rewards

Last night, the professor mentioned my reward system at dinner, and I spent the day thinking on it. I am happiest when I have something to look forward to. It could be a trip, a celebration, or even a dinner with friends. I spent much of last week (filled with great visits with family) looking forward to resting after the visits were over. My anticipation is probably at least 50% and possibly 80% of my enjoyment!

As an aside...in retrospect, this is probably why I liked letter writing and long distance relationships so much back when I had boyfriends, but that's long ago--and another matter!

random photo captions: Sally loves taking care of her sheep toy, and her health and wellbeing these days is another joy for me.

This morning I went off to have a routine blood test. When I was ill as a kid, my mother made me story books. I got awarded stickers for each blood test or medical procedure I endured. I still don't like them, so I promised myself a trip to the library as a reward. I needed to check out a book or two for article research, but came home with a sack full of cookbooks and DVDs. A mini-celebration of minute blood test bravery...a lot of fun reading about food to follow!

Some of the rewards are surprises--like the lilies that sprung up in my yard out of nowhere, or the volunteer squash and tomatoes. I even have a kale plant that never dies, no matter how many times I eat ALL its leaves! These little unexpected rewards are positive motivators. They keep me hopeful and engaged with the world, even when disheartened by things in the news.

My neighborhood's little lost chihuahua has his own webpage at the shelter now here. (Do you want to adopt a charming chihuahua?) EDIT: This following info is apparently not true--just a rumor of llama fleece-but there isn't any to be had-sorry about that!

My uncle had a great weekend getaway and found a llama farm with a lot of fiber
stashed away in a barn. If you're a spinner near Northhampton, MA and are
willing to check out some unknown quantity of llama fleeces, contact these folks. (link removed.)

In other random good news...I saw the first layout for Fiber Gathering and I'm so excited by it! I think it's beautiful! (as this is my husband's photography and my publisher's layout and graphics, it's ok to boast about this, right?!) Other upcoming excitement: I'm off to hear our governor speak tonight at an open forum, and I hope to see a bit of activism--perhaps we'll get to talk about mountaintop removal mining, which is destroying the eastern part of our state.

On Sunday, the Kentucky Museum Spinners begin meeting again. (Locals, it's from 1-4, y'all come now, y'hear?!) There's a new spinning group forming out at Enchanted yarn and fiber, our new local yarn shop, too. I'm going to see two different friends this week to share a meal or two. Finally, when I'm done posting this blog entry about rewards, I will get up off the back porch, get my dogs to stop digging in the woodpile and come inside, to cool down in the air conditioning. Ahhh...

So, what are you anticipating? Something great coming up to look forward to?