Its been a while since I’ve done a good Gratitude List. With so much good these days, its an easy way to capture a lot of it:
- Meeting Habib Koite and his band. Getting to speak French and Wolof all night.
- Trying not to get starstruck, but acting all spoony.
- Cracking jokes in Wolof of the FatPig variety. (See story for details.)
- Finding $10 on the bike path last Friday. Crisp bills, just waiting for me to pick ’em up.
- 29 days of (nearly) consecutive runs (soon to be 30!)
- New running partners who are in better shape than me
- Triathlon and half-marathon dreams
- The abundance of tomatoes from the garden (more than 5lbs in two days)
- Visits from a cousin who is inspiring, positive, and all around fun to hang out with
- Books. The fact that I’ll never run out of them.
- The shot of motivation that comes from lunch with my editor and friend, Jill.
- Being able to wake up every single day and decide exactly how I want to spend my time
- Shaking off the 9-5 shackles (which have left some deep impressions that are still going away)
- Diene’s ambition on the bike
- Hot people who work at Willy Street Coop
- Dane101.com and their Tuesday Ticket giveaways
- Friends who want to hang out and do fun summer stuff
- Lake Kegonsa being so close to Madison, and being a clean campground
- clean laundry, the scent of snuggle dryer sheets
- the flooded Yahara encouraging more hangout spots for ducks
- work partners who give me business and pay me well
- Seitan and pepper stirfry
- Discovering Ale Asylum’s Hopalicious
- my mac, my iPod, my car, my printer and all other mechanical things that make my life easy
- Bonniejean, who has introduced me to countless new friends, and still remains a good friend
- the myriad choices of coffee shops/sattelite offices.
- pandora.com, kcrw.com, NPR.com, and iTunes
- public libraries
- the San Francisco Chronicle reprinting my story