No really, I totally forgot. I knew it was Friday, because I’m at work and there are certain things I do on Friday, but I forgot it was Friday, as in Gratitude Friday, until just now. It’s been a crazy, busy, nutty, wonderful week.

One thing that made me forget: I am packing up my CSU office to move to the other side of the building. The whole building is being renovated, but they are doing it one half at a time. Having to pack up 10+ years worth of stuff, including my computer, label it all correctly and get all the stuff done I need to do before I leave for summer vacation is…well, the word I want to use isn’t polite, so I’ll just say it’s inconvenient, and no wonder I forgot to make a list of what I was grateful for this week.

My office before I packed it up.

My office in boxes.

1. Packing up my CSU office. Okay, I realize I just said what a pain this is, but at the same time there’s something so cathartic about the purging I’ve been able to do, the letting go. It’s allowing me a more minimalist approach to this work, and that’s a good thing. And the added bonus is that when I move back into this office, it will be all fresh and shiny.

2. Spring weather. Yes, we had snow last week and we’ve had wind, rain, and thunder, but everything is turning so green. The return of life — the song of the birds and the blooms and the earlier sunrise and longer days — is a welcome shift after a long, dark winter.

3. Ringo, healthy and growing up. He’s lost the last of his baby teeth and had the “big snip” surgery on Tuesday (which he’s healing from really well). My own experience has proven it once again: if you can just get them to six months old, it gets so much easier.

4. Sam is completely weaned off his pain medication. Just a few months ago, we were days away from taking him in for an MRI, fearing the worst. Now he is completely fine, healed, back to normal. There’s still a chance he might develop those same symptoms again, that we might need to go to the CSU Vet Hospital’s Dermatology unit to determine if there’s a deeper root cause, but we know how to help him.

5. SUMMER VACATION!!! Sorry about the yelling, but I am so flipping excited! Today is my last official contract day. Like always, I need to come in next week and finish up some stuff, but it’s close enough for rock and roll.

Bonus Joy: In a little over three weeks, we’ll be on our way to Oregon, heading for a month at one of my favorite places on the planet. I am going to eat my body weight in strawberries, seafood, and pastries from Depoe Baykery. We’ll go for long walks on the beach and the trails in the trees, meditate and do yoga, read books and take naps, r e s t.

1. Eric taking the dogs hiking at Mount Margaret. I would have rather gone with them than gone to work, but I’m glad they got to go.

2. My interns. I had my last meeting with them yesterday. They set the bar high for the ones that will come after them, not just because they did good work, but were smart, creative, friendly, and funny — my favorite kind of people.

3. My peonies coming back strong. They did so well, I’m going to plant more — many many more.

4. A new blog design template and updated header. The old header had images of Dexter and none of Ringo, so it was time for a new one, and once I did that, it seemed like a shame to not keep going and pick a new design, freshen things up a bit. I’m also considering a sabbatical while we are on vacation in Oregon. I haven’t taken a break from blogging since September 2011, and it might be time.

5. Yoga teacher training. We did our “karma bowl” challenge on Saturday and went to the Eldora Mountain Yoga Ashram together last Sunday. I had a few personal epiphanies and felt a real deepening and clarity.

Bonus joy: Ringo on the bed under my writing desk. Someday, he will grow up, stop chewing and eating and destroying and biting, be trustworthy, easier, not need so much supervision. Hopefully he’ll live that way for a long, long time.