Emuzines

Happiness is…

…spending a night playing games with Nik and some of our oldest friends, in the birthplace of our relationship (the Rhoades household).

…devouring a meal of some of the best Mexican food LA has to offer (Pachanga), balanced on my lap while cruising down PCH and rocking out to KLOS.

…spending a relaxing day knitting with Martha, chatting with Justine, Dad, Nana, and Nonno.

…spontaneously remembering favorite LA food and drink spots, then going to them right away.

…see above…drinking a Coffee Bean vanilla latte during said games.

…coming home to a happy and sleepy Logan greeting me at the door, and following me within an inch of my body around the house until bed.

…knowing that I get to spend the next week and a half with some of my best friends and my family.

…also knowing that I get to go home to Nik, JoJo, and some incredible people who have quickly become the most wonderful friends a girl could ask for.

Just a quick post as I am itching to start a movie all cuddled in bed…

Had a fun day at work today. Sally and I had a writing session together in her office, for 4 hours. Exciting things happen in Sally’s office. I arrived to the conference call about the new DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). It is THE diagnostic tool for mental health, and Sally is on the commitee writing the new version. That’s pretty huge. She’s deciding on the diagnostic criteria for autism and related disorders. Pretty cool. She let me listen in and said that she thought I might enjoy that. I sure did.

Then casually she said, oh, at 2:00 I have a phone interview with the New York Times. ! Just like that. I was very excited, again. She let me stay for that too. The study I work on with her just published some of its initial data and it’s all over the news since we’re the only ones doing intervention with kids so young (wait until we do the babies…). Anyway, it’s here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/conditions/11/30/autism.study/ and here: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1943512,00.html and elsewhere. Apparently in the NY Times soon.

As far as Christmas goes, I came home from work and did all my decorating! I figured out that I need a few more decorations…apartment versus house is a pretty big change…but I’m going to go shopping tomorrow to try to fill in some of the gaps. Then when Nik got home he was inspired, so we went to get the tree. We had so much fun. We got a big one! We got it at the Boy Scout lot in town and they were all so eager and helpful and did all the work, and the adults there were very nice. We had a good time, brought it home. JoJo tuck-tail ran about the tree, but seems to be getting used to it. We went out to dinner and the house smelled soooo nice when we came back.