Grateful

Today was a day where I thanked my lucky stars, celebrated every bit of good karma, wished hard on a wish bone, and felt gratitude way deep into my soul.

Last Friday morning, J had a rough start at school being transferred three times into different classes.  He was stoic but tearful.  I fretted all day that his initial nervous excitement would be dampened but he emerged at 3:30 smiling and happy.  He has shown nothing but gumption, positive energy, and optimism through all of the last several weeks.  He finds beauty in everything he sees, is eager, brave, funny, profound, insightful, and I have learned much from him this week.

I worried all that day about Murphy's long journey through the day, night, and international date line.  From Geneva to Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur and finally to Melbourne.  Surely, some critical document would go missing, a file misplaced, a flight delayed or missed.  But thankfully that night both C2, from Perth, and my Murphy flew into Melbourne on the tail of the immense Cyclone Yasi; they landed late but safely.   At last, we were all in the same city again, though separated by quarantine for 30 days.  I feel like I exhaled for the first time in months.

Quarantine has very strict visitation rules and today was the earliest I was allowed to visit.  I mustered all my backbone (no left-side driving was going to get in my way today!), and drove to the far side of Port Philip Bay to the rather dodgy area of Spotswood.  I was there at 10:20 for the 11:00 opening.  They took pity on me and let me visit my girl right away (sshh don't tell anyone, or that I convinced them to let me spend extra hours with her during the week).  She was so happy to see me, she didn't stop crying and whining for several minutes.  Then she happily let me throw her kong for her to chase before taking me into a little protected area to show me her bed.  The whole experience was somewhat reminiscent of a Prison Break episode, but truth be told, Murphy appears much better than I expected.  I am dancing from one foot to the next in anticipation of her emancipation so that we can celebrate with a long walk on the beach.

Finally today I was grateful that I drove from Spotswood to downtown, without so much as blinking (though not so grateful for the $20/hour parking charge), to meet a friend of Sher's (from my Geneva Writers Group) for lunch at the Oriental Cafe.  She was funny and effusive and welcoming.  A lot like our initial impressions of Melbourne.