#365Gratitude Day 277: Building Reputation

So as I've said before, Missy and I love to play Ingress.  On Saturday we did something we've never done before, we went to a Build.  A Build is a social event.  You and a bunch of other Ingress agents get together, and en masse, take down the other faction's portals, and put up your own.  

It's really fun.  Missy got home from a rare Saturday workday, and told me it was happening, and asked if we should go.  I said yes.

About 30 minutes later, two of the higher ranked players in the area came to the house, and picked us up.  We drove up to Old Town Alexandria, where we met a big group of people in the parking lot of a supermarket.  

There were about 30 people there.  After we chitchatted for a bit, and laid out the game plan, the convoy got on its way, and we just slammed the area.  It was amazing to see a field of blue portals go from fully charged, fully loaded, to destroyed, to green, fully charged, fully loaded in seconds.  We weren't in the first car of the convoy, so it was almost pointless to try to help smash the portals.  By the time we got there, they were already built for us.

But we got to pick up gear, oh boy did we ever.

But that's not the best part of the event, for me.  The very best part was seeing the reactions of people to meeting Missy.  She's kind of an Ingress superhero.  She's been playing less than time than I have (by about 2 weeks), and is already a level 9.  (I'm a newly minted level 7).  

She's tireless, and dedicated.  She's a constant thorn in the side of the other faction.

And everyone knows it.  

When we got there, and were introducing ourselves, and she told people her agent name, everyone said, "WOAH, you're THAT agent?!" She beamed with pride.

I was grateful I got to experience that.

#365Gratitude Day 276: Getting Spiders in the Mail

So I wrote recently about how when I was down in Florida, I shared a sundae with my grieving wife, sister-in-law, and friends, and it made the good things better, and the worse things less worse for a time, Spider Robinson style.

A good friend of mine, Enfant, who we've had the very great pleasure to interview on the Big Little Podcast, also happens to be a Spider Robinson fan.  We got into a nice little discussion about two of Robinson's books I have yet to read, Mindkiller and Time Pressure.

Well, look what I got in the mail from him, yesterday.

I'm grateful I have such thoughtful, generous friends.  I'm looking forward to reading this.  I'm going to make it my read-before-bed-for-a-half-hour treat nightly, for a long while.

Thanks Enfant!

#365Gratitude Day 275: A Clear Head, & A Sore Bottom

I haven't quite managed to get my brain rebooted properly since being away.  Yesterday I spent the better part of my workday listening to my at-work-brain chuff, wobble, and sputter most of the day.

It was frustrating and I told Missy so.  Then I asked her for a spanking at bedtime. 

She said, "we'll talk about it." 

Later that night, as she was diapering me for bed, her hand did indeed talk to my backside about it.  It, and several other things I couldn't identify, also talked to the backs and insides of my thighs, my scrotum, and my penis a little bit, too.

After she took care of that, she made sure the whole thing had a very happy ending.  (You do the math.)  A while after I thanked her, and she put me to bed, I told her how sore I was, and she said, "I bet it's a really nice kind of sore."

She was of course, absolutely right. 

Today I am clear headed and peaceful.   I feel centered, calm, and good.

I'm so gratefu for Missy, who understands me and takes amazingly great care of me.  She's magnificent. 

#365Gratitude Day 274: Intelligent, Compassionate Sex-Positivity

Being sex-positive is super important to me.  It's a personal mission of mine to help others see that sexuality, theirs, and others', is vital, valid and varied.

We live in a society that often vilifies sexuality, reducing it to something shameful or impure.

That's sad.   

Every so often I stumble across someone or something that really has something insightful, helpful, and just downright awesome to say about this.  

The particular person or thing illuminates the troublesome nature of sex negativity, shows its helpful opposite, and does so in a way which holds the negative folks responsible, without angrily shouting them down.  It or they compassionately show a better way.

 Today I found just such a thing, a web comic about strippers, what they think about their work, and the sometimes super negative way men talk about them.  

It's an amazing comic.  

See for yourself.

#365Gratitude Day 273: Getting Back on the Horse

I'm going back to work today.  I'm grateful to get back to real life, after a week in dealing-with-crisis mode.  It feels good.  

I understand that this is not a binary thing, and that getting back into regular routine is more like merging into traffic than flipping a light switch.

Time to saddle up.