In the great outdoors.

I'm grateful for family, in all of its forms. For friends who are comfortable with fireside flatulents, willing to drive so many hours just to sleep on the ground and skip showers. For technology that lets me make my nephew laugh from 1200 miles away, and see how silly my niece is and what her latest favorite My Little Pony dance is and hear the lilt of my mom's accent while watching her look through the bottoms of her bifocals at me.

I'm grateful for feeling at home again and for not having to wait too long in between. For unexpected visits from good friends, long meals, and too many drinks. For such a good job that includes dental insurance and financial stability (finally, finally). Mostly I'm thankful for all of this, the constant motion, the ebb and the flow, of life torn a bit at the edges, lived and worn like a favorite book, an old sweatshirt.

Before I leave you.

I have about an hour and a half left of this work day, then it's the open road to Philly (as open as it can be around quittin' time on a Friday before a three-day weekend). I read somewhere that for introverts, social excursions can be draining, whereas extroverts feel recharged after socializing. Sometimes, for me, this is very true. When I look ahead to a month whose weekends are packed full of events and trips away from home, I feel a little overwhelmed. I look ahead even further to the next weekend I have with no plans, with time I can spend at home doing whatever I want. But these past couple weeks I've been needing to get away, not necessarily out of Boston, but I've been feeling the urge to interact, to be present in the outside world. I went into the office yesterday for the first Thursday in a long time (Thursday's the token work from home day), and it felt good. I've had so much motivation to be up and awake and out there. 

I think one of the changes in my attitude has been my reconnection with old friends lately. From seeing Cyndi in DC to a new email chain where each of us contributes weekly-ish a list of things we're grateful for. It's simple, but it's so refreshing to see these people's names in my inbox on a regular basis, to know the little details about their lives, like what their plans are this weekend, what books they're listening to or reading (whether they're listening to books or reading them!), and what songs their spin class is playing. It's great on days like today when I have to limit my grateful list to eight or ten things, but it's especially helpful on the rotten days. It's those days when I need a grateful list email chain to remind me that, even then, blessings abound. 

Today I'm particularly thankful for a three-day weekend ahead of me, a full belly, and friends in so many nooks of this world that I get to visit.