and then the goddesses said, "let some light shine down on that girl"....

.....and that's just what happened.

Today......the dark clouds started to break away and the sun, I'll swear to ya, began to push its way though (in spite of the rain that was falling here in the city).

Before I go on......I want to say a huge "thank you" to those of you who left comments on my last post. I appreciate the support and advice on how to get out of this state of grumpiness I seem to have taken residence.

I took a bubble bath....drank some wine (actually, Japanese plum wine...homemade even!), tried to escape from my family for a bit and spent some time over at YouTube watching some really funny and cute videos.

I spent some quality time with Debbie....THAT hadn't happened for a long time. Though the reasons for the bitchiness are all still there, I think I have a better handle on it.

While I was on the Internet, I found something interesting....there was an article from some newspaper, by the spelling of certain words, I'm going to venture a guess and say it was from London...just guessing, though, I could be wrong.

Anyway, it said something to the fact that....

being sad is good because it makes you stronger and better able to cope with life's challenges. We need to learn to embrace our sadness (or depression) and then we will be motivated to make our lives better.

Finally. An official reason to have a pity party.

Then, on Monday....I was in the class that has been reading books by Patricia MacClachlan (Do you remember when I called and talked to her?!?!). We are now reading Cassie Binegar. We got to one part and something that Ms. MacClachlan wrote really reached out and grabbed me.

"...life is filled with small perfect moments that are only there for a short time. And then gone. Like catching snow on your hand."

The writer smiled. "Catching snow," he murmured.

"What do you think?" asked Cassie.

"I think," said the writer, "that catching snow is wonderful." He grinned at her.

"Just wonderful."

After class, I sat in the parking lot in my car just thinking about that.

Catching snow.

That's what I've been missing.

"Catching snow."

If I paid better attention to all the snow catching moments, maybe things will not seem so dreary.

So....I have embraced my sadness...took it to lunch today, even...and am now making a better effort to find some of that snow to catch.

Here's some "snow" I caught so far:

~~Spending the day with Issei...having burgers and fries for lunch...then picking out some great glasses...observing his total 11-year-old embarrassement when some college girls said he looked kokoii (cute!) in one pair of very cool frames.

~~During the snow we had last week, I went to pick up Koji after school....on our way home, upon seeing a pretty good sized space with beautiful 'virgin' snow, he proceeded to drop his bag and then run to a spot, yelling "Snow angel!!!" He made one...a pretty good one, then thought he needed another.....
I was laughing so hard, I almost couldn't get the picture!!!

~~Am I the only one that thought our snowman looked like a Shriner???

~~One daisy...peeking up through the snow.

~~The neighbors' car with the little snowmen all across the hood....by the way, our neighbors? Yeah...they are in their late 50's and live with their parents....and their own children

are grown and gone.
Some people catch their snow and do wonderful things.

~~Taking a nice afternoon walk on a cold day with sunshine for just a short bit of time.


~~Walking around our yard with the boys and looking at all the interesting ways the snow had piled up:



....like on the laundry clips.....





.....in the branches of the trees....







....and how it made our orange tree look really pretty.

Things are getting better....

and here I'll be...

waiting for the next "snow".