A Multitude of Gratitude (the Monday Mission)

Today's post inspired by the Monday Mission.

Dear Life,

I have a few words of thanks for you today. It's been a real rush of life the last few weeks and well, I'm not sure I've paused to be grateful for enough. In fact, I'm not sure I've been able to process it all yet. But if I could, I'd like to take that moment now to process, be grateful and offer up my thanks for a few things:

1. AT&T

Thanks to AT&T I've had no phone since Thursday. And they "think" they can get my service fixed by tonight. But it's not just down, it's crossed wires. This means that starting sometime late last week, my neighbors a few houses down began getting my calls and I began getting theirs. We hadn't actually gotten to know one another before Saturday, but now we know each other pretty well, I'd say.

It also means that people who wanted to reach me actually had to come to my house and talk to me in person. I had more company on Sunday than I have in a while.

But most of all, it means I can't make or take phone calls. I can't tell you how wonderful that has been. That phone sits there like a nagging obligation, "Pick me up! Answer me! Call so and so!" But when it's out of service? Pure joy. "Gee, I'd call such and so but...the phone's down." It did panic my family briefly, confuse a few friends, and it may have caused some marital discord, but that's all solved now. I am not even nagging AT&T to find out when they will fix it. I don't care. I'm happy as a little lark with no phone right now.

(For what it's worth, the marital discord wasn't here. Lack of phone is a good thing in our eyes. Jon and I are evenly tied for hating the phone. In fact, the phone creates discord. "It's ringing!" "You answer it!" "No, I answered it last time!" "No, I did, it's your turn!" "It's probably your family, you answer it!" "No please, you answer it, I can't talk on the phone now!" And then we've successfully delayed it right to voicemail.)

2. Birthdays with brothers

One of the neat things we got to do with our holiday was take a family trip (that would be Flavia's family of 6, my family of 4, and the parental units of 2) to celebrate my brother's birthday. It was a fantastic time. There are two photos of me and my brother I've always treasured, and I tried hard to find them, without luck (so far). One is a photo of me holding him when he was a newborn (21 years ago) the other is a photo on a sled hill outside Madison, Wisconsin behind the family house. We'd gone skiing the day before, and that day Jon, my brother, and I were sledding and acting like lunatics. We took a crazy beautiful photo of the three of us by holding the camera way out and clicking. It turns out our faces are in a perfect circle, framed by brilliant winter blue sky and snow. The photos are currently packed away while we remodel and I couldn't find the right box. Alas. But here's one of the siblings on my brother's birthday:


3. Beautiful and amazing children

Have you ever seen five girls between 3 and 9 share a single large chocolate milkshake? If not, you've missed out. It's beautiful and hilarious. Nobody can stop giggling---including the adults---and you get a great reminder that the best joy is the simple stuff, like a cold chocolate milkshake on a warm day with people you love.



*Please note that Persistence is in a fairy princess ballerina leotard. She wears one every single day. Because I actually like her teachers, our compromise for school today was to carry it with her and wear regular clothes. It only took 40 minutes of wrangling.

4. Rerun fashion and endless heat

It was 70 degrees here at 7:00 a.m. We're going to hit 80, at least, today. Oh and it's humid. But I'm going to be grateful because it enables me to wear capris, hot pink flip flops and this shirt (which I love, totally irrationally):

I am almost 100% sure I had nearly this exact shirt in 1983 and wore it all the time. How much do I love that the early 80s prep wear is back in style. But...if we're cycling in order that means Flashdance wear is on the rise too. No, oh nononononono.

5. Makeovers, for free

Tomorrow I am the topic of my club's meeting, along with a neighbor of mine. This is because we are the Big Makeover winners. How fun! And how timely, since my hairdresser just decided to leave to Pursue Other Interests. I appreciated his kind letter of resignation, but...what am I supposed to do now? I mean, hairdresser is not a business relationship it's...more than that. Matt Titus said texting to break up is NOT COOL so I feel validated at least in feeling hurt to be dumped by letter.

Enter the solution: makeover, for free, where I get to meet a new hairdresser.

I'm promised this one is the best! She doesn't do drugs and cut, decide to Pursue Other Interests, take a vacation and never come back, or make me look like Lynn Cheney (the last four hairdressers I've been through in three years).

As you can see, good things to be grateful for behind me, in the moment, and ahead of me.

So, Life, thanks. Thanks for reminding me it's good, too.

Sincerely, Julie Pippert

P.S. Don't forget Hump Day!
January 9 --- Tell us about a person who inspires you or who is important to you, and why. Make us feel the love. It can be someone you know personally or someone who has done something you respect.

Copyright 2007 Julie Pippert
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