Better to Laugh

I commented to my younger son that I enjoy being old…er. He snickered like I was crazy, so I explained further. There are events from my 20s that are better left forgotten, things don’t bug me like they did when I was younger, and I feel more comfortable in my own skin (grey hair, fine lines, and all). The conversation ended, but I still pondered my life to this point. There have been ups and downs, but I have lived long enough to know that neither lasts forever; enjoy the ups and wait out the downs. I have said, “Oops,” a million times, and I will say it a million more. Through it all, I have grown in my relationship with God, his Son, and the Holy Spirit. I have searched and researched, doubted and submitted, fallen and risen. There are still so many questions, but in my faith, through the Word and His work in my life, I have learned to trust Him. He knows the big picture; my finite human brain cannot grasp it. There is a reason we don’t know everything, though we feel some entitlement to have the answers. He created us to praise, love, and have a relationship with Him. Why is that not enough?

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• Celebrated another year of life, otherwise known as my birthday
• Variety Show at school
• Quiet time at work to clean off my desk because of snow day
• “Sword” fight with Gavin (more like plastic bat and spoon fight), little boys are so much fun!
• Ran 8 miles Sunday; although, my foot started hurting just after 7 miles and is still hurting…may need to increase mileage more slowly
• More days at or above 40 than below

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Last night, my McAfee icon in the system tray popped up with “Restart Computer to Apply Updates,” or something like that. After I clicked to restart, I got a pop-up that said I needed to terminate or debug a program that was closing. I chose debug, which was apparently the wrong choice when you are restarting to update McAfee. There were several flashes on the screen and then the fatal error message, along with “Windows has shut down.” I tried rebooting and a couple of other things, which required me to reboot each time they didn’t work. It would show Windows XP, then flash to the same blue screen and fatal error message. Needless to say, I did not get a good night’s sleep.

This morning, I spoke with Kim, our IT gal at work. She told me to bring in my hard drive; she would see if she could salvage any of the data (backups from now on). As I explained how it happened, she told me to first try F8 and choose Last Known Good Configuration (or something like that). I went home, did the F8 thingy, then closed my eyes and listened to the computer; I was too nervous to watch. If it continued to make booting noises after a few seconds, I was probably in the clear. Yea, I could hear it working! I opened my eyes, saw a black screen, and quickly shut them, hoping that I had just looked too soon. About 15 seconds later I opened them again and saw…Starting Windows XP! And directly after that, my login screen popped up! Hurray, Kim and F8 saved my computer! I am looking forward to a well rested night.

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The best thing about this week’s favorites (besides Valentine’s Day) is the weather. The snow and ice gave way to warm, sunny days. It was wonderful to breathe in the first hints of spring. Without cold, snowy winters, would we appreciate the mild weather as fully? And now, the list:

• Valentine’s Day with my Honey
• 60 degree weather
• Melted snow
• Seeing the sidewalks and lawns again
• Dinner with friends, twice
• Supporting a colleague as he coached at the IHSAA Wrestling State Finals (a 4th and two 6th places!)
• Air popped corn with real butter
• A weekend with no schedule

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I was trying to think of something special to do for my sweet husband for Valentine’s Day. Last year it fell on a Sunday, and we stayed in a hotel and went sledding and hiking at a snowy state park. The holiday fell on a Monday this year, so that limited the time we would be together. We are trying to eat healthier, so chocolates were out. He’s not really a flower type of guy. We already ate out two times over the weekend and were feeling a little ill from it. And then a thought came to me, everyday with him feels as special as Valentine’s Day. What is better than that?

So, we ended up exchanging the perfect cards, eating heart-shaped pancakes for dinner (that looked more like Africa than hearts), did not log on to the computer the entire night, and we spent a quiet, romantic evening at home. I can’t think of a better, weeknight Valentine’s Day.

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