A quote from my friend, Lori, today:

thank you for saying such nice things about steve and me……………steve is by far the best thing that has ever happened to me.  we just make sense together.  he cares so much about me and our daughter that he would do anything to keep us happy.  he is my best friend and i can’t imagine him not being there every night when i get home from work to talk to him about my day.  he is nice to me, and he’s nice to everyone around him.  he’s one of the GOOD ONES……….

i reflect back on my life three years ago, and i can’t believe how much things have changed, FOR THE BETTER.  we all have to go through the hard stuff to get the good stuff sometimes…and if we’re lucky, we learn from it all instead of letting it drag us down.

I knew Lori back when she wasn’t so happy.    I’m glad that she found the right person for her.    This is how relationships can be when you know you’ve found the right one.

I’d completely forgotten that someone was going to be out all day, so sat around a little concerned for part of the day.       Couple hour drive + couple hour drive + fixing/selling stuff inbetween = most of the workday… just to confirm the math does actually work out to “most of the workday”.

I was walking into Walgreen’s after work to pic up some photos and hear this man shouting from across the parking lot… “Lisa!  Is that you?”   I had to look twice because it was my old workmate Mario, who used to be a good friend of mine before I was “let go” from a place I like to call “Hell”. 

Haven’t seen my friend in ages, so we talked in the parking lot for a good 15 minutes.  I caught up on all the work gossip at his work and the work gossip at my work (someone I used to work with in Hell now actually works with me at my current job), his wife is pregnant (sweet girl.. really like her).. all good stuff.     I had thought Mario had written me off or put me in some category of useless people who get let go from their jobs.   Or… I had been convinced of that by someone else… something I had bought into at a really vulnerable point in my life.     Losing a job is not fun.. especially after being there for 20 years.  Even if it IS Hell. 

At the end of the conversation, he apologized for not keeping in touch.   He’s always been really bad at email and I’ve always been really bad at picking up the phone.   I’m learning to use the phone, though.   Had lots of practice lately.   Thank God.     (with a capital “G”, mind you).

What was interesting about this conversation is that it left me feeling like, “Hey, things are not always as they seem and you shouldn’t let anyone impose their beliefs on you.  Trust your own instincts about people.”   This is a good thing.   It was something I needed to know.

So… my day.. so far… in a nutshell.   How was yours?