Turning a corner

I felt okay this morning but then lapsed into fiery anger about an unsupervised staff dog that got into the trash and made a mess. It took two phone consultations and one in-person interaction to shake me out of it. I realize that being guilted about my relative privilege is a terrible way to make me stop feeling this way. Instead, I went to a different way of focusing on more positive things. I also ate, which helped, because I suspect a lot of the crankiness came from hunger and tummy malaise from stress. But after a very deep and long nap, I woke up to walk outside with Cobi (in red) to get a ride from Katie (far right, black pants) to her friend's bbq. Cornhole goes a long way to improving mood!

It was not too far out, in the foothills, but a WORLD of a difference in terms of climate and scenery. The couple does all sorts of gardening and doing things on the land, so a lot of food was fresh and it smelled like real earth (partly from the rain) and there were a lot of chickens.

The food was overabundant and delicious and there were impromptu haircuts outside and different music on the outside than inside and the only tummy ache I had was from eating too much and maybe laughing too loudly.

On our drive back home, we stopped to see the fireworks. This holiday is usually not a big deal for me, and I recalled last year's version when I was on the beach in the south, unhappy, recovering from a major life event, with my ex and his family. I liked that this time, the day arrived with very little pomp or preparation or anticipation but ended up wholly positive. AND I finished knitting another paper scarf!