Wonderful Wednesday

I have had such an excellent day today! Got to sleep a few hours later than usual, then took Goldie to her new agility class. She’s doing an amazing job! It’s a real pleasure to work with such a happy, eager dog, and I’m overjoyed that she came into my life. Now all I have to do is integrate her training into my daily schedule so she gets to play and train a lot — and I think she’ll be awesome! Well, okay — I have to get myself whipped into shape too. I have as much to learn as she, after all, in this sport which is new to the both of us.

After agility class I went to an informal ATS (American Tribal Style) bellydance practice at a friend’s house, and that went extremely well too. There were just three of us today, and it was my first time, so I got to ask lots of questions on two steps in particular that I’d been having trouble with. Not being in a paid-for class means that I didn’t feel guilty about taking up too much time with my requests. That meant our hostess (who has been dancing for almost two decades now) was able to show me slowly and repeatedly what I should be doing, and where I was going wrong. It was so nice to finally figure out where my feet should be going, then get the steps right, and then feel the flow again as we danced!

Dinner was particularly nice too: orange-cranberry pot roast! Very tasty; one of my “dump meals.” A dump meal is basically a crockpot meal placed in a reusable Ziploc plastic bag and frozen, and I can make ten to twelve of them all at once in a few hours on a weekend. The freezer the guys got for me has been a real bonus for this! Once I’ve made a bunch of the dump meals I’m good for a lot of dinners with very little effort on my part — which is a huge win for me. All I have to do is take a dump meal out and stick it in the fridge to thaw overnight, then empty it the next day into the crockpot. Add in some veggies and/or rolls and dessert at the right time, and presto: instant dinners! Also, pot roasts always come out of the crockpot juicy and delicious, which makes me feel gleefully accomplished. :)

Finally, I had my last dissertation interview tonight — woohooo! I am so happy about this. Not only have I had the privilege of speaking with some truly brilliant and fascinating women, but also the pressure of getting all my interviews done is finally off me! I want my dissertation to be useful to women in general, but I also intend to try my best to make the relevant chapters a hopefully worthwhile and truthful portrait of all the wonderful women who shared with me — I am so grateful to them. Fortunately they’ve all agreed to review my writings to be sure I’m accurately representing them, as well.

So yeah… today has been awesome! I’m very happy with how things are going right now. Life is good! :)