My MOOOO-nday

(the title is meant to be read as Monday, but with a long moooooo at the beginning, like a cow's mooing!)

I woke up quite reluctantly this morning, as my night had been filled with fitful sleeping. I was exhausted - I think I'd been up on-and-off since about 4 AM, which ain't good news when you have to work from 10:00 AM til 4:00 PM! Fortunately, I didn't have to wait too long after I got home for things to take a turn for the better.

First, I'll tell you about my booboo Emily. I've known this gal since I was 8 years old, and until two months ago, we lived in the same neighborhood. Naturally, we saw a lot of each other over the course of ten years. She's the wildest person I know (and will ever know), so it took me by surprise when I found out that she was moving with her family to the peaceful and quaint countryside about half an hour away from where I live (and where she used to live). They've got about four-ish acres of land, on which sits a cute country house, and neighbors that have ACTUAL FARM ANIMALS on their own lot.

Well... guess who got to head out to the aforementioned countryside for the first time and see ACTUAL FARM ANIMALS and get moo'd at by a cow?!?!?!? (oh yeah, this free-roaming cow was bred, along with its other cow buddies, to be aggressive fighters - didn't find this out til later)

ME. THAT'S WHO.

The place was so quiet, literally all you could hear was the chirping of crickets or the soft conversations the animals were having amongst themselves. When I stepped outside, I saw a sky sprinkled and dappled with stars, which I don't get to see much living in a city. The air smelled like clean and like fresh and like a cause for celebration, according to my happy lungs.

Emily gave me a tour of their new house, and her mom gave me a tour of her china cabinet (and collection of little antique ceramic dogs), and her dad gave me a tour of the big shed in their backyard and talked about how he and his wife planned to paint together and work on their Harley Davidsons together in this large new space.
The whole experience felt like a big hug. :)
The whole bunch of them are on my list of Favorite Families Ever.

When Emily was driving me back home, we tried to take one of their neighbors' farm cats along with us in the car, but Walter jumped out of the open window before we even left the driveway. She showed me the little town around their new place, and introduced me to some of her new friends. As we drove back on the highway, we sang along to songs like Blue and Yellow and Fidelity and Your Heart is an Empty Room.

I think today was a wonderful day!

(and this is us getting our grub on at Freebirds)