Musings on gratitude

I'm kicking back at my favorite cafe in downtown Tacoma and feeling a little like I'm back in college - art everywhere, people studying (although they are studying computers rather than textbooks,) world music playing and the steamer of the espresso machine forming some odd, musical harmony line. Does a taste or smell ever send you reeling back in time? Out of the blue I decided to have some almond syrup in my latte (my drink of choice back in the day) and all of a sudden it feels like school days. It was just my birthday and I'm guessing this is what happens when only one year south of 40.

I guess it's better than what I was doing before I got here. Bitching. After dropping off my son at his bassoon lesson I left to go find something to do for the next 2 hours. In the spring and summer I typically fill this time doing a bit of waymarking, however with dusk hitting around 4:30 it's not like I can really get out there and take any photos. So I was driving downtown (Tacoma) and as I drove I was making a list of all of the things that I was pissed off about (constructive, huh?) So here's how it went: my son bitching at me because I want to leave on time to get to his lesson, the wet worthless snow that I was having to drive in, the ice sheets that will be on the freeway by the time I need to drive back home, the constant rain, the early dusk that keeps me from waymarking, the fact that there's no parking to be found around One Heart Cafe and I will have to park 3 blocks down and lug my laptop up to the top of the hill where the cafe is, the fact that I will have to walk alone in the dark with a computer through a not so great part of town when it's time to go home.... Then after I parked I saw a lady pushing a shopping cart with all of her possessions in it through the wet sleet and I woke up. What a jolt of reality. My stupid list vanished and I felt lucky - lucky to have a computer to drag up the hill, lucky to have my warm, dependable CRV to be driving through the snow in, lucky to have the money for the hot cup of coffee and sandwich that I would be buying to munch on while I sat farting around in a warm cafe. And now there's a jazz band setting up and I'll get some live music for the next hour. Boy, life is all about how you look at things.

So, apologies for my off-topic musings. I have no waymarks to chat about, but I sure am having a good time visiting one of them. The coffee's perfect, the band is jamming and I have a couple of hours to kick back. How great is that?

P.S. - The photo above is of the chair that I'm kicking back in at One Heart Cafe', except now it actually has a sheepskin across the back of it making it more comfy than seems possible.