#365Gratitude Bonus: Teledoodling Supertotalmonsterdinosaur

So one of the interesting things about this not-numbering-my-gratitudes posts is that you can't tell when I'm posting more than one gratitude for the same day.  (I can, because I have a little notebook of sorts where I jot them down, by date.  CDO for the win, maybe?!)

This rare-and-elusive double-shot refers to two things:

First, the warm and schmoopy feeling of my girlfriend and Auntie, Squee getting to learn about the funny, weird-yet-consistent special grammar Mako-kun has.  He really loves to say "supertotal" instead of "very."  As in, that key lime pie was supertotal good!

For him, the superlative beyond "supertotal" is "supertotalmonsterdinosaur."  For something to be supertotalmonsterdinosaur good, it's got to be more than great, well beyond great.  How could I/he convey this to Squee so she could see it?

That's where the second part of my gratittude kicks in: technology!  We use a personal note-taking application-as-a-service called Evernote.  One of the more clever things we do with it is have a pair of shared notebooks we write in on our phones, tablets, computers both to each other and for each other.  One of the more clever things you can do with Evernote is draw pictures!

So, Mako-kun got busy drawing a picture of what supertotalmonsterdinosaur looks like, so she could see it.

Here it is:

#365Gratitude: Nothing Ch-ch-changes

I had this super busy day a few days ago, where I rushed from one thing to another, for hours.  It was early up, rush to the gym, rush to the munch, rush to get a birthday present, rush to another friend's birthday dinner.  I was on the go from the minute I was up, until the minute I went to sleep.

So for that Sunday I planned a different thing to do:

NOTHING

It was glorious.  I woke up with no particular plan in mind.  I went about my day in a sort of floaty ease.  So relaxing.

One thing I did do was listen to a lot of David Bowie music, because I found out he had passed away.  His new album Blackstar is wonderful, poignant, and sad.  It's got a jazzy, poignant, quality to it.  I found out later that in his last 18 months he had a sort of creative frenzy, like a star going nova before it finally fades out.  

This haunts me, some.  I love his music, and am sorry to see him die.  But I'm also comforted by the knowledge that when you're creative, the things you create keep on living, long after you yourself have returned to the nothing which we're all a part of.

#365Gratitude: Despacito means slowly

My Auntie Squee is bilingual. Speaking Spanish is a big part of her life, so learning it in pieces is becoming part of mine.  

It's not just "this word means that word", there's more to it than that. There's meaning  and nuance   and idiom .

We're both so excited for all sorts of milestones. Our being long-distance makes us move towards them gently, with occasional little rushes of new things. It's rich and luxurious in its slow movement.  

The word for that is despacito .  It means slowly, carefully, mindfully. 

I love her so much. 

#365Gratitude: Best thing about a space-diaper...

The best thing about an ABU space diaper...is putting it on someone you love.

Richard was over last night, for a late-Christmas celebration and to spend the night.  Missy and I cuddled him up real nice in bed, and drifted off to sleep.

This morning, after I got him all cleaned up we were talking about ABU space diapers.  He'd never worn one before.

This simply would not do.  I love those things, they really are the greatest adult diaper I've ever seen or worn.  I told him all about them, how much I love them, and how I wanted him to wear one today.

So I put him in one.  

He loved it.

#365Gratitude: On Dine-and-Dasher!

Last night my friend Scott and I did an annual tradition of ours, something we have done for many years each holiday season.  We pick a reasonably priced restaurant, nothing too crazy, and go out for dinner, and exchange birthday presents. (His is new year's eve!  He's always going to be 13 days older than me.  I get a little joy out of this.)

Anyhow, the christmasish (sure, it's a word) part of the tradition is that after dinner we leave a 100% tip in cash, and a nice note, and then quietly ghost on out of the restaurant, so the server doesn't have to be awkward about it.

I've known Scott for decades.  We've done this a lot.  It never, ever gets old.