Three beautiful things from the past week:

1) As I lay in bed yesterday morning watching the snow drift down, a flake gets caught in a spider web and glistens. Because it’s so cold, it lasts for quite a while.

2) While walking from the Metro to my office, I pass a woman and a child, whom I assume to be her grandchild. The girl, whom I guess to be around three, is bundled up in a tiny purple parka; the woman in a long dress coat. The woman sing-counts a marching beat for the child and laughs when I catch her eye and smile.

3) Last Friday was warm enough for me to sit outside at lunchtime to read my book and eat. I found a spot along a pedestrian pathway and was able to bask in 65 degree sun unaccosted for a whole hour.

It has been a rough week month year here in the Burrow, but even in the throes of depression, we can still find beautiful things to share. Here are three from the last week:

1. This morning, it occurred to me that, since moving to D.C., I have allowed my personality to become sublimated a bit. (Those of you who only know me from D.C. may find it shocking that this is a paler, quieter version of me. But it’s true…) So this morning, I pulled the price tags off some new shoes, broke open my purple mascara, and dug out the gold sparkly lotion. I’d stopped wearing it when a coworker told me that whenever I wore it I reminded him of the stripper from his bachelor party. But he doesn’t work here anymore and, even if he did, that would be his problem, not mine. Watch out, D.C.; my effervescence could be catching!

2. I haven’t talked to BW since before Christmas, but we finally managed to catch up with each other last night and spent a while chatting on the phone. It wasn’t as good as a cocoa break in person, but it was pretty close.

3. Missing tv episodes can be frustrating because you miss key storylines or character development. I caught up with two favorite shows this week — Ugly Betty in the old-fashioned way on the rebroadcast and Heroes in a more modern streaming fashion. How fantastic to have the choice between waiting for it to come around again or seeking it out online for an immediate fix!

It’s late, but I wanted to share three beautiful things with you from our drive home tonight from Connecticut:

1. Although predicted to be awful most of the way home, the driving conditions were only messy for a relatively short period of time in New Jersey. In fact, for the last half of the drive, the roads were merely wet.

2. It started snowing in D.C. this morning and there are several inches piled up around the city. It looks particularly lovely on the tree limbs — deliciously wintry.

3. Someone built a snowman in a park overlooking one of the main arteries into the city. The best part? The snowman is giving all the drivers a thumbs up sign.

Three Beautiful Things from the past week:

1. Locked next to Union Square was a bicycle. Its tape, rims, and tires were all a brilliant shade of electric blue.

2. The moon was a Cheshire cat grin last night as I walked home from the metro after a movie.

3. The cats have been particularly snuggly since I got home Tuesday. All three of them nap in the same room with me and Posey deigned to come curl up under the covers with me last night, at least until Jeremiah pounced on her head.

Sorry for the late posting, but it’s been a day of traveling for me, and then the internet in my hotel room in San Francisco didn’t work without some external intervention. In the meantime, three beautiful things from the last week:

1. The branches on the small trees lining my street were solidly encased in ice by the time I walked home from the metro Tuesday evening.

2. Rebs sent me photos of her brand-new niece, who arrived on Jason’s and my birthday. The baby is gorgeous with dark hair and beautiful red lips. Newborns aren’t usually very pretty, but Sophie definitely is.

3. I got bored on the plane flight and opened my window blind (despite the fact that the flight attendants pointed out this is very inconsiderate behavior) so I could actually take advantage of my window seat on the cross-country flight. We must have been somewhere over the Four Corners area because suddenly I saw red rocks and a deep canyon (but not the Grand one).

(About this time I also noticed the plane’s wing flapping as if it were a diving board under Greg Louganis, but that was less beautiful and more scary to think about. But I suppose that someone who took physics would tell me that the wing flexing was actually a good thing because its flexing prevents it from snapping off. Intellectually I understood that. Emotionally? Not so much.)

P.S.: Thank you for all the birthday well-wishes. I appreciated them all.

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. A neighbor has two Marmaduke-sized dogs that must be part dalmation because they have the same coloration as holsteins.

2. My new jeans came with a small, bluish, porous pebble in the pocket.

3. The silvery sheen of wet pavement on a sunny morning after a snowy night.