thanks Erin - you're right - if you anticipate good things - you
   just deal with the bad things as they come along because you
   know there are good things just sitting there waiting to be
   noticed. It's like roses: they grow best is a pile of sh+t. You
   can either say, "eww, its just a pile of crap" or say, "What a
   beautiful rose!" and you see and smell the rose -- you KNOW the
   manure is there but i...t doesn't take away from the beauty of
   the rose. Sometimes you need the crap. A man's version of the
   "rose in crap" is "iron is forged only in a hot furnace" - or
   glass blowing - things have to get painfully hot o create
   anythiing new and wonderful."