#365Gratitude Day 332: A man on a mission (actually 2)

On Saturday I decided to go for a longish walk.  I was feeling post-Thanksgiving sluggardly, and wanted some exercise.  I wasn't up to full out running though, so instead opted for a 5 mile walk-hike sort of thing.  I got my running gear on, headed out the door, with a plan to walk some VERY hilly roads not too far from the house.

Along the way I got the brilliant idea to do two Ingress missions.  A mission is a sort of pre-planned map of portals to hit, to hack in a certain order.  It's something the game has had for ages, but which I've just never bothered with before.

It was really, really fun.  One of my missions was at a nearby college campus.  I've been there before for the occasional drive-by portal, but not really walked the campus.  

These birds were on their own mission, apparently.

I passed this beautiful fountain, that was absolutely surrounded by wild geese.  I actually stopped to watch them watching it, for a few minutes.  It was sublime.

After I finished my mission of invisibly tapping pretend interdimensional portals like the responsible grownup I am, I bopped off campus and walked to a nearby shopping center to do similarly there.  Then walked back home again, for a roundtrip total of just over 5 miles.

I burned a ton of calories, and felt great.

Sometimes this adulting thing isn't all that hard.

#365Gratitude Day 331: Rachel and Carol and Carol and Carol and Susan Lucci

I spent my Friday after Thanksgiving hanging out with our girl Rachel.  We just hung around the house, not doing much anything in particular, except for one thing.

Rachel has a tradition of watching as many different versions of A Christmas Carol as she can find.  We watched...

• A musical version starring Kelsey Grammar (very good)
• A very, very old black and white version made back in 1938, starring Reginald Owen (amazing)
• Ebbie, about Elizabeth Scrooge, as played by Susan Lucci. (cute)

We had plans to watch Scrooged with Bill Murray (a personal favorite of mine), but those got waylaid by bingeing a few episodes of a really cute show called The Librarians.

It was just nice.  I've written before that I struggle a bit with the holidays.  I have some very mixed-feelings about Christmas in particular because of my prior history with it.  But every holiday season I do my best to find the good in the season and enjoy it.  Sharing Rachel's tradition was a great new addition to that.

#365Gratitude Day 330: Garion with my holidays

I don't have a whole lot of holiday traditions.  There are a few though.  I like driving through the holiday light displays.  I'm going to start wearing my ridiculously long goofy santa hat out and about.  My friend Scott and I will do our annual 100% tip dine-and-dash**.

Plus, this time of year, I listen to my favorite audiobooks ever.

By awesome artist Tao-mell http://fav.me/d2op92b

They're the Belgariad, by David Eddings, as read by Cameron Bierlie.  The first of which is Pawn of Prophecy.  I love these books.  The writing is great, the narration is amazing, and they just feel like the holidays to me.  They're the story of Garion, a pot-scrubbing kitchen helper from far-off, misty, Sendaria.  He lives with his aunt, who runs the kitchens at a little countryside farm.  

She's very motherly with him, and a bit strict in a nurturing way I find very compelling.  Garion is quite sure he's the most unimportant person in the world, a total nobody.

But he couldn't be further from the truth.

The Belgariad is his coming of age story, and a great work of high fantasy.  Watching Garion grow up, witnessing his aunt (and grandfather's) love for him, is powerful.  They're exciting books, filled with heartwarming things.  Every time I listen, it's like being back home again, a bit.

** About that dine-and-dash thing...

I'm sharing this because I hope other folks pick up this fun awesome little habit.  My friend Scott and I have been friends since college.  A few years after graduation, when we started to have the disposable income with which to do it, we invented our own little holiday tradition.  Here's what we do:

We find a moderately priced restaurant, someplace where the wait staff are both busy, and have a hard time making ends meet, because since the menu prices are low, the tips will be too.

We go out to dinner, order a full meal, with appetizer, dessert, coffee, tea, whatever.  When it's time to pay the check, we do so in cash, and whatever the cost of the bill is, we leave an equivalent amount for tip, a 100% tip.  We're really sneaky about it though.  We pay in cash, leaving it on the table weighed under a glass or something, and make sure to write them a nice note on the bill, and then before they can see it, we get the hell out of there.

We love doing this.  It's super random, and just a nice way to brighten someone's day.  That reminds me I need to ping Scott so we can research where and when we want to do this, this year.  

#365Gratitude Day 329: A matter of degrees

-50º! Holy Moley!

I'm really glad I don't live in Verkhoyansk.  It gets really cold there.  It gets cold here in Virginia, too, but not like that. 

Wednesday morning it was a nice chilly 36º out though.  Cold enough that I just didn't feel like running, even indoors at the gym, on the treadmill.  (I know, not logical.)

So I decided to swim instead.  Luckily, the very nice lifeguard at the gym had made an executive decision to turn up the heat in the pool to a balmy 86º!  Those fifty degrees of difference were delightful.

#365Gratitude Day 328: Cast in bronze

So yesterday was my actual wedding anniversary.  It's our 8th.  According to the conventional wisdom that makes it our bronze anniversary. (or pottery, linens, or lace.)

I didn't know this.  Missy however, did.  While we were away she gave me this beautiful marine life coloring book which had bronze metallic ink on the cover.  But she was far from done.

When I got home from work today, I found this amazing bronze sculpture on my desk.

A couple, embracing.

It's stunningly beautiful, tender, sweet.  It captures in a single moment every way Missy and I feel about each other.  Because it's cast in bronze, it's going to last forever.

Just like us.