Begrudgingly.

Great word, eh?
I couldn't think of another word that fit my thought more appropriately.

Today I was updating our master contact list at work and was begrudgingly going through each category of my boss's list trying to put them in the right sections. I made it about 3/4 of the way through his list and as I started to get antsy and wanted to move on to the next project....I came across a category that I didn't recognize.

I laughed out loud when I saw it and immediately recognized every name in the group.

Category name: Wacko.
Brilliant.
And every single one of them had earned the right to be categorized as such.

Overcome

Some people are scared of spiders or confined spaces or commitment.

Me?
I'm terrified of being on a non-moving escalator and have it suddenly start or vice versa. And today, that happened.

And I didn't die. (or dislocate a knee)

I was running down the escalator at a metro stop and out of nowhere, it just stopped. I screamed and kept going and as I squeezed between the doors of the metro my friend said, "See, you're OK. It wasn't as bad as you imagined."

And he was right (grrrr), I was OK.

It's back!

I had a sunshine today and realized I didn't need/want to broadcast it over the internet, so I restrained.

Then I remembered the little black book that's been left lonely on my desk and practically untouched over the past year. The REAL sunshine journal I've had for years now.

It was so great to pull it back out, document a moment in time and then read through entries of sunshine past.

I had a friend recently tell me that only girls keep journals....but I highly recommend writing down silly/fun/sad/exciting moments from your life in one place. Just a sentence or even picture at a time. It's pretty fantastic reading material.

My fingers are covered in red.

Because, ladies and gentlemen, I spent my morning at the airport gripping a poster made with Crayola markers that said, "Welcome Home!"

I love, love, love the arrivals gate. But we already knew this.

Today, joined by 10 other amazing people, I welcomed a friend and her new baby boy home from Ghana.

The tears and the hugs and the tears....man it was great.

Orion

Today, nothing overly out-shined anything that's happened in the last week or so. But I caught myself sulking and remembered that forcing myself to find a sunshine on days similar to this was always a little piece of therapy.

So here I am.

And in my search, I realized my sunshine is the stars. Both kinds.

Ironically enough, LA's livelihood is built on the warm-blooded type but rarely does it get to see the celestial kind. And tonight I enjoyed a little of both.

Exhibit A: Meryl Streep. I want to be her and every character she's played. I didn't see her in the flesh, but somehow her movies always make it seem as if I am.

Exhibit B: Even with a full moon, the stars seemed to whisper at me as I unlocked the door to my apartment. So I stopped and stared for a bit. Sadly, I've been doing this less and less...and even though they are few and far between in this city, they still amaze me.