We all know that mean people suck, but nice people have made this week one of the best I have ever spent!
Yesterday was my birthday; I turned a ripe old 38. For my gift, my husband presented me with a potted chrysanthemum for the front porch. He knows I love them and it was a wonderful present. And I also have been given to understand that the leather coat I’ve been lusting for, lo these many weeks, shall also soon be mine. This, despite my protests that my brand-new cell phone is enough of a present! It makes me feel quite technologically decadent. I have the ringer set to the Ode to Joy. 
And to top things off, I received quite a wonderful surprise from a co-worker whom I greatly admire. We’ve been casual friends since we worked together on a big project some 10 years ago (though hubbie and I did spend a wonderful afternoon playing Taboo and Scattergories with other invited guests at his cabin retreat, when the big project had concluded).
Until yesterday I didn’t know that his hobby was acquiring, cleaning and collecting ancient rings. This affinity became known to me when I became the recipient of a bronze ring from the Roman era, circa first to third centuries. It probably, he says, was made in the Roman provinces, and was found at a Roman site in Eastern Europe (Moesia). Scalloped edges on the ring’s design show a Greek influence. Part of the pleasure of his hobby, he says, is giving such rings to his friends as gifts! Oh, lucky me!
I simply couldn’t be happier today! It’s bright and sunny, the trees are turning gorgeous shades of orange, red and gold. My children are healthy, beautiful and reasonably well-behaved. I seem to be appreciated at work and I’m in love with and very proud of my husband. People say I’m a youthful 38, which is good. I can still fit in my size 8 jeans and I’ve only spotted a gray hair or two. And now I wear upon my finger a nearly 2,000-year-old ring.
Nice people rock – and the month of October is the best of the whole year.
