1. After two days of rain (and thunder and tornado warnings), everything is so green, so lush.

2. My purple irises, gifted to me over the years from various friends as their gardens overflowed, are crazy with blooms, mad with spring.

3. Ringo is learning to lounge. After about four mornings in a row of it, before we go on a walk, we have to admit he might be growing up a little.

5. Sam and Ringo, both healthy and in total like with each other.

Bonus Joy(s): Summer vacation.

• At 11:11 am standing in the kitchen, leaning against the counter listening to Gabrielle Aplin sing “Home” while both dogs eat, Ringo his lunch and Sam a small snack so he doesn’t feel left out. The window over the sink behind me is open and a breeze is blowing in the smell of the lilacs.

• Sitting on the back step listening to my 27 Powers mix, wearing shorts and a tank top, Ringo playing with his pink dinosaur toy, Sam napping in the sun, and the breeze blowing the smell of the lilacs all over the yard.

• Ringo smells the treats in my pocket, nudges the spot with his nose, sits and waits for some.

• Ringo moves out into the sun, at the edge of the patio, butt in the grass, and lounges, watching me write, sniffing at the air when the breeze blows. Sam is next to me in the shade, a single foot stretched into the sun.

• Watching Ringo roll up a pill bug with his nose and then play with it like it is the tiniest ball in the world.

• Thinking about Eric and one second later getting a text from him, “How’s it going?”

• The dogs side by side in the yard, rolling in the grass and making a noise that almost sounds like laughing.

• How happy Eric gets when he makes me laugh.

• Feeling content, no where I need to be and nothing to do.

• After an hour and a half training class, Ringo going crazy and running circles around the back of the car, barking at the carpet.

• Sam being able to stay home by himself without being crated and being a good boy.

• How Sam waits to get into bed with us until right before the alarm goes off, how his tail thumps when he thinks you are awake.

• All the pictures of peonies in my Instagram feed.

• The sky this morning.

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.