I Consider This Day Seized

(tomorrow we'll seize the day and throttle it)

For all those who know this quote, you know what I feel like. For those who don't: today has been an absolutely fantastic day!
For starters, it is stunningly beautiful here. Warm, sunny, it's like a nice April afternoon without all the wind. Only it's the dead middle of February. Anyone who doubts the effects of global warming is an idiot. It's stunning to think of how long it takes to get snow now, how little total snow we get, and how quickly it gets warm. It's really stunning. But this morning the air was crisp and clear, and it buoyed my spirits immensely.
Then, on the way to work, the T broke down. I mean, we were at the Potomac stop and it just didn't want to go again. T's break down pretty rarely. I've only seen it twice now in many years riding the rails, and once I was on a T when the whole line got struck by lightning and it reset all the signals and switches, so they had to manually reset everything on all 10 miles of track. But this T wasn't going. Perhaps it wanted to enjoy the nice day too.
No problem! I took my laptop out and began writing my story. This is after last night, where I wrote some great pieces of various scenes throughout the book. My muse is picking up the production big time. I think that's because I am now getting to hear from two of the three people that were so critical to me originally writing a fantasy story, Martin and Margaret. Both want to see the rough draft I'm feverishly trying to work on, and I think the excitement have having such talented readers is pushing my muse to new heights. If Marla got in on the act, who knows what could happen. But I sat on my stopped T, the sun shining in the window, cheerfully called in to work to tell them I wasn't going anywhere for a bit, and started typing the morning away. Yeah!
Eventually we got out and had to catch a T that was going the wrong way, which then went inbound on the outbound track towards the city. So I eventually got into work at about 10 AM. All good so far.
At lunch I went outside, and it was even more beautiful than the morning. "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" got into my head out of nowhere and I couldn't stop singing/whistling it. I danced across the street, I walked on top of the planter in Fifth Avenue, I bounced up to the Wendy's. I got my order and went back to find out that my burger was incorrectly made, a difficult thing to do when the order is "Plain burger, ketchup only." And this happened three times. No problem! I kept going back outside to get the order fixed, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I said hi to people I knew on the street and took my time getting back to work. Ahhh.
But the ultimate highlight of the day were the envelopes on my desk today. Upon opening them, I was given some wonderful information. I received a raise! It's a modest raise, but the mere fact that I was deemed to be putting in the time and working hard really meant a lot to me. But even cooler, I received A BONUS. (Every time I say that or think that, all I can think about is the commercial where the guy comes into his boss's office and says, 'This other company is offering me a bonus. Can you even say that? BO-NUS. ....BO-NUS." He also picks up the boss's telephone and says, "Hello, Bonus?" Then switches it to the other ear and says, "Speaking..." Great stuff.) But I received a 100% bonus, meaning I achieved all the goals the company set for me personally and I was following the company direction and guiding principles. Translation: A four-digit check in my name. I'm stunned! I'm going to put most of it in my savings, but maybe I'll do something or get something fun for $50 or so. My first raise and my first bonus on the same day. I can barely believe it.
And my boss just left my cube after trying to convince me to take off early today!
Days like this don't come around too often. I'm going to enjoy it!!