Highs and lows, Jan. 2nd edition

High:

My high was having this last week off from work.  By Tuesday I forgot I even had a job, what with all the playtime I got to spend with friends and family, shopping and eating and reading and writing and exercising. My perfect day involves waking up sans an alarm clock, and this last week or so I got 10 of those days. Pure bliss. D and I stayed at my parents' house for most of the week, where the fridge is always fully stocked with yummy goodies and the ocean is only a couple miles away. We took many lazy walks along the beach cliffs and "grazed" every night on aged gouda, olives, grapes, and red wine. 

Having all that time off was much-needed therapy. Of course, that makes tonight even harder to cope with since it's back to work tomorrow where I'm 100% sure I'll have to deal with an annoyingly stressful situation that will inevitably carry over from before Christmas, but I need to just breathe and deal with it. Like my grandma said a few days ago: "It's only a goddamn job." Tell yourself that every time you feel your blood pressure rise, she said. And she's right. It's only a goddamn job. Rinse and repeat.

Another high this week was a shopping spree D and I had at Banana Republic. The entire store is basically 50% off right now, so we made out like bandits. We got $500 worth of clothes for a little over 200 dollars total, with most of those clothes being for me. My fave purchase was a classic khaki trench that I got for $65 (originally $200). I'm still in shock for scoring such a fabulous find:

 

And I can't wait to wear it with my new Hunters!

Low:

Well, coming home to a cat puke all over my living room carpet was no walk in the park. Sometimes I feel like my cat forces herself to throw up like a bulimic to boycott us leaving her for days at a time. Luckily I have a husband who doesn't think twice about cleaning it all up himself. Why it doesn't occur to him to ask me to do it, I don't know. Score.

The only other low I can remember is having a terrible nightmare at my parents' house. I woke up petrified and needing to pee. Since my bedroom is downstairs and far from the bathroom, walking through a darkened house and down a dark hallway alone freaked me out (I suppose I could have turned on a few lights, but it was 3am and I wasn't exactly thinking rationally, all I remembered was that terrifying scene from The Sixth Sense ), so I nudged D awake, told him I had a bad dream and I was scared to walk to the bathroom by myself. Without hesitating or complaining about how pathetic I was (I mean, hello, I'm 28 years old and still scared of the dark?!), he got up out of bed and walked with me down the dark hall, waiting for me outside the bathroom door till I was finished. It was a little act, but one of the sweetest things a guy has ever done for me. Through the little (and big) things in my life, it's comforting to know that D always has my back.