I'm feeling so much more cheerful than I have been in quite a while, ever since yesterday. I finally started feeling a bit better yesterday, which was a great help--still not ready to go on a jog (or even a walk of more than 5 minutes), but not too woozy as long as I sit down most of the time. And Valentine's Day was just lovely, starting with Patrick surprising me when he came home by bringing me a lovely bouquet of white tulips and a perfect, long-stemmed red rose.

It was just the nicest surprise. I'd been getting to the point of feeling really stir-crazy, but I love flowers, and the house feels so much more cheerful now with them here. I've been moving them around the house with me so that anytime I spend much time in one room, there's at least one set of flowers there for me to look at. Right now the bouquet of tulips is sitting on my writing desk, next to my laptop, just in front of the window with the sun streaming in. The tulips were still closed when Patrick brought them home to me yesterday, but now they've opened up to drink in the sunlight, and they're just gorgeous. And every time I go into the kitchen to refill my water glass or grab a snack, I see the deep red rose on the kitchen table. Mmmm. Love flowers.

And truffles. Mmm...

Between coffee-flavored chocolate and flowers, I'd be feeling happier even if I was still just as sick, but feeling a little less sick is a wonderful bonus. And yesterday morning, while lying on the couch, I wrote a new flash fiction--only about 330 words, but really fun to write (and a Valentine's gift for Patrick). It's funny, I've had such a long blank period for short fiction--I hadn't written any since November, and that one in November was the first in months--so it feels odd but good to have suddenly written two short stories in less than a week. Maybe it's a side-effect of working on painstaking M&S revisions instead of fresh new novel-writing--it probably frees up some areas of my brain for short story ideas to pop up. Regardless, it makes me happy. One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to write at least 4 short stories over the course of the year, so I'm already halfway to my goal.

Now I'm going to go lie back down on the couch, because sadly, I'm still not that well. But as I lie on the couch, I get to nibble on a wonderful coffee/dark chocolate truffle and look at my tulips on the desk. A definite improvement.