Connected

Do you ever have one of those weeks? Overall, doing well, but I’m annoyed. I don’t have the patience to deal with the stuff that hits you every day. From Winston getting more persistent about being fed in the morning (before I’ve woken up) to unreasonable demands of my time on committees to projects that just suck you dry. So yesterday I took things into my own hands and decided to treat myself. Long story short, I had a nice time hanging out with good friends. This morning I woke up and… I was still annoyed by Winston and still peeved by work and committee demands, but less so. And I’m heading into a three day weekend, so the right direction.

And as I was walking back from work I appreciated how connected I am. Case in point:

1. Dreamweaver. I’ve decided to try my hand at developing a website for a little idea I have. Except I checked out what I could do using free software and it was very limiting. The go to program is Dreamweaver from Adobe, but it’s not cheap - $400. Well, it turns out I have a friend who has a friend who can set me up with a legit copy of the just released CS5 version. And for really cheap. How super duper is that?

2. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. As mentioned earlier, I just finished book #2 in the Millennium series which was not an ending at all. I’m a patient person, but having been engrossed with the story each day and knowing there is more is torture. I checked the library – there are 1000+ holds on the copy there. I’m not even clear if they have the book yet. Long story short, Monday I’m getting a copy of the paperback version that has not been released in the US yet. My step-mother just picked up a copy over in Sweden for me (appropriate being the author is Swedish). How sweet is that?

3. Free Lunch. I’m still off PB&J which makes making lunches more heavy lifting than I’m up for sometimes. Right now, I don’t have much fixings for lunch so decided I’d grab lunch out, although I didn’t really want to spend money on lunch, again. Lunch time came and realized I wanted company so dropped a text to a friend at noon. Ten minutes later we were in line at a sandwich shop, laughing and catching up. We go to pay and I see the “cash only” sign and realized suddenly I’d just used the last of my cash the previous night. Crappy thing to do right? But my friend was adamant and wonderful and I got a free lunch today. How wonderful?!

Nice to have the connections. And good connections where you don’t feel hugely in debt. So that’s my thankful Friday for the week – being thankful for the “free” stuff and even more importantly the people who provide it.