Wow, congrats on the compliments - it's so often the case that when something looks good or goes right, people don't think to say anything. It must have really made a great impression for him to say something! And, I'm sure it does look good - I like the simple, elegant stuff that doesn't take too long to load.
Most importantly: Good on you for keeping positive things in the forefront of your mindfulness! (Did that make sense? well, hopefully you get the idea.)

The compliments are a confidence-booster, eh? Great job! (And simple/elegant is the way to go -- a little flash but not a lot of dancing baloney!)

And the positive thoughts help -- especially as you're doing some good cognitive reframing. Your "What he thinks doesn't determine who I am" is so much like the third(?) agreement of the Four Agreements (a book I highly recommend).

If it gets hard, use the writing exercises when you get a break. Or hold them in the Light -- wishing the best for them (remembering that God's definition of "the best" usually means "what they need to heal their brokenness", as obviously they're broken somewhere). If you want to know how that works, I have an essay somewhere I had published called "Holding Problem People in the Light" (written after a few altercations with a jealous co-worker who is now HAPPILY RETIRED.)

Enough of that. My three-point update:

1) Back to full titration on the anti-depressants. (Bunnyfire, I wish I didn't need them anymore, but the chronic stress of my childhood has broken some of my mood regulation mechanisms. And maybe there's a higher purpose in my brokenness -- it helps me understand my students so much better.)

2) I'm watching 11 students take a final exam. How breathtakingly exciting.

3) Next week's my break (although I have to plan my first summer session class) which means LOTS OF GARDENING!!!

lleachie, I of all people understand the need for meds. I was literally miraculously healed otherwise I would have needed mine for the rest of my life. And you are right about the higher purpose...there is a real gift to be able to help others when one has experienced brokenness.

I am so grateful that the meds they have these days actually work and don't have such awful side effects. Praise God for them!

1) My garden rocks and makes me happy every single day. Currently being harvested: romaine and buttercrunch lettuce, turnips. About to be ready: Fava beans, peas, both shelling and sugarsnap (Wee pods!), beets, strawberries, and . Planted: cukes, tomatoes (Sungold, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Pink Beefsteak, Better Boy, and German Queen), eggplant, peppers, snap beans (green, wax and purple). To be planted: melons, summer squash and zucchini.

2) We finally had a good soaking of rain, alleviating the drought a bit.

3) I'm sick of my commute and associated gas prices and guilt, but don't want to live in the city where I currently work. I use my car for work and have irregular hours, so carpooling or alternative transport is difficult at best.

Stew -- I take it you live in at least USDA zone 6b or 7? I have at least another week before I can plant tomatoes, and I'm in zone 5b. And my peas and greens are slow this year because of the cold... but you've got my fave tomatoes in the garden! (Cherokee Purple).

1. The construction upstairs started before 9 a.m.
2.I am NOT a morning person.
3. Grrrr!

1. I'm tired, even though I went to be early last night and seemed to sleep well.
2. Our air conditioner is on the fritz :(
3. MuddDude hasn't been sleeping well again. That affects me because he gets super restless all the time when he hasn't been sleeping.

1. Will it ever stop raining?

2. I have no energy today, but have ploughed through my work. But none of it is progressible because every single file has got administrative errors not picked up by junior staff which will have to be corrected before I can send out my decisions. When I raise this with my manager, he waves away my concerns and tells me to deal sort out the errors myself. But if it's not addressed by the people who should be doing it, it just keeps on filtering through and will never change.

3. The fridge is now full of lovely fresh vegetables after my supermarket trip this morning. I wanted to buy some fish but balked at paying £25/kilo for a piece of cod.

1. My lower back is hurting - could it be because I've been trying to ride the bicycle my nephew lent me? Is exercise the problem?
2. Recovering from massive migraine that had me out all day Monday. (another day without pay - bummer.)
3. Busy at work, but not busy enough to keep my mind fully occupied.

1. I am wearing a top that makes me look pregnant even when I'm not. So today I look, like, term.
2. Somehow I managed to plan a whole week of evening meals that were 5/6 vegetarian. And my husband didn't say a thing. I think I'm having a positive impact on his eating habits, finally.
3. Approximately 57 people have told me they want to throw us a baby shower. We haven't even started thinking about what we need. It makes me tired.

1. The world is conspiring against my getting a full nights' sleep.
2. The pain of this morning's 4:00 am wake-up call from work was almost entirely offset by the WTF-ness of realizing the bottom of my left foot was covered in stickers.
3. Local strawberries are coming in, and may I say? Goddamn.

I am in a bad mood so all of mine are complaints.:

1. I AM SO FRUSTRATED WITH DATING. I just went on yet another incredibly crappy first date last night. Bad food, bad conversation, bad mannered guy. Everyone I talk to thinks it should be easy for me since I am young, outgoing, and reasonably attractive, but it is just so freakin hard to find anyone worth spending time with, let alone fall in love with.

2. My office is a hot, dark lair and my boss won't open the blinds or the windows or turn the lights on because he thinks it will just get hotter.

3. I was up all night coughing for no reason- I'm not sick. And I am extra cranky because I didn't get enough sleep in the 2 hour periods between coughing.

1. Gorgeous day. Hooray! Work!
2. Looking out my window this morning I saw a Rufous Hummingbird pair at my feeder, and a Mourning Dove and (I think) a Yellow Warbler in the plum tree. Hope my cats don't get 'em. (Not the hummingbirds--those buggers are way too fast and too canny for that.)
3. My slave helper starts today. Yay, someone else to do prep!

1. UMD's site seems to be back up, and hopefully I can figure out what the fuck I used as my password for that site so I can FINALLY FUCKING REGISTER.

2. The boss left early today, which is fantastic because I can screw around even more than I usually do.

3. This means I should get 2 pages of mapping done today, but that might or might not happen. (I've already done 1 page and am entering it now, but it takes a while because it makes my eyes bleeeeeeeeeeeeeed.)

1. The wordplay in this morning's Metro headline "Obama Declares Wright is Wrong" makes me chuckle.
2. Cold in the office today. Glad I have the space heater.
3. Feeling blah, need some excitement.

1) Payday tomorrow, and not a moment too soon.
2) This weekend we start gardening!
3) Friday night is ladies! Night! OUT!

Do I sound excited? I think I'm excited. I can't concentrate on work. It's Wednesday. HEEEEEELP MEEEEEEE!

1. Too much tea and no breakfast this morning. Can't stop typing and talking yakyakyak low caffeinetoleranceyakyak

2. Just found out my camera is finally fixed. ABOUT DAMN TIME! (Also- YAY!)

3. Hungry now- going to cafeteria to see what's for lunch. And I'm bringing my lunch the rest of the week because I'm tired of cafeteria food again.

1. My throat hurts
2. My left ear aches
3. My bones feel frozen

1// Feeling like there was a competition at work, one that I wasn't aware of until just yesterday afternoon when I found out I "lost." Stop these jealous feelings! Get over myself!

2// Got some new flash equipment for my camera, and it broke nearly out of the box. I'm getting an exchange, but still. Big bummer.

3// It's snowing outside right now. Not sure summer will ever come; things will be green and it will be snowing.

1. I'm amazed I'm not hung over - I had an incredible amount of rum last night but luckily my pictures of the Clement rum cocktail competition came out rather nice.

2. I had my first incredibly easy experience at the DMV this morning. Only took 50 minutes. That was amazing.

3. I just bought Iron Man tickets for Friday Night. You can't understand how excited I am for this film. It's like Christmas, Halloween, Easter, July 4th, Kwanza, and Holi all rolled into one.

1. going to Regina Saskatchewan Friday. Love how it sounds, saying it.
2. Snowed here today, wtf.
3. My date went better than rmless2's. Sorry, rmless2.

1. It's getting cold in the mornings, so it's even harder to get up in time the catch the train
2. The train is inexplicably crowded for a Thursday
3. My iPod seems to have died, so I have to listen to the babble of voices from the great unwashed, which makes me sad.

1. My semester is over! I have one paper left to turn in next week, but that's well in hand, and there are no more meetings or exams. Over! Over! I keep saying it, and it doesn't get any less shiny and happy!

2. In my calendar, I crossed out tonight's task, and added a note, so it now reads:
finish McDonald essay NO! NO! no. MOVIE. WINE. PEDICURE.

3. I'm recovering from yesterday's bout of sleep-deprivation, and the after-effect is a lot like the sleep deprivation, but without the hallucinations: lots of mistyping, misstepping, and misreading. For example, I read gaspode's comment as

I am wearing a top hat that makes me look pregnant even when I'm not.

And I just thought "Huh. A top hat. Sure."

lleachie--7b. I love it.

1. I worked very hard today and got zero tips.
2. My store in enmired in a minor local controversy that I can't talk about and am not involved in. I'm glad because I've reached the age where controversy is no longer fun.
3. Today, a girl asked about my Modesto Nuts hat, then told me that her father owned the team.

1. Why the hell am I awake? It's 3 am, and I have a lot to do in the morning.

2. We are having a May Day party tomorrow, and I've done... let me see... oh, yeah! Right! - Nothing... to prepare.

3. Why the hell am I awake?

1. Watching Top Model Gladiators.
2. Waiting to beat up a tween.
3. Maintaining.

1. Metafilter User and SoCal expat vitrum called the cable company that had been jerking me around for a week and got me a better deal and tomorrow AM install so I can be online and not lose my freeeeaking braaaaain. leet!

2. Unfortunately, my email related troubles are resolved not so well: as I guesszed, the old ISP simply could not adapt to the silent consonant in my last name and matching gmail account, despite four times being told, and so I've bounced two weeks of email I'll never retrieve.

3. I bought a new fish! The first was French (Le Petit Dauphin Lucien Sacrebleu) and the second was Italian (Gioello) but I think this one's kinda swarthy and Moroccan...

4. Slave worked out well, and I'm getting two more. This is a biiiig job and it would've taken forever if it was just me, so I'm happy with that. Plus, this means I definitely won't have to do any of the crappy work.

5. Had a friend over for a long, drawn-out piss-up on Saturday, and the place still smells awful. I've opened windows, emptied the ashtrays, cleaned up the empties, had fires at night, put scented oil in the water on the woodstove, put vinegar in the water on the woodstove, and still when I come home it smells like Hunter S. Thompson's armpit after a week-long bender. I'm running out of ideas.

6. Drove for the second day in a row. I know it's ridiculous, but I've never had a driver's license. I've taken lessons, I've driven (years ago), but never went for the final test. This is standing in the way of me getting a motorcycle, and (more practically) in the way of me getting around both here and in Alabama. How the hell did I get to this age without driving? My uncle's taking me for practice after work in his wife's Suburban, which is a whole lotta vehicle. I've managed not to hit anything or rip off the bumper or scare the fuck out of him so far, so I think things are going well.