Flowers for Spring

Here you can see Domo admiring the tulips given to me by a friend.  In order to protect my anonymity, Domo offered to demonstrate my open-mouthed, wide-eyed appreciation of this thoughtful gift.

Ken and I took our new friend to a fancy vegan restaurant.    My Berry Buzz spritzer (wild blueberries, strawberries, sparkling water, and a twist of lemon) arrived with crushed rose petals and other edible flower bits on top.  Looks a little like potpourri, doesn't it?  It was very tasty.

My life has been feeling quite full lately, in a good way.  I am keeping my resolution to nurture relationships (of all types: friends, family, and colleagues) and it's a very rewarding process.  I can't recall the last time I felt lonely.  I often used to feel lonely because I was too shy to reach out to people.  That made me feel sad, which made me feel vulnerable, which made me turn ever more inward.  Now that cycle is reversed.

At work a project that has been looming on the horizon since 2003 (!!) is finally underway in a material sense.  I have been working on preparations to roll it out for over a year. I was initially intimidated by the prospect, but a series of delays transformed my fear into frustration, and a feeling of "Let's just get this over with already!"  It's gratifying to see stacks of equipment being unpacked: evidence that the project will eventually be done.

For now, my frame of mind is more Twitterish than bloggish.  I like that I can check in when I feel like it with a few bon mots and a photo.  No need to make a big production out of it.  I enjoy the haiku-like challenge of capturing the essence of a moment or feeling within a limited number of words and a single image.  It's much more immediate than saving up an experience, composing a post in my head for a day or two, and then sitting down to craft a story or essay out of it.  Twitter is about what's happening now, and then we can move right along to the next moment of this unpredictable and curious life.