Day 18

1. Got a call from my mom and my sister. The phone rang early this morning before I hit the showers. My mom is visiting my sister and she's been gone almost 2 months. They sound good and its nice to know they're enjoying each others company and its nice hearing them gushing rather than complaining. My mom thing is really travel and sometimes she's gone so long that even the pots and pans at home miss her. But for all the work she's put into the home and the family she deserves these indulgences. I was so happy for her that I almost sent her money. But after 2 seconds I shook off the idea. My sister also gets her for a while so they can catch up and have mother and daughter time. Overall, knowing your family is happy being family even if they're halfway across the world, life is good.

2. A nice relaxing kick-back day at the office. Due to some unexpected circumstances, my boss and trainee weren't at work today and the entire group of bosses were at a meeting the whole day. I was like a vacation only inside the office. I could actually watch leaves moving in the wind in between emails. With work going in Ludicrous Speed, days like these are very very appreciated.

3. Got invited to Y! groups. Ok everyone is a member in at least one Y! group-- your class, your family's, a tech group perhaps. But today I got invited to the group of full time workers of our community. Its either they want me to leave my job and join them serving full time or they feel that I should be kept in the loop of the heart of the goings-on of the community itself. Either way, its very honoring. I look back and see how far I've come now in terms of setting my life on what's really important, I can't help but feel so blessed to have made that U-Turn. I'm still working on a LOT of things but I'm in a better state of heart than I was 5 years ago and where I am now, I never thought I'd be back then. God is good (and very merciful), dude.

4. Access to yet another camera. My bestfriend got suckered into a lens+camera deal he saw on the internet and he's been crazy over it since he saw it. He elevated this obsession to Defcon 3 which is about the same as"moth to a flame" level. So now telle me he gots the new lens and he's stuck with a really nice camera body he's never going to use. Ka-ching! I've always wanted to use that camera and now, at zero cost to me...

5. Got good eats with one of my buddies. I left the office late today and I headed for this cheap steak place with one of my buddies. Some of you may not really appreciate this but when you have cheap steak and good NBA talk, you could be stuck at the bottom of a well and still be having a great time. Nice end to a nice day.