Day 19

**The next 11 days I'll be posting 500 words a day here as part of a creative writing challenge. Join the FB group.**

Sometimes when I am depressed or stressed or feel guilt or shame, I make it a point to walk extra slowly and to look around at the trees and the clouds in the sky. When I do this, I slow time down so that discomfort is momentarily imperceptible.

Today I wasn’t depressed. We woke up at 9:30 which is luxurious. 9:30! We finally made it out of the house around 11 and headed down the street to matcha. Ryan and Jonah took off before me, so I found myself walking alone. Lately we’ve been having Goldilocks weather, the kind that you can wear a short-sleeved shirt and neither long for a sweater at the brush of a breeze, nor wish you were wearing less. I couldn’t help but be struck by gratitude as I walked to catch up with my family. An extraordinary feeling of happy swept over me and I wanted to savor the feeling. I slowed my stride so that I would remember what this felt like. Tbh, though, it doesn’t matter if I remember it or not. Emotional currency has an expiration date and cannot be exchanged at some time in the future when I feel like I could use it. Still I noticed the trees and the clouds and I felt happy.

Apparently I’m not the only one who has a matcha obsession. Today I bought a kit because I need another artisan bandwagon to jump on. The kit cost the equivalent of 10 matcha lattes, and I’m pretty sure that the vitamix I have at home would do the trick just fine, but it was packaged in such a way that I couldn’t ignore all of the money I would save by making my own at home. I need someone to hold me accountable to make sure I at least break even on this investment.

The great thing about matcha is that it’s green tea, so it’s good for your skin. It also has a smooth caffeine buzz. I can drink it in the afternoon and be good for 10 pm. The last thing is that they say that it’s safe for kids. I gave mine a small amount today, and I’m not sure that it’s actually safe for kids. I suppose if your criteria is, “Will it kill them,” then in fact, you could argue its safety. But, if yours has regressed to trying to scare random people, then maybe not so much. I don’t know.   

Oh, I had a surprise birthday party for Ryan tonight. It was pretty fun and he was genuinely surprised. He said it was the first time in his life he had ever had a one thrown for him. I love that that is true for him and he didn’t even grown up Jehovah’s Witness.

Okay, I can barely keep my eyes open, so I’m signing off til tomorrow, when I will probably write about my attempt to make matcha at home and all the ways I failed.