Pretty good day for a Wednesday

Here’s how my day went… I had to fast this morning because we had a health risk assessment at work. It’s a free service the company provides and when I do it, I get an extra $50 towards my Wellness benefit. (This is free money the company gives us to participate in healthy lifestyle choices – weight loss, smoking cessation, apply it towards exercise equipment, etc. We get a set amount per year but if you don’t use it, you lose it.) Fasting included skipping coffee, but I was still in a pretty perky mood – unbelievably.

Got my HRA done. I knew my weight had gone up from last year, as well as my waist size and of course BMI. But what was good is that my blood pressure and cholesterol were WAY down from last year. So, that was good news and then they gave us a $2 coin to spend on healthy foods in the cafeteria. I head to the cafeteria to get milk for my breakfast and some much deserved coffee, only the cafeteria doesn’t have flavored coffee which I need with my skim milk – princess coffee, you know. But, I decide to get the milk there because I need to get a teeny bit of syrup to mix in with my cereal thing because of this crazy thing I have fallen in love with eating for breakfast.*

As I’m checking out, I realize that the cost of my milk is going to be less than my $2 coin and they don’t give you change. So, I decide to pay for the breakfast of the guy in line behind me – whom I knew from a different department. He is completely flabbergasted by this gesture. It’s really funny – he just did not know how to react. He kept asking why I was doing that, so I explained the $2 dilemma and we talk about the HRA while I’m making my whacky breakfast. He is not enrolled, but I encourage him to go. Then I head to the cafeteria to purchase my flavored coffee and wind up having to use my CAMS which I was trying to avoid – but it was worth it for his reaction. Later on, I run into a co-worker from his department and she sort of singles me out as we’re walking out a meeting and asks, “Did you buy Kevin breakfast?” I said that I did and I was really pretty amused by his reaction. She indicated that he was a bit taken aback. I told her that my message was that he should pay it forward.

The day goes on and I come home to the VAT of spaghetti sauce I had started in the crockpot. Such a ridiculous amount of food, I was really tickled. We were going to see a sneak preview with the neighbors later (a highly rare week night excursion) and I invite them over to share some of this vat of food. No one dies or gets sick from my cooking – the night is beautiful!
Then we saw a sneak preview of 10,000 B.C. In a tiny cramped local theater that I had only recently avowed I would never go to again. Truly, I say only when it is free will you find me there and then maybe not. The movie is not great. It’s not bad. You won’t wish you could get this two hours back when you see it, but you will not be overly impressed. Some of the action scenes are fun enough, but the acting is just so, so bad. AND THEN, the coolest thing happened – I saw a local celebrity in the press row --- Mal Vincent.

If you’re not in the Hampton Roads area, he is a local film critic. I really like him and always have. I don’t always agree with him, but generally if Mal doesn’t like it then I am not going to see it – at least for things I am borderline about, for sure. I accost him and he actually talks to us. He sounds like an old school Southern ahem effeminate gentleman. What my godmother refers to as a Richmond accent. We talked about the movies and he told me that he just interviewed Amy Adams and I almost peed my pants because I just LOVE her. Scott says I kissed his ass and I totally know that I did and I don't even care. It was just delightful!

I am just on the moon. I feel like I just fell in love with life. After a fall of uncertainty and a winter of change and upheaval, I really feel like there is a Spring song just dancing! These times when I am loving life, I just try to revel in it and embrace it like I would a new romance. Those fleeting times of joy and hope and a little bit of a kick in my step – they are not every day occurrences, so, when they are hear I sing the songs and shake the rafters and just love love love!

And this is coming from a woman heading towards “paper jail” to write a six page paper on Richard III and Henry VII this weekend! If I can find some zing, then you should too!

Big, life-affirming hugs,
Heather

*PS* The crazy breakfast thing I’m in love with – ½ cup of skim milk, 1 cup shredded wheat, 1 small banana sliced and 1 scant teaspoon of maple syrup. Put all the ingredients in microwaveable bowl and nuke for about one minute, then stir it up and yum – get in my belly! If you don’t love it too, I do not care!