Lookin' on the bright side

Today was rough. It was like someone sucked all the life out of my office. Everyone walked around, heads hanging low, trying not to look at the 5 now empty cubicles. A few of the people who were laid off came back late last night to clean out there desks, leaving only the random highlighters and stray papers strewn about. It's so depressing. And since my two cubicle neighbors are now gone, it's like working in a graveyard.

The office is silent, somber and altogether sucky. And after our company meeting this morning in which we were told how terrible our situation (tied together with the economy) really is, no one felt like doing anything. 

So while I sat there completely unmotivated today, I started looking ahead to the fun things I have coming up to cheer myself up.

Valentine's Day—Though not my favorite holiday (sorry, Hallmark), I do love spending time with my boyfriend. And I finally get to see him again this weekend after a very long two weeks. Not only that, it's also our 3-year anniversary. Wow. 3 years. That's a long time...

The Opera—I'm looking forward to this out of sheer amusement and curiosity. My friend and I both wanted to get tickets to the opera since neither of us had ever been before. So she looked up and saw that Tristan and Isolde was playing in Chicago and went ahead and bought tickets...without realizing how long it was. It's 5 HOURS. 5! We both agreed if we get too bored/antsy/tired, we'll sneak out and go to a bar. Sounds like a plan to me.

St. Patrick's Day—I LOVE St. Paddy's Day. Next to Christmas, it's my absolute favorite holiday. It's an entire day dedicated to all things Irish, what's not to love? You get to wear lots of green (I do every day anyway), blast Irish music and drink green beer all day. It's the best. And usually, my office closes down that day and we all head to an Irish pub with clients to drink all day. Unfortunately, with the layoffs, it looks like that might not be happening this year. Such a bummer.

Aruba—We leave March 21st and I can't even wait. The beautiful weather today reminded me of how much I love being out in the warm sunshine. It's going to be amaaaazing. I can't stop looking at pictures of all the beaches and palm trees there...

Plus, I have a bunch of friends' birthday coming up, a visit from my boyfriend's parents, a high school reunion, a book/wine club meeting and some fantastic Marquette basketball games thrown in, too. All before April. 

Despite the work situation, it looks like I'm finally crawling my way out of the winter slump and I couldn't be more excited about it. Must be all that sunshine I got today!