Upon some personal reflection, I realized that I am not being thankful enough for the small moments in my life. I’m in the middle of two huge projects – one personal and one professional – and they occupy so much of my brain space that I am missing more and more of the tiny moments.
And thus, this post.
I know it’s a bit delayed (we’re almost in the double digits of February) but I wanted to start now. Combing back through appointment diaries and book lists, I have compiled the small happy moments of the first month of 2013.
1: Lunch with future in-laws
2: Ndeko arrived and brought so much joy with her!
3: Adventures in East Belfast and trad music at Fibbers
4: Pints at the Crown, the Duke and Kellys, plus taking Ndeko on her first proper Irish crawl.
5: Tapas and movies with two of my loves.
6: Caught the Belfast Plague and my man took great care of me
7: Fell deep into a new reality TV hole – thank you, Missus Kingsley.
8: Homesick a bit and chose to give into it with long phone calls to the fam.
9: Baby steps to normalcy as I did some laundry and felt human again
10: Bangers and mash for supper & time with JD
11: Worked from JD’s and relished in a full-sized couch!
12: Surprise time with two Irish sisters and beloved (almost) nephews
13: Fieldwork and Les Miserables
14: Fieldwork in the form of choir rehearsal
15: Chicken marsala for dinner and quiet moments with JD
16: ‘Language is sacramental’ and other revelations
17: Day of reading and coffee and texts from home helped with apartment stressors
18: Snow fell upon Belfast! And I got to chat to my Penny!
19: JD and I helped take back the city with dinner and drinks at the Potted Hen
20: Great fieldwork and the beginning of an ending.
21: Discovered a few new authors through fieldwork and fell down an Amazon rabbit hole
22: Transcribed fieldnotes most of the day so treated myself to ‘Great British Bake Off’
23: Today’s great thanks was that they sell Kraft Mac & Cheese in Belfast.
24: Small moments of love expressed in lovely ways
25: We took advantage of some fantastic offers and helped The Apartment take back the city.
26: Burns Night for fieldwork where I found out that I quite enjoy haggis
27: Fieldwork and lovely food
28: Choir Rehearsal and lovely moments at Starbucks with a contact
29: Bond Night with the Kingsleys, where we ate ice cream and made fun of ‘Moonraker’
30: Breakfast with Irish Baby Sister and then drinks with some of JD’s colleagues
31: Flew to Londontown with JD for a mini-break. Dandered around Soho and got foot massages in Chinatown. Finished the evening with fantastic sushi and collapsed gleefully into bed.
