Caught in Contemplation

A year ago, when I had to be up early for work every morning, Sam got into the habit of making me tea to help me wake up. This is awesome on many levels, starting with it helps me get up at a reasonable hour (especially important when the demands of work were dragging me out of bed on little sleep and under lots of stress that only made my body want to sleep more). That and I thought then (and still think now) that it's a nice way of making me feel taken care of.

Then we moved in together and he has to get up for work somewhere on the order of hours earlier than I do and while I would still appreciate the thought of a steaming mug of tea, I think I'd prefer sleeping to actually getting up on his schedule just to drink some tea.

So, we have a new way of making this work for us. It took a while to get there, but the rhythm seems to have settled on his leaving my thermos (which, I might add is adorably decorated to look like a penguin who we have proceeded to name Chester) filled with warm tea on my desk... or in my backpack on days like today with a little sticky note attached about what sort of tea he happens to be carrying. The notes make me smile every time I read them. As does the personality Chester seems to be developing day by day.

I am glad for the playfulness that seems to have reinserted itself into our relationship recently. (For other things too, of course, but play is not always so easy to find and very very important to me).

I skipped all of the New Years parties to which I was invited last night in favor of spending a quiet night at home drinking champagne and finishing up a few knitting projects and watching old movies with etler.

Some of this is because I'm still at the tail end of a cold and some was my shy, inner introvert standing up emphatically and insisting that she really just needed a break from EVERYTHING.

2008 has been a big year. ( (and I ramble a lot about it, so be warned...) )

I knit a lot. I learned a lot. I studied a lot. I reflected on the fact that I have wonderful, wonderful people in my life who haven't seen nearly as much of me as I'm sure they'd like (or I'd like) because we've all been busy and we've all had these Major Life Things happening. I've met wonderful new people who I want to be closer to and kept close to and deepened friendships with "old" people. I'm trying to adjust to the ebb and flow of life as it happens, of closeness between people, of the times where you see a lot of people or see them rarely but deeply and intensely against the times where you disappear into the solace of your own company or the cocoon of a relationship.

My hope, for 2009, is that I will make the time to keep friendships close and nurture new ones, live, laugh, love, learn, end it as I ended 2008: older, wiser, and happy and appreciative for the many gifts and blessings I have.