Grateful Sunday – February 14, 2021

I’m grateful for the opportunity to process my Uncle’s death through my writing. While I wrote my blog last week about what we don’t say at funerals, it allowed me the ability to say what needed to be said and most likely won’t be acknowledged with my family. I added more books on grief in my February 10th Wednesday Share Day, a couple I would like to add to my own reading list. And when I did a final edit of a piece I wrote in November, I revisited how far I’ve come grieving the death of my marriage. I’m so grateful for the work I’ve done through my writing and the work I continue to do on myself.

I’m grateful my roommate’s son tested negative for Covid. His father tested positive last week, and we had to wait for the incubation period to pass before his pediatrician allowed him to get tested. I learned it’s pretty much close to impossible to quarantine a two-year-old. I mean, you can restrict him to a bedroom, not allowing him to communicate with anyone else in the house, however you run the extremely high risk of melt downs, temper tantrums, and absolute defiance. This boy has so much energy constantly running around the kitchen island. He’s too young to understand what being isolated from everyone else means and has so much energy he can’t be restricted to a small bedroom. I realize I was rolling the dice, which was why I had asked my girls to stay at their Mom’s until the test results came back. I’m grateful she agreed with me and has always been so flexible with her schedule.

I’m grateful after the negative test result, my younger daughter and I were still able to fly to New Orleans to visit my girlfriend and her son for a modified Mardi Gras celebration, albeit four days later than we had planned. We traveled on Saturday and made it just in time for the social distance parade of cars that drove by her house for a couple of hours. My daughter helped make throws, small potion bottles on beads, which matched the theme of Marie Laveau, Queen of Voodoo, that my girlfriend had decorated her porch as. We listened to classic Mardi Gras music, danced on the sidewalk, and threw (well actually ran up, wearing masks, to cars who rolled down their windows) throws. I’m grateful we later became one of the cars in the parade as we drove by porches that were decorated with various themes. Oh, and I’m grateful for the White Russian Daiquiri I enjoyed that evening. Yum!

I’m grateful I had the opportunity to help my older daughter with her resume so she can start looking for her first job. We were both surprised that her volunteerism and extracurricular activities really do help round out who she is and shows a ton of experience outside school. I’m grateful my ex and I were able to agree to allow her to spend time with her boyfriend and his family for Valentine’s Day weekend as he planned to help her with her senior project and essay.

Speaking of Valentine’s Day, I’m grateful I’m able to spend the day with my younger daughter, my girlfriend, and her son. I look forward to making a Monte Crisco Eggs Benedict breakfast and in keeping with my daughter and my tradition of mac and cheese pizza for dinner, I’ll be making it from scratch this year.

I’m grateful I had the opportunity to help a young man get current on his night landings. We planned to do this in December, however, with Covid scares and trying to get our schedules to align, we hadn’t had the chance to do it yet. I miss flying in a small airplane and it’s been a while since I’d done pattern work (multiple take off and landings) at night. I’m looking forward to taking my younger daughter on her second lesson sometime later this month.

I’m grateful for the support of my writing group. No matter how much I’ve written on my blog, actually reading my work out loud to a group of people, always tends to give me a bit of anxiety and self-doubt my abilities. I had planned to read The Beast is Human, however since the two who read prior to me were based around their parents, I decided to keep the same theme, yet have a different perspective by reading The Beast has Metamorphosed Into a Prince, instead. I was surprised to see teary eyes and to receive such positive feedback. I was so touched and I was encouraged to get more of my work out to the public. I’m grateful the universe keeps on pushing me a little more each day to step outside my comfort zone.