A Good Day

I love my extra day off.  Sometimes it is a day for productivity, sometimes it allows me to take a quick road trip, sometimes I just schlep around for fun and sometimes it is all of those things rolled into one.

Today I started my day by dropping in on the Starbucks near Buddy’s daycare for some oatmeal and a “dirty chai” (my new favorite: chai latte w/ a shot of espresso).  When I checked in on Foursquare I was told the mayor was “in the house.”  I love me social media.  I got a chance to sit and share some good bean and even better conversation with Teddy Burriss, someone I had previously only conversed with on Twitter, and started off the day on such a positive, friendly note.

I hit the road and headed for Raleigh to spend the morning with Emily, and take some pictures of her 3-month old Claire.  The last time I was in Raleigh, a few weeks after Claire was born, I had a terrible cold and had to admire Claire from afar.  How many seconds was in the house before I asked to snuggle her this time? Hmm, maybe 30?

Ok, that’s not totally true… she was napping when I got there, so her momma and I shared a delicious meal of Chick-Fil-A and caught up on life.  I love my girlfriends.  Spending time with them, whether it is one-on-one or in a big group together, just fills me such happiness.  It’s been a crazy year for the winos – it’s hard to believe it was a year ago that we were in Sonoma together.  Since then, our get togethers have been centered around big events like Jessie’s wedding, Claire’s birth and Jenny’s birthday.  It was nice to just sit and talk with no agenda – it transported me back to the slow, unhurried days of being college together.  (7 years ago?! Unpossible!!) 

Once Claire woke up, I got to work sticking my camera lens in her face.  She was a little trooper, but she apparently just discovered OMG! FISTS!!! and my goodness, did she want to investigate them.  Emily and I were in a fit of giggles after awhile, trying to get her to look at Emily, smile, look at the camera, smile, PUT THE FISTS DOWN.  The good news is, if you take 295 pictures of someone, you’re bound to get a few good ones. 

It was nice to spend time with these girls and get to see Emily in mom-mode.  Have you ever had one of those moments when you see someone you’ve known forever in a totally different role and it creates this expansive feeling in your mind where you realize that you know just one small piece of this person?  I felt that way whenever I went to my Mom’s classroom with her and saw her in “teacher mode.”  I felt this way watching Em be in mom-mode.  It’s nice to have those glimpses into people’s lives.  Reminds you that as much or for how long you’ve known a person, there’s still so much of them to learn about.

It was hard to say good-bye to my friend, but I wanted to get back to Winston in time to have dinner with Matt since it was his first night home after 2 weeks of working nights in the PICU.  Before I went back though, I made a pit stop at Jubala Village Coffee, a coffee shop in North Raleigh that a friend of a friend recently opened.  Raleigh people: go visit!  (It’s in Lafayette Village, off Falls of Neuse Rd.)  It’s a gorgeous place… open, airy, reclaimed wood constructed bar and smooth, strong coffees.  Well here, this person did a better job reviewing it… I don’t know why I didn’t get my camera out, since I had it from earlier shoot!  Just means I have to go back.  I hope they do well, and I’m super excited to hear they plan to include a food menu with local and organic food. 

Lafayette Village in Raleigh… can I just pretend I’m in Italy, please?

Next location in Winston?  I hope so.

I got home in time to cook dinner, and it was nice out so we had one of our first meals al fresco.  One of the things that sold us on our house was the back deck and we have definitely made good use of that.  We try to get as many meals outside as we can between now and when the humidity kicks in!  It was nice to have Matt home, as the last few weeks we’ve literally been saying hi on the garage steps as he comes home from his night shift and I headed out to work.  (Buddy is perfectly happy about this arrangement however: sleeps in bed with me all night, goes for a morning walk, and then sleeps in bed all day with Matt.  Doggy heaven.)  His humans, however, much prefer to get to hang out with one another from time to time.

All in all, a good day in this happy little life of mine.  It’s not a thankful Thursday list, but it’s pretty darn close.