I have 9,000 steps under my belt for the day, a sunburn on my nose and everything is alright.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how lucky I am and how great my life is. For example:

1. My darling nephew sat in my lap and let me cuddle him for a good 20 minutes the other day. It makes me SO SAD to think that one day he's going to be a big kid and then, GASP, a MAN and Aunt Elizabeth won't be able to flip him upside down and kiss his stomach anymore but until that day comes, I'm gonna kiss the hell out of it.

He's going to be TWO in a few weeks, by the way. HOW MANY MORE YEARS of tummy kissing do I have?!?!?!

2. My darling and oh-so-serious niece broke out in a huge grin when Uncle Andrew sang to her. I'd be happier if MY singing made her smile, but it was an enthusiastic grin from such a serious lady and I was glad just to witness it.

3. I like my job. Things about my future with the firm are all swirly right now, but swirly in the "Wow. I can't believe I (accidentally?) followed the exact right course that led me to this exact right spot where people are interested in my opinion and think I know my shit and want me to lead other people" kind of way. Also, it didn't hurt that performance reviews were due the week after I KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK on this big presentation I had to give.

It's true what they say, you know: I'm not really motivated by money. Money is nice and all, but mostly I'm motivated by the desire to continue knocking people's socks off. Particularly if they're people I respect.

The downside to my recent success is that I want to tell my people -- my friends and family-- what's so exciting and satisfying about it, but I can't really tell anyone what I do.

Not that it's a secret, because it's not, but it's a bunch of blah blah blah that doesn't have a whole lot of meaning or sound very interesting to most people. So when people ask what I do I just say that I'm a communication consultant, but that's not really very accurate.

4. My friends are great. They're smart and funny and interesting and are almost always interested in going for a walk, coffee, pedicures (Andrea, seriously, that was the best damn pedicure ever -- my feet are STILL soft!), lunch, cocktails or whatever.

5. My family is equally great. My SIL Who Does Not Wear John Deere Pajamas pointed out semi-recently that she didn't think my brothers had a PSYCHIC TWIN CONNECTION (because they sorta do) as much as all three of us have a psychic SIBLING connection. I'd never really considered that before and generally felt like the odd man out (which is a bad way of saying it because I didn't feel EXCLUDED...I just felt like my parents had each other and my brothers had each other and I just sorta floated) but once my SIL Who Does Not Wear John Deere Pajamas made that connection I sorta sat back and realized that OH YEAH. She's totally right. My brothers and I don't just LOOK alike, but we just ARE very alike and the same damn thoughts run through all of our heads.

(Though I will argue that I *DO* think my brothers take the psychic connection to another level because they have a story or two that are just plain CREEPY.)

6. And now I'm going to go walk about 100 yards to the grocery store across the street from my exciting new home and pick up a few essentials for breakfast tomorrow morning. And then I might go for a swim in my exciting new pool. And then I'll probably paint my nails, have a glass of wine and go to bed.

All of these things are perfect Saturday evening activities.