Sunset

 

Tonight's sunset, behind Honolulu Harbor.

Happy things

Most of you know I'm living in a new place with a new job in a weird time zone, and that I'm pretty damn far away from anybody that I feel close to. There are definitely moments when it's hard to keep my chin up. My new job can be stressful, at times demanding, and of course since it's new to me, I sometimes screw up. And I often don't have anyone to commiserate with. You know how you can get down on one part of your life, and suddenly all these negative feelings about everything come out of the woodwork? I started to worry that all those feelings and attitudes were going to start shaping my life.

This past Thursday, I was able to talk to one of my friends who I hadn't spoken with since I left the mainland. It was a good conversation. She made a good suggestion to help me keep focused on the positive- write down two happy things about each day. I liked the idea, and thought why not share my happy moments with all of you? So here are four happy things that happened in the past two days:

1. That conversation with said friend. It is really great to catch up with loved ones, talk things over, and share.
2. On Thursday after lunch, I got to eat shave ice from Waiola's. Shave ice is pretty self explanatory, ice shaved into a power and flavored with syrups. It's a lot finer and softer than a snow cone, and the flavors are loads better. I had lychee and mango topped with lilikoi (passion fruit) cream, and it was yummy. Though I have now learned that condensed milk is the bomb as far as shave ice toppings go.
3. On Friday another good friend of mine called me while she was driving her car, because she had heard a song on the radio that reminded her of me ^_^ (Can anyone guess what the song was? It wasn't Bowie). It was also really helpful to talk things over with her.
4. When I left work last night it was still early enough to be sunny, and the sun felt fantastic on my body. I could feel my black bike shorts soaking it all up. And when I got home the last of the day's sun was streaming in through my bedroom window. I got to curl up in the sun with a nice gin and tonic and watch Cheers. 

I already feel like it has made a difference! So thanks, K, for the idea! One last thing, Old MD Girl inspired me to take the one hundred push ups challenge. My baseline is 0 regular push ups and 8 knee push ups. Ha! Nowhere to go but up!