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The Joys of Puttering

Cat had work this afternoon and the boys headed downtown to visit the Auto Show so I ended up with five blissful hours all to myself. It was tempting to spend the afternoon engrossed in a trashy novel or catching up on stuff for work, but what I really wanted to do was just putter around the house and do some things that I’d been putting off.

After I dropped Cat off at work, I headed to the store to pick up something for lunch, then dropped off a package at UPS for Sean. I also allowed myself to indulge in three pieces of Fannie Mae as I firmly believe that indulgences are okay as long as they are of the highest quality and really worth the calories you spend on them.

Then it was home to my best pal Luke who was patiently waiting for me to come home and give him some loving. We cuddled for a bit and then I turned on the tunes and got down to some serious puttering. I loaded up the dishwasher and washing machine, then I got to work on the kitchen counters that were in serious need of some cleaning. I picked up the assorted debris that had accumulated, piled the dishes in the sink, and sprayed some cleaner to loosen up the gunk.

While the cleaner was working it’s magic, I grabbed the stack of mail that was threatening to tumble off the counter and got to work sorting through it. It is amazing the amount of out and out junk mail that we get since we moved to a “better” zip code. If we bought something from every flyer delivered to the house, we’d end up broke. Out of a three inch stack of mail, I ended up with about five things that were worth keeping. The rest went in the recycling bin along with the empty soda bottles and cans that had gotten left around the living room.

Next up was to gather all of the reusable grocery bags sitting around the house. The two I carry with me in case I’m shopping and end up needing bags, went in my purse and the rest got carried out to the car so they’d be there when I needed them. I also gathered up all of the stuff that needed to go upstairs and carried it up.

Since I was feeling energetic and was in a good mood, I decided to go ahead and tackle our taxes so that they’d be ready to go and we could complete the FAFSAs for the kids when the time came. I was a little concerned when the first time through, TaxAct said we owed $1441. However, double checking my entries, I realized I’d forgotten to put in the withholding tax from John’s W-2, so we’re actually entitled to a refund of $1600. That was a pretty pleasant surprise.

It’s almost time to get John from the train station and I’m feeling a blissful feeling of accomplishment today. I didn’t accomplish anything huge, but I got a lot of little and really annoying tasks done. When I get back from my chauffeur duties, I’ll pull together my expense reports for the last few trips and I can cross another annoying admin type duty off my to do list.

Hometown Bliss

There’s something about the town that you call home that reverberates deep within your soul and makes you feel as if all is right with the world when you’re in that place. I’ve never really known the feeling of being home in a town until the last few months when I was contemplating moving from Chicago to Chattanooga. I love Chattanooga as it’s a funky and fun little town nestled in the mountains. From Chattanooga, you can drive to the mountains of North Carolina or the beaches of South Carolina.

However, just thinking about leaving Chicago caused a visceral tug in my gut that reminded me that there’d be no skyscrapers, no family, and that it would take me a while to settle in and find the best pizza place, the grocery store with the freshest produce, and all those other things that I take for granted. We’ve lived in the Northwest suburbs for almost 10 years and that’s the longest time we’ve ever spent in one area and after 10 years, it’s finally starting to feel like home. We know our way around, we know which shortcuts will help us avoid the traffic, and we know where to find most things we’d every hope to need.

Since Sean’s been downtown, I’ve been working to expand my horizon and am learning to love being by a big and diverse city where there is always something going on. I can find Mexican, Chinese, Italian, or anything else I want downtown without too much effort. I’m also learning to love Sean’s neighborhood and all of its diversity.

The hills and valleys of the mountains will always draw me and I will always love feeling the peacefulness of the country, but I’m learning to appreciate the beauty in the concrete jungle. There’s a majesty in man made mountains that almost rivals that of natural mountains as you think about all the creativity and ingenuity that it took to build skyscrapers that tower over the earth. Just like Westminster Abbey is as a tribute to the residents of 960 London who built the Abbey, Chicago’s skyscrapers are a tribute to the architects and construction workers of the 20th century who built them upon

the ruins of a city destroyed in 1871 in the Great Chicago Fire. Out of the ashes of that tragedy, a bright, beautiful, and cosmopolitan city grew.

I will always love to travel the world, but right now it is feeling mighty blissful to look upon the towers of Chicago and know that I’m home.

Comfortable Bliss

Old shoes may not be glamorous, but it is sure comfortably blissful to slip your feet into a pair of shoes that have molded themselves to fit your feet perfectly. Sometimes in our search for bliss, we assume that bliss is something to be found and not something we already have. There are so many blissbringers in this world that bring bliss precisely because they are comfortable. Here’s a list of my top 10 comforting blissbringers:

Snuggling back into the covers on a cold winter morning when you realize you have 10 or 15 minutes before you absolutely have to get up. I can’t sleep in a hot room, so I generally leave the window open as late as possible into the fall so that the bedroom is a little bit chilly at night. This morning I woke and realized that it had surpassed chilly and was downright frigid. I hustled out of bed to shut the window and then climbed back beneath the covers that were still warm from my body heat. I snuggled under my microsuede comforter that I got from Goodwill and just relaxed and let my mind wander.
Friends that you can pick up the phone and continue a previous conversation with without having to regroup and bring them back up to speed.
Inside jokes. I work with people from both our plants and headquarters and the folks at one of the plants play buzzword bingo when they have meetings with us and tick off the buzzwords as we say them. They consider me one of their own so they shared the game with me and now when I’m in a meeting with both corporate and plant folks, ever so often I’ll send a text during the meeting saying “bingo” and we all understand what that means.

Old shoes that fit perfectly and feel as if they were made for your feet.

Spaghetti with tomato sauce and Parmesan. This isn’t some fancy pasta dish, it’s just pure comfort food that reminds me of being a kid at my grandmother’s dinner table and the pure heaven that her pasta brought.
Snuggling in front of the fireplace on a cold winter’s day. Watching the flames is highly hypnotic and can put me into a snuggly warm state.

Days without running errands, chores, or playing taxi driver. Every so often, I will be lucky enough to get a day that I get to spend at home without having to go anywhere. Those are perfect days that are lazy and fun and very relaxing.

Soaking in a hot bathtub with music playing and no responsibilities.

Chocolate pudding eaten while it is still sorta warm and not quite set up yet.

Snuggling with my husband. I feel so safe when I snuggle up with him as if nothing could hurt me and as if I’m safe from all the cares of the world.

My blissmakers are comfortable and satisfying and bring complete happiness.

Home Cooked Bliss

There’s something about standing over a stove stirring sauce or listening to the sizzle of garlic and onions in a hot skillet that is very soul satisfying. Last week I made meatloaf for my family and used the leftover meat mix to make some meatballs that I turned into spaghetti and meatballs last night.

There isn’t anything tremendously difficult about opening a bottle of spaghetti sauce, putting them on the stove to heat and dumping some spaghetti in a kettle of water so I thought my culinary duties would be light last night. However, my daughter who usually cooks her own food because she’s a vegetarian asked me what I was making for her. We didn’t have another jar of spaghetti sauce in the house and there was no way I was making another run to the store so I got inspired and started ransacking the cupboards to see what we had I could make a passable sauce from.

My base was a can of tomato sauce, to that I added some minced garlic and onions. Unfortunately it still looked like a can of tomato sauce with spices so I headed back to the cupboard. A little searching turned up a can of diced tomatoes and some mushrooms which made the jar of tomato sauce look a lot more like spaghetti sauce. The simmering sauce smelled divine, but had an acidic taste. Remember some long ago guidance I’d read in a cook book, I added a few pinches of sugar and tasted it again. It tasted a lot better than a can of Ragu and made me remember the satisfying feeling of creativity that cooking can bring when you don’t slavishly follow someone else’s directions.

Cooking is about more than the raw ingredients you put in the pan, it’s about nurturing and love and about creating sustenance for those you love. There’s something immensely satisfying about the smell of garlic and onion sizzling on the griddle or the warm chocolaty perfume of cookies baking in the oven. Those aromas fill the home with love, security, and bliss.

Pet Bliss

The sun is streaming in the bedroom window and I sense more than feel the brown eyes looking at me with adoration. I feel the bed move as my bed mate stands on his hind feet to look out the bedroom window. It’s the tail swatting me in the face that finally does it and I’m fully awake, a full 20 minutes before the alarm is supposed to go off. I roll my eyes in wonder that anyone can wake up so fully ready to meet the day.

I did sneak a peek at his “Dog Timer” and he does have a pretty full schedule so I guess he doesn’t want to miss a minute of it. The entries in his to do list include:

Lay at the top of the stairs and watch the front door
Eat
Rush to the window to bark at the dog walking by
Bark at the squirrels
Eat
Sleep on mom’s bed
Walk a patrol around the house to make sure nothing is out of place
Eat
Sleep on the couch
Look out the window

Lucky for me, Luke is always up for a morning snuggle before we actually start the day. He crawls up next to me and pushes his head underneath my hand so that I’ll pet him. I stroke his fur and feel a calmness flow through my entire body as I realize that at this moment in time, I don’t care about anything except feeling Luke’s soft rust and white fur beneath my fingers as I gently stroke him. I rub his ears and he rolls over, obviously wanting me to rub his belly before we get up and face the day. A few good rubs and he’s out of bed and walking over to the door, looking at me to tell me I need to open the door. I get out of bed and we both start our day.

Luke’s always on hand to meet me at the end of the day and I look forward to our evening snuggle time just as much as our morning snuggles. After dinner, I’ll sit downstairs with hubby and the kids reading or watching TV and Luke always snuggles up next to me. Sometimes he’s content just to sit there and other times, he’s more demanding and clearly expresses his desire to be petted.

There’s a deep sense of calm that envelops both of us whenever I pet my sweet dog. As I stroke his soft and silky fur, I feel him relax beneath my fingers and I feel calmness and a deep sense of bliss envelop me. Amazing, how such a little thing can make all right in two creatures’ worlds.