When life hands you lemons....trade them for chocolate

Hands down, this has been a work week that would make the late, self-proclaimed "ice queen", Leona Helmsley cry. Or weep bitterly and breath in a paper sack is more like it. That's been the equivalent of my coping skills since last Friday. I can't get into details, but let's say there was an review of internal files that did not go well. Could I have done anything about the outcome? Well, no. Could I have prevented it? No again, not my area of work. The problems resulted more from internal side of things, but part of me still has to deal with correcting the outcome. It was ugly and we now have the attention of folks in the company so high on the food chain that I resemble something on the lines of plankton or other one-celled critter. Smell what I'm cookin'?

To liven things up a bit, I attended an external training in Philadelphia today that had been planned since March. I wasn't in the least bit thrilled for going with my mental state, but I was pleasantly surprised at my accommodations and I met 3 lovely ladies that share the same job as I do. I stayed at the Penn's View Hotel in Philly which is right across from Penn's Landing. I grew up in Jersey so I knew this area fairly well having come here with my parents as a kid. I never even knew this hotel was here until today. I ended up with a top floor room. The decor is all colonial with shaker-style furniture and cherry hardwood floors. See that door to the left there?

Step into my office. It's my very own deck complete with a cafe set with a view of the Delaware River and Ben Franklin Bridge! SWEEEEET.

I decided I had had enough of breathing into paper sacks and weeping bitterly this week so I went with another coping mechanism. Yes, an ice tea and a chocolate ganache cake will go swimmingly with my knitting and view on the veranda. I always say, "When life hands you lemons, trade them for chocolate." One of my favorite snarky comedians, Ron White of Blue Collar TV fame, said, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Then you find the person that got the vodka and have party." That's not such a bad idea either really.

The knitting is my February Lady Sweater. The pattern is by Pamela Wynne of FlintKnits. It pays special homage to the February Baby Sweater or Baby Surprise Jacket, depending on which EZ (Elizabeth Zimmerman) book you have, but in an adult size version. According to Pam, "to fit a grown-*ssed woman." Gotta love that. Oh the yarn? Yes, I switched from having a major crush on Malabrigo to my newest crush, Dream in Color Classy. The colorway is "Happy Forest".

It's squishy and soft. It has a good twist to the double-ply so it has almost and elastic, springy quality. And the colorway, is right up my alley. Yes, I know we've seen a lot of green on this blog lately, but there has to be a reason for it. It's the heart chakra and for the last month I have been heavy-hearted for a good friend with terminal cancer. The cancer is located in the chest. Green, with the secondary color of pink, are the healing colors of that chakra in reiki so I must need it. When this chakra is blocked, we can experience emotional instability, sorrow, and a sense of loss we cannot get past. I think that's where I am right now. Unconsciously, I am probably working toward giving myself enough green as it is the color of balance and peace, two things which I feel that I cannot grasp in the last month or so. I suppose I will need to get back to practicing Reiki on myself and get this chakra open again.

Sidebar, my SIL, Tammy and I are Reiki practioners. I don't think I've mentioned that here before. She is a higher level than I am and is more dedicated to practicing than I have been. Someday I will get to level 2 and master level, but I believe it will speak to me when I am ready for the next level. I mostly Reiki myself, the dogs, or people who come to me and ask for it. My dad had me work on healing his shoulder after his surgery 2 years ago. My parents have come a long way with opening up to the prinicples of eastern medicine and I'm pretty proud of them.

Hello lover. I am squishy and greeeeeeen.

Well if you will excuse me, I'm going to go out and enjoy my view of the Ben Franklin before I call it a night. My sleep this week has been minimal and I worked 40 hours by Tuesday. Please send out your positive thoughts for me so I can make it through this week. It's been a rough one.

BTW, thank you for the kind comments on the Bed Jacket. I really appreciate it. If you haven't rec'd a reply from me on your comment, it's because I don't have your email or know where you are on Ravelry. The naughty blogger systems doesn't give you the email addys of the people that comment for some reason. Drop me your email so I can respond to you when you comment in the future. The email is around my flickr badge. You can't miss it. Drop me a note.