Morning People

Some people are morning people. Some people are night owls. I guess on the other hand there are people who just like to sleep. I don’t happen to be one of those people. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I am a morning person, but I also know that I don’t like hanging out in bed when I know there are things to be done, or when the solitude of morning and a cup of good coffee is calling my name.

Some people wake up in the morning, and hit the ground running. My big brother has always been a morning person (sooooo much like my mom.) I think this started by him working at Vons in the middle of the night… from then on he had a killer commute in California (anyone who lives in California has a killer commute), right up to now he gets up at the crack of dawn to get to work. His wife and my dear sister in law, is a self-proclaimed-non-morning person. They now carpool together to get her to work at the ungodly hour of somewhere earlier than 6 a.m. This means that they have to get up right around 4 a.m. He has learned that he shouldn’t talk to her on the ride in, or at least for the first 30 minutes. Some people don’t wake up like chatty Cathy.

Friday was one of my favorite days of the year, the Gem and Jewelry show. It is on this day that I rise early and get to the show right when the wholesale opens. And the wonderful thing this year - - - my best friend/sister has moved back home and we got to go together. So we met at Starbucks at 7:15, so we could be first in line. Backing into that equation meant that I needed to leave my house at 6:45, which meant that I needed to get up at 5:45.  Yes, it's true, they really do let people out on the road at that time of the morning.   And here a few reasons why:
You get to see this
And this
And when you get there bright and early you get to see this
And these
And pay a lot less for them. See…. All really good reasons to be a morning person! Especially after a really yummy cup of this

With

Adversity

Dealing with difficulty has seriously been IN MY FACE these past few months. By nature, I am really rather non-confrontational. And I have found that approach works well for me in most aspects of my life. I am a live-and-let-live sortofagal; I try and maintain a cup three-quarters-full sort-of-a-view on my life. However, faced with some incredible adversity lately, life hasn’t really tasted like the tangy feel on my tongue of a Matsumoto shaved ice, but more like an unsalted batch of mashed potatoes.

Recently a customer in one of my shops informed me that she had lost her bracelet. She wanted a refund because she lost her bracelet. Huh? She created such a stink that I decided I would remake the bracelet for her at cost. I dreaded it. It was a huge undertaking. Finally,  I ended up just refunding her money (for the bracelet SHE lost) and regaining my sanity. Sometimes just doing something that is contrary to what all society would have thought was "fair" was the very thing that kept my sanity. And not fighting for "fair" was certainly worth the $51 it cost me. Was settling for something that didn't seem fair really worth the possibility of heading right straight to the Utah State Hospital in Provo? I answer with a resounding Ab-so-lutely. Thank goodness that is behind me.

Understanding my boundaries, creating meaningful relationships, and keeping my tribe close is such a juggling act. In the midst of all of it – my daddy, my fighter, my role model, my hero continues to fight the battle and he continues to keep the faith. What an amazing man. This is the man who has taught me that anything worth having is worth working for; faith will bring you through everything; there is no love, repeat, no love like the love of a daddy to his Cinderella.