Squeaky Clean, Jelly Bean!

Dearest Night Owls,

Whew! Right now, I am recovering from a deep cleaning session around my house. I had planned to wake up early so I could clean the house before tomorrow. What's happening tomorrow? I am hosting a small dinner party with some of my co-workers/friends from work. I am really looking forward to tomorrow night. This will be the second dinner party, at my house, with my co-workers/friends from work. The first one was hosted back in late March. I have to say, it was a lot of fun!

Truthfully, hosting dinner parties is very new to me. I am proud of myself to stepping out of my comfort zone to do something that is quite scary for me. I am always worried that something horrible will happen, such as my guests won't enjoy themselves. I am constantly in my own head about all of the things that could possibly go wrong. I just need to remind myself that I need to take some deep breaths and to not allow the negative thoughts control my life. I am tired of the negativity, and I am tired of feeling that I am not worthy enough.

Today, I had planned to wake myself up an hour earlier than usual. I try to keep my schedule the same, so I can stick to a routine. My usual time, to wake up for the day, is at 06:00 PM. Today, I planned to wake up at 05:00 PM. Waking up, at a set time, only changes when I am so exhausted that I need the extra sleep and/or when I have an appointment with a doctor or a continued education class for work. I wish that I could say that I stayed asleep until I needed to wake up at 05:00 PM. Nope. I ended up waking myself up at 01:38 PM. I woke myself up, thinking it was closer to 05:00 PM. When I rolled over to check the time, I cursed under my breath at the realization that it was too soon. The worst part about waking up too soon is attempting to fall back asleep because I can't fall asleep right away. I am super envious of those people who can fall asleep as soon as their head hits the pillow.

Currently, I am feeling tired but great that I accomplished my goals for the day. In this moment, I will celebrate this small victory. I have to get ready, soon, for my night at work. My goal for tonight, at work, is to complete all required documentation to stay up-to-date and to make another small blog post update since I won't have time tomorrow night. Why? Because.....dinner party!

On this day in local history:

“Mount St. Helens exploded in volcanic fury Sunday, unleashing massive mudflows, floods and other land-changing forces that killed at least nine persons, eliminated Washington’s Spirit Lake, and sent adrift an ash cloud that by Sunday night had moved as far as Wyoming.” So began The Oregonian, reporting the top news of May 18, 1980. No one who was in the region at the time ever forgot it. Last year, on the 40th anniversary of the event in 2020, we asked some of the witnesses to Mount St. Helens’ eruption to share their memories. You can hear their stories here: https://trib.al/6aNtVPX U.S. Geological Survey, via AP See Less

— in Mount St. Helen's.