Red Letter Day

I have a cycle to my psyche: restless, apathy, grateful. I’m in the grateful stage right now, which is the stage I like best. It’s a time to count and enjoy my blessings. Some of this feeling may be because I’m finally recovered from the steroids and my emotions are back to an even keel. Al said I went through “’roid rage.” All I know is that unless I am paralyzed and/or passed out from pain, I’m not doing that again.

So, it’s Valentine’s Day, and I made one of Al’s favorite dishes, Beef ‘n Burgundy, and chocolate chip cookies. Al isn’t a big candy guy, but he loves chocolate chip cookies. I had an afternoon in the kitchen and loved just the normalness of it. And during those “restless” cycles when I lament what I haven’t achieved, I need to remember these grateful moments. It’s kind of like that journal I used to keep—I only wrote in it when I was depressed because when everything was great, I didn’t take time to write.

Al is really good at Valentine’s Day. He didn’t used to be (used to call it a Hallmark holiday), but in the last few years, he’s become down right romantic. I get a card every day for a week leading up to Valentine’s Day, and usually those cards have a Dove dark chocolate heart with them. And these aren’t the little multi-pack cards you give other kids at school, they are full-size, Hallmark cards. And he put them in different places around the house to find them—under the laptop, on the bathroom sink, on top of the newspaper. He’s cute, isn’t he?



But that wasn’t all this year. He had a much bigger surprise planned:



Yep. A red iPod Nano. And not only that, he had his pet name for me and my initials engraved on the back, so it says “Sweetness KP.” I was pretty overwhelmed and surprised. I was also doing a happy dance around the kitchen “I have a Nano, I have a Nano.” I didn’t scold him for spending that money because he’s just so proud of himself, and besides I love it and had wanted one for a long time, I just never said anything. Oh, and it’s the red Nano, so it’s part of (Product) Red, a charity for the fight against AIDS in Africa. Pretty cool, huh?

BTW, speaking of Apple, have you seen iPhone? Holy Cow I want one of those! Yeah, I know I’m a bit of a technophobe and I hate cell phones, but it’s just so damn cool.

Anyway, I’m off to buy some more songs on iTunes and download them to my new Nano. I think this “grateful” cycle is going to last a while.