Meet Abbey, the new puppy my sister and brother in-law adopted. She is a boxer-pitbull-lab mix and is 13 weeks old. I have booked a trip to go and meet my adorable new niece at the very beginning of February. I can’t wait to meet her!

I am going to start by telling you that this past week has really sucked. I think though, it is because the first week back to work from a holiday break that was TWO TONS OF AWESOME always sucks.

We had two glorious weeks off together. We spent the first week in Toronto, Canada – one of my all time favorite cities – and then the second week at home. We also rang in the new year helping dear friends of ours clean and paint their new super-duper-fixer home. It was grueling work but helping friends is a damned fine way to start the year.

Two of my favorite places – this artist and creative design building that Mike once worked in, and of course Chinatown. Other places I loved that I have no pictures of were the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and Kensington. So fun!

And we spent a few days in Warkworth at his parents house too. Check out the soldier ornament Mike made out of a toilet paper tube when he was a little boy. So funny.

The article recently published at Smithsonian.com is titled, “The Science of Sarcasm? Yeah, Right.” and it is lovely.

It is weird today. A nice weird. I usually do up holiday dinners and we have a crowd of some kind come over. But this time we decided to just have it be us and not make a big deal out of it. I am going to cook today – Cornish hens with wild mushroom and wild rice stuffing, roasted brussel sprouts, candied yams, and blueberry pie – but we aren’t cleaning or doing much of anything except lazing around by the fire reading. I’ve already called my family and so the day is entirely ours to enjoy.

I’ve gotten through the odd blip at work and have this amazing perspective. I took a day to think about things, came up with a plan, and laid that plan out thoughtfully and I am in a comfortable place. I am infinitely grateful for my life, and my job, and so many things in life. Most of all I am grateful for Mike. We support each other and love each other but the greatest part of our relationship is how much we laugh. So much laughter.

I am sitting here typing this up and I have one of our dogs cuddled up with me; across the room is Mike reading his blogs and laughing out loud every so often with our other dog curled up next to him. It is such a blissful moment and I am taking the time to notice it and savor it.

Last night I was tidying up the house in anticipation of my friend Ross visiting for the weekend. I put my sunglasses away because I figured it would be a very long while before I needed them again. I am very happy to report that I was wrong. I stepped outside to take a picture of the rolling hills, the blue sky, the green grass, and the pretty trees – some of which are wearing their fall colors. I hope the weather holds all weekend, but if not I am still grateful for this spectacular fall day. Sun! Yay!

I also recently had one of the best meals I have ever had at the restaurant Kin. I hope they do well since I’d like them to be open for a long time to come.

Tomorrow I hope to eat breakfast at Hellser’s and lunch at Clyde Common.

I am SO looking forward to this weekend which, lucky me, starts tonight!

I heard from one of my good friends back in Boston yesterday that she and her husband of several years are separating. She is managing it, is grateful for her job with great co-workers, and her friends around her. She acknowledges it is painful, but she is a kick-ass person who has a lot going for her and she will go through it with pain, but also with grace.

At the same time it is impossible to avoid this bullshit about Kim Kardashian and how she is “somber” and she went out with no make-up. Ladies, we all know that if you are a person who wears make-up regularly, and suddenly you don’t, it is usually to fool idiots into believing your fakery of… whatever. Fake-called in sick to work yesterday? Show up the next day, sans make-up, and everyone will see how you are bucking up and may even still be sick, poor thing, but are soldiering on. It is the oldest trick in the book.

You know what? Fuck you and all of your bullshit, fake-Kardashian people. I’m supposed to dredge up sympathy, or even some semblance of I give a shit, for this 72 hour joke of a marriage to people who seem as shallow as my dogs’ water bowl at the end of the day? And don’t even get me started on how some people out there still consider this joke-of-a-marriage more acceptable than two same-sex people who are committed and work hard at their relationship getting married.

Give me a break.

In other news…sort of related…

I was reading a blog today and in it the person was getting very excited to meet his dream-girl traveling all the way from Scotland (to Seattle) and he was ready for some public snogging in the airport followed by a hot and heavy weekend filled with canoodling et. al. I miss that feeling.

Of course I don’t miss the crappery that relationships in your 20’s can be. The bullshit, the whining, the flakiness, the fickleness….but enough about me.

Sometimes Mike and I will go out on a Friday or Saturday night and bump into a part of the city or a place that is meat-markety. The desperation. The skimpy slip dresses and no coat in 30 degree weather. The faint tinge of desperation. And some douche-bag behavior. We usually look at each other and thank god we are not in our twenties anymore.

We fully appreciate the true intimacy of a good and healthy relationship in our 40s. It is a wonderful thing. Plus, I am the lucky girl whose boyfriend can still get her weak in the knees.

But sometimes that shaky roller-coaster, butterflies in the gut, quest for the perfect Friday night outfit, hair-just-right, adrenaline rush of the uncertainty…well sometimes I admit that I do indeed miss that. I remember it clearly from when I was meeting Mike for the first time face to face.

Then I think about how sick I was recently and how my wonderful boyfriend made me laugh about  things; things in my 20s that I would have been mortified my boyfriend even knew about me. And I remember that in my 20s what I have now is exactly what I was looking for.

Okay, maybe in my 30s. In my 20s I was mostly just having crazy, irresponsible, selfish fun.