my stream of speech. I asked him if he was secretly black because I had never seen a white person dance like that.

He leans back and laughs briefly, telling me it was a nice thing to say. He informs me that he's Latin American; that he was born in Argentina. I say quickly, "Well, that explains it," and he nods along. (It's as if we have shared a knowing wink across a train car. hahaha)
His hand is back on my shoulder as he thanks me for the compliment, leaning in more than he needed to (probably because he has been drinking).

It was an odd blip of an exchange, unique on so many points.

18) Also: got to hear "All or Nothing" by O-town and it sounded THE WHOLE BAR knew the chorus! Hahah we sang so loudly. Also got to hear the beginning of "All I Have to Give" by the BSB which always takes me back and then "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" which took me back even further. Def heard "Stop" by the Spice Girls as well. Ha. it feels so weird to be that generation who gets to whoop and holler when their song comes on from back in the day. Has it really been that long since the mid-nineties? :|

That would be the end of my good day. This should have been published around 03h30 but I fell asleep before I could write this sentence.