Angst and thankfulness

I'm feeling all angsty and like I might be on the verge of a mid-life crisis (although Hillary tells me I'm too young for that.) No, I don't plan on leaving my husband for a younger version or buying a convertible.
I'm just taking a hard look at my career and wonder if this is what I want to do for the next 30 years. I've wanted to be a journalist since I was 15. Wrapping my mind around possibly doing something else is pretty hard. I'm not much of a risk taker. I tend to stay on a path. And I'm on a good path. It's a fine path. But I'm not sure it is the right one for me. The problem is I have no idea what the right path is for me and maybe this is the right path and I'm just in a funk. (Could I WRITE path one more time? Path. Apparently I can.)
I hate feeling unsure and in limbo and I feel like I've been living my life in a state of unrest for awhile now. I've done a lot of navel gazing lately but I won't bore you with my inner thoughts. Even I'm bored with myself right now.
So instead of making you read all about my angst and my navel, I'm going to try to focus on the happy things. This is what I do when I'm in a funk to try to remind myself that there are some amazing things in my life and I need to stop focusing on the things that aren't so amazing:

• Gizmo's language exploded in the past week. She started repeating words when we asked her something that normally would cause her to look at me like, "I'm not your trained circus monkey, woman." She says Sissy (what she calls Peanut, who refuses to let us teach Gizmo her actual name. She just wants to be called Sissy.) She started saying Ma'am and Pa, my parents' names. She can tell us what a lion, dog, cat and elephant says (when we ask her what a bird says, she points to the sky.) All of this is a huge relief to me. Peanut was much further along in her language development at this point so I've been slightly concerned about Gizmo even though her receptive language is great.


• Office Crush. You read Office Crush, no? NO?! What?! Shalini writes it. Hillary introduced it to me on vacation and it was like a void was filled in my life. This is so in my wheelhouse - a romantic comedy in blog form. So fuuuuuuuuun. Thank you, Shalini, for making my day brighter.


• Peanut now regularly says "snitches get stitches" thanks to her father who has watched 'The Sopranos" one too many times. We've hit the tattling phase in life so in order to curb it, this was the husband's brilliant idea. Not only did he teach her this, but she repeated it to my mother during a recent visit. My dad thought this was so funny that he kept repeating it, only reinforcing the very inappropriate saying. I may have a future mob enforcer on my hands.


• During a family get together this weekend, Peanut and my nephew were wrestling around when she accidentally hit him where no little boy wants to be hit. My niece ran to my sister and yelled, "Peanut hit Bubby in the PEANUTS!" My mom, sister and I couldn't talk for a good 90 seconds we were laughing so hard. Then the kids began singing a song that involved repeating "penis" over and over again.


• My husband returned from Boston on Sunday after being gone since Thursday. He was away at a work conference. He does so much around the house so when he's gone, it makes me appreciate him so much more. Lone wolfing is not easy, yo. Also, (if I may brag on myself a bit) I planned an overnight trip with friends to see the Yankees vs. Indians in Cleveland later this summer for his Father's Day gift. The husband always plans our getaway trips. We haven't been to a Cleveland game together since it snowed in 2007 during the season opener.


• Hillary. She listens or reads all my excessive navel gazing and tries to help me through it. I truly could not ask for a better friend. Vacation only confirmed that for me.


• And finally, if you have a smartphone and haven't employed the turnaround function of the camera where you can see yourself on the screen, you are missing out. This is best entertainment for kids and adults alike. Gizmo LOVES it and will open and close her mouth repeatedly and then yell at her own image. It looks something like this:

What's helping you get through the day?