Today is a glorious day. It actually started yesterday. When I picked Jayden up from school, he gave me a picture he'd drawn. Of me. It's not just the scribbly circles & lines he usually draws, but an actual picture! There's a scribbly circle head, and where the ears might be are two horizontal lines that stretch out in opposite directions to the edge of the page. Those are my arms. Then there's a torso that ends in a scribbly circle, my tummy. Two lines go down to the bottom of the page, my legs, and they end in SHOES with SHOELACES.

I'm just tickled beyond belief. If I had a scanner I'd share it with the world. But you know I gave it the place of honor in our hallway gallery. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I consider it my Father's Day present.

This morning I went into Jayden's room and turned on his dresser-top lamp. "Good morning, good mo-o-rning," I sang. He turned over and gave me a beatific smile. "G'mornin Mommy!" So I said "Oooh look at that smile, I gotta kiss that smile" and he grinned even wider and gave me a kiss. He got out of bed without argument, and because it was cold I let him lay for a while by the heater, hugging his pink bunny (which has recently lost its face; I saved the little blue eyes for some future nostalgic day). When I told him it was time to get up & start getting dressed, he didn't argue, whine or talk back. He took off his PJ's and put on all of his clothes all by himself, with a minimum of stalling. We were out the door with no yelling, no tears, and it was lovely.

We drove down W MacArthur to the tire shop. Cutty'd gotten a flat on the freeway over a week ago, and that donut barely got me through. So we got us a nice new tire and still got to school at the normal time. When I left him he was being a perfect little boy, helping his teacher to get the breakfast things and waving "bye" like a little angel. I got on the W Grand ramp to 80E. It's very high up in the air, and as I'm driving along in the almost nonexistent traffic, a white egret glides by, lazily heading for the Emeryville mudflats to scare up some breakfast. It was beautiful. Then I get to my brother's house, where I park each morning in his driveway, and either he or my sis-in-law took their car to work today so I got to park up on the flat instead of using my emergency brake on the slope. As I'm walking down Milvia to my job I passed a chain link fence covered in jasmine and trumpet vines. I pass it every day, but this morning the orangey-pink flowers of the trumpet vines were wide open, and there seemed to be so many more of them than usual. Although it could just be that today, this glorious day, I was so much more open to the sight of all that gorgeousness.

One bad note, although not bad enough to bring me down today: one or maybe more of my co-workers (couldn't be me!) has been "abusing" the use of the internet, and so that privilege, formerly allowed us on breaks & lunch, will be revoked as of Monday. This means I don't know when I will greet y'all next, because I still haven't gotten my phone turned on. But don't worry, that's what I'm working on now.

May your days be as wonderful as this one has been for me. Smoochez!

My baby is sick. I'm sick. He's taking Prednisone and getting Albuterol treatments in the nebulizer. My mom's got him & thank goodness she's able to keep him while he's sick, or I'd have to take off work & then the rent wouldn't get paid.

It's a freekin hustle, man. And every time a bug goes around, I get it, 'cause I don't get near enuff sleep.

Waah waah waah, boo hoo hoo, bitch bitch bitch.

I just feel like shit.