February 15, 2008 - 7:58 AM.

V-Day with the family

A challenge from a message-board friend has encouraged me to blog daily for a month on the theme of gratitude.

I have started the re-takes of the Structural Relief Therapy classes that I took for the first time last year. The teacher/originator of this method offers the retakes for 1/5 the price of your first pass, meaning I can take the whole series again for barely the cost of one class last year. I so need this, as my learning style may be best described as a "re-learning" style -- learn it several times and I'm finally most comfortable! Plus it's a lovely way to connect with my sister professionals, something massage therapists do less frequently than most, due to the solitary nature of most of our practice setups. So I am grateful for the opportunity, in two ways.

Valentine's day yesterday was sweet and special, in a family way. I knit and felted a little pouch for J.'s Xmas iPod, in team colors, which he had been asking for. He found on the internet, and printed out, some 1920s French paper-doll-like toys -- they are little scenes of rooms and shops, which you cut out and assemble like little dioramas. Darling, and so very me! We all made cards for one another. We put some chocolates in a gift bag for the boy -- one of his favorite things is pulling anything at all out of a gift bag and gasping, "A chocolate! I always wanted a chocolate!" (or whatever it is -- a cloth napkin, one of his socks, truly anything at all).

Then to cap the evening we took him out to the fashionable ice-cream place, the one with the fireplace flanked by orange leather couches. Of course it was absolutely packed, mostly with families who had the same idea we did, but that kind of crowded is turning out to be a plus for us because he will stick close when there is a crowd, instead of running around when there's a lot of space! We all shared a 2-scoop bowl, vanilla and choco-mint, scored a spot by the fire, let him wash his hands at the kid sink as long as he wanted, and were joined by a balloon twister! He sweetly turned out dolls and animals for the assembled children, and then made a more active toy for the Punim, a helix of 2 long balloons twisted around one another with a little balloon ball inside each, so when he tips it around the balls swirl up and down the spirals. Of course he loves it, he's playing with it right now.

So of course I'm grateful for all of this -- who wouldn't be? But the gratitude I'm blogging about is this: when we presented a debit card for payment, the sweet young woman behind the counter showed us the small sign that read "Cash or checks only, dudes," put our receipt beside the register, and said, "Why don't you just bring me back some cash after you enjoy your date?"

Come ON. Yes, you bet I am very grateful that we didn't have to pack up the kid, drive to an ATM, come back in, and wait another 15 minutes in line before getting our ice cream. If it were just us, extending the date by 20-25 minutes would have been no big deal really. With a 3-year-old, that would have ruined the whole evening! But thanks to a smiling college student with a piece of masking tape across her apron reading "Hi there! Call me Veronica!" we enjoyed our family date just as we wanted to.

Yes, I am really grateful.

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