From the last week, I offer you three beautiful things:
1. The terrific feeling of handing in the first draft of something that’s been hanging over your head for a while. The obesity book still has to go through the office head and reviewers, but that’s cake in comparison to getting it all down in print initially.
2. On Tuesday, it was lovely and still sunny out when I left work. I headed to the Starbucks by the house and found myself an outdoor seat. Rudi joined me when he got home. And Rudi caught sight of our friend John on his way home from a meeting, so he bought a coffee and sat down for a while too. Little birds clamored for handouts, children scampered around while their dad had coffee with his friends, multiple languages filled the air (this seems to be the coffeehouse of choice for foreigners), and a dog kept coming over to see if we were interested in playing. All that for the price of a cup of tea.
3. I am bad about getting presents to people. I buy them, but somehow actually getting to the post office seems to elude me with regularity. But last week, two people got to receive their backlogged gifts. Jason sent me an email saying he received the hat I mailed him — and that it fits! And I sent Eri home with gifts I bought her over the course of several years — including Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair. The bag of delinquent presents is growing lighter; maybe we’ll finally get it cleared out sometime next month!