Happy

After last night's wallowing session I promised to do a happier post tonight, so here it is.  Today was actually a really good day.  A dear friend/angel called me this morning to ask about the storage unit and see if she could help.  I'm dreadfully tired of asking people for help, but she was so sweet and somewhat insistent.  We went to the storage unit place and found out that they screwed up with their advertising and aren't having an auction in June, so we actually had another month.  Notice they didn't let us know that particular bit of information.  But the good news remains that the storage unit is safe.  We are going to get our stuff out of there and close out our contract.  They have raised the rates 4 times in the last 2 years and our monthly fee has doubled, so we need to just to find room at home for everything.

Anyhoo, I was going to write tonight about my awesome friends anyway, this awesome friend just gave me one more reason.  I've been thinking that for all of it's crazy stressfullness, 2017 had been lovely in terms of catching up with friends.  I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the Camp/Author Friend being here for a visit and how wonderful it was to see her. I hadn't seen her in a couple of years.  In fact, we tend to hang out in June:  The last time she visited was in June, and the only time I have been to her house was in June.

A few weeks before that a friend from seminary was here for an overnight visit.  (Oh dear, she needs a nickname, and I've already used Seminary Friend...)  This particular friend is possibly one of the coolest people I know.  She's hilarious, smart, engaged, passionate, and since I've known her has lived in:  California, Washington, Ohio, New Mexico, England, Boston, Washington DC (twice), Niger, and is soon to move to Belgium.  Oh!  I will call her the World Traveler!  On a side note, I am from Montana and married a man from Ohio.  The World Traveler is from Ohio and married a man from Montana!  Really, it's just another reason to love her. I actually wrote a post about her visit, which I just now remembered.

In March (I think?  Hooray for Swiss Cheese Brain!) The Texas Friend was in the Bay Area with her significant other who was on a business trip.  I hadn't seen her in almost 7 years, since I went to Dallas for a visit in 2010.  She was the happiest I had ever seen her, which was really really great, and was a balm to my own heart.

Last week, I had a lovely Skype chat with The Coffee Friend who very sweetly agreed to be on my Bible Study Podcast.  I haven't seen her in person since 2006 when I was driving home from internship and spent the night with her and her husband in Wisconsin.  I'm so glad I got to chat with her and catch up.  It was the Sunday after that her beloved Labradoodle died, and I'm glad I got to talk to her before that.

I've said before that I have amazing friends, and 2017 has simply been more proof of that.  I am grateful to all of you who have loved and supported me even when I'm grumpy, depressed, freaking out, wallowing, whatever. 

Now, on to shoes!  I went to my handy-dandy ideas folder tonight and just chose a bunch that made me happy:

Today was Bring Your Dog to Work Day, so I had to include these.  They're Mary Janes!  Also, it's much easier to bring my dogs to work when I'm working from the home office...

I want a skirt in this fabric.  How could you not smile wearing this?

Dragonflies!!!

Those are mermaids, how funny and cute are these?

Overall these shoes are kind of scary, but I love the colors and the stripes.

I will also take a skirt out of this material, please.

Look!  A garden for your feet!

Thank you, my friends, for helping contribute to my happiness.  I hope I can do the same for you.

Fast Flowers

I planned this post earlier in the day and even found the pictures, but then the day got away from (as usual), so I'm going to make this quick because I have a ton of stuff to do before I can finally go to bed.  Today I wore these shoes, which you've seen before, but it's been awhile, and I haven't bought new shoes in 5,624 years:

One of my interns did a double take when he saw these and said, "whoa! Those are, well, they're, those are some flowers!"  He's usually much more eloquent than that.  These are quite the crazy shoes, but some days you just need crazy, happy, colorful shoes.  And then you need to go find more, at lease in a virtual sense:

 

I love these with the contrasting solid color.

I love the flowers on this one.

Hey, 2 out of 3 pairs are blue, you know I had to choose this picture.

These are so stinking cute.  The PB (which I should probably change to IB for Imaginary Baby as Potential doesn't seem accurate anymore) totally needs all of these.

 

Speaking of whoa, those are some flowers.  And yet, I like these.  

Bright, crazy, colorful.  Apparently that was my mood today.

Babies Babies Babies

As I was contemplating last night's post and the funk therein, I realized another part of the general feeling of blah I've been having is babies. Not babies themselves, because it's not their fault I feel blah, just the idea of babies in general.  Of my friends on Facebook, that I can think of off the top of my head, I have:

• 1 friend who had a baby 2 months ago
• 2 friends who had babies 1 month ago
• 1 friend who had a baby 2 weeks
• 2 friends who are due in October
• 1 friend who is due in November
• 1 friend who is due in December 
• 1 friend who is due in January
• 1 friend who is due in February
• 1 friend who is due in May

Don't get me wrong, I am so very thrilled for all of these women and their babies and families.  Babies are awesome and I love them. Which is part of the problem.  That are a LOT of pictures of newborns and baby bumps and general baby cuteness/happiness that I am not a part of.  It adds to the funk is all I'm saying.

So in honor of that funk, and in order to both soothe and torture myself, today's post is baby shoes.

I love these.  So simple and sweet.

Look at the teeny tiny eyes on the strap!  At least I think they're eyes.  I've decided they're eyes regardless.

Sigh...I love dragonflies.

Nerdy baby shoes!  (sorry, Double A and Bean, I know you aren't a fan of DC...I'll find some Marvel shoes next time)

Back to simple and sweet.

Now.  Who has a baby they will let me snuggle for the next week-5 years?

Shoes and Leaves

So...where to start?  JG asked me a couple of weeks ago if I was going to post again and I wasn't sure what to tell her.  I've thought about posting numerous times, but things are crazy busy at the office.  Which is good, things are definitely on an upswing, and I'm grateful for that, but it means that life is a little insane right now.  Last night we got home about 8:00 and then I worked for another 2 1/2 hours.  I was out of the house again this morning at 8:00 to do a million things so the hubby could head to a meeting in the Bay Area, and then it was off to the office for another full day.  So it's good, just crazy. 

There's other stuff, too, and I had it all laid out in my head this morning in the shower, but apparently that post went down the drain with the water.  The gist of it is I'm not getting a lot of introvert time due to the crazy, which makes me feel a little funky.  The funky feelings lead me to make extremely poor decisions health-wise.  I don't drink enough water.  I eat crappy food.  I don't get enough exercise.  It all combines to make the funk even funkier.  Oh, and I'm fat.  Sorry about the body shaming, but it's true.  If I were healthy it would be one thing, but since I'm making poor health choices, well, blah.  We have family pictures coming up in November and all I can think if how awful I'm going to look and it's all my fault and my socially constructed brain that has been taught that women should look a certain way has taken over and my sister is going to be way cuter than I in yet another series of family pictures.  (side note...I love my sister, this is nothing against her, she's beautiful inside and out...it's just my own crap stemming from my socially constructed telling me I'm fat.  Blah).

Still with me?  Happy I haven't been posting?  Wondering why I'm posting now?  Yeah, I get it.  Let's look at some shoes, shall we?  The calendar says it's Autumn, even if the temps don't always agree, so here are shoes and Autumn leaves.  Some shoes I like, some I don't.  Some pictures are better than others.  I'll leaf (ha!) the details of which is which to you.

I have Sleepy Time tea in a Halloween cup waiting for me to drink while I read before bed, so I must leave you now.

Lazy

Today is National Lazy Day!  This day should always be on a weekend rather than a fixed date, but oh well, no one asked me.  Last year I wrote that lazy days, for me, involve comfy pants and fuzzy socks or slippers, but living in California August 10 is never cold enough.  This week is cooler, thankfully, as it has only been in the 90s instead of triple digits, so that's nice.  But I talked to Mom (hi, Mom!) today and she said it was only 60 at home.  I'm totally jealous.  In honor of lazy days that are also cold, tonight's theme is crocheted slippers:

 Blues and stripes and flowers!  I like the rolled cuffs, too.

I've actually made an afghan with the yarn the flowers are made from.  I wish the slippers were a more fun color, but I like the flowers.

Two-tone blue.  What's not to love?

This looks like Lion's Brand yarn, which is appropriate as today is also World Lion Day.

More blue.  More flowers.  Yay!

Bright, rainbow stripeys!

I hope you had a chance to be lazy today regardless of the temperature where you are.

Here's the Lazy Song by Bruno Mars to help get you in the mindset.

Monkees

You know what I learned at work today?  The Monkees have a new album, their first in 20 years.  The Music Podcast on-air hosts reviewed it and said it was really good.  It made me say huh.  And it also made me sing "Here we come...walking down the street...we get the funniest looks from...everyone we meet..." all afternoon.  There aren't a lot of Monkees shoes like there are Beatles shoes, but here are a few:

So there is your random news of the day.  It's sad that Davy Jones is no longer with us to be a part of the album, but the did like the Beatles did and used some prerecorded tracks so he's on at least part of it.

Hey, guess what?  After the nasty migraine/dry heaving situation last night the hubby let me sleep in this morning!  He went to the office without me, and I didn't go in until 2:00!  I can't remember the last time I was home alone.  It was delightful.

Pink

The hubby stayed home today with what might be pink eye.  Or maybe not.  His eyes are definitely pink and runny, so we figured it was better for him and his germs to stay home.  The puppies and I went and took care of the office and the interns.  Tonight's shoes will match the hubby's eyes:

I'm not a huge fan of pink, but it's important to accessorize appropriately.

Sometime during the afternoon I got a migraine.  At least the dry heaving waited until I got home.  Now I'm going to bed.

Gotcha!

Today is Flower's Gotcha Day!  10 years ago the seester and brother-in-law were in China finally meeting the baby girl they had only seen in pictures.  She was 8 months old, beautiful, perfect, and already sassy.  It's hard to believe it's been a decade already, but our lives are definitely been brightened and made better by her presence.  To celebrate, here are purple flowers for Flower:

One pair (or half pair) for each year.  Happy Gotcha Day, Flower!  Love you to the moon and back!

Memory Lane: 2013. 2014. 2015.