Be the change you want to see.

In my refrigerator, we almost always have a small carton of cream. =)

That's because Jeff likes to make cream sauces and add cream to soups and things. It's convenient for me as well, because my habit of taking tea every morning is a reliable drain on our whole-milk. And then sometimes we run out of milk, and then I get to have cream in my tea instead. Which can be really REALLY nice, once in awhile. It's too heavy for everyday, but nice.

Not long ago, I went to the cream carton (I hadn't managed the necessary grocery run to refurbish milk) and surprised, only got a few drops out of a carton that felt, to the heft, to be half-full.

I peered inside.

Swirls and chunks of creamy clotted goodness clung to the sides of the carton.

By george, I thought, we've *made* clotted cream! *heart flutter*

I'm an anglophile, if you didn't know that already, and started to develop the daily tea habit 20 years ago when I lived in Wales for an Education Abroad Program year. I used to put sugar in my tea, then when I went on weight watchers I was putting the blue stuff in my tea, but that crap gives a weird chemically-flavored aftertaste. Nowadays I usually put honey in my tea, then add milk.

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, I'm drinking Decaf Irish Breakfast. I didn't want to have a caffeine headache atop the other likely post-surgical pains. Seemed a reasonable precaution, and I'm glad I thought of it.

Today for breakfast I had a pair of fried eggs, a sliced apple, the Decaf Irish Breakfast, (with just milk, because I also had) two slices of toast with the homemade clotted cream and a bit of the Rose preserves that have probably been in the fridge since my last tea party (don't ASK me how long that has been!).

Absolutely delicious breakfast.

Planning ahead to have the supplies in the fridge and pantry so you can make scrumptious things you love is a skill hard-won over time. I am so glad I, and we, do that now.

Food is a simple pleasure. I love that somehow I have rooted out the Puritannical guilt I used to feel around eating delicious food.

Life is too short for that baloney. Eat the mortadella instead.

=)

I am hearing good things from my f-list about what people want to accomplish, achieve, or change in this new year.

After reading what noelfigart had to say about planning and goalsetting, though, I realized that my main priorities for this year fall into 5 main categories. Tidy, that.

1) Simplify.
2) Get Stronger.
3) Network.
4) Plan.
5) Practice.

I think I will enjoy exploring/writing about each of those in turn. Or not.

Fairly self explanatory. And I've written reams over the last what- 4 years? I've been on Livejournal?

Simplicity will be good.

...sometimes I think I am a freak for taking pleasure in things no one else talks about.
... sometimes i think i am a child for taking pleasure in things that are "too simple."

* beautiful blue skies and crisp fresh air
* a dandelion in flower, growing up thru the sidewalk cracks...
* clean ears after a shower or bath (yay Q-tips!)
* eating really good food when I'm really hungry
* being busy or engrossed in something really cool to the extent that I forget to eat....
* swimming, jacuzzi, floating, feeling my hair spread out in the water...
* dancing along in my house with a favorite radio song, and feeling that I somehow have "nailed it" - I dunno, moving just with the rhythm, using muscles I don't usually use...
* a much needed haircut - great satisfaction in this
* saying something that makes a friend grin, who I don't see often enough to really KNOW what makes them grin...
* completion of a small but necessary task
* cuddles & great conversation
* laughing till my ribs hurt or I'm gasping for breath
* making someone else laugh uncontrollably
* a wicked, flirty smile (mine or someone else's)
* being "in the zone" while freeway driving - utterly aware of other drivers' patterns, and even anticipating trouble... (thank you, Hermes!)
* good hair days (ok, sometimes I'm a little shallow)
* sunlight shading green through late-afternoon sun-dappled branches...
* a long, close hug where you trust the person enough to lay your head on their chest, or on top of their head, and leave it there for awhile...

... and there's so much more!
But, I have a date with a friend for a tutorial on MS Office Suite, and I'm gonna go do that thing.

Ok, on the job front, have applied to 2 jobs at UCDavis, have to review the other 5 for due-dates and requirements, and have to mail hard copy of the second UCDavis app with my resume, today.

Thanks to everyone who has been offering support and commentary. It makes me feel not-so-alone in the jobhunting challenge.