The One in Which Life is Good

It's 1:45. In the morning. I've spent the past couple of days trying in vain to fight off a moderately severe sinus headache, and finally this evening, after a dose of Advil Cold and Sinus, I got some relief, which catapulted me into a restrained, yet giddy appreciation of a throbbingless head (and yes, I just invented that word). So, what did I do? Drank two glasses of soda so I could stay up enjoying my non-pounding head.

Not my smartest move.

Now, at 1:47 am, having hoped to have fallen blissfully asleep at least 2 hours ago, I'm still up. I caught up on my tivo'd shows, facebooked myself to death and spent entirely too much time trolling petfinderdotcom. Now I'm left to sit here, uninspired yet introspective (a dull and potentially annoying combination), so I proceeded to take an inventory of sorts.

I looked in on my daughter. She is sleeping sweetly, and following in the footsteps of a scene from a made-for-tv movie, I brushed back a piece of hair from her face and kissed her on the forehead. I stopped short of clutching my heart while gazing at her lovingly, but just barely.

Then, I went over to my dog -- also sleeping, if not quite sweetly, then endearingly cute -- gently rubbed his ears and whispered, "you're a good boy" near his head.

I came back to the couch and looked around.

You know, I could ask for a lot more in this life -- couldn't we all? (this couch, for one, I've never really liked) But when it comes down to it, it doesn't get much better than this: a loving family (of the two- and four-legged variety), a job I'm proud of (did I mention freelance writing has been surprisingly good to me?), and a man I'd marry all over again (thankfully, I don't have to).

Yeah. Life is Good.*

*even if the headache returns.