…are the luckiest people in the world says the fabulous Barbra Streisand, and who am I to argue?  Today, home from our vacation, I’m truly feeling like one of the lucky ones.

Over the past few weeks I’ve had the chance to catch up with so many people and I’m so grateful for the time they spent organizing a get together, attending a get together or reaching out, even when we couldn’t connect in person. Friends who went out of their way to take us places, help guide us or invited us to share in their special day. I’m truly thankful. For those I didn’t see this time, my philosophy is that you always have to save something to do or see so you can come back!

I am a people person – I know it. When I look back on jobs I’ve had, I never think about the successes there – it’s always about the people I worked with along the way. Who wants to remember a great project? Let’s remember the laughs we had along the way. Same is true with most of my memories – people first. When I try and connect people, it’s rarely for a purpose other than I hope they enjoy each other’s company. I’m the anti-LinkedIn.

A few months back, there was a thing going around Facebook asking in 6 words, what you would want on your gravestone. I answered “She liked to laugh with others.” Some might do a bit of wordsmithing on that and say “She liked to laugh at others” which is true, but I’m almost always first to laugh at myself.  I got practice this morning as I took a spill down the stairs carrying taking the laundry down. Seems like I’ve forgotten how many stairs there are in the house. Nothing says that you are back from vacation than missing the last three stairs and falling on the ground next to the laundry basket!

We saw a number of great things over the past two weeks. The best memories are of the time spent with friends and even family. I had asked for a 48 hour grace period from seeing Kathryn once we hit home, but I let that go. Honestly, she rode me most of the vacation between chastising me on how I can’t use my phone to telling me, as we are walking up a hill at Giant’s Causeway, that I had a “big rip in my pants.” Figuring I split my pants or something while climbing on the rocks, the best I could hope for was that I was wearing decent underwear as surly everyone was viewing it. Turns out there was a small rip by one of the pockets in the back. Life with a teen…

Today I will bask in the glow of truly feeling blessed to have so many great people in my life. Whether we see each other a lot, every so often or almost never, don’t under estimate how I appreciate our friendship, good times and of course, laughs together.