another pleasant valley Sunday

dear faithful Blog Reader,

as you may know it has been a rough Fall for our protagonist, i.e. me. today's post will feature some of the lighter moments of the weekend. I am enjoying a lovely morning in my pajamas. the sun is out, making the ~6 inches of snow on the ground quite luminescent. I made pancakes with real butter and maple syrup (of course!), uploaded photos, and am sipping on my second mug of Earl Grey tea (black, hot). I've listened to Ted Leo and danced around the kitchen. and am listening to Feist as I write this. here are some things on the agenda for today:

1. plan enough meals to get me through until next Sunday when I leave for Nashvegas
2. some final Christmas shopping
3. organizing the office
4. shoveling snow
5. reading
6. a potential appearance in lab
7. a definite appearance at Sunday Spin at Bottleworks

I am pleased to report that the protagonist baked holiday cookies on Friday night, consuming quite a few of them along with slices of mushroom pizza and g&t's. last night it was mulled wine, a huge spread of goodies (our lab is made up foodies, both novice and professional), unusual board games and thunder-snow-storms! I made the long and only slightly treacherous drive home from Webster in a little over 30 minutes.

trying to focus on the lightness of these moments and enjoying them for myself instead of feeling lonely. I do miss the closeness and sharing the little things with someone else. I think that it's human to continue to care... and it's hard to turn off. I've never ridden a tandem bicycle, but maybe once you get used to it, you struggle with pedaling and steering yourself instead of as a unit. but days like today remind me to get up and brush off my scraped knees and keep trying on my own.