I'm back. Like the bad penny, I'm home from a brief vacation in Las Vegas, and officially back in the saddle at the office. Sigh. I was only away four days, but you'd think I'd been gone a month for the giant shitstorm that awaited my return. The weekend is five days away, and retirement? Well, that's still 242 days away.

I am woman, hear me whimper.

This too shall pass...

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger...

The will of God won't take you where the grace of God can't protect you...

Saints preserve us...

This is not helping.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day... but it doesn't look likely.

Okay so by now everybody knows I'm counting down to retirement. As of today, it's 252 days. Every now and then I torture myself by calculating the hours. Today is a Friday before a long weekend, so it seemed appropriate to do the hours again – 6,048. Yes, I am certifiable.

However, this is one of those days when I love my job the most. I am so lucky. I work with awesome people, doing some writing, some coordinating of freelancers, some fine-tuning and organizing of upcoming features, and a lot of page layout. I have a lovely desk in a typical office cube-farm, but my little corner of the world is next to a beautiful big window that looks out over a couple of city streets, a parking lot, a couple of hotels, a sleazy nightclub and lots of traffic action. My favourite is the one-way street that confuses many drivers and they wind up going the wrong way. Always something fun to watch.

Best of all, today it's raining. I can hear the big fat raindrops hitting the window behind me, and for some weird reason, that's always a calming sound. And being the Friday before a long weekend, it's also very quiet around me. And I'm on holidays next week so I have a good, steady roster of things to do today.

It's a good day. A really good day. If there were more like this, retirement might not seem so attractive, or so far away.

Time is a funny thing, is it not. When it's stretching out in front of you before a nice holiday or a long weekend or anything good, it seems to take FORever to pass. When it stretches out in front of you before a dentist's appointment, it flies by in a heartbeat. But no matter what, when it's behind you, it seems to have passed in a blur. Take right now for instance. It's Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 1:23 p.m. I have precisely 253.5 days till retirement. Tonight I'm buying a couple of Iced Caps from Timmies and taking doughnuts over to Moms for our weekly visit. We both love that little time on Wednesdays. But tomorrow, this will all blend into the big stewpot of our history. I'm not feeling well today - some kind of tummy upset. I hope it goes away in the next four days, cuz then we leave for five days in Las Vegas.

Last night was Asia's first night away from home. Apparently she has chosen not to live there anymore. Good thing she got out now, while she still knows everything. Or at least, that used to be the joke about teenagers. In truth, this is no laughing matter. I worry about her constantly. I hope she comes to her senses soon, and goes back home where she belongs. :(

Whew. It's Mother's Day, May 9, 2010, and I am tired to the bone. It's Buddy's 40th birthday tomorrow, so we had a barbecue for the whole family to get together, to celebrate the day with him, and to give everyone a chance to see their mother, grandmother, whatever. I think it was fun. We counted 22 people, who went through 38 gourmet hamburgers and about 20 pounds of salads.

How lucky am I. Among the crowd, my mother was here. My sister was here. My daughter was here. Three granddaughters were here. So we had four generations all sitting together sharing a meal and enjoying the day. Sometimes our greatest blessings are right there in front of our faces, and we just forget to be grateful. We do ourselves a huge disservice by taking things like that for granted.

Also met my son's girlfriend and her son for the first time today. And my niece's boyfriend's Mom came too. How blessed are we? And my nephew's family was all here.

And of course, my big birthday boy. Buddy. 40 years old. Wow. I don't know where the years went.

Thank you God for the blessings in my life. Amen.