Unbelievable

If it's Monday, where I live, chances are that a hurricane is coming. I've been here four years now, and while there have been a few mild tropical storms, there's been nothing substantial to speak of. I've been extremely lucky thus far. But geez. Just when we thought we were out of harm's way - here comes Jeanne again... knocking at our door. I'm not expecting it to come near me, but it appears, as of the 11 o'clock advisory that it's headed to make landfall basically in the same exact path that Hurricane Frances did. I feel so bad for those people.

So, for all my bitching and moaning the last few days, I thought I would just take a few moments to think about ten ordinary everyday things that I'm thankful for.

1. The inventor of pop tarts. Now, don't get me wrong, I realize that these have absolutely no nutritional value whatsoever, but my husband loves them, so I buy them. And I recently tried one, and was amazed at it's blueberry frosted goodness. All hail the pop tart! (M. was in charge of breakfast today - can you tell?) Yes, I realize they're disgusting. but it's a good disgusting.

2. The beginning of Autumn. I love fall clothes.... the warm woolen skirts, knee boots, sweaters - ahhhhh can you say cashmere? I love it all... Unfortunately, I do not even own a proper coat, as I don't travel much, and it's only really cool enough here to wear a jacket maybe a week out of the year. So today - I have on a cute woolen skirt, and my black leather boots, and I have the air cranked down to 65 in my office. Ahhh... welcome to Fall, Miami style!

3. Roses. There's some guy who comes into my office every Thursday and sells 13 roses for $5. So my splurge for the day - a set of lavender and a set of creamy yellow roses with blushed red tips. So what if I threw my lunch money out of the window! I love flowers, all kinds - all colors. If I had a midlife crisis and changed careers, I'd be a florist or horticulturist. And interestingly enough, it's incredibly difficult to grow roses in S. Fla. And I can't have irises or glads either...

4. Turbinado sugar. True, I'm usually an equal/splenda gal for my coffee but today I was bad and put turbinado sugar in my coffee (a.k.a. sugar in the raw), and y.u.m.m.y.

5. Burt's Bees lemon butter cuticle cream. My husband swore by this stuff, and I started using it and oh. my. god. I love it. I have the worst cuticles ever (with hangnails that could impale someone) and this lemony goodness goes with me everywhere. In fact, when my purse/car was stolen, the thieves managed to rack up a total of four tins of the stuff. One in my briefcase, two in my purse, my center console, and one in the glove compartment.

6. Organizations that send me return address labels in the hopes that I will send them money or contribute to their cause. Somehow I managed to get on some "schmuck who donates a lot to charity list" and now I have enough return address labels to last me the next forty years. My husband and I laugh that we get them almost every day... sometimes more than one set a day.

7. M.'s cat (well, technically, the cat was mine - for about two years prior to our entry into marital bliss - but the cat isn't incredibly fond of me... and by that I mean he tolerates me. barely). - who actually let me snuggle him last night for six whole minutes before M. walked into the bedroom and caught us, whereupon the cat promptly sprinted out of the room.

8. Pogo crossword puzzles. I love crossword puzzles, but the only problem is I generally stink at them. M. and I have a little ritual though, that we lay in bed and do the pogo.com crossword puzzle of the day together (it tells you if you've put in the wrong letter!). This morning, as we were laying there, I said you know I really hope we don't lose electricity this weekend - as I would really miss my crossword puzzle!

9. The ocean. Yes. it is causing me much grief with it's support of hurricanes, but I love sitting at my desk every day watching the cruise ships and sailboats... and watching the sun glitter on the waves. Of all the things I would miss most about Miami, this would be it.

10. the color blue. I love the color blue. It reminds me of warm summer afternoons as a kid looking up at the sky, making pictures out of clouds with my siblings, while the warm grass tickled our bare legs. It reminds me of the flat mirrored lakes that I saw in Maine, and of canoeing down the Guadalupe river.

I think we all need to take a step back and relish in the everyday things.