Friday Five memes have been around almost since dirt. Or at least since blogging began. I’m not feeling meme-ish tonight, as much as list-y, so I offer what I hope will be a new tradition here: Happy Friday – Five Things That Made Me Smile Today. (I’ve been whining so much lately, it was time to kick myself in the pants, anyway).

1. Green tea lattes: it should be no surprise that I’m starting with a $tarbucks product, but the fact that I’ve switched from jolty coffee to calmer (but still caffeinated) green tea may surprise some. I needed to ease into the morning, today, and this worked wonders. (As I write this, I’m drinking another, because it’s gentle enough to send me into sleep, really. It’s such a comforting flavor, too. Just enough sweet, just enough bitter, a little earthy, and I love the color…
2. My coworkers. At previous jobs I returned from being sick with lists of things to catch up on, and half-done projects being returned to me. Today, I arrived after a day and a half of sleeping off a mild (thankfully) flu , to find one of my teammates on the phone with one of my brokers. “She’s back today,” she said into the phone, but staring at me. “And she shouldn’t be. She should be resting. But since I’ve got your file almost closed, I’m going to finish it.” When I asked her, afterward, if she wanted the closing credit she said, “No. You did most of the work. Don’t be silly.” Later, our supervisor told me that if I just come in at nine instead of ten three days next week, I won’t have to use TWO sick days (since we can’t break them in halves), and then said, “[Manager] said you were frustrated at the amount of fallout you’ve had this month. Don’t worry. SOme months are like that. Today, we’ll give you as many files as you can take, so that you can rebuild your pipeline.” I love that these women are so supportive. Tomorrow, many of us are going to Scarborough Faire and while we’re going separately, there are plans to meet for peach bellinis at some point. I’ve never had coworkers I was remotely interested in hanging out with, before. (Not including TechnoCowboy who was a friend FIRST.)
3. New traditions. Over the last few weeks, in trying to find ways to make the Lenten “fish on Friday” ritual a bit easier for both of us (it is possible to get sick of salmon and tilapia, really), we’ve begun having Friday night sushi at a place in Irving called. Hanasho, which, for some reason, I keep wanting to call “Hanosha.” Yeah, I’m weird that way. In any case, the service is excellent, the sashimi is fresh, and they do an unagi donburi that is literally an entire barbecued eel over a bed of rice served on a rectangular glass dish (that is oddly reminiscent of an ashtray) for about $13. The best part though? The smoking section is in the way back behind a wall, so as not to taint the fish. As we were leaving today, I told Fuzzy I’d like to make eating there a Friday tradition even after Easter.
4. An actual lunch hour. For the first time since January, we were all caught up enough that we got to take an entire hour for lunch, which meant one of my workmates and I ate IN the cafeteria for the first time since it opened, instead of merely buying food and carting it back upstairs.
5. Not procrastinating. While many of our friends, family members and colleagues are glued to their computer screens this weekend, finishing (or starting) their tax returns, we’ve been finished since the end of January, when we received our w-2’s. And while we didn’t quite come out at zero (my goal), at least we didn’t owe this year. I think I”m entitled to a little smugness over that one.

As I said, this isn’t really a meme, but anyone who feels moved to share things that made them smile today, either here or in their own space, is more than welcome.