Sometimes perspective is elusive. So. The good things in life are:

I have a day off in the middle of the week, every week. It's a break in the old familiar five-days-a-week routine that I find surprisingly refreshing and even rejuvenating.

Flytrap 6 is done. And it's pretty.

I have all the freelance work I want, and -- combined with the debts I paid off from my novel advance -- that means, for the first time in my adult life, I don't really have to worry much about money. There's more coming in than going out. I might actually be able to put some money away into savings. This is unprecedented. And it's even freelance work I enjoy. I generally suck at non-fiction, because I don't enjoy doing it, but reviewing porn and writing sorta bloggish articles about oddball sex-related stuff on the 'net? That's fun. (Not so fun I'd do it for free, but fun enough that I'm happy to do it for pay.)

I'm reading lots of good books. Most recently Blindsight by Peter Watts, which is really cool. Plausible space vampires! Whoo!

I'm getting into better shape. I've managed to lose ten or twelve pounds since this summer, and I actually seem to be keeping it off. This week Heather and I started going to the gym again, which, combined with the changes in my diet, should make even more of a difference. And I have a lot more energy because I've been more active and am eating less crap. (Although free pizza at work yesterday, and free bagels and pastries today, have caused a small setback...)

My writing career appears to be doing just fine. I'm excited about my collection coming out next January, and (after a brief diversion into the Dark Midnight of Doubt last week when I couldn't figure out how to make the parts of the work in progress fit together) I'm happy to be working on this urban fantasy novel series. I think I can do just about anything I want to within the constraints of this world. (And if I'm wrong, it's not like I can't write other books.)

My marriage is great, and my wife is awesome, and I look forward to hanging out with her every day.

Vacation next week. Mmm, sweet vacation. I'm looking forward to experiencing actual autumnal weather!

There's good TV on lately. Heroes is really growing on me, though the voice-overs make me cringe. Lost still entertains me. Frisky Dingo is very promising. And Aqua Teen Hunger Force has a new season, though, eh, the season premiere was one of the worst eps they've ever done. I look forward to Doctor Who and Battlestar every week. Veronica Mars is an ongoing glory. Much of life in the affluent civilized world is about being entertained, and I am really quite well entertained.

So there you have it. Life is good. Granted, I could make a list detailing various problems and annoyances, but it would actually be much shorter than this list.

(And, yes, writing something like this actually does help my outlook quite a bit.)