30 Days of Gratitude Day 14 -- Lunch with a Friend

Early last spring {I really want to say it was around my birthday or shortly after} I started having regular lunches with a friend.  At first it was absolutely thrilling to be doing something for me.  Without kids coming along.  Somewhere along the way I realized that it wasn't as thrilling but it had become very important.  No matter how ugly of a week I've had {or am looking at depending on what's going on} I have an hour each Wednesday that I don't stress about anything and I almost always spend most of it laughing.  It keeps me grounded with my feet under me. I've been known to work Tuesday night and Wednesday night and interrupt my sleep for lunch because it's become that important.

Since I've been back to work our lunch spot is the Little Brick House.  Wednesday is likely to find us sitting in a side booth eating soup in a bread bowl. {really the booth should be ours -- someone else was sitting there today and it completely threw me for a loop, fortunately they left before DiAnna showed up.  I wonder if left a tiny sign saying "Reserved for Wednesday 11 am" if they'd move it or not}  Their sandwiches are the best in town too, but I absolutely love their soup.  I've not had a soup I don't like from there.The bread bowls are heavenly, but require a creamy soup not broth based so I prefer to go on a day I know there is a creamy soup -- either potato bacon or clam chowder are perfect.

This is definitely the wrong time of year, but warmer weather may find us sitting at a bench in the park.  Lunch out this year had kept me going -- pulled me out of a funk multiple times during my LOA when there wasn't much else I could do, makes me smile when it feels like I have nothing to smile about, and lately when things have been going well it's just a great time. Days like today when on the way home from lunch I'm interrupted with a sick kiddo call from school it makes all the difference when the rest of my plans suddenly go awry.