Easily Amused

My optometrist is hard to read. He's personable and professional, but he doesn't laugh, and he doesn't smile.

During my appointment today, I cracked joke after joke, because, you know... me. He gave me nothing.

After receiving none of the typical responses to my many humorous remarks, I quietly said, "I think I'm funny."

"You are very funny," he said. "It helps that I'm easily amused."

:: blink ::

Excuse me. What?

You're... you're amused?

In the silence that followed, it occurred to me that, yes, he had been responding, just not in any of the ways I was used to.

I realized every time I'd cracked a joke, he had stopped what he was doing and had made eye contact. This was how he acknowledged that something special had happened. 

No laugh. Not a smile. But a pause, and deliberate eye contact.

After I identified it, I appreciated it even more than if he had laughed aloud 🫶

Detours

Due to recent flooding, I've had to take a different route to work. According to Google Maps, it's about the same distance even thought it's a full country mile over. According to me, it's a little more pleasant as it passes through open fields and is a little less traveled than my usual route.

I've been detoured for about a month now, so the new route is pretty well set in my head. Muscle memory turns my car that direction without consciously thinking about it.

But now...

This detour is being detoured!

Road construction.

Wait a minute, guys. We already lost one way across the county. You can't just close this one without opening the other one first! Ugh!

I've been following Google Maps and have been redirected so many times, I'm not sure I'll remember the original route when it finally reopens.

3 Things 6/22/2026 (another positive work incident worth remembering)

Something that went well 

I attended a work meeting today regarding a big project coming up in Q1 next year. In this meeting, they mentioned a portion of the project that required my SEO expertise. Mentioned me by name. My name was on the slide deck and everything. 

Okay, this is cool, actually. It means they're counting on me for this future endeavor. 

Then, in this same meeting, conversation progressed to a second big project in Q2, and my name came up again!

So, it appears I have job security for at least 12 more months. 😁

Something to look forward to 

I have a lot of things to do for the yarn shop website even now that it's live. I had kinda thought that once it was published the owner would be less interested in improvements, but that is not the case. It seems she's now confident I can do most anything and is comfortable asking for bigger, stronger, faster. I am not so confident 🤪 but I'm happy to try.

I also told a yarn-loving friend about the site, and she sent me some really good ideas for additional features and content.

What's the best that could happen?

- I could get to keep my day job for another year, which would mean I will set a new record for the longest I've worked in one place.

- The yarn shop owner could not be shocked by the amount of her next invoice from me. She could think she's getting her money's worth and then some 🤞

3 Things 6/20/2026

Something that went well 

- Yarn shop owner paid me for the work I did in May. She seems very pleased, said I've already done way more than the last person she hired to work on her website 😊

- I did some magic* today and managed to get the yarn shop website to show up on the first page of Google results. Granted, it was for a rather specific search term, but it was unbranded. Rather pleased with myself since her website was nowhere to be found on Google yesterday. 

Something to look forward to 

- plenty more website things to do. The yarn shop owner is participating more now that she can see the work I'm capable of doing. I have a list of requests to implement this weekend.

- 3.5 day workweek coming up

- The Husband and I are already talking about long road trips we want to take this coming winter to escape cold northen weather and spend time with friends

What's the best that could happen?

I could sleep past 5:30 tomorrow morning. For some reason, I've been waking up very early most every day this week. Not a bad thing, really, just an odd, new development. 

*There's no magic in SEO. I simply verified her website thru Google Search Console and then submitted all her page URLs to the Google URL Inspector. It felt like magic, though, how quickly Google responded. I'd never experienced such a drastic change in such a short amount of time.

3 Things 6/19/2026 (the one with the website & the book)

Something that went well 

I PUBLISHED THE YARN STORE WEBSITE TODAY!!!

Something to look forward to 

I think I've agreed to co-write a young adult mystery series with a friend 🤔😲 (🌭🛥👨‍👩‍👧‍👦)

What's the best that could happen?

- Yarn shop owner has hinted several times that she needs another employee. If I wanted to, I could quit my day job and pick up hours working in a yarn shop(!) which would be the dream, right?

- This YA mystery series is a really cool idea with a unique backdrop. It could be fun to write, and people might actually like to read it.

3 Things 6/18/2026

Something that went well 

I gathered up the nerve to offer unsolicited advice/data to a coworker regarding moving around paid search funds. He accepted it gracefully and even thanked me for sharing it.

Something to look forward to 

Another 3 day weekend begins tomorrow! Woo hoo!

What's the best that could happen?

Hm, I'm starting to wonder if some of the yarn shop owner's flightiness might actually be embarrassment that she doesn't have answers for me. She had an uncomfortable relationship with her previous website person. I suspect *that* person holds the information we need to move forward, and the awkwardness prevents yarn shop owner from knowing and getting answers. And maybe that's why yarn shop owner has been avoiding my messages.

I know, that's not really a "best" scenario, but it could explain a lot of the I-don't-know's and her odd facial expressions when I ask questions about certain things.

Hm. Hm hm hm.

3 Things 6/17/2026

Something that went well 

- I was able to fix a problem I caused in the yarn shop draft website! Yay! I'm learning!

- I only had to work half a day at my day job. Woo hoo!

Something to look forward to 

- I wanna see if the yarn shop owner likes the site I assembled for her

- I have Friday off from work again. Woo hoo!

What's the best that could happen?

- We could actually get the yarn shop Shopify website published within our 30 day window

- I could keep having a positive attitude about my day job (but tbh, a lot of the positivity comes from having Fridays off all month)

3 Things 6/16/2026

Something that went well 

-camping trip was lovely! Pleasant temperatures. No mosquitoes. Interesting new things to see. No notes.

- bought a boatload of fresh cheese from our favorite dairy on the way home from camping because it was on the way

- got home from trip early enough to clean out camper van and get laundry started. Elder Son also came over.

Something to look forward to 

- camping friend's the gym sounds like the kind of place I've been looking for. She was excited to tell me all about it and seems genuinely enthusiastic about the prospect of me joining. I'm gonna stop in after work tomorrow and check it out

- I have only 1.5 workdays this week 🤣

- looking forward to showing yarn shop website draft to the owner. Need to fix something on it first. Hope to connect with her this week.

What's the best that could happen?

- the gym could be a good fit, I could sign up right away, and I could be on my way to better fitness this week!

- the thing on the yarn shop website could be an easy fix, and the owner could be so pleased that she'd want to publish it right away. And we could get it up and running within the 30-day window we set for ourselves🤞

3 Things 6/12/2026

Something that went well 

I resolved a menu issue with the yarn shop's website draft. The draft is now fully functional, and it's SO much better than the currently live version. If the owner is happy with it as-is, we could publish it after this weekend.

Something to look forward to 

- camping with friends this weekend

- due to time off for camping trip and necessity to use all my PTO before the end of the month, I have a 1.5 day workweek next week! 🤪

What's the best that could happen?

The yarn shop owner could like the work I've done, and she will pay me for it. She could be charmingly flighty (which she truly seems to be) and not deceptively manipulative. In any case, I will have learned a lot from this experience, and that's a very good thing.

3 Things 6/11/2026 (the one w/good job moment to remember)

Something that went well 

Skip level manager took time to actually *sit* and chat with me about responsibilities I'd been assigned.  She said she understood there are obstacles holding up progress, and we can't move forward until they're cleared. Said she's going to work on removing the obstacles. This made me believe management does want to support me as they said they would, and that I've been unfair in thinking I'd been set up to fail. Worth remembering. 

Something to look forward to 

- day off work tomorrow 

- will probably go out for breakfast with The Huband tomorrow 

- visit yarn shop for website work

- camping with friends later this weekend

What's the best that could happen?

- yarn shop owner could be really happy with the progress I've made

- weather could be very pleasant for camping

- they might actually let me keep my job as long as I want it