… that I’ve encountered over the last few days.

Over the last week or so I’ve received some very interesting birthday presents from fellow stitchers. One individual with acreage gave me Chatelaine’s Mini-Mystery F as a present. Two other individuals (one in a glade and another who has gone mad) teamed up to give me Chatelaine’s Weeping Willow Keep.

My secret stitcher loaded me up with a couple of Mirabilia’s (one of which she was kitting for me along the way), some lovely Dinky Dyes silks, a Lorri Birmingham needleroll for July, and something else that I cannot recall at the moment.

…and then there’s two anonymous contributions that I truly wish I could thank the originator (or plural) for. Someone gave me Alexandria Riley’s ‘A Winter’s Tale’ and the threads to go with it, and another individual sent me a gift certificate from Needle in a Haystack. It was simply signed “A Friend – nice still matters”. I can’t help but think that this is the same individual who gave me “Because Nice Matters” in the first place, but I cannot be sure.

It doesn’t matter anyway – that gift certificate arrived with perfect timing...

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I was having a rough time of it in the last few days (as you could probably tell from yesterday's post). The TWBB has been blowing up to migraine proportions, my DH’s birthday sucked (I didn’t get him a present in time, and I wasn’t feeling 100%), and I got some bad news from the eye doctor. He tells me that I have an enlarged optic nerve behind my right eye, and brings a specialist in – this is all found during my routine glaucoma screening. The specialist rattles off all sorts of things, mostly negative. Best case, I won’t wear contacts in two years. Worst case (based on rate of expansion of the nerve since I didn’t have any issues last year): blind in 5-10 years.

Suffice it to say, I was not a happy camper. The last thing anyone wants is to see his or her spouse crying on your birthday.

The eye doctor is wrong, according to my lens fitter (I got disposables today). She screened my eyes too and found that the nerves are just fine – it was probably the result of a splitting headache that I had at the time. I'm still going to be thinking positive thoughts and doing all the right things to ensure that this is just an anomalous situation.

Either way, that doctor isn't going to be seeing me again for the follow up on these disposables that I've got, and he's going to be questioned about the use of a numbing agent on my eyes when there wasn't a pressure test, but simply a light screening.

I had just arrived home when the gift certificate arrived. And it reminded me that for some people nice does still matter. So thank you nice person or persons who conspired to send that to me. It truly matters that a bright spot of niceness arrived on my desk at home when I truly needed it.

So, if anyone reading this has been thinking about a nice thing to do for someone, go ahead and do it! It won't hurt (most likely) and if it's a surprise, then all the better. You'll brighten someone's day.

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As for yesterday's post (and something a little less than nice)... I'm still a little angry about a certain piece of office gossip making to my ears from a most unlikely source. I figured that if there was anything that I needed to know then a certain someone would call me on the carpet for it.

Apparently, I was mistaken about what the true nature of our relationship was. I knew I was naive years ago, but I didn't think that I still had that quality revolving around me. I thought that that wonderful curse about friends shedding me like unwanted skin and then talking behind my back afterwards was long gone. Apparently not.

Ah well... I suppose I'm better off now so that individual can think all she wants about how my job had elevated me and I'm better off without her and all sorts of paranoid nonsense that she'll inevitably read between the lines of this post that really isn't there.

I just love it when people make up thier own reality.

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Speaking of reality, or rather, the lack thereof...

A user by the name of Whraven on the TWBB started a thread about joining them in insanity. I have to agree - insanity at times can be a good thing. When it's productive insanity.

Now, I'm sure you're asking yourself, how can insanity be productive?

Well, there's chasing those gosh darn flutterbyes that are all over the house - they flitter and flutter and won't sit still, and they can be downright annoying when they're dancing in front of your eyes all the time. And the constant fluttering noise is not conducive to a good night's sleep.

Then there's the little munchkins that are running around the house and stealing your car keys and jewelry and putting them in the freezer where you don't find them until you go to console yourself with ice cream. They've managed to stay away from the stitching tools... so far. I'm going to have to set some traps for them.

Then there's finding that one next evil plot to participate in... I'm plot-less at the moment, and think I should change that, as I've been the recipient of a couple of evil gatherings-together of late. DH says it's sending little stitching gifts just because, or making work fun... those just don't seem insane enough to me.

Ah, the lure of insanity...

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Well, I suppose that's all for today. This is a radically different post than I had originally drafted, but I have to say that this post is much better than the one that I had originally planned out and written. And that post will never see the light of day.

You should be happy for that. Trust me on this one.