It started sometime in the early afternoon. I had just finished making my first pan of fudge for Christmas and was starting on the almond bark pretzels when the phone rang. It was L. At first she sounded okay, asking me what I was up to, telling me how she's doing...but I started to hear a little waver in her voice. She sounded upset, like she was trying to put on a happy face and it wasn't working. All I had to say was, "L., are you okay?" and she broke down in a huge pregnancy-hormone-induced crying jag that nearly tore my heart out. Everything seemed to be going poorly in her little world--being very, very pregnant and unable to leave the house much has made her feel very isolated. Also, since they just moved into their new place, the job of unpacking has been left to her husband A. and she felt guilty for not being able to help. In general, she just needed some kind words. I wanted to go visit, but I had just melted enough almond bark to cover 300 tiny pretzels. I was stuck in the kitchen for the near future. So we talked for a long time about happy subjects to take her mind off of her troubles. I told her that even though we're getting into crunch time with our moving and our weekend was looking quite full, I thought we could take a little time to help her and A. get their apartment in shape and set up the baby's room. That made things better. When I hung up with L., I realized that I had just committed to working on the only free morning of the coming (very busy) weekend, but figured that it's worth it. I like to help.

Later, I remembered that we needed to buy Christmas cards. Normally we make our cards, but there's just no time for that this year. As I walked down Division Street towards Paper Doll to get cards, I noticed that the flower store was open, and remembered the nice lady at the Alliance Bakery. The bakery lady was kind enough to connect us with the guy who is going to sublet our apartment. I bought some flowers at the shop and took them to the nice bakery lady, as a thank-you present. She was so happy she came around the counter and hugged me. It felt good to do it--one good turn and all that.

Back home after my trip down the street, the phone rang again. It was the guy who is going to sublet the apt., calling to confirm that everything is in order. Yay! He wanted to thank us, and told us to come to the restaurant where he works for a free breakfast/lunch/dinner anytime. Man, I am so glad we were straight with him about the various flaws of this place. He's cool with them and that's good. We really like him. I'm happy we met (and could help) such a nice guy.

So here I am, just finishing up with making a batch of snickerdoodles. It's been a damn good day.