Thankful for:
1. My dogs, they can always cheer me up
2. Meaningful runs
3. This experiment helping me to keep perspective

Looking forward to:
1. Making hamburgers on the grill this weekend
2. Weekend soccer
3. Creating an interesting math scenario for class

Catching up

I missed a few days, but I've been pretty busy.  On Friday, the wife and I saw the boss.  Yes, Mr. Bruce Springsteen himself at Nationals stadium.  This show can be summed up in the sentence I uttered to my wife when he walked off stage...."That was absurd."  He played for 4 hours.  With each song, I was waiting for that one or two songs that he'd phone in.  You know, the songs he's played for 30 plus years over and over again.  The man played his heart out.....on every single song.  His energy at 63 was amazingly unrelenting.  He is an amazing showman.  This is a man that will die on stage.  Later that night, circa 2 in the morning, the wife, some of her coworkers, and I sat on the DC sidewalk eating a extra large pizza.  At the time it was amazing....looking back on it, I'm not totally sure.

Saturday was spent mostly trying to recover from what the Boss had done to us the day before (or earlier that morning, depending on how you look at it).  It wasn't until 2 in the afternoon until we were able to pretend to be human beings.  We went to a friend's house for their birthday, and I left to play a soccer game and rejoined them at the birthday bash.  Yet another late evening.

Sunday was spent trying to get some school work done, and some cleaning around the house.  The wife was at work, so it was nice to have the house to myself.

Monday, I was just lazy.  In fact despite it only having been yesterday, I don't remember much about it, other than watching The Help, and my wife sobbing (due to the movie).

Thankful for:
1. First day of marathon training under my belt
2. The crockpot.  It makes cooking so easy.  Nice to come home and have dinner essentially ready.
3.  In the same vein, having soup to eat today.  It was perfect weather for it.
4.  Feeling more confident in my own teaching and my professional opinion

Looking forward to:
1. Getting my 6 marathon training miles this week
2. Running a marathon in March
3. Hopefully getting a chance to go out to a bar to watch the DC United game.

Rough day

Today was a truely rough day at work. Things started to go bad at 8 and the hits kept on coming from there. So today was a bit of struggle to develop a list but here it goes.

Thankful for:
1. My supportive wife
2. The ability to cook a good meal in little time
3. 2 bottles of red wine

Looking forward to:
1. Springsteen is tomorrow
2. A better day tomorrow
3. The weekend

A skipped post is a sign of productivity....seriously

I missed yesterday, but I'm really okay with that.  Despite not writing this thing (or perhaps that is my evidence) I was incredibly productive yesterday. I had a list of 5 or 6 things I needed to get done before I left school yesterday and I was able to finish them all in under an hour.  I came home and completed several other tasks before taking in the US game.  By the end of the game, I was exhausted and it was time for bed. The productivity carried over into today, but by 10 I was done being productive.  I sat tooled around in the interweb for a bit, before sitting down to write this.

I know I'm not very far along into this little experiment, but I can say that it feels good to end the day contemplating all of the good things of the day.  At the very least it helps me fall asleep.  On to the list

Thankful for:
1.  Not puking on my run.  I know seems like a strange thing to be thankful for, but puking isn't fun.  The wife and I made homemade pizza tonight on the grill.  Apparently we made the garlic parm sauce a little to rich and creamy, because I had to stop a few times to keep it from coming up on the run.  Despite all of the possible puking, I was really happy to get a run in this evening.
2. That I have been really productive the last 2 days
3. The US got all three points against Jamaica.  It would have made for a very very stressful 2 games in October otherwise.  At this point they are at least in the drivers seat.

Looking forward to:
1.  Have I mentioned I'm going to see the Boss on Friday.  It's going to be frickin' awesome.
2.  The wife works on Sunday, this will allow me to sit my fat ass on the couch and watch Redzone for most for the afternoon.  If it's a nice day, I'll earn my time on the couch by going for a ride.  Regardless I'm going to take advantage of the time I'm allowed to watch that channel.
3.  My Saturday soccer game

Thankful for:
1. Getting the first paper under my belt
2. The joy of my dogs
3. A brief nap today

Looking forward to:
1. The US Jamaica game
2. Bruce Springsteen concert Friday
3. The next dinner club event.

Thankful fo
1. Amazing friends
2. Good food
3. Good drinks

Looking forward to :
1. The next get together
2. Bruce Springsteen concert
.3. The next good run

Thankful for:
1. Scotch from the ishlay region. So smokey so good
2. A wonderful date night
3. The happy reminder storms bring

Looking forward to :
1. Springsteen concert
2. Lots of get together coming up
3. Trying to fit more bikr rides in

A day late but whatever

Thankful for
1. A wife who makes blanket forts
2. Sam Adams octoberfest
3. A good soccer bar

Looking forward to :
1. Completing week 1 of my course
2. Dinner with my wife
3. The fall fest dinner extravaganza

Thankful for:

1.  My two dogs.  Coming home to these guys always makes me smile, regardless of how shitty my day was.        They are always excited and happy to see me.
2.  Long naps.  Apparently I was pretty exhausted.
3.  Good Beer.  Enough said

Looking forward to:

1. The weekend which will be full of crazy good eating.
2.  3:00 tomorrow
3.  US Jamaica game

Thankful for:
1.  Getting to teach
2.  Having the time to watch Masterchef
3.  Getting my discussion post done quickly

Looking forward to:
1.  The USA vs Jamaica World Cup Qualifying matches on Friday and Tuesday
2.  Bruce Springsteen in concert
3.  The weekend.

Eye of the beholder

I am generally pessimistic.  I routinely look at the negatives in my life and gripe and groan about it.  This is not who I want to be.  I want to be the guy who can focus on the positives and the good things in my life.  It's makes for a more satisfying and fulfilling life.  This school year could be a troublesome in my pursuit to stay positive.  We have a new principle this year and must deal with all the things that go with that.  I am still pursuing my masters in middle school mathematics and this often chews up a lot of my time.  However, I am determined not to let this get me down.

Starting today I am going to try and record the following things each day:

3 things I am thankful for or happy about

3 things I am looking forward to


I will no doubt struggle with this.  I will miss some days, maybe even some weeks.  That's okay.  It's a process.  Some of these posts will simply be a list of things, while others I will expand on the things I have chosen for this day.  I'm hoping anyone who reads this will help keep me accountable and motivated to continue this little experiment.  Well here's today

Thankful
1. My Wife (I have a feeling she is going to make this list a lot.  She's pretty amazing.
2. Having the time to get in a good run.
3. A successful day one of school

Looking forward to:
1. The fall dinner extravaganza that will take place this weekend.
2.  Getting back into shape.
3. Traveling