Misery Loves Company

It has been a rough week. And by "rough," I mean, "often miserable." We need not explore this further, but I would like to mention - and thank - a few people who made my week significantly less miserable:

1. Lisa. Lisa, if you were not aware, is a wonderful human being. The kind of wonderful that makes you glad you are not the only one who thinks that way, and isn't the world full of beautiful and interesting things, and by the way, isn't this a marvelous cup of tea? Moreover, the kind of wonderful that makes you feel that way even if you have puffy eyes and incoherent speech.

2. Rami. A down-to-earth, genuine, encouraging gentleman. When one is feeling complicated and complex and like one can't think about anything anymore because one might collapse into a soggy mess and one won't even have solved any of those complicated problems for all that thinking, all one needs is a visit with Rami. Because Rami will remind you that life is better when you take it at face value and that this, too, shall pass. He will also remind you that true gentlemen are alive and well in the world.

3. A really cool Iraqi Fulbright Scholar that we met at an utterly Washingtonian dinner last night. More about him later. He deserves a whole post.

4. Chocolate and Zucchini. Not the blog, although the blog is great. The forums are what made my day. Let me explain a bit. It was an inspired idea by one of the forum readers to do a "Blog by Mail," sort of a Secret Santa idea, where we each get assigned a name of someone far away, someone who also reads the forum. We go out and spend 10 - 20 dollars on yummy local food items and package it up nicely and pop it in the mail on October 10, and then a week later (give or take) each of us would receive a lovely parcel in the mail filled with good things from far away.

Well, as you know, I used to live in Fritwell. And my package arrived from Birmingham, a mere hour from Fritwell. And my Secret Santa had, ingeniously, googled my name, found my blog, read my Fritwell post, and then GONE TO FRITWELL to collect things for my parcel. YES. Including: beermats from the local pub and autumnal dried leaves from the very streets I grew up on. Also included in the box were: MINI CHRISTMAS PUDDINGS. Scotch whiskey and accompanying truffles. Cadbury's sweets. Organic Bombay snack mix. An orange leaf-shaped candle. A nifty spatula. Rooibos tea bags in a neat little pouch. Lavendar jelly. Blueberry and pansy jam. Homemade pear chutney. And little chocolates shaped like Christmas puddings. And a picture of Fritwell, an assessment of the local pub food (a postive one, I must say), and a homemade CD with autumn flavored tunes. Really! Could it be more delightful?! No, my friend, it could not.