Okay, I didn't really win the lottery, but I feel like I did.

You see, I've had a rather crappy day. Crappy week, in fact, and I'm running on fumes. But, after traveling down Island and then back up Island, which gave me time to worry about a bunch of things as well as just getting generally exhausted, I came home and checked my email to find a note from tithenai waiting for me, which directed me to the following:

http://msnyder.typepad.com/the_labyrinth/2008/10/goblin-fruit-au.html

First of all, thank you to tithenai for forwarding this to me. After the week I've had, I really needed a happy something and this was definitely it. And, if joyous dances of yay aren't your thing, turn away from the computer now, because here goes: The first real review of my poetry (well, kind of a review, I guess), and to come from Midori Snyder! I learned so much from reading Endicott Studio's blog, and well...it's a bit of a fangirl moment, really. Okay, more than a bit. A lot of a fangirl moment. Which will hopefully be an antidote for the sort of blatant self-promotion/congratulatory aspect of this post, but...I figured I needed a little happy dancing!

And now, I'm going to bed. The End.

(Except, first...I also won a prize in a contest darklingwoods was running, and I never win anything, except now, I did - what a nice way to wrap up a day!)

Stolen from many good people on my Flist, including rabiagale and cathellisen:

Post 10 things that are going right in your life right now. I don't care how small. You're happy with your cup of coffee. You saw a flock of geese flying over. ANYTHING. Things that make you happy. Things that make you smile.

1. Cinnamon tea.

2. Staying close to home today and taking care of myself a little.

3. My fat black cat loves me no matter what. So does red horse, and orange cat, and blond husband. These are good things.

4. Garlic roasting in the oven. Soon it will be mushed up with garbanzo beans into roasted garlic hummus.

5. A new book that I'm so freaking excited to read that I'm making myself wait a little longer before cracking it open. Why am I so excited? It has pictures, and, I've wanted to write a story similar to this one (in form) for ages and I have a feeling this might show me how to do it! (For those curious, said book is The Mystery of the Fool and the Vanisher by David and Ruth Ellwand, and lookingland, I think it might interest you....)

6. Gray socks.

7. Weather cold enough for a fire.

8. A huge family dinner tomorrow night.

9. Picking apples.

10. Taking stock of the good things in a day.

1. Got an email from my brother this morning that contained, among other things, news that he's probably going to be moving back to this continent in the summer. I've been missing him a lot, so that's very exciting news indeed!

2. Got an email from my close friend Jane, who was my accompanist during music school. For the last couple of years, Jane has been coming up island to play for my students during the music festival as I simply couldn't play for all of them, but with my teaching load being so small this year, I wasn't sure she'd want to make the trip. It just wouldn't be worth her time, financially speaking. However, I've been really concerned about playing for my students this year. I really don't like playing in front of people, and add to that the fact that several of my students are singing really challenging pieces, and then add the fact that for the first time in all the years I've played, I'm having trouble with my wrists. It hasn't been so bad that I've been prevented from playing, but I did practice a little yesterday, thinking that I'd better start getting the pieces into performance shape (which is a big difference from sit-down-and-play shape) and ouch - my left hand dexterity just isn't where it needs to be. So, I opened Jane's email to find that she's volunteered to come up and play, just because. I hadn't breathed a word that I've been having trouble with my hands, but Jane's just like that. She *knows* things...and, she's also just one of those freaky people that can play anything to performance standards, which is why she is the professional accompanist and I am not.

So, yay Jane! The kids love working with her, I can sit back and really focus on them instead of dividing my attention between playing and teaching, and it'll be fun. And, more than anything, Jane has always been my rock when I'm nervous and my sounding board when I'm confused, and has this strange, wonderful view of the world that always inspires me.

3. It snowed today - just a dusting - and then the skies cleared and it's crisp and fresh and SUNNY! We haven't had a sunny day in weeks! And, from the looks of it, it's going to be sunny again tomorrow, which means I should have time to go riding. Yay!

4. I finished my first book in the 50bookchallenge: Silk by Alessandro Baricco. I have thoughts about it (first and foremost, I loved it), but I'm not sure I can articulate my thoughts about the book just yet. I might need to read it again first....

And, thus ends my post. :)