Winter 2021

Winter drags on with more storms called for this week, but it finds me having received both doses of the vaccine and having visited family twice, so my gratitude outweighs my eagerness for spring.  We are all getting each other through it--did you see the sweet love note Monique's grandchildren left her and her husband in the snow?!  ♥--and while a number of people in the family have been sick from Covid (my nephew, three aunts, one uncle, and three cousins, at last count) this past year, we are still here as we look forward to the next season together, so how can we complain, really.  May spring come soon, though, if I may say so, and may it bring healing for us all. 

Love Around Town

♫ New Job and a Haircut, At Last ♪

Well.  :)  Almost exactly nine years after I first interviewed for it, I can finally shout from the rooftops say I got the job. Way back in June 2008--here--I had my first interview for it ahead of me, and today, after (not having enough experience for it back then, and thus) a lot of volunteering, seven years of working toward it at my now-previous position, and applying for it and being rejected at least six times since spring 2007--I've just completed my first two weeks on the job.  Last month, I shared the job announcement with one of the people who had supervised me during some volunteer work back in 2009, and she shook her head and cried out, "Val, your story shows the power of"--long pause--"PERSISTENCE!  It's a good, GOOD story!"  ♥  Indeed.  As my dad has long said, I am nothing if not stubborn.  :)  I got the job!  ♥   

A few days before I was offered the position, I found this graffiti on my walk to work.  I took it as a nod from the universe, as I tend to do, as it appeared at a time when I really needed the encouragement.  Little did I know that there was a bigger nod in my favor just a few days away.  Likewise, I caught a bus home a few weeks ago to visit my family for the first time since hearing the news and found this--

just the paper message, no fortune cookie or wrapper with it--resting on the window ledge beside the seat I'd chosen.  ♥

The day before I began the new job was not the smartest day to get a haircut--Anxiety, Thy Name Was Val!--but fortune continued to favor me, and I'm happy with the cut.  It seems to look completely different from morning-to-morning depending on how I part it and who-knows-what-else, but it suits me in all its variations.  Another "whew!"  Let's hear it for stylists who know what they're doing and can correctly interpret verbal instructions and clipped photographs!  :)  

Last night was my first night off since starting the new position that I didn't feel utterly exhausted, so it became Celebrating-Two-Weeks-on-the-Job Cake-Baking Night.  I wanted something joyful and summery, and flowers and berries were the way to go.

 I added mint leaves for a touch of green.  It is a season of fresh starts in these parts, after all. 

. . .I got the job!  I got the job!  ♥

After the Rain

'A little over nine miles walked today, beginning at 6:15 this morning after a night of rain. 

I continue to find such sweet graffiti. . .love and kindness all the way. 

The first of four found hearts today--

--was soon followed by the second. 

It started raining at the 6.5-mile-mark this morning, so I went back out for another two and a half miles this evening.  And found more sweet graffiti.  ♥

My walk ended as it began, with the streetlights on and the moon out--

--and with more hearts gracing my path. 

A beautiful walk.  ♥

Sunday Morning

I do find the best graffiti.  ♥

Wednesday's Walk

What began as a walk in flurries today ended in a slippery trek home in actual snow, and I'd have worn shoes with better traction had I expected it.  But oh! The woods were so blissfully silent and still in the snow, with only a woman crunching her way over half-frozen leaves as she ran past when I first started out and a man walking with his dog at another point.  We exchanged hellos and continued on, and the dog didn't even bark:  An unspoken understanding between us all, I always think when I encounter other solitary walkers and runners, of the value of this peace and quiet.