#365Gratitude Day 61: Putting my best foot forward

Monday I started my new job.  I was excited, and prepared.

For one thing, I had on my special work shark socks that my friend William Little had given me.

For another, I had decided days ago that I was treating this whole experience as a sort of personal reboot.  

I think I had grown somewhat jaded in my last two jobs.  They were for very large companies, which came with some very good things, but also many very bad things.

My new gig is at a teensy tiny company.  That has different good and bad aspects.

One thing I made sure to do right away was to be proactive.  From the moment I got there, I began looking for opportunities to bring value.  I've already volunteered for a special project.  I think people are digging my can-do attitude.

The best thing about this attitude isn't its effect on other people, but its effect on me.  I'm excited to be there.  I'm excited to see what I can do and learn, and how I can use it to grow there.  Somewhere along the way, I had somewhat lost this simple truth: I love what I do.

Found it.

#365Gratitude Day 60: Nice Weather for Minecraft

My very-long-day with Cargo on Saturday didn't end until very early on Sunday.  When we got home from the spa, I introduced him to playing Minecraft together on our Xbox.

We kind of went batshit crazy with it.  We stayed up until 3am!

Missy was busy with her own video-game based-bad-sleep-making-pursuits - on their way back from the spa, she and Marybeth decided to get up to some Ingress playing, and they didn't get home until about 2am, either.

I guess we were all a little punch-drunk after the long day, and the hydrotherapy from the spa, because Missy said we could stay up as late as we wanted.  So we picked 3am.

Playing Minecraft with Cargo was SO MUCH FUN.  It's a bit like legos for grownups.  We went from digging a hole in the digital ground with our 8-bit hands to having a huge castle, complete with battlements, a glass skylight, fluffy woolen beds, and a mine that stretched for miles underground underneath it.  

It was really amazing.  Playing together like that pinged our mutual ageplayishness (sure, it's a word), as well as our geekery.  (Also, a word, deal with it.)  We each had jobs to do.  I would crank out tools, and component pieces for him, while he would gradually replace the dirt walls of our shelter with good, hardened cobblestone.  He would work on our farm, while I enlarged the mine.  We had several disasters, where we got attacked, and our characters died.  At one point, Cargo's character respawned at the bottom of a giant canyon, where he was stuck.  I rescued him, and we literally dug our way out to the surface, in the dark, armed with only a few torches, and a pickaxe.  It was gourmet, technology-aided, grownup pretend.

It was so good that the next morning, we decided to play some more.  (Well, let's be honest here, afternoon.  We went to be at 3am!  We didn't get up until almost noon.)  Anyhow, after we took a bath, and I got him diapered and dressed for his train home, we sat down to play for a little while longer.

Then, we exhibited excellent adult restraint, and decided to leave early, so we could go get some food, before I brought him into DC for his train home.  Good thing we did!  When we got outside to my car, we found it was covered in ice.

It kind of boggled our minds.  We were so wrapped up in Minecraft, bubble baths, Minecraft, diapering, Minecraft, cuddling, and did I mention Minecraft, that we had no idea of the icy sleety rain that had been coming down since we got up.

Thankfully, I got him to the station safely, and with enough time for us to share a meal, while we talked about Minecraft.

It's not like we are hooked or anything, right?

#365Gratitude Day 59: Moved by love

It was terrible timing, but our boy Richard happened to be moving this weekend.  Cargo is his friend too, and being the very good person he is, said he didn't mind if we carved some time out of his visit to help.  

So after I got him diapered for the day, we bopped on down to Richard's new house, and joined a team of people to help move stuff from Place A to Place B.

It was a chilly day, filled with dressing in layers, work gloves, stinky old refrigerators, heavy couches, and many boxes.

But it was great.  I was glad to be able to be there for Richard, who has been there for me countless times beyond measure.  I was grateful for Cargo who selflessly gave his own time and help.  The group helping Richard included my wife Missy, my sister-in-law Marybeth, and several other people who are close friends of Richard's and mine, as well as Camp Crucible buddies to us all.  It was a bit like having a Camp reunion, just with different muscle soreness.  

Afterward, Missy, MB, Cargo and I headed out to a Korean spa to relax our sore, tired muscles, eat exotic food, and spend time in a giant hydrotherapy pool.  It felt very, very good.  

#365Gratitude Day 58: Weasel training

Friday my friend Cargo Weasel came down from New York to visit me for the weekend.  It's a trip we had been planning for several months.  We were both looking forward to spending time together, and for my keeping him in diapers, and being cuddly buddies the whole weekend.

I drove to the train station where he was coming in, and waited.  As I did, I hung out in the tiny coffee shop at the station.  It was a riot.  The place was run by a very young manager, with help from some younger girls, who I think were related to him.  The three of them obviously really loved one another very much, and drove one another crazy, just as much.

I snuck a picture of them, artfully 'tooned up for artistic license and privacy reasons.

Shortly after I got a very nice cup of snooty coffee, Cargo arrived and I whisked him home to a bubble bath, and a weekend of time together.  It's the first time I've ever picked anyone up at that station, and it felt really right and good to do so.  I only even know about that particular station because I have travelled through it on my way to my old job.  I feel like it's something valuable I picked up along the way, that's stayed with me.

Anyhow, I was super excited to have Cargo down for the visit.  We've been good friends for years now, and the prospect of having his time to myself without the confines of an event, or podcast, or any other such goings-on was delightful.

#365Gratitude Day 57: Happy Valentine's Other Day

My sister-in-law Marybeth was away in Japan, visiting her new grandson, during Valentine's Day.  She got back afterward, and decided on a whim to celebrate it for me and Missy.  I got home from work to see this:

I'm lucky to be loved so much.