Before I head off to the shore, three beautiful things from the last week:

1. Shelley’s MCAT scores come through and she has kicked serious ass. Shell’s been very studious between classwork and test prep for the last several years, so I’m terribly proud of her achievement.

2. Rudi points out the moon to me as we sit at Starbucks reading HP6. It’s the barest of slivers, the Cheshire Cat just about to disappear.

3. The house is mostly dark as I sit at the computer catching up on old emails. A loud thud comes from the bathroom, followed by caterwauling. Jeremiah is enjoying the acoustics and invites the girls and me to come play with him in the tub.

and a bonus beautiful thing this week:

4. John, who has been a “code monkey” in the tech business for a number of years now, has a new job he starts next week. He’s moving into the project management end of things and is excited about the prospects opening up before him (as well as the ridiculously shortened commute to work).

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Running through a downpour to get back to the office for lunch. I laugh as I go.

2. The skies suddenly open as if someone has slit the clouds. We, however, are mosty-toasty inside the Burrow.

3. A man in drab neutral colors is surrounded by his wife and four daughters, all dressed in vibrant hues — orange and pink and lime and turquoise.

Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. I decided at the last minute that I really did want to see the fireworks from up close so we hopped on our bikes to ride down to the Kennedy Center for a better vantage point. A block into our journey, sparks illuminated the sky. We rode down to the waterfront with bursts of pink and green and white lighting our way.

2. On the way from my event to the airport last Saturday, I stopped in Squirrel Hill to pick up some packing tape to seal up the boxes I was FedExing home. Across the street was a cupcake shop, so I picked out four to accompany me home: Vanilla vanilla (with Independence Day-themed decorations), chocolate cherry (a vegan option), East End Chocolate Stout, and Cosmo. All were delicious.

3. In an era where hotels charge you just for opening the refrigerator, let alone taking something out, Wyndham stands apart from the rest. If you join their free club, they will leave you complimentary snacks and drinks of your choosing. I arrived earlier than they’d expected on Friday, so when I returned to the room after running errands around the city, it was with great joy that I found they’d left me bottled water, Coke, and M&Ms.

I didn’t relax much while traveling Friday or Saturday, but I do enjoy spending time in Pittsburgh more than I thought I would the first time I went there. As such, three beautiful things about Pittsburgh:

1. After walking out of the Eagle Giant in Southside, I noticed a sky so deeply, intensely purple and magenta that I said, “Wow! Look at that!” quite aloud. A woman turned to gaze with me.

2. After three short visits to Pittsburgh, I already have a favorite radio station there, 91.3, WYEP. When I picked up my rental car, they were about to start an in-studio performance/interview with Ruthie Foster. Another time I started the car, it was to the refrains of the Kennedys’ “Life Is Large.”

3. At the end of my workday on Saturday, I was trying to push free food on everyone I encountered. A little girl sitting in a tree behind me came up to eat some vegetables and immediately took to me and started hawking the joie de vivre of eating healthy to anyone who passed us by. She took the last of my veggies home because “it’s a waste something that someone might want.” And when she asked me why some people smoke (I have no idea why she asked, but we’d had an anti-smoking group with us earlier in the day, so that might have been why.), I gave her the answer that sometimes people think it looks cool and sometimes people are intimidated by telling their friends they don’t want to try it. This third grader looked me in the eye and told me that was silly and provided me with several lines to answer that kind of scenario. She also told me she wanted to be a lawyer and to have a vet place for homeless animals in her backyard and to be America’s Next Top Model and to be a cheerleader. What a sweetie.

Three beautiful things from the end of June:

1. Grateful to have me home, Della sleeps on my arm and Jeremiah curls up on my pillow above my head.

2. The first day of the conference, I go to lunch at Warehouse Cafe (which is closing because of the increase in their property taxes, so this is also a sad thing). Not only do they have a yummy vegetarian option, but they also understand that a panini machine is meant to cook the sandwich instead of just to create lines on the bread. A rarity in these parts.

3. When Bill, Jana, and I go out to eat Monday night, Bill identifies the scent in the restaurant hallway as that of Pez. Unusual, but strangely comforting, as well.

I’m home. I’m tired. I forgot to eat dinner (but I’m waiting to pick up a pizza now). The cats are clingy. Rudi is still in Utah (as planned, since I have to work the next two weekends). Tomorrow is going to be a sucky day at work. But even despite all this, there were definitely moments of beauty over the last week. Here are just three of them:

1. Coming across boxes of photos of Rudi and his mother from when they were children.

2. Eating fresh strawberries, raspberries, cherries, and boysenberries from Jenny’s garden.

3. I was supposed to have the middle seat for the non-stop flight from Utah to Maryland today. But whoever was supposed to use the aisle seat didn’t show up, so I got to have some elbow room instead.