morning ramblings

Good morning!  I just slept in til ten for the first time in several months!  I'm groggy as hell but want to keep my string of posts going.  Quantity, not quality.  That's the motto around here.

Last night, Justin and I successfully completed our Christmas shopping for everyone but each other in about two hours.

I looked at my watch as we were headed out of our last store, and said, "Wow.  I think this is the fastest I've ever done this."

Justin looked at me in awe and laughed.  Left to his own devices, he shops as if he's on a timed mission, where the whole mall is gonna blow unless he's in and out in ten minutes.

Good times.

I had so braced myself to find the mall a complete nuthouse, and then, once we got there, it was just fine.  Lesson learned:  Go in with low expectations, and then you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Right now, I have a 4.0 GPA for this quarter.  Granted, only one of my grades has been reported, but I think it's important to celebrate while you can.  This is the first 24 hours of having a 4.0 that I've had in, like, 10 years or something.  Yay me.  It may all come crashing down once the rest of my grades are reported on Thursday, but hey.  I know I worked hard.  This was the first quarter since I don't know how long that I was a truly good student.  Justin's a bad influence on me, apparently.

We're heading out shopping with Justin's bro later today, who made the trip up to Bellingham for a few days, and we'll be hanging out with his cousins as well.  I think I'll be making dinner for everyone tomorrow night, which, since I've actually been making efforts to learn how to cook good meals, should be a lot of fun.

I did want to say, regarding what I wrote yesterday, that -- big surprise -- I'm feeling a lot better about things.  I'm still a little nervous about Christmas-y activities, but the tension that was covering over so much of my time (because I was spending so much time thinking about it) has faded a great deal. 

Muddled attempts at forgiveness bringing about peace?  Who knew?  It's amazing how hard we fight the things that are actually best for us.  It's precisely when I want to be the opposite of patient and gracious that I actually benefit the most from making attempts to do so, however flawed they might be.

My husband just now, from his corner of the office: "I have this message here from a 'Joseph Poon' in my junk mail box.  The title says 'WRITE ME.'  Hmmm... do you think I should?  I think I should."

Ah.  I love my man.  I've never laughed so often in my life.