The unexpected sweetness of life

Not sure what to write about today until I made a trip to the grocery store. Strange where small moments of sweetness pop up. I don't usually have too much good to say about grocery shopping-the price and quality and annoying clerks are usually the main topics. Today, I had this lovely experience.

One a week(sometimes more) I go to the Sushi bar at the grocery store where a very kind and well mannered young man began working about a year and a half ago. The bar is called Danny Sushi and over the course of this past year + I have gotten to know him a bit. We became friendly and a stop to chat was always on the list for me. About half way through the year+ he began to ask me if he was saying things correctly in English and would I correct him if not. I told him I would be happy to help. Then when I did help him with different confusing things he would add some little treat to my purchases-free of charge. Crab rolls, Shrimp shumai, stuff like that. I told me one day that he would make any rolls that I wanted. Even ones that normally don't appear in his case. This led to some very delicious things. He made me Futomaki and Tamago rolls. And so it went for months. Last week I picked up my sushi and gave him a nice pair of gloves commenting that his hands needed protecting since they are the hands of a Master. We laughed and wished each other a good holiday and that was that. Today I stopped by to wish him a happy New Year. He had made me my favorite rolls and shrimp shumai when he saw me in the store-all free of charge. I nearly wept -it was the most touching thing from this man who barely knows me. A tiny gift but full of special care and goodness. We did the bowing to each other thing which, if done well ,can lead to much laughter. You bow, I bow, you bow again, rinse, repeat. Very funny.

There is much to be happy with in the world. Most of it is the sweet stuff, the tender stuff and the small gifts of friendship.

I want to thank you for the gift of yours and wish you a simple, sweet and healthy year ahead.

All the news that's fit

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, or depending on what you celebrate, a lovely day. I'm almost afraid to mention that the weather is still kind of wonderful for December. It will turn around soon, I'm sure, so until then...woohoo!

I managed to get through the day, despite some feelings of sadness, because I started my day with a visit from Lucy. The Happy Couple had brunch with Dani's family and left Lucy here to enjoy the full-on spoiling of the pup. I was pretty proud of myself for the job I did on Christmas dinner. Roger was the chef who handled the big jobs in the kitchen like Leg of Lamb and Prime Rib. I had never before cooked a Prime Rib. Now I have. With such an expensive piece of meat I panicked a little thinking about turning it in to pot roast instead of the juicy roast it should be. Yay Me! It could have been a little more rare but the last 15 minutes made for a bit more done than I would have liked. Still, it was soooooo goooood. Nine pounds of gooood! I missed the fun that we used to have of cooking together but all in all it was a lovely day. We finished the left overs yesterday.

Dani & James surprised me with a Kindle Fire. It was a really big surprise and I played with it all day yesterday. So many apps! I downloaded several games and played so much yesterday that I ran down the battery by 10 last night. I guess the games take a lot of power. Anyway, I love it. My best pal Terry got one too. To illustrate the difference between her and I-I have books and games-she will download practical things like notepads and financial stuff. She really is the adult in this relationship.

Further good news, we got the preliminary plans for the new addition on the house as well as an estimate of the cost. Big Gulp but not that surprising. Now we will have to decide what gets done and what waits for another day. The new house and the refurbishing of the old section will be our priority right now. Some of the other stuff goes into the maybe next year file. The 3-car garage is the biggest thing that will have to wait. It adds nearly a hundred thousand dollars to the total. That's a hundred thousand too much right now. It's this type of thing that makes me miss Roger the most. He would have handled this whole thing with no mental trauma. Me...not so much. I will just have to wrap my little brain around the thing and take big breaths.

I'm going to clean up the house today and make a trip over to the cemetary. Roger's headstone was placed on his grave a few days ago. It took a lot of time since I had a beautiful locomotive etched on to the stone for my train collector. Now that it's up I'll go and put some greenery there.

I'm learning to live with my feelings not overwhelming me all the time. Life is not so bad, it's just different and I guess I have to live with that. Or maybe a better way to put it is to live with it at peace. I've been very angry and sad for so long. Like a great heavy thing to carry around daily. The weight seems less now and I work at not being angry & sad daily.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year. Hope to be back soon.