I can be thankful for the holiday week. With the Fourth falling on a Wednesday, most people are on vacation and things have been relatively slow. I say relatively because it's like a tropical storm instead of a hurricane. Regardless, tomorrow is Friday and despite the fact that I do have to work all day tomorrow AND tomorrow night, I am grateful for that. I will make sure NOT to mess things up this weekend so that I do not have to spend all day Saturday working like I did last weekend.

Looks like my stress level at work isn't going to calm down anytime soon. For the sake of what's happening, I can only hope it does. But for now, I am a one full-time person department with a few part-time contracters. The time I was going to take off at the end of this week isn't happening because there would be no one there. Thank god I don't have a vacation planned.

Regardless of that, I'm not going to really complain because circumstances that led to this are really shitty and fucked up and if I could disclose more, I would, but it's not my place. I can only say that I really hate it when friends are in trouble and there's nothing I can do to fix it.

Things that make me happy this week:

• The new Bon Jovi album. Gorgeous (the man and the music)!
  
• My new buckwheat barley pillow. Best night's sleep.
  
• My dog, for being lovable and not biting or growling at us. The training seems to be working.
  
• Hearing from my lawyer about my settlement for my car accident
  
• Bath and Body Works bubble bath
  
• Yellow cake (don't drop that shit!) with chocolate frosting
  
• Soft white cotton socks

Things I'm looking forward to:

• July 4th. Easily one of my favorite holidays. BBQing, boating, beer and fireworks!
  
• Seeing Die Hard and Transformers.
  
• New clothes - I <3 that NY & Co has online shopping now
  
• Organizing my house. I'm on a domestic kick, what can I say?
  
• Putting my Eagles sticker on my car (yes, I'm going to be one of those people).
  
• Herr's Old Fashined potato chips - a coworker is visiting Jersey and I asked her to pick some up for me

Things I'm not so happy about:

• My work schedule and the stress it's causing
  
• My vet not authorizing my Heartguard order from the PetMeds website because he wants us to buy from him.
  
• Hormones, 'nuff said.
  
• Headaches, lots and lots of headaches. Not fun.
  
• Boys. Boys are stupid right now.
  

That is all.

I'm not ashamed to say that I paid fifty-five dollars for a pillow and it was completely worth it.

When Steve and I first started dating, I would visit his house and we'd hang around in his room. Most of the time, we'd either watch TV or he would play video games and I would read. I guess you could say it was practice for us living together. Thought not quite the same, I guess, since he lived with his parents.

Regardless, I remember the first time I laid on his pillow. It was kind of hard and crunchy and heavy. I thought it was really weird, being so used to normal down or cotton filled pillows. And I couldn't get comfortable on it because it didn't seem to shift as I moved. And trust me, I move a lot when I'm laying down. Steve's one goal is to get a Tempurpedic mattress because it doesn't transfer motion.

I kept asking him how he could sleep with that thing. And he would always exclaim, "How can you not like my Sobakowa Buckwheat Barley Pillow?" or some form of that phrase. Apparently, this pillow was an As Seen On TV item that his mom had bought several years before and had never liked. So Steve took it over and swore by the thing.

And I kept thinking he was weird.

Until we moved in together. And then I fell in love with it. I don't remember exactly when or how it happened, but I discovered that it was the perfect pillow to use when I wanted to lay on my stomach. I had bought a memory foam pillow thinking it would help support my neck but it was way too thick and I always woke up with my neck and shoulders aching because I slept with my head on a tilt. Steve's pillow conformed enough to my head to keep my neck straight when I was on my side and it would give it enough lift when I laid on my stomach to where I didn't feel like I was breathing in mattress.

So it became a ritual. He would get out of bed in the morning and I roll over into his pillow. Well, into his spot too, basically because I also like sleeping diagonal across the bed. But in the hour from when I rolled over into it until I actually got up, I would be so much more comfortable. Not to mention the fact that because of the nature of the pillow, it was still cold, despite the fact he had been sleeping on it all night.

But he wouldn't share. I tried to convince him that my memory foam pillow was better and that we could trade off every other night. He didn't believe me.

Therefore, I broke down and bought my own.

Initially, I ordered it from an as seen on tv website website that I'm not going to promote here. Why? The pillow I ordered was falsely advertised. Initially, I wanted the Sobokawa brand name and that's what this website said it was. I should've known better because the price was only $20 and the pillow only weighed three pounds. But I didn't, apparently, and was extremely disappointed when I received this tiny, half-filled Wonder Buckwheat Pillow, which was no where near the quality of Steve's. So I did some research and apparently, the type and quality of his pillow is no longer available. I was a bit disheartened but when I saw this listing on Amazon, I thought I'd try again. Between the flowing reviews and the weight of the pillow (11 pounds!), I hoped I would find a decent quality this time.

I could not be more satisfied. I received it yesterday and woke up this morning feeling amazing. Aside from the fact that I was absolutely exhausted when I went to bed last night, I had the first good night's sleep I'd had in awhile. No aches or pains. No tossing or turning. No lying awake, trying to fall asleep.

So I wholeheartedly recommend this pillow. The whole idea behind it is that it conforms to your head and neck and it keeps your head cool. Some Oriental secret about your head being cool and your feet being warm - to keep your body in balance. As time goes on, the buckwheat shells in the pillow become polished, which makes it softer. So over time, it gets even better.

Personally, I don't know how much better it can get!