$14.50 Worth of Silver Lining

As you know last week was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.

But even bad weeks have their silver lining. My silver lining's name was Dolly. 

Dolly has been my friend for at least a dozen years. She knows me. And even better, she gets me.

She also knows my kids.

And my hub.

And all my friends from the island--Martha, Swirl, Anjeny, Colleen, Iwa, Mariko--she knows them all.

Well last week she came to Utah and we hung out.  We started at my Aunt Amy's yoga studio where we did handstands together and released our negative toxins together.

Obviously negative toxins look better on her than they do on me.

Then her cute mom and cousin fed us all-you-can-eat avocados.

And then, like pioneer children, we sang as we talked and talked and talked and talked . . . AND talked.

We talked about everyone and everything.  It made me so happy/sad.

sniff

LY Dolly.

This week wasn't as terrible or horrible as last week, but I've had a classic case of the blah, blah, blahs.  Plus I'm dazed and confused because we're trying to make expensive, life-altering decisions.  

Why do life altering decisions have to be so expensive and expensive decisions have to be so life-altering?  

Blah, blah, blah weeks have their silver-lining too.  This week my silver lining cost $14.50 and came in the shape of a mysterious package from Hawaii. 

It was prepared and paid for by another dear friend, Elaine, who also knows me, and my kids, and my hub, and all my friends from the island. She even knows Dolly . . . plus a bazillion other friends I've never even mentioned.

Elaine and I practically raised our kids together--we go way way back to play groups and preschool and PTCO presidencies. We were even roomies when we traveled to Mexico with the history department and we didn't stop giggling for a week. (I had no idea I could be that silly.)

Awww, shucks, of all the millions of times I've laid eyes upon Elaine, this was the very last time.

sniff

LY Elaine.

So I could barely lift the mysterious  $14.50 package from Hawaii onto my kitchen counter. Elaine must have sent it book rate because it weighed a ton. 

But it wasn't books, it was beach.

Inside was a heart shaped card that read, Happy Valentines Day! Here's some Temple Beach for you.

SHE SENT US TEMPLE BEACH!

At this very moment I have $14.50 worth of Temple beach sitting on my kitchen counter. How cool is that?  

(I hope that's not illegal.) 

$14.50 is enough to make a dummy's eyes sweat profusely.

And it's enough to make a dummy's kids eyes sweat profusely too.

"Why did you do this to us?" They demanded. "Why, why, why did you move us from Hawaii to Utah?"

I stammered out something about wanting them to learn valuable life lessons that they couldn't learn in Hawaii, like how to sit in the house all winter long and play video games.

"We could have learned those lessons on vacation!" They cried.

It's kind of a blessing to have silver lining sitting on your kitchen counter in the middle of February. 

But it's also kind of a curse. 

You get me? 

Still, I'm grateful for my blessing/curse.  As I'm grateful for all my blessings/curses.  

This one in particular: