January 2:

"I'm glad that I got so many things done today, because I've had the stomach flu for the last couple of weeks, and I feel better now."

I look hawt when I get sick.  Scott couldn't keep his hands off all this.
(Also, that's an ice pack.  Not a diaper.)

I'm a teacher's aide, and for some reason, my students have an aversion to covering their mouths.  Seriously, with everything -- coughing, sneezing, vomit -- everything.  To whom are they most likely interacting when these disastrous yet angelic situations occur?  

The teacher's aide.  (After the teacher's aide, it's generally the school nurse that deals with them.)  Beyond that, it's probably more likely that it is another student becoming the bulls-eye, so then it's two calls home to the guardian.  The students and staff were dropping like flies during the last week of school.  I think that on one of the days, we had something like 17% of the student population out sick.  Some schools around our region were closing their doors due to illness.  

I was out sick from work for the last three days of this semester, one of which was a field trip day, and I hated it.  I hated missing that!  I missed my students, I wanted to learn about how to take kids on a field trip, and I wanted to see them excited about winter break.  What I didn't want to be doing was puking every time I stood up.  Annoying, I know.

So I was sick for most of winter break, too.  Let's just say I was "filled with the holiday spirit" to the point where I was throwing up on Christmas Day and wondering if I was due to give birth in August.  Today, however, I decided that I'd had enough HGTV and Food Channel, and I felt pretty good, so I finally got some shit done:

I...

• ordered my wedding invitations;
• reinstated my drivers license;
• It had been suspended because I apparently didn't provide proof of insurance after an accident I had back in May.  I had insurance, of course, and I gave the other driver my insurance agent's phone number, but because I didn't have the stupid little card with my policy number on it, I was screwed out of a $150 fee.  No one told me, though; I was unaware that my license was suspended until the other night, when our next door neighbor backed into my parked car, and the police officer that came by ran my plates and informed me about it.  Thanks for the heads up, Bureau of Motor Vehicles!  You're the Comcast of government departments.
• went to the packaging store to send a couple of gifts;
• went to the mall to exchange a pair of jeans that Scott received for Christmas and to do some shopping of my own; 
• did the food shopping for the weekend;
• cleaned up the kitchen and made dinner (pork loin and broccoli) for the first time in two weeks; and
• finished my "365" jar and started on this blog.

Now that I'm finally feeling normal, I'm excited to get back to work and have a kid sneeze in my face.

January 1:

January 1:

"I am thankful for our new water heater."

Once upon a time, I could lift up a lever in the master bathroom shower area and feel warm water on my fingers.  The "once upon a time" ended about two weeks ago.

A little backstory:  I moved in with my fiancé, Scott, a few months back, and his house is pretty new.  I think it's about the same age as however best a Merlot will ever get.  That's also about the same time that the water heater goes out, so we spent about two weeks relighting the pilot light anytime we wanted to run the dishwasher or take a shower.

Now, I don't need my shower to be hot.  Scott takes pretty hot showers, but I'm generally okay about it if he takes up most of the hot water.  In fact, I'll turn it down a notch.

On New Year's Eve, I knew that I had plans with my family, so I had... had... to take a shower.  The new water heater was to be installed the next morning.  I'd hoped that there was some warm water left in the tank, but when I ran the shower and put my fingers into the stream, I felt chills.  The shower was cold.  By my standards, so that's actually saying something.

I tried to just stick my head under the stream, but it was too cold.  I'd move my head under it, a little more each time I could manage, and I considered not having a shower at all before my family New Years dinner.

Finally, I'd had it.  Knowing that I needed to wash my hair and use a razor, I said "fuck it" and jumped in the shower.  I yelped, cried, and whimpered at the temperature change, but as soon as I started lathering my hair with shampoo, I began yelling, "I'm hardcore!  I'm hardcore!!  I'M HARDCORE!!"  And I rinsed my hair of shampoo, and then conditioner; I didn't shave my legs (can you shave over goosebumps?), but I managed to check most things off my list.

Sixteen hours later, we had a new water heater.  It works very well, and I had a much longer shower today.

365 Days of Blessings, Appreciation, and Gratitude

My first thought here is that I'd better learn to spell "gratitude" properly on command.  I just attempted it twice, and then the little red squiggly "haha you suck at spelling" line still appeared.

My second thought is that I never used to get into the New Years resolution thing.  I thought it was phony.  My biggest New Years resolution was to write the date correctly by January 5th.  I never vowed to lose weight, quit smoking, exercise more, or stop cracking my knuckles.

I hear people say, "No, no, my New Years resolution is to never have dessert," (ever again?!) and I go into Michael Scott mode when he's talking to Toby (from The Office, of course).

Never having dessert.  Not cracking your knuckles.  "I vow to try to make it work with my deadbeat spouse."  "I resolve to read the newspaper every day."  (How are some of these even measurable goals?)

You know what all of these things have in common?  They all suck.  They aren't fun.  They don't make you look forward to the next day.

So, here's what I'm doing.  I grabbed a flower vase and decorated it similarly to how a first-grader would, and every day, I'm putting in a little note of thanks for something about that day.  That way, each day, I'm just waiting for a reason to write a note; I'm going to wake up each day anticipating a slap in the face from something awesome.  On New Years Eve 2015, I'm going to empty the jar and read them again, just to sit back and be like, "Yeah, this year was tight."

What used to be a flower vase is now a blessing jar.

However, "a little note of thanks" doesn't tell the whole story.  This blog will tell you the "behind the scenes" of each note, and I hope they're entertaining.  I have a couple days' worth of retroactive posts, but in the meantime, stay tuned.