Day 1: Choosing to Love Myself and Own My Life Day 18. Thursday, December 24th. This was an interesting morning, as Mira and I needed to be up at 5:30 to get her ready for work, etc… What made it interesting, is that Michael was sleeping in the living room (air mattress), and our place is very small. The challenge to not use light, make noise, etc… is pretty significant when we have a guest. Good thing he’s a teenager and will sleep through just about anything! I took Mira to work, as Michael and I needed the car that day (going to a movie and taking him to the airport). After getting back from dropping her off (around 7:30am), Michael was awake, so we lounged around for a bit and then took a long walk with Marley. (Probably around 45 minutes or so) This is about Marley’s tolerance for length of walk. He gets quite bored/tired and becomes less than a joy to walk. (lays down) Put him at the beach and he’ll run around for hours… but not so much on walks. Regardless, it was a beautiful day and we love walking around our neighborhood. Win! (Plus plenty of sunlight!) Michael and I then caught an early matinee, the newest installment in the Rocky series, Creed. As a huge fan of the original Rocky series, and a fan of boxing, I can say I definitely enjoyed this one. It’s not a classic or amazing movie, but definitely enjoyable and much better than the two most-recent (and rather terrible) Rocky movies. Seeing movies early is great! There are less/no crowds, and it’s cheap! (Was $13 for TWO tickets!) [caption id="attachment_4582" align="alignleft" width="202"] Movie Time![/caption] Michael loves the chicken wings from Mother’s Saloon (wings may be his absolute favorite food in general), the bar around the corner from our house – and he hadn’t gotten to have them during this trip, so I ordered us a dozen wings on my way home. (They’re not breaded, but are fried in crap oils) We had some leftover jambalaya with the wings for lunch. While delicious, my belly did not enjoy the fried food and I felt pretty awful the rest of the day. All-in-all, this was my 3rd bout of restaurant food (Pho, sushi, etc… and wings) during Michael’s visit. No gluten, no processed/garbage food, but more than I’d had for the last while and my belly was glad for it to be coming to an end! Michael’s flight was a little delayed, leaving around 3:30 or so. I took him to the airport and walked him to security. This is when I always notice how much taller than me he is! (At least 3-4 inches now!) It’s also pretty incredible how seasoned of a traveler he is already, having flown by himself more times than I can count, and having been all over the country. We’re going to try and take him on an international trip in 2016 or 2017 (at the latest), as he’s never been out of the country. I personally feel international travel, and travel in general, to be the single most valuable means of education and growth! After I got home from the airport, I did a bunch of chores, dishes, laundry, and organization. Apparently Christmas Eve night is not a popular time to do laundry, as I had the entire laundry mat to myself! Whoohoo! Party! I picked Mira up and warmed her up some leftover jambalaya for dinner. I just had a light snack, as I wasn’t feeling good from the heavy/friend lunch. To bed early, as she was once again working early the next morning.  ]]>