Gratitude.
I feel pretty grateful most of the time, I think. I have gratitude lists strewn about my house, literally (my dad makes these little gratitude notepads that I have a ton of). I feel relatively blessed in the life and love department most days, and yet I can’t seem to be grateful enough for it all. Yesterday as Jeff was riding his bike to work he slipped on a turn. I guess it was a combination of the rain, the low air in his tires, the distribution of weight in the basket, and the big huge fast turn he was making. Anyway, he flew off his bike and slid about 20 feet. So yesterday morning was spent at the hospital hoping that he didn’t break anything. He’s alright, amazingly enough, but he’s all scraped up (his left side just… owie) and his muscles in his shoulder are so bruised that he can’t even pick up Vera without wincing. He’s also not wearing his ring right now because that finger swelled up. He’ll be alright in a couple of days, but for now I’m babying him like crazy. I know it was just a fall on his bike, but I know the turn he was making. It’s a sharp turn with almost no visibility right after a road that’s 45 mph, so basically drivers slow a little, but are whizzing through and then get back up to speed. If there had been a car… I mean, I just couldn’t imagine. Yesterday at the hospital I had to keep banishing the little lump rising in my throat. He’s fine, he’s fine. I don’t know what I would do. I was worried that he would be scared about riding his bike now. I know that I had trouble crossing busy streets without adrenaline shooting through my body after I got hit by the van. He said he knows exactly what was wrong, and that he will just be smarter in the future. Thank god for his helmet. When I was a kid I never wore my helmet. I’d ride my bike around turns with no hands. Now… just fucking always wear your helmet. I love my Jeff.
Kind of a two-parter, a before and after… Jeff found this coffee table on the side of the road. It had chipped white paint all over it but had this great iron base. He lugged it home and sanded all the paint off. Then he refinished it to match the tv cabinet he made. I love it. It’s lower to the ground so now babies can’t crawl under it and bonk their heads, and it’s got two drawers in the side that we can stick the zappers in and magazines and whatever. It’s bigger, but I really like it. I was kind of sad about the old coffee table going, oddly enough. I had it with an ex. We got it for free from someone, and so I painted it. Then when we broke up I moved out and he stayed. He was a graffiti artist, and so he took me moving out as an opportunity to paint practically everything in the apartment. Most of it was mine, so when I finally had a space to move the stuff I had a graffiti covered table. I kind of liked it for a while, but I grew out its craziness and wanted a change. By that time I was with Jeff, and of course he took it on as a project. He stripped the paint off of it (which turned out to be an INSANE project), and then stained it, etc. It’s served me well over the years. Anyway, I guess it’s just weird to get “grown up” furniture. I don’t mean new stuff, but I dunno, it’s just different. So anyway, before and after.
June 27th:
Jeff randomly brought me a Black Eyed Susan vine. I love it of course. I’m addicted to plants.
June 28th:
Yesterday Jeff’s parents took him to the hospital and I just met them there. Afterwards we went to lunch and then hung out at our house for a while. Jeff’s dad had this library in a warehouse for like 20 years. The warehouse was sold, and so he had to move these mountains of books from the space back to his house. Anyway, he had these two full boxes in the car of “classics” that he was going to donate to the library. He gave them to me instead. I am so excited. There’s all sorts of stuff that I wanted to read for forever but never got around to. Now it’s at my fingertips! It’s cool too, some of them are pretty old and retro looking. They have that old book smell… Yay books.
I actually finished my birth story. I just sat down and did it. I’ll probably post that tomorrow.
I decided that, considering the profound importance of maintaining an attitude of gratitude, I will send, to anyone who wants it, a little gratitude list notepad, my treat. All I need, if you want one, is your address. Just message me or email me (gracified@comcast.net) and I’ll be more than happy to spread the love.
This made me smile a lot. Be sure to watch the 2008 video and click on the watch in high quality option.
Quote of the day:
“Silent gratitude isn’t very much use to anyone.” -Gertrude Stein
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THE MATT THING IS SOO WEIRD because i am a voyeur to this womans blog and she just posted the same thing yesterday. and it is really awesome, i cried.
and i was wondering if you got the seeds yet? i want to make sure the post office didnt keep themor something.
YES That is what I forgot to mention! I love them! They got here safe and sound. Thank you so much! I’ll split them up with Gretchen soon. You guys are awesome.
Glad Jeff is all right!
I love your new coffee table– I’m really into the natural wood look. Everything in our house is either oak or maple (besides our coffee table, go figure) and with a lot of things painted green, it seems like we’ve brought the outside in!
And bonus for having a coffee table that babies won’t bonk head on! My grandparents had the coffee table of death (my parents now have it) and it was big and heavy and had really large, sharp corners. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run into it or bruised myself. We’re lucky no one has lost an eye! ;-p
Oh it’s such a shame that your camera is broken- I would love to see your natural wood furniture, etc. I think it’s funny about your grandparent’s table (not the you getting hurt part, but you know…) Isn’t it weird how there’s always some piece of furniture that you always bonk your leg on or something? Maybe I’m just clumsy, but for argument’s sake I’m blaming it on inanimate objects.
sorry this is so disjointed….
How scary! I’m glad jeff is okay!! helmets are sooo important!
You seem pretty grateful to me lady, while silent gratitude isn’t very much use to anyone (else), just the fact that you are thinking about how grateful and blessed you are means you are 5 steps ahead of the curve. I know so many people who aren’t even thankful or feel like they are blessed with all the opportunities and things that life offers them on a daily basis. Just thinking about all the things you are grateful for really does make a difference.
The coffee table looks great! Hooray for old/new to you books!
That dancing video was amazing! thanks for sharing it!! and i’m excited to read your birth story. 🙂
Re: sorry this is so disjointed….
Thanks! I really appreciate your insight (and I speak disjointed fluently, so no worries).
I almost cried watching that dancing video. I was definitely reading far too into it, but seriously I thought it was amazing. I’m happy to see that you were spreading the love. It just was so… we’re all the same, you know? Anyway, I’m a sap. Yay!
I’m so glad Jeff is fine! Reminds me of the bike accident my dad had in MI. *shudder*
My gratitude list:
1. Jeff is OK.
2. My dad is OK.
3. I’m seeing you in 13 days!!
Holy crap! 13 days!!! I’m so excited. I’m really happy that we’re gonna have actual time to catch up. This is gonna be so fun!
Ok, what bike accident? I probably knew about this at one point, but I can’t remember!!!
I’ll ask my dad to give me a refresher, so I can tell it to you correctly. For the moment, let’s just say you could have reenacted the accident by looking at the smashed up helmet.
1. I’m really glad Jeff is okay.
2. TWO WHOLE BOXES OF CLASSICS! Oh my!! I would die for that, enjoy them 🙂
Aw, thanks, me too. And books- I will enjoy them! I only hope that I can sit in a garden as beautiful as yours someday to read them!
soo thankful that jeff is ok! he deserves to be babied, he’s such a good partner and daddy!
Love your new coffee table! I also love that Jeff is so on the ball with his projects! I wonder if I could borrow some of the energy?
Yes me too- I don’t know what I’d do without him!!!
I will talk to him about sending his energy. He’ll probably try, too. I don’t know how he does it. Sometimes I’ll be like “Hey, I was thinking maybe we could do this…” and he’ll be like “Ok, I’m off to the hardware store.” It’s really refreshing, but totally unnatural to me. I like to let things marinate for long periods of time and make lots of lists that I won’t look at again. In the meantime I keep myself very busy with non-priority projects while dreaming of the ones I really want to do. Anyway, he’s good for me.
I would love a gratitude notepad on the condition that it comes with a couple hours of hanging out with an awesome Grace 😉
My life is totally crazy right now, but I would really like to make some time to hang out with you. Do you have any particular schedule/times that would be best?
Hey, sounds like a deal. I’m actually really flexible with a little warning. My days fill up, but I don’t have anything really bolted down. You should let me know when you are free, and then I can work around it. That’ll be fun to catch up! Haha, we only have about 13 years to cover.
So glad Jeff is OK. It’s a reminder for me to um, get a helmet! Yikes.
I love the smell of old books. I remember that warehouse. I can’t believe he had to find new homes for all his books! Wow. Luck for you!
Gratitude notebook sounds good. I would be grateful to receive one!
Yeah, he has a kazillion books! It’s amazing. I’m glad he gave some up though!
Awesome, just send me your address. 🙂
The coffee table looks awesome!