Pickles & Dimes

I’m in a terrific mood today. You ever have those days when you’re in a good mood and nothing gets you down? Not even traffic or a soggy sandwich for lunch or the discovery of a yet another house centipede in the downstairs bathroom (the bathroom I rarely use but now have to, thanks to that stupid toilet, by the way), or the vending machine eating your dollar just because it didn’t like how you inserted it into the slot?

I even got one of those goofy smiles I was unable to suppress, even though I was in the middle of probably my 37th phone call of the day at work, while simultaneously writing with one hand and uploading a document onto my computer with the other while also mouthing instructions to a hovering, micro-managing project manager.

My iTunes is on shuffle and is both surprising and delighting me with its uncanny ability to play exactly the songs I secretly wanted to hear. (“Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” by Cake, “Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues” by the Eels, “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, “Hold On” by Tom Waits, and “Come On Eileen” by Save Ferris, in case you were wondering.)

Tonight I can park my car in the driveway knowing it’s not going to drop another oil slick, and water the lawn now that I’ve figured out how to properly place the sprinklers so they reach all of the yard (I figured this out all by myself, certainly not because I actually drew a frigging map of the yard or anything, no, that would be PATHETIC.)

When Jason gets home, we don’t have any wedding-related stuff to worry about, so we can sit outside and actually enjoy the yard we have been obsessively watering every other day since May because IT NEVER RAINS HERE EVER, EVER, EVER (dear God: send moisture through the air soon, thanks). We’ll grill some burgers while listening to the Twins and watching the cats sitting huffily by the patio door shooting us eye lasers because we’re outside and they’re not.

I love days like this.