1. I have a book blog (if you haven’t already noticed). It’s a lot of work, but I love it. Usually. And then sometimes I don’t, and I think about just stopping. I’m not making any money at it (although I often get books for free to review). It eats up a lot of time. I don’t have the time to do as good a job at it as I want to. Some days, it costs me more than I want to give. And then something like this happens: an author found the review I wrote about her book and left me a message, a nice message, that she was happy I loved and got her book. That meant the world to me, especially since I struggled with the book. I did love it, but I had a hard time putting into words what I wanted to say about the book. To have anyone leave such a comment is wonderful, but for it to be the author was truly amazing. So I’m not quitting, or at least not yet. [This is the review with her comment at the end.]

2. The team where I work is currently a mess. There is no accountability and very little communication. People are consistently missing deadlines and acting like they’ve done nothing wrong. There is no cohesion. But there is one coworker in particular who is stepping up. He helps his coworkers when he’s asked to (and he’s been key in us meeting some important deadlines this year!). And even though he was late with the last thing he got to me, he was the only one who came to me and told me it would be late. And then he got it to me the next day. I have yet to hear from the others about when their work will get to me. So while everything at work is a mess right now, I am very grateful to get to work with Shawn. He makes things slightly less chaotic.

3. Dinner! The steaks are ready for the pan. Baked potatoes covered in olive oil, salt, pepper. Simple and delicious! How much better can it get?

*what is making me happy this week