Firsts

This week has been one of firsts. For starters, yesterday was the first time I ever saw snow in South Carolina. Well, to be fair, I've seen snowflakes here before, but nothing ever stuck to the ground. This time, there wasn't much snow and it didn't stay long, but it was enough for two of my professors to cancel class (suckers!), turning my 3-day weekend (because of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) into a 3 and a half day weekend. Doesn't sound like it would make much of a difference, but it really did! Daisy and Ellie had never experienced snow before, so I took them out for a nice little walk in the morning and let them figure things out. Mostly, they just stuck their noses in the mysterious white stuff and tried to smell it. Ellie seemed to like it more than Daisy, probably because she's got a warmer coat. Poor Daisy gets cold so quickly, she doesn't enjoy cold weather very much at all!
After playing in the snow for a bit, I was able to sit down with Justin and watch the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. I don't think the fact that we have a new president has sunk in for me quite yet. It's strange, considering that for eight years, "President Bush" has been the phrase on everybody's lips. It may take a bit of getting used to, but soon, "President Obama" will be just as commonplace. While I have not bought into the full-fledged idealism that has spread like wildfire throughout the U.S. since Barack won the election, I do hope that President Obama is able to make some positive changes and relate to the people; after all, we (generally speaking, the middle and lower classes) are the majority, and we need to see a light at the end of the tunnel, financially and otherwise.


But enough politics. Speaking of firsts, my beautiful niece, Emily Grace, will be turning one in just ten short days! I absolutely cannot believe that a year has already gone by. Watching children grow really seems to mark time in a special way. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and forget how quickly time is passing, but looking at the changes that take place in the first year of a little one's life is a good reminder that a lot can happen in a short amount of time!
I guess where I'm going with all of this talk about firsts is that life is made up of change, whether we like it or not. The truth is, we often just don't see the changes coming, and even when we do, the adjustments still aren't always easy to make. Case in point: marriage. It's something that is typically planned way in advance, but can take a year or two, or maybe even longer, to get used to.

Those are my thoughts for today. I'm not sure why the concept of time is weighing so heavily on my mind lately... probably because of all the changes going on in my life - and the lives of many Americans - right now. Happy hump day... I wish you all a great rest of the week!

Love and Lattés,

Katie