This Is How We Do It

Last Friday, after my last day at work, Amy and I went out and about in Asheville. We started at a wine bar and ate some appetizers and laughed and talked and also exchanged presents. You saw what I gave her on my post last Friday, but do you know what she gave me? A bag of socks.

At work I often wore black dress pants. Unfortunately, I didn't own any black socks, so I would regularly be wearing dark socks that just didn't quite match. Such as navy, or brown, or grey. Amy used to kid me that she would buy me black socks, but I would always say, "I'm never wearing black socks once I get out of this job, or any other ugly socks, either, so don't bother." So when I opened the gift from her I was very happy to see four pairs of bright, lively, happy, striped socks.

This picture is pretty much a representation of how I'm going to do things now that I am working from home:


Notice the old, ratty slippers. I don't have to wear shoes if I don't feel like it. Then notice the knee-high orange and red striped socks. Amy was worried I wouldn't want socks that went up so high, but I'm all for them. And of course, as always, my blue reindeer pajamas will be worn when I am at home. Not everyone working from home can hope to be so classy. By the way, I don't usually wear the pajamas rolled up to my knees, that was just so you could see my socks.

In other news, last night Mom and I went to see the Downtown Waynesville Christmas Parade. There is just something fun about the kind of hometown-parade you see here that you just don't see in the big cities.

For instance, this parade was mostly a series of advertisements for county officials, churches, local companies that sell golf carts or motorcycles, dance studios, etc. Most displays either involved a giant truck with some lights strung on it with a sign about who was riding inside or in some cases, kids from a dance troupe doing a little performance, or the high school marching band coming through playing a Christmas song. My favorite though, was the float that was made up of a Port-O-Potty covered in lights being pushed by a little motorized cart that had some sort of lit up animated figure waving from it...I couldn't tell what the figure was supposed to be...but it was brown. Who puts a portable toilet in a Christmas parade??? Who cares??? It was great.

Today I am going to visit a former co-worker and her young son. Now she can just be my friend, I'm not her boss anymore! I'm also going to a guided meditation tonight with another former co-worker, I am hoping a guided meditation will stimulate my desire to meditate at home. I'm currently reading Eat, Pray, Love, and the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, talks about the way she struggled with meditation but over time how she was able to sink into it. Of course, she spent four months at an Ashram in India, studying under a Guru, and I'm spending who knows how long at my house in North Carolina, studying under two cats, but hey, it could work for me.

Time to take a shower and prepare for another day of Just Living Life.