#365Gratitude Day 74:Funny... also funny

I love to laugh.  Two things gave me the giggles yesterday.

First, I went out to lunch with some co-workers, to a dumpling restaurant.  The garbage can at the restaurant had a little OCD labelling that made me snicker.

"Trash... Also Trash"

Now that was surely accidental humor.

But later in the day, some friends of mine on the podcast slack introduced me to some intentional humor, a tumblr blog called LiarTownUSA.  LiarTown is the often NSFW creation of humorist graphic designer Sean Tejaratchi.

I laughed myself into a fit last night over some of the stuff on there.  For example:

"Confusing Premise" porn magazine cover, featuring a man watching another man forced to look at a painting of two nuns kissing, by another woman.  What fetish is this exactly?

Then there's this little gem:

"The What...How.. Wonder Book of HORSECRIME."  Ridiculous.  Amazing.

But the thing that started this whole thing, that got folks on the slack talking about the site, was the movie poster for The Legend of Diaper Horse.  No, I'm not kidding.

So silly.  It's rapidly become my favorite tumblr.  

#365Gratitude Day 71:Shelfish Cargo

One thing Missy and I have needed to do for ages was replace my old bookshelves.  When we moved we lost a key piece, the cross-braces that made my old shelves able to stand without tipping over.  Missy had wanted to try to fix them, but I told her that the shelves had had a good run, and we needed to just replace them.  (As it turns out, I had had those shelves over twenty years, so it really was time for them to go!)

Anyhow, we finally had the magic combination of available funds and time to do something about it on Sunday.  We had our eyes on this certain set of shelves up at IKEA, and went to get them.

We ended up getting two of the narrow shelves, one of the big ones, and drawers for all of them.

I was a little concerned we were going to have to break our budget by getting them delivered.  IKEA flat packs everything, but these suckers were tall, and came in a lot of boxes.

Nope.

When we went to load up my car, they all fit perfectly.  

I know that's a very silly, small sort of thing to be grateful for.  It's not the cure for frigging cancer or anything.  But sometimes gratitude is about small things.  

#365Gratitude Day 67:Practice makes... practice

So I was contemplating reality and the path of practice in the shower this morning, like you do.

It's a buddhist temple... and a pun!

As my friend Fiona might say, "wat?"

Practice is such a confusing idea.  On the one hand, there's the "do it, get better until you're perfect" meaning.  On the other there's the "Have a thing you do regularly, keep doing it regularly" meaning.

Mindfulness is waaaay more that second one than the first one.

As you may have noticed, this is day 67 of my daily gratitude practice.  My blog seems to be missing eight days.  It's not that I didn't have a thing I was grateful for each day.  I most certainly did.  There was this awesome dirty illustration tumblr I found, some nice emails I got, hearing back from an illustrator I like, seeing a friend I thought might be dead making progress in his health, some gains at work, connection with my partners, all sorts of things.

But I didn't write them down.

Why?  I'm honestly not sure.  It could have been exhaustion. (I've been pretty wracked lately.)  It could have been being off my routines.  Whatever.  It doesn't matter.  Why doesn't it matter? Because philosophical practice isn't about perfection, it's about application.

So, these past several days I've been "off my practice", I actually wasn't.  I put it aside so I could pick it right back up again.  There's no chastisement needed.  It's not a problem.  It's just living.

You do.  And then you do some more.  Sometimes you do it great.  Sometimes you don't.  Keep on going.  Or, as I love to say, "no starting, no stopping, only doing."

#365Gratitude Day 59:On the road again

So Missy is still sore, still in pain.

But she's become a getting-around-on-crutches ninja.  She's really damn good at it.  She goes up and down the stairs, gets all over the house, no problem.

And her knee's become bendy enough that she even feels safe enough to go out, and drive herself.

Now before you get all up in our grill about it:

• The knee she had surgery on was her left knee, not the right.  So she doesn't need it for driving, except the part where she has to bring both knees with her, because, attached.
• Missy, in case you hadn't noticed, is a tough customer.  She doesn't do languishing.  She tends to attack life with vigor.
• Her getting out-and-about is really an essential part of her recovery.

We shared a lovely slow morning, I made us both breakfast (my custom made egg sandwiches for the win!), and I helped her get some stuff she needed out to the car.

She assured me she was gonna be just fine, and got on her way.

And then I got a lovely little check-in from her:

I told her how her being able to do this would be my gratitude today.  And look, it is!

#365Gratitude Day 58:Cat Firewall

Even though my girlfriend Alissa lives hundreds of miles away from us, in Chicago, she's really right nearby all the time.  We are more or less constantly connected.  Right after I wake up and say "oh good another one", it's my habit to ping her, via a text, or on our slack, or a phone call, or something.

She and I spend just about every morning talking on our ways to work, school, and various errands.  

We regularly play games together via a video conference, Missy, me, Alissa, and her children.  We're deeply entangled, in the nicest way.

It's hard being long distance, but we do the best to minimize the negatives, and create rituals, space, time, and connection.

And it works remarkably well.

Sure, sometimes the Skype call gets fuzzy, or the video conferencing sound gets weird.  And every once in a while, Alissa's cat, Nyla, has to insinuate herself in between us.

When stuff like that happens, we just laugh.

And we keep going the distance.

I love her.