{"id":379699,"date":"2011-09-21T15:49:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T15:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/2011\/09\/21\/connecting-dots\/"},"modified":"2011-09-21T15:49:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-21T15:49:00","slug":"connecting-dots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/2011\/09\/21\/connecting-dots\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecting Dots"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I\u2019ve been in a deep funk these past few weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve been trying to make a post for five days now.<\/span><\/p>\n

My frustrations have mounted as I haven’t been able to log in with the new version of Blogger. I keep getting a “Runtime…ie8” error message. Anyway, I finally tried logging in through IE today, instead of going through my AOL software, and Voila!<\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n

Now that I’m here, here’s the first little blip, the one I wanted to post five days ago… <\/span><\/p>\n

I have three teenagers.<\/span><\/p>\n

One has what appears to be a serious case of senioritis, can\u2019t wait \u201cto get out of this place,\u201d and is going through all of the growing pains needed to help discover who she is, independent of us, her parents.<\/span><\/p>\n

One is away at college and rarely phones home. Despite how happy I am for his accomplishments, for his independence, he is far enough away that trips home are only a couple of times a year. I struggle from time to time with this distance, with the lack of conversation, with the lack of being needed.<\/span><\/p>\n

My youngest is equally independent. And yet, he started my Saturday off just right when he offered to make me breakfast. Scrambled eggs and toast. Yummy<\/i> eggs and toast.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’m<\/i> doing this,” he said, when I offered to help.” He spread his arms wide, as if protecting his territory.<\/span><\/p>\n

After this delicious meal, one of my girlfriends accompanied me on a day of errands. I was grateful to have an ear upon which I could vent some of my angst.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I headed down an aisle in Walmart, the cart of theatre-sized box candies jumped out at me. My friend always has a box of Dots in her car, so I tossed one in my cart.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can give that to her,\u201d I nodded to my pal and instructed the cashier after she rang up the item, \u201cshe loves Dots.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Something else was said that caused us to chuckle. And then this. \u201cShe\u2019s awesome,\u201d my pal said to the clerk.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s just<\/em> a box of candy.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re awesome<\/em>,\u201d she said to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

Funny thing is, a one-dollar box of gummies, a sincere thankfulness for a random and ever-so-simple gesture, and I did feel awesome. <\/span><\/p>\n

A little appreciation and the stress melted away from me like sugar in water.<\/span><\/p>\n

What’s your box of Dots story? I’d love to hear how an unexpected moment helped change your mood.<\/span><\/p>\n

Soon…<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been in a deep funk these past few weeks. I’ve been trying to make a post for five days now. My frustrations have mounted as I haven’t been able to log in with the new version of Blogger. I keep getting a “Runtime…ie8” error message. Anyway, I finally tried logging in through IE today, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[168,169,113,52,89,69],"class_list":["post-379699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-angst","tag-dots","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-teenagers","tag-the-five-facets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/images-255B1-255D.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}