Yesterday and Small Things and Candide

Yesterday was a good day.

Monday, I was busy at work--I had my first actual deadline that was less than a few hours. It was crazy, as in I am so lucky to have a job that typically has "milestones," not deadlines. I didn't mind the deadline at all. It was kind of refreshing and it gets the adrenaline flowing a bit. I still need to confirm my data, but that is okay.

I had my first swim lesson last night, and I felt like a million bucks afterwards. I was in such a good mood. I love my health club. It has so many resources, like swim coaches and trainers and massage therapists. After my swim lesson, I took a shower and went in the sauna. It was awesome.

Sunday was a good day, too, and I think that bled into Monday. I met my new friend Lydia for breakfast and then we went shopping. At breakfast, I told Lydia how I put up a bunch of posters in my condo. While I was doing that, I felt kind of weird. Here I have this fancy condo downtown and I am taping up my Pacific Northwest Ballet posters on the walls like a sloppy college student. I really didn't feel like spending a thousand dollars getting them all framed. Even though I was conflicted (I want something fun on the walls but I don't want to break the budget), I managed to get them on the walls anyway, and it felt good. It was better to have the posters on the wall instead of on the top shelf of my closet wrapped in plastic which is where I had been keeping them for a long time.

"It is great that you got those posters on the wall," Lydia told me. She also lives in a downtown condo, so I felt like I was confessing a sin to her, that I violated the sanctity of an unspoken city code: All art work must be hung appropriately for the media: watercolors must be framed, oils must not. Posters? Seriously? Are you 23? Aren't you old enough to own real artwork?

"Sometimes it is the small accomplishments that make us feel the best, that keep us moving forward. Everyday we do something small that moves our lives in a direction, up or down."

Wow. That was cool.

Another small thing I am doing is heating and then icing my shoulder, which has been the best thing ever. I have to take a half an hour twice a day to simply sit and take care of myself. I can't do much while tending to my shoulder other than watch "The Crown," read the newspaper, or write in my blog, which are some of my favorite things to do.

I have a hard time finding the positive outcomes in bad things. Maybe it was because in high school I studied Candide, where he believes everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. He says this as he witnesses horrors of humanity, like starvation, slavery, genocide, people living in squalid conditions. It has been a long time since I've read Candide, so maybe I need to go back and read it again. It is very likely I missed the point, or the finer details. Maybe the point isn't to be Pollyanna (a book I've never read, but probably should) and say everything is good when it isn't, but rather to say this situation is bad, but life isn't.