The Little (Big) Things

It's so amazing how just the tiniest thing in the form of an email can just turn my day around. Last night, after a very interesting and rather passionate phone call with my beloved (passionate not about sex but about...neonatalogy...such is life when your relationship is comprised of med student and PH student), I went to bed. Around 3:00 am, I awoke to Zola mewing outside my door and when I opened it to see what she wanted, she ran into my bedroom and a cat fight broke out. I never truly went back to sleep, so 5:00 rolled around too quickly.

I got to work late, finding my client already awake and waiting for me to make his eggs for breakfast (which I burned) and make his coffee (which I spilled). During his bath, I managed to get soap in his eyes and almost cried I felt so bad.

I finally got home, fed the beasts, and went back to bed and turned my alarm off and slept until almost noon--way past the 10:00 when I was suppose to wake up. And since then, I've been working on a midterm which, at first glance seems innocently easy, but I've been nattering on and on for pages about low birth weight babies, prenatal care and socioeconomic status, and STILL haven't answered the first question.

So yeah, I'm stressed out. But then, I got this email. It just showed up in my box with no warning, looking deceptively normal. I opened it and reading what it had to say just made my whole day do a Kerry and flip-flop around (Don't forget to vote Kerry!). It was from the secretary of the dean of the College of Public Health, awarding me $500 for national conference expenses! The maximum amount! And I suddenly knew that somehow, if I can get $500 from my tightfisted university to attend a conference on Public Health and the Environment, then I know that everything in my life will equalize somehow and things will be okay.

Now, the warring tribes are both asleep on my bed, my assignment is looking closer to completion and I have a smile on my face.