Today I am grateful for regular physical activity.  The breast stroke is doing wonders for my cleavage (not that it wasn't gorgeous before), and I am slowly building up my lung capacity.  Soon I'll be back to climbing flights of stairs without being winded at the top!

--Phae

Maybe not the best way to start the GP, but what can I say? Better late than never.

Day 1 - The first was my first day of photography class. It was so awesome. It felt so great to be back in a structured learning environment again. I was grateful to have finally had the guts to go back.

Day 2 - Saturday I was grateful that it was a holiday weekend, and class was postponed until the following Friday (my class is Fridays and Saturdays). I don't get to spend a lot of time with WD these days. We both work too much, and now that I am going to school, there will be weekends where we don't really see each other at all.

Day 3 - Sunday I don't remember terribly well, but I am grateful that I found that special swim shampoo that Vicky was talking about. With all the heavy conditioning I have been doing lately, the removal of the chlorine makes my hair look and feel like the Pantene commercial girls.

Day 4 - Monday was BC day - a bank holiday to even the stats out for this time of year. I love being out on stats because the city is quiet like a Sunday morning when everyone else is at church. I was grateful for the peace.

Day 5 - Tuesday is another day that passed in somewhat of a blur. I was very grateful for our swimming pool. The added stress at work, and the lack of any foreseeable vacation has caused my insomnia to flare (which means that regular things like housework and many smaller projects get lost in the haze of sleep deprivation. Swimming these days is the only thing that helps me to sleep normally. I am thinking of moving it up to four or maybe five days a week.

Day 6 - Wednesday I finally redid my resume and applied for those other jobs. I am grateful for the courage to toss all my new plans out just to see what happens.

Day 7 - Thursday I was grateful for WD. Thursday afternoon was rushed because he had to go to work just a couple hours after I got off work, but we still managed to have a decent dinner together and make a quick trip to the library (hooray for Poe!)

Day 8 - Today I am grateful for memories. I had a very strange dream about losing my black pearl (it's a necklace that my mother gave to me when I was young). I remember chasing after it and running over and swimming through half frozen water. I woke up trying to remember whether or not I actually still had it at all (a lot of my things are lost in storage at the moment because this apartment is too small to have ever fully unpacked).

I do have a treasure box where I keep all of the very special things that I inherited from my mother. I opened it up after crawling out of bed, and there it was, shining out from its little gold cage. I never really wear it because I don't wear gold jewellery, but I think I will today. I think it is important.

--Phae

1) I am grateful for the rain.  The whole world smells good!  We have already had out first thunderstorm, and it is time for warm sweaters and rain jackets. 

2) I am grateful that I live in the Pacific Northwest.  I love everything about it.  Even the cliched parts.  Coffee, sweaters, liberalism, grunge.  I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

3) I am grateful that Binx has mellowed in his old age.  He let me bathe him without a fuss, and even purred while I used the blow dryer to dry his fur.  And he didn't act like a spoiled grouch afterward.  He purred and let me pet him without punishment for daring to put him in the bathtub (I think he secretly liked it).

--Phae

My mini vacation puts me a bit behind in my GP again, but it did give me a lot to be grateful for :)

1)  I am grateful for cool, clean island air.  It makes an amazing difference in my asthma, skin and hair.  Yay for a decent level of humidity!

2)  I am grateful for my beautious laptop.  Movies, music and wireless internet connection no matter where you are ... well, almost anywhere (the middle of the ocean does not have a very strong wireless signal ;)

3)  I am grateful for pink hair!  Got a lot of weird looks on the island (I guess not a lot of people have brightly coloured hair there), but I love my hair too much care what folks think!

4)  I am grateful for WD, who took me to all of the places we went when we were first dating.  Lots of gorgeous pictures, and lots of beautiful memories. 

5)  I am grateful that the truck decided to wait until we got back before the engine exploded.  We are very sad at having lost our new truck after only a month (and $1500), but it could have been a lot worse.  Still a little dazed and unsure of what we are going to do for transportation.  I need to find my St Christopher's medal and find a recipe for a good vehicle protection spell.

6)  I am grateful that it is still warm and sunny and we have some beautiful fall weather while we figure out what we are going to do for the winter.

--Phae

Today, I am very grateful that I only have 4 more days left in this ungodly 12 day stretch.

Also, I am grateful that I am not the cause of the dozens of police and emergency vehicles parked outside my building this morning. 

4 hours later, and the crazy woman on the 8th floor is still threatening to jump off her balcony if the police don't give her her underwear.  *sigh*  I really need to move.

--Phae

Well, my day has been mildly crappy.  The Quality Assurance department has pretty well become the Nit Picky Brigade, who seems set on making sure that now that we are nearly 300 employees that no one can get the QA bonus (good job guys!  making an unattainable carrot is really the way to motivate people to try harder ... oh wait ... no, it isn't!)

Blah.  Anyway, my tarot card for this morning was the Lovers.

Indications:  Choice.  A notice to follow your heart.  Listen to your intuition.

I drew another card this afternoon.  That one was Judgement.


Indications:  Learn from the past.  Success is just around the corner.  You are soon to reap the benefits of hard work and sacrifice.

Also, today I am grateful that tomorrow is my hump day.  12 days in a row is a whole hell of a lot.  No matter how much money I am making.

SO TIRED!!

--Phae

Today, I am grateful for my job.  It really is the best job I've ever had.  Yesterday, I got a promotion out of the blue.  It's nothing big, but it gets me off the phones (I'm not on them very often, but I really hate having to do it), and it puts me on the track to moving further up the food chain.

After only 4 months.  YAY!

--Phae

Today I am grateful for wine. I found this really great bottle of white merlot earlier this week (merlot made by grapes with the skins removed).  It is really smooth.  A very nice wine to have when a bubble bath isn't quite enough to make you feel better :)

--Phae

Today I am grateful for my tarot deck.  No other deck I have ever used speaks to me the way that this one does.  Clarity of messages provides a certain comfort for me.  I really shouldn't leave it so long between readings.

--Phae

Time for a little catch up.

1) I am grateful for wasabi.  My new addiction.  Who knew it would be so tastey on everything??

2)  I am grateful for late summer sunshine.  I love this time of year.  It reminds me of when WD and I were first together.  The return of that tiny night time chill makes me feel young again :)

3) I am grateful for my shift supervisors who understand that the bizarre knee-jerk reactions of the management are going to hurt production more than help it (and don't put that weight on our shoulders).

4) I am grateful that I get paid every Friday.  While it does tend to bring out the latent shopaholic in me, it also lets me keep an even amount of money and avoids the 'until payday' crunch.