And today I got a reminder of why I stay in my job even though sometimes it really sucks. There was a phone message from the young woman I sent the shawl to. She said, "Yesterday I was having the worst day. I felt awful and terrible and everything was wrong. Then I came home and found this package with this beautiful scarf and the great card and I sat in the hall way and cried for 5 minutes. You don't know how much this meant to me. Thank you"

I called her to check on her because the message sounded like she was still in a bad way. She's much better today and told me again how much she appreciated the gift. I told her that even though she was not my child, I was proud of her and realized the effort she had put in. And then I told her to go "knock'em dead".

I hung up and sat there with a full heart. Young people are so vulnerable. They think they are tough but most of the time they haven't developed the shell they need and they're so easily hurt.

Sometimes I want to put my arms around the world and tell it that everything will be ok and will work out. But since I can't do that, I'll put my arms around one person at a time (sometimes figuratively).

It has been raining here for 7 straight days and showers are predicted for tonight and tomorow and saturday. But right now there is a sunbeam shining through the raindrops on the window and they look like diamonds. I stopped in the middle of the word "diamonds "to try to take a photo. All I could do was capture the sunlight. It's enough 'cause the sun is gone already, behind an ominous looking cloud.

And because there was some light,(still not much but some) here's the purple trainwreck roving and the sock yarn Julie sent to me. The cake of yarn is Zap and the skein is Sunshiney Day. I'd like to see a sunshiney day! I will probably make Em a pair of socks with some of this. She loves handmade socks and I like making them so that works out just fine.

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Tomorrow we are going to a funeral for Pk's father. He died yesterday of old age. He was 93. Pk's grandfather lived to 104, so he has some good genes in there. We haven't been close to his dad and didn't know he was failing. He lived alone up until December and then just went down hill in the last few months.

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As of today, Em's surgery is scheduled for May 26th. It depends on whether the neurosurgeon has to be involved in the actual surgery. She doesn't need any more tests, she's just waiting to see if her surgeon needs the neurosurgeon to assist. Sigh, more waiting. Her friend is organizing a Beef n' Beer fund raiser and I told her I would donate the North Sea Shawl to raffle off and Pk and I are making up some baskets o' cheer to raffle off. Hopefully, it'll help defray some of the costs of Em's surgery.

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We're all soggy here, but hanging on.

*****added to make some separations because blogger insists on smooshing everything together.