Happy Things Friday | August 28

Morning Smiles

I stopped during my run to talk to Tanja’s Doppelgänger this week. I saw her on one of my runs again, – not once, but twice!  – and I decided it was time to tell her that her sighting always puts a huge smile on my face. I approached her, wished her a good morning, and then told her that she looks like a dear friend of mine from afar and that I am always happy when I see her (even though she’s not my friend, ha). She laughed, was a little flattered, I think,  and said she was happy she could make my morning a little sweeter :) We wished each other a good rest of the day, and then I continued on my way… with a smile on my face! 

Coffee’s ready!

Elisabeth recently got a programmable coffeemaker and that reminded me that my coffeemaker also has a programmable feature which, for an inexplicable reason, I have rarely used so far. So, I started using it immediately this week! While I have no clue why I wasn’t using it, the most important thing is that I am using it now. It’s glorious to return from my morning run to the smell of fresh coffee! Thank you, Elisabeth! 

Sweet Treat

My co-worker went to Costco before work this week (she had to pick something up for a potluck), and also picked up a big box of Häagen-Dasz ice cream bars (they were on sale, I mean, what was she supposed to do?). She had to store them in the freezer in our breakroom during the day before taking them home, so she offered the people in our suite an afternoon treat. That was so sweet and it was exactly what I needed yesterday after a bit of a stressful week. 

CREAMI

Speaking of ice cream, I think I forgot to mention that, after thinking about it for an obscene amount of time (as I do!), I bought a Ninja Creami a few weeks ago. Costco had a sale that I couldn’t pass up, I had some reward money that I could throw at the purchase, and so it was a no-brainer to invest, especially if you consider the fact that I love ice cream. I am usually a salty snack person, but ice cream will always beat any salty snacks. I am particularly excited to make my own high-protein frozen yogurt. As you know, frozen yogurt is somewhat hard to find at the store (and not cheap, if you do) and it’s still usually, but unnecessarily loaded with sugar. I like the plain, tart frozen yogurt the best and now I can make my own.

Proud of myself

I had a little bit of a situation at work this week that made me feel blown off by someone, and as if my work and my deadlines were not as important as theirs, but I was able give myself a little pep talk, gather my courage and get on top of the situation (which hopefully made a good impression on my supervisor).

I also completed a successful week of field work with my colleague last week. It was a long, hot week in the Central Valley, but we got a lot accomplished (and learned a lot about farming! Did you know that pistachios grow in “grape-like clusters”? And did you know that pistachio plants are dioecious, meaning individual trees are either entirely male or female and you need both types for pollination and nut production. Mind blown!)

Baby Bird

Remember the mourning dove baby we had in our backyard last year? Well, we have another one. Tuesday evening, Jon woke me up after I had gone to bed already, and asked me to come outside because he found another fledgling in front of our garage. It was sitting right where I would pull out with the car in the morning and Jon thought we should probably move it. I told him that I’d move it in the morning, if it was still in the same spot – which it was. I used a dustpan to move it a little over to the side (but not too far, because I am sure mama bird was watching closeby.) 

When I returned in the afternoon, the baby bird was gone. I hope it just learned to fly in a short period of time and flew away.

Bonus happy things

• I know I owe you another health update (working on it!), but I wanted to share that I hadn’t had any symptoms for the better part of two weeks now and it’s so nice to feel “normal”.
• The friend that I mentioned a couple of months ago that was pregnant, had a healthy baby girl last week. I am so thrilled to hear the good news!
• Naps. I am taking them without guilt whenever I feel I need to rest.
• I had lunch (+ a short walk) outside with my colleague this week. Sometimes you need to step away to freely talk about the office gossip. Haha. She’s also been a great sounding board for me.
• I’ve been working a regular 5-day work week again this week and the more leisure mornings and longer evenings have been nice. However, I am still on the fence if I want to trade in my day off (probably not consistently. I also don’t want people to “expect” me to be here every Friday, so I’ll probably keep a lose schedule and go back and forth before 4/10 and 5/8 weeks.
• I was so happy to read about all the cool blogger meetups recently. I love that so many people in our cool blogging community have been able to meet each other in person – it brings this community that much closer!

Have a great weekend, friends!