| January 24, 2013 | ||
| 1 | For my husband, who took my daughter to school when it was 1 degree below zero so that both I and she could stay warm. | |
| 2. | My Grampa’s Garden microwavable body blanket. Enough said. | |
| 3. | My washer and dryer. I remember hauling laundry to the laundromat. | |
| 4. | My crock pot. Best winter cooking tool. | |
| 5. | Hot chocolate with whipped cream (reference 1 degree below zero above). |
You may have heard that there’s a little something call the flu going around. Actually, there are many flu-like viruses going around, but the doomsday people (and the CDC) refer to them all as ‘the flu’ so they can try to scare you into ‘getting your flu shot’ (like that might help at all).
Anyway, there are a couple of ways to try to prevent flu-like viruses from ruining your life:
Failing prevention, you can try to make it as easy on yourself as possible:
You should start feeling like you’ve turned a corner (for the better) in about 2-3 days, but if you don’t, then consider giving your doctor a call for a chat. After all, that’s what you’re paying him/her for.
| January 16, 2013 | ||
| 1 | Sears Refrigerator repair guy coming out in the snow to fix my broken fridge and freezer. | |
| 2. | Husband, for shoveling us out…and other things… | |
| 3. | Everyone got where they were going safely today. | |
| 4. | Getting out of work EARLY for once. | |
| 5. | Getting my CPR renewal date set before current one expires. |
My husband and I started watching Finding Bigfoot (hey, these Maine winters are looooonnnnnnnnggggggggggg) on the Animal Planet channel recently. At first I started watching it to humor him (hey, he paid it forward by watching The Good Wife all these months with me–thank you, honey!) but then I discovered something…
I really don’t know how or why it happened, but I suddenly realized…
I wanted to watch it! I was looking forward to watching it! Hey, it’s Sunday night, and “There’s something on the hill!”
The cast contains one woman, field biologist Ranae Holland. Ranae is the kind of gal who goes camping. Deep in the woods. Alone. For, like, 2 days. In a very small tent. Without a weapon.
She also travels with the the guys to various locations to check out Bigfoot sightings, where they talk to people about their experiences and then try to recreate them. This often includes hours of grown men howling at each other in the woods at 3:00AM.
You can’t make this stuff up.
She is also the voice of reason in this boys’ club. The men (Cliff, Bobo, and Matt) are always ready to give the benefit of the doubt to the ‘witness’ who thinks (s)he saw or heard a Bigfoot. Ranae, on the other hand, is always ready to tell them that their story is a crock of shit. She doesn’t even believe in Bigfoot, yet she scored this job and is doing what she loves to do…and getting paid for it. Go, Ranae!
She is my hero.
The lesson here is clear: Never underestimate the transformative powers of the Squatch.
I passed by the TV in the common area at work and they were interviewing someone or other (I am guessing it was Gretchen Rubin) who was talking about how important it is to write down things for which you are grateful. Further, if you take the time to write a gratitude list, you will be happier.
If they say it on The Today Show, it must be true, right?
I am no stranger to the gratitude list. I have twice in years past kept an official Gratitude Journal. I faithfully (well, usually) wrote down 5 things every day for which I was grateful. I thought about doing it this year, too. . . and that’s all I did. I thought about it, then it went the way of so many of my great thoughts…just completely disappeared from my head until I saw this post’s title that I started a week ago and forgot about (hello, midlife monkey mind).
I know what stopped me: I didn’t buy The Gratitude Journal and so therefore I could not record my gratefulness! Then I stumbled upon this site:
The Simple Abundance online Gratitude Journal
Yay! Excuses begone! I am taking the plunge with the online journal. I don’t think a day goes by that I am not on the computer for something (email, Facebook) so it should be easy, right?
Right?
Here’s today’s:
| January 12, 2013 | ||
| 1 | Spicy Eggnog Coffee | |
| 2. | Sleeping until I wake up without the alarm | |
| 3. | No appointments | |
| 4. | My family and friends | |
| 5. | My new job |
You don’t have to pay to sign up if you don’t want to. Just type into the feature, then cut and paste it to a folder on your desktop.
I’m feeling happier already!
At a company that I worked for a while back, the atmosphere was dark and heavy. People often described the job as “Well, it is what it is.” Body language and facial expressions left no doubt that what it was, well, was yucky.
After years of hearing this “It is what it is” crap, it became kind of ingrained in my subconscious. This phrase popped up in all kinds of situations that were unpleasant. “It is what it is” makes you feel powerless, even desperate.
I was thinking about it this morning as I drove to work. It’s New Year’s Day. I had gotten up extra early (hello, can you say 4:15AM?) so I could make a stop on my way. My quest for an early morning breakfast treat (a small baked good; not too much to ask for, right?) proved fruitless, because even though the McD’s and Dunkin Donuts in Sanford and Wells are open at 5AM, the McD”s and Dunkin Donuts in Kennebunk, alas, are not.
There I sat at 4:55AM, waiting for the drive thru to open up. At 5:03AM it occurred to me to give a quick check of the hours sign at the front door and I realized my error. I got on the highway, thinking that I would still have just enough time to go to the DD’s close to my job (the bad one that I have been avoiding since the cashier dumped an early morning coffee on a colleague).
I made it in time, got to the drive thru, and (hurray!) ordered my coffee and muffin. The clerk interrupted my happy dance to say, “Well, the muffins aren’t ready yet.”
What?
What?
My first thought was (you guessed it), “It is what it is.” Then, it occurred to me that this is indicative a Bad Attitude. I am not going to start my new year off with that old shoe on my foot. I’m going to put my best foot forward in 2013 and so I’ve adopted a new mantra:
“It is what you make it.”
When I got home from work, my daughter (who knew nothing about my morning) had a surprise waiting for me on the kitchen island:
This reminded me of another (worthy) mantra:
“Life is good.”
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 :
My thoughts wandered, fueled by cold and the discomfort of muscles that are rarely used screaming their displeasure at being exploited in the manner required by shoveling.
I remember being handed a shovel and instructions to go “do the front steps” of our house. We had a house with 14 concrete steps at that time. “Do the steps” was an hour at least of back breaking work. Should I mention that we lived in that house during the blizzard of ’78?
I had to go outside and shovel with my scaled-to-my-size shovel gifted to me for Christmas by mom and dad when I was four years old. Even though my midlife memory leaves something to be desired (reference I remember nothing by Nora Ephron), I swear, it’s true! I have a picture around here somewhere….
My parents stayed inside and smiled and waved at us kids while we kids were outside shoveling.
As it should be.
The 50 year old mom shouldn’t be outside shoveling while the 13 year old daughter is inside glued to her itouch.
Then I had another thought. When my mother was 50 years old, she couldn’t shovel. She was busy being diagnosed with a stage IV pelvic cancer of an uncertain type. She couldn’t shovel. She was busy dying.
Suddenly, I was very happy to be a 50 year old woman outside shoveling. A woman with 2 happy, healthy kids, married to the love of my life. A woman with a strong, healthy body for whom shoveling was not only possible, but beneficial cardiovascularly speaking. A woman with a house and yard that needed shoveling.
Wayne Dyer was right: “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
It snowed last night.
A lot.
You know; the kind of snow that makes it almost impossible to open your freakin’ back door and get out of your house? Worse, it fell on top of the same kind (and amount) of snow that fell two days ago. The large accumulations that always come when the weather people are forecasting a dusting to an inch. The kind that always comes when your husband is out of state and your adult son is unable to help. Massive snowfall.
I woke up my (adult) son.
Me: “Hey, give me your car keys and I’ll start your car. What time do you have to be at work? You’re going to need some extra time today.”
Him: “Hrumph.”
I started his car. I cleaned it off. After he left, I woke my (teenaged) daughter. Made her lunch. Then I grabbed my snow gear (note: it is really MOM who needs the snow pants, not the kids) and headed outside to (try to) shovel.
You know, it’s hard to shovel when the snow banks are over your head.
As I was freezing my ass off (25 degrees here) and my feet were going numb (my knee high boots were too short; the snow was higher and piled into them every time I took a step, and my socks had migrated somewhere into the boot and were no longer covering my feet), my thoughts were interrupted by my aforementioned (did I say she’s 13?) daughter waving and smiling at me from the window.
What is wrong with this picture?
…to be continued…
My husband and I have different tastes in a lot of things, and wine is no exception. Years ago, someone gave us a bottle of Moscato D’Asti by Nivole, which (surprise!) we both loved. Every so often we bought a bottle, for a birthday or anniversary or some such occasion.
Then suddenly we couldn’t find it anywhere anymore. Everywhere we went, we looked for and even asked for it, and everyone was familiar with it, but no one actually stocked it anymore. Which totally sucked.
So, we finally gave up. One day when we were food shopping, I saw a pretty bottle of wine that happened to be a moscato d’asti. It was a different brand, but it met our wine-buying criteria:
1. Pretty bottle
2. Cheap
I’m talking $7. We decided to live dangerously and buy it. It took a couple of weeks to finally open it. If either Bill or I had to be up by 4:30am the next day, neither of us was very interested in sharing a bottle of wine the night before.
The planets finally aligned on Christmas day. We both had the following day off from work so we cracked open the wine. There was only one negative: what a bitch that cork was to remove! Other than that, however, we both loved the wine. I am saving the bottle so we don’t forget what kind it was.
We definitely plan to get this one again. You know, unless this brand goes MIA next.
Oh my God, what a big pile of crap Christmas has left in its wake. Wouldn’t it be great if those damned elves showed up after Christmas to help pick up the house instead of before Christmas to help demolish it?
I am usually a put-the-(fake -tree-up-the-weekend-before-Christmas-and-take-it-down-the-day-after kind of gal. This year, however, with the way Christmas fell on a Tuesday (stupid Christmas–no 3 day weekend this year), my work schedule, my husband’s work schedule, the kids’ school schedules…we didn’t get that tree up until late. My daughter requested that we leave it up until at least New Year’s Day to (over)compensate, and we agreed. Now I am second guessing this decision.
It’s making me anxious. You know, the way it’s standing over there against the wall, looking at me. Reproaching me for not taking it down on Wednesday. Here it is Friday, for Chrissakes, and it’s still here, not knowing what to do with itself. What, with the presents all unwrapped and strewn about the house.
“Give it a rest, already!” it seems to be saying.
Anyone else still have a tree keeping vigil?
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