The black-eyed susans beside the house are so lovely and such a surprise that after work each day I have been actually going outside to visit them. A friend of mine said these really aren't 'black-eyed susans' but that's what they are to me, until someone else can give me a different name for them. Whatever they are, they make me happy.

Work this week has been incredibly odd. Bud* was let go - one of the best supervisors ever. Call volume was actually manageable for most of the week, which floored me each and every time I realized calls weren't slamming me. And, it actually felt good to be working from home. Not only did it feel good to work from home, but the thought of not having to get out at all this winter to go to work other than into my little home office took away some of the perpetual stress knot that seems to live between my shoulder blades. Work was a positive experience this week from beginning to end (week wise), and I am deeply thankful to God for that.

Elsewhere this have been...odd. The more I am finding positive things around me, the more negative some friends are becoming. Even old friends who are normally positive have been negative, which has made me cautious because when I have tried to encourage them they have bitten at my kind words and growled how awful their lives were and then had to proceed to describe to me exactly how bad their respective worlds are. I listened, because, as a friend, this is in my job description of being a friend. I tried to be as sympathetic as possible, but the entire time I just kept waiting for the "bad" stuff to jump out at me. I offered a shoulder and a hug and was brushed aside because I simply didn't understand and they didn't want to bring me down with them. Um, so why did you tell me all of this crap in the first place? Then, almost to add insult to injury, a friend has hinted at some horrible things that are happening and then said, quite pointedly that they weren't going to tell me because they weren't ready.

WTF.

I'm glad my flowers are still blooming. I need them.