Countdown

I am counting down the days to the REI garage sale. It is this saturday, July 3. I love to go and see what kind of deals I can get. I don't really like the crowds, but it's still fun to run into people I know and compare our goods. I tell myself after each sale that I'm not going next time. Usually, I end up never using it or I give away half of the things I've bought.

Some cool deals I've gotten are:

• Marmot jacket for $17 (worn once, they returned it because it wasn't waterproof enough)
• Two room tent for car camping $24 (must have been set up once if ever)
• B.O.B. stroller for half price (used for one month, they didn't like it or needed the money)
• North Face down jacket for $20 (returned after one week, can't remember reason)

So, I will definitely be at REI drinking a cup of coffee while I wait in line this saturday.

Little Nothings

I was at a friend's birthday BBQ last night and learned of a very cool French saying. In french it is said "Les petitis riens du bonhuer" and means "The sum of little nothings is happiness." It summed up what I am blogging about and the desire I have to notice the little moments of life that make me happy.

I looked up that saying this morning, so that I could get it right, but I couldn't find it under popular or famous french sayings. Where I found it was in a comment someone had left on someone else's blog.

What I can remember of what was written in the birthday letter, I read last night, was that the writer had briefly lived in France and been given this saying by his French lover. The advice in the letter was to keep a journal of all your happy moments, so that when you were faced with the not so pleasant times in your life you could look back and read your happy moments and remember, "life is good."

My moments of little nothings:

• Seeing my mom
• A quiet drive to Everett listening to music
• Riding my bike with my husband last night under a full moon
• The wind on my face riding downhill
• Making it up the next hill 
• Finding a quote that would have been good on Saturday's post:
  "Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower." ~ Hans Christian Anderson

Sunshine, yes

There's something about sunshine that just brightens my day. It's so nice coming out of an air conditioned building after work, feeling the warmth of the sun and knowing I have at least four more hours of light. There's no way I'm going back indoors until the sun goes down.

In Bellingham, there are so many more choices of things to do when the sun is shining. I met up with friends in Fairhaven and then walked the loop around Boulevard Park and back. It works out a lot better if you remember the right shoes, but I didn't let that stop me. I was like an excited little puppy, I just wanted to get going. I like seeing the people, what they're doing, and being on the move.

I finished the evening at my son's baseball game. He plays for the Rangers, one of Bellingham's Borderline Baseball teams. Until the sun went down it was quite enjoyable watching the game and talking with some of my son's long time friends.

Watching baseball games in the summer brings back good memories from my youth. I grew up in a small town in the midwest where evening baseball games were a community event. Everyone in town would turn out for the games. The evenings were so warm and there would be the blinking lights of hundreds of fireflies all around.

I'm looking forward to more sunny days ahead. I'm making a mental list of what I want to do on the sunny days of summer and on the gray days.

Nervous Blogging

I will overcome these blogging nerves, but right now I am still getting acquainted with the newness of blogging and being back in a classroom.

It was interesting reading about the Blargon lingo that has been created in the blogging arena. I had a few ah ha moments. I realized some of the words I have heard recently, and didn't understand, i.e., "above the fold." I found them to be a fun use of words. Most of them I could understand the reasoning behind their use, but some were really for the true bloggers of the world. One in particular was "deliciousing."

I found blogging sites for both gathering web-based technology information and how to market to today's internet users. One of my favorite blogs is about gardening, which is more a personal interest than professional. There is just so much information out there that otherwise wouldn't be as quickly accessed without bloggers.

The world of blogging will be a journey of discovery that I am going to enjoy.