Six good things

I’m cheating and doing six positive things in one day instead of three for two days, because last night I stayed up too late reading and I have no idea when I’ll be online again.

I’m in a mad scramble of packing and loading the car and vacuuming my house -- because that is the very last thing I must do before we embark on a journey. I just feel a little less anxious if I know I’m going to come home to vacuum lines, and Matt generally supports this simply because I suspect I am a little annoying in my pre-trip anxiety.

Matt: Okay, kids, let’s load up! Everybody in the car!
Isaac or Suzannah: But what’s Mommy doing?
Matt: Oh, she’s just vacuuming really quick. It’s fine. She’ll be out in a minute.

Every time.

Anyway, for yesterday and today:

1. Staying up too late reading, which comes back to bite me on school days but is delicious in the summer.
1a. Summer reading lists. What’s on yours? (The Mill on the Floss, by the way, is just wonderful. I read Middlemarch in college and loved it, and I think I need to go back and read it as a real adult. What’s a real adult? I have no idea. ANYWAY.)

2. Waking up to thunder. I love thunderstorms. Yesterday’s morning thunder didn’t quite turn into a storm, but I have a wild hope Montana will treat me to one.

3. Hunkering down in a corner of the library to write for awhile, watching the cars drive through the rain outside.
3a. My kids’ beloved babysitter, who allows me these pockets of time in which I run errands alone (would the Shari of ten years ago appreciated this luxury?) or settle in and write somewhere.

4. A brisk morning walk to break in my new hiking boots. Matt and I are planning a long hike by ourselves in Bozeman, and I would love to not get blisters. I always get blisters. Always. I don’t know why. Have I just always had the wrong boots? Do I have particularly delicate little heels? The guy at REI showed me how to lace my boots so my heel isn’t sliding around, which seems to happen to me no matter which boots I wear (so I attribute this to user error), and I also bought these special little inserts that are supposed to help. I have good socks, and tons of Moleskin, and I will be fine. But you know what? Matt and I did this same great hike three years ago, and when we finally made it back to the trailhead my boots were filled with blood but I survived and it was still great so whatever, whatever.

Anyway, the walk was nice.

5. The Sun, which is the best magazine I’ve ever read. I’m going to subscribe to this magazine for the rest of my life. And a copy came in the mail today, just in time to bring along to read on the road.

6. My husband offered -- offered, I didn’t even ask -- a gin and tonic at precisely five o’clock. Just a tiny one. But we weren’t quite ready to leave, and I was starting to do my irritating anxiety thing, and also we had a little hunk of lime that otherwise would have gone straight into the compost bin.

And with that, I’m off. Cheers!