Accept the good in your life and know you're a fucking delight.
Once you notice the good shit going on in your life, more good shit starts happening. It's like a magnet or a dung beetle. Fun fact: Once a dung beetle gets a little nub of poop, he runs around with it and more poop sticks to it and grows and grows. Goodness is like that.
Here's my list of ten good things that I've noticed lately:
• Hitting Lena’s Water Ice a few towns from me multiple times this Summer and early Fall. With Jackson, with Wayne, and with Lauryn. On their closing for the season day I went with Lauryn in the afternoon and then a few hours later I was back there with Jackson. The teenage girls that work there have seen me and Jax so often that they know our order. The owner saw me with Lauryn and referred to me as a regular. It's my equivalent of Cheers; that feeling of going into a place and feeling like everyone knows your name. Plus they have the best water ice in the universe. Of that I am certain.
• This time of year means new episodes and it's so wonderful to catch season two of Ludwig, plus new eps of Abbott Elementary and St. Denis Medical.
• That Lucy is quite possibly thee sweetest, kindest girl in the world. I was hanging out with her last week for the whole day and mentioned something to her mother, in passing, about financial struggles. Lucy left the room and in a couple minutes returned with her Mrs. Potts bank and wallet and said I could have it. I mean, come on! How adorable is that?! (Note: I didn't take any, of course, but we organised her cash and counted $250 in cash only. That girl is rich!)
• Calling up bestie Amy in a COBRA induced panic and asking, if I needed to, could she loan me eleven hundred bucks to cover December's payment and I'll give it back to her in late January. Ugh. Hitting up a friend for money feels so icky. I doubt I'll need to, but in order to calm down, I wanted her to back me up. She instantly replied, "Yes. Whatever you need." Immediate relief and my cortisol levels dropped down to normal. I'm seriously the luckiest girl in the world to have her in my life.
• Getting a postcard from Amber. We kept in touch via Instagram but since I left there in February, it's been quiet on her end. Then out of the blue I pulled this postie out of my mailbox and felt the love.
I have been meaning to
send you a little note
for ages! 5 months? More?
In any case I found a
little torn paper w/your
address on it...and it felt
like "yep-now's the
perfect time to send
some ♡ LOVE ♡ from
Chicago. I know this
year has been a lot of
SHIT. But I hope
you know you're awesome!
♡ Amber B.
• Having a new TV that allows me to watch a ton of streaming shows that normally I'd have to view on my lil' laptop. Widow’s Bay and Ludwig plus YouTube. Oh my gosh, I spent days going through all the interviews and videos I had saved. Lately it's Rick Beato's channel, some old Track Star interviews (although that channel seems kind of commercial-y and I've lost interest), and of course, loads of drumming vids and classic Dick Cavett Show eps. The interview with Cher and the one with Oscar Peterson were really good.
• Making a mad dash to finish the books on my to-read-in-2026 list and (so far) thoroughly enjoying Hitch-22 and feeling like I'll be able to finish it this weekend and then start on A Woman in Berlin.
• Seeing Chagrin Falls late last month and feeling so grateful that I have been able to marvel at the falls that I loved as a child, watching The Gathering, but in real life.
• Using my fun CampSnap camera to take the above photos plus more and loving the raw, vintage feel to the finished photographs.
• Daydreaming about maybe, finally, getting my place repainted and fixed up so I can actually have people over again and feel a sense of pride in my home. Fingers crossed!!
Accepting the good - having wonderful friends, even those I've never met in person, like Amber, plus great kids that enrich my life like nothing else and feeding my creativity by traveling and feeling loved and alive. Here's hoping that this acceptance and gratitude of the good things will lead to much, much more! Oh, and I absolutely am a fucking delight. No doubt.
