Good things

Not that I do such a lot of whiny posts -- well at least I like to think I don't -- but sometimes I just feel so totally, annoyingly (to others, probably) happy and at ease with myself and the world that a Good Things post is required.

Since I've been yammering about my back, here's the first Good Thing: back is as good as new, hail the chilli sticking plasters. And my very wise decision just to rest yesterday, because in the end I felt that movement wouldn't be the right thing to do this time round. (I also got my period, which is one of the reasons the lower back was so achy).

I'm aware that I've said this about a hundred times, but: please everybody who reads this and suffers even slightly from PMS, get yourself Monk's Pepper! No feeling depressed anymore, no physical symptoms, and almost none of the usual aching boobs and belly. It probably doesn't work equally well for everybody, so I'm likely very fortunate, but it's worth a try anyway.

The Unholy Trinity: It's been a few days since last I felt it was necessary to lock Lola in her room for an hour or so. Leaving them unsupervised during the day doesn't cause me any more worries or concerns, whether it's a Slavica day or not. Even though it's a bit of a sad truth that I'm much better with cats than with men, I still feel lucky -- lots of people out there who have bad luck with both.

Things with Irene have been talked through and settled, and that makes me happy, too, because she's my friend -- I've been aware that working closely together with one of one's best friends might not always be easy, and so having succeeded in solving the problem is very important to us both, I think.

In a little less than three weeks' time my ex-sister-in-law will be coming to visit, and I'm very much looking forward to it. We haven't been seeing enough of each other these last five years, while I was abroad, and spending time with her will be wonderful. It's funny, really, how close the relationship still is in so many ways; I guess that's partly due to the bond having been formed so early. I was 11, after all, the first time we met -- she was 19 then, to my brother's 22 -- and instantly adored her. Come to think of it, that must've meant a lot to her.
She'd had a bad accident a few weeks before, which left her with not just whiplash but a slightly dislocated disc in her neck, which is why se had to wear a head-to-waist plaster cast after coming out of the hospital, where she'd spent three weeks in traction. (That was how my brother met her. His then-girlfriend was her best friend, and he acompanied her, rather reluctantly, to the hospital, where he was instantly struck by her good mood in spite of being very, very uncomfortable and in pain) The first time I met her, she was still wearing the cast and had to use knitting needles to scratch her back. The second time the cast had come off, and I just loved her 3 mm-hair; they'd of course shaved her head before they gave her the cast.
Since my mother was a bit lacking in that department, Renate was kind of my female role model (apart from the fictional ones), and even though after a few years of marriage (wich occurred seven years later) it became pretty evident that she and my brother weren't meant to stay together, I continued to love her dearly.
So her visit is a Very Good Thing to be looking forward to.

And of course I'm having my second half-day-off today -- calling that a Good Thing would be stating the glaringly obvious.

I'm feeling so happy today, I can't even think of a bit of irony to temper the soppiness of this post.
Oh well. I'll just send good vibes to you all and wish you equally wonderful days!