#gratitudeNow: Play. Dough.

I’m fortunate.

I’m fortunate because I love what I do, how I do it, where and with whom I do it. I’m talking about my job. Over the years I’ve been blogging and podcasting I’ve been rather tight lipped about exactly what I do, and for whom.

As I get older I’m getting a bit more lax about that. What I do is computer programming, and specifically web development.

Lately I just really appreciate it. I’m paid to play with toys all day long. Granted, sometimes that play can involve frustrations. Sometimes what I’m building is just stupid or Them What Asked Me To Make It™️ haven’t truly thought it through. Sometimes you spend hours figuring out that variableName and VariableName aren’t the same damn thing.

But all that nonwithstanding, this is a great gig. My company is really good to me. The work is meaningful. And my coworkers are a delight. They’re a bunch of clever, hard working, and very silly people.

I’m grateful I get to do this work. That’s not a small thing.

#gratitudeNow: Good, clean service

So one of the bigger revelations to me about living a service based lifestyle is how, for the most part, it’s not a big, ongoing sex scene. It’s just a different mode of living, altogether.

I’ll give you an example. On Friday I was working from home. About two thirds of the way through my workday, I started thinking about what I would cook for us for dinner. I ended up settling on a recipe I found for apple-mustard chicken tenderloins.

Yes, they really did look like that. They turned out wonderfully.

After work, I rushed out to the store to pick the stuff up, came home and changed into my training pants and pajamas, and quite carefully set an alarm to remind myself to get cooking about an hour before Missy got home, and then… got caught up first playing video games and then chatting with an old friend.

Oops!

When Missy got home, hungry, and dinner wasn’t ready, she was a bit cross with me, and scolded me. But I promised her I could get dinner together quickly, and did so. And as I said, it turned out to be quite good.

After dinner, she decided she wanted to take a bath, and headed upstairs to do so.

Then she had a wonderful idea. She called me to follow her upstairs, and after the bath was ready, had me use a soapy bath brush (the same one she spanks me with, incidentally) on her back and her feet. This was magical. She felt so good, and I felt so good making her feel that way. I got very little, and the littler version of me felt quite proud to have an actual job to do for mama, and one which we turned out to be quite good at.

She decided there was no sense in my pajamas or training pants getting wet, so she had me strip out of everything before I began.

Afterwards, she decided I needed to be in the bathtub too. She had me come in and lay down where she had just been, and then she bathed me, and rewarded me for my good service, in an appropriately ahem, fulfilling way.

Feel free to use your imagination there.

Afterward, she diapered me for bed, and we drifted off to sleep together, cuddling, wrapped in the warm embrace of our love for one another, and this dynamic that we share.

#gratitudeNow: A Bare-Bottom Reboot (audio blog)

#gratitudeNow: A pizza, the action

So, a bit more on that good traveler business.

It’s Sunday afternoon, and I’ve missed my train. Oops! That’s because I had to change my tickets on way up here in the first place, because reasons, and when I put the revised reservation in my calendar, I put the wrong time. I got to the station here in New York about 25 minutes after my original train left.

It’s okay. I marched right up to the Amtrak desk, told them what happened and they gave me options. I picked the best one. “Best” involves me waiting an hour for a new train, which goes into Washington DC, but not to the station where I left my car. Then I can take the subway south, and grab a lyft from the end of the line to the station where my car is.

Oy.

But… I did get to have some lovely new york pizza here at the station, a little bit ago. Plus, I’ve got my laptop, and can spend the extra time working on Project Longbottom, blogging, and relaxing.

So, really, it’s okay.

#gratitudeNow: A Good Traveler

There’s a Lao-tzu quote I’m very fond of.

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.”

This resonates with me. You're always on your way somewhere. It’s not the somewhere that matters, it’s the way. In this case, I’m on a train headed to New York City to visit family.

I had a few bumps in my plans to be on this train. For one, the station I prefer to use is on a military base, and they just changed the rules for getting access to said base. So I had to change my reservation to the next station up the line. For another, last night we recorded a new episode of the podcast, which got me to bed a bit later than I’d like, but was entirely worth it. Then this morning, when I got up, it was snowing!

Not a problem though. I have a very, very warm coat I bought back in November, for the trip Mama and I took to Iceland for our anniversary. Plus, it was still in the back of my car, along with the incredibly warm hat she had knit for me, and my convertible finger-gloves. So I got in the car a bit earlier than I had originally planned, and got on my way. I noted with satisfaction as I packed the car that I had packed properly. Not too much stuff, not too little.

I stopped, picked up breakfast including a very hot coffee, and arrived at the station with a good 40 minutes to wait. Which was both good and bad. Because the little waiting room/coffee shop was closed, locked up tight. And it was 24º outside.

I was reasonably comfy in my cold weather gear, so I sat and chatted amiably with some of my fellow passengers. One lady was an arrival from Boston by bus, and her ride was nowhere in sight. So I called someone for her, and waited with her until they came.

The thing I’m grateful for is this skill I have, which I picked up as a child. My family traveled a lot when I was a kid. My dad had this weird job that made him travel all the time. During the summers, we frequently took long, complex trips with him all over the world. So I learned pretty early on how to travel well. It’s a combination of a couple of things. One, pack sensibly, so you can move easily. And two, even more importantly, lean into flexibility, and make do with what you have. It’s a special kind of transit-flavored mindfulness.

I’ve written before about how my dad was a terrible person, which is still true. But I am grateful to him for my travel experiences, and the attitudes and skills I acquired through them.

I’m comfortably seated in the café car on the train, ready to settle down to a nice little marathon of coding on my way up. I’ve carved myself this comfortable little space in which to relax and work, while I watch the miles roll by. It’s a familiar feeling, which is simultaneously adventurous and feels like coming home.

I’m grateful for it.