"Out of the ash I rise with my red hair"

Things that are making me happy (and I really need this exercise this week):

Reading Inkheart in the original German

Hair ribbons

Venturing into an Eastern Orthodox bookstore and talking with the booksellers and other patron for more than an hour about the randomest things. We drank black coffee and ate bread from a nearby bakery, in the gorgeous fumes of whatever kind of incense I wanted to try burning and the sounds of Orthodox church music from Africa. And the bookseller called me Rebecca, because he said I reminded him of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

Paper cranes and jasmine tea pearls

Therapeutic baking. Baking is such the best when I'm feeling down because it occupies my hands and thoughts, and it can be creative, but it doesn't have to be difficult. I go into the kitchen and blast music from my laptop and mutter defiantly at the recipe when I don't have apple cider vinegar and swear gratuitously when I spill precious Milo. It always turns out to be at least decent, whatever I'm making, and by the time it emerges from the oven the stirring and measuring and pouring and nice smells have calmed my nerves and distracted me from my woes for a while. God bless muffin tins.

My littlest cousin spinning and leaping around the dining table, stopping only to scoop a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. She is a miracle, that girl.