Because it’s Friday AGAIN. And because traditions are important. In which I cover the good stuff and the hard stuff in my week, trying for the non-preachy, non-annoying side of self-reflection.
And you get to join in if you feel like it.
The good. The hard. They seem to be alternating so quickly that it’s almost impossible to keep track. Cycles.
So I lost my iPhone which was hard. But then the guy who found it was the sweetest, most wonderful person in the entire world so that was good.
Or: being crazy busy before going on vacation was hard but then being on vacation was good but coming back from it was depressing and nightmarish hard.
Then the Celtics beat Orlando. And then they didn’t. Never mind. Let’s do this thing.
The hard stuff
Vacation hangover.
Foggy brain. Not wanting to get back to work. Delaying things.
Plus taking hours and hours to write blog posts and then not getting them posted until the day is half over.
It was as if my whole body-mind was pleading with me to take another four-day weekend, effective immediately.
Actually, more than vacation hangover … it was something else. It was more like vacation deficit.
Like when you get lots of sleep but you’re still tired because your body hasn’t caught up from all those times you beat the crap out of it.
I have the sinking feeling that my vacation deficit is way, way, way too enormous. Sensing that my duck and I might need some serious time off soon.
Reno.
Now officially added to my list of places I never wish to go near again.
Not that I didn’t madly love Lake Tahoe because I did. But if getting there means the Reno airport, next time we’ll drive, thank you.
I’ve talked before about how life as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) is not exactly always the most fun thing in the world.
Taking someone who is hypersensitive and putting them in a shabby, dingy airport full of earsplittingly loud slot machines with garish lights, and watching them (okay, me) completely lose it might be entertaining, but it’s not too attractive.
That incessant blooping. Made only worse by the bleeping. Oh, and the awful flashing colored lights.
I was pretty much a wreck. It sucked.
Still with the system changes.
One step forward, one step back. Still doing the systems thing.
Of course, the nice thing about clearing all the enormous rocks out of your path is that you’re not tripping over them anymore.
The annoying thing about it is that now you really notice all those pebbles in your shoe.
Ow. Ow.
I want more vacation! Wah!
Taking a long, lazy, weekend somewhere beautiful is the most delicious thing in the entire world and I must do it again as soon as possible.
Which leads me to …
The good stuff
Four day weekend, baby..
Life-changingly great.
I am determined to have many more of these. Soon.
You know what else was dreamy? Four whole days without the computer. Not as hard as I thought. And really, really nice.
Also: we (me, my gentleman friend and Selma) went hiking in national parks. And we ate ridiculously great breakfasts.
And I got to do yoga in the morning which never happens because usually I write a post right after my morning meditation. Bliss.
The wedding.
So I did have a few seconds of total bewilderment when my gentleman friend told me that his high school girlfriend had asked him to marry her. Off.
You know, to someone else.
The wedding was awesome. First of all, she’s the coolest person ever. And the guy she married is amazing. And I adored all their friends.
And they invited my duck to the ceremony.
Also, it was the first goth-hippie-punk-scooter wedding (or something) I’ve ever attended. Also my first pastafarian (you know, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster) ceremony.
It was goofy and spontaneous and fun and moving and I cried.
The best part, though, was when some lady saw us all walking down to the sunny beach in our black dresses — and asked if it was a memorial. Nice!
Not that I would get married again, necessarily, but if I ever did, I would also want the bridesmaids to be covered in skull and bat tattoos because that was totally hot.
The eleven hour brunch!
Well, breakfast is the three most important meals of the day. Heaven.
Back home. Thank goodness
Portland! Where everything is lush and green and gorgeous and not so freaking loud.
There are so many things to love about this city. Admittedly the fact that it’s pretty good at not being Reno is one I’d never thought of … but now I appreciate that too.
Being on email sabbatical is the best thing that ever happened to me.
That’s pretty much all I have to say about that but it’s really, really fantastic.
And … STUISMS of the week.
Stu is my paranoid McCarthy-ist voice-to-text software who delights in torturing me misunderstanding me. I can’t stand him. Because he’s an acetyl .
- “Leonard is a bard about” instead of the hardest part about
- “to have encumbered stations” instead of having conversations
- “That Senator business” instead of that’s none of your business
- “What about hubby’s brother” instead of what about Havi’s mother
- “is learning a Jersey sieve” instead of is learning to receive
- “pig glue” instead of igloo
- “jester direction” instead of just a direction
- “I was Frink yesterday” instead of I was at my friend Carolyn’s yesterday
- “I could have a magic opera cloak” instead of a magic hacker cloak
- “not a partnership” instead of not a pirate ship
Freudian Stuism!
- “The fear-based Alliance” instead of their fear-based lives
And for good measure … a Shakespearian Stuism:
- “in witch I Dictate them to stew” instead of in which I dictate them to Stu
That’s it for me …
And yes yes yes, of course you can join in my Friday ritual right here in the comments bit if you feel like it.
Yeah? Anything hard and/or good happen in your week?
And, as always, have a glorrrrrrrrrrrrious weekend. And a happy week to come.
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The Good: The Hubby has decided to work on our marriage with me. And there was much rejoicing!
My support system (which includes the lovely Havi and Selma the Fabulous) has helped me through all this Hard. I feel supported!!
The Hard: Still working on asking for help. Still working on facing my Fears that keep me from believing I deserve happiness.
Ready to face the Hard work of working on my marriage though. Yeah!!
I find that I avoid taking things like time off because I know I’ll just have to come back. Not exactly a good strategy. (I’ll be mellow when I’m dead, to quote Weird Al). I’m working on it. 🙂 The bat tattoo wedding sounds awesome!
Not a lot of hard this week personally, but Aisha hurt her back on Wednesday while learning to dive in swimming class. It is hard to watch your child in pain and be helpless to do anything about it. 🙁
The good is that we had about equal amounts of rain and sun. I saw my old friend the bike path today, and am hanging a show at a local funky restaurant this afternoon.
I’m also having fun with my repurposed FridaGoodhome blog (actually it’s more like I’m picking back up, since I did start with an idea to detail how we live well on the cheap, but didn’t feel authoritative enough at the time to do it; now I do) and find myself writing posts while I’m working on my other stuff. Which makes the other stuff a lot less stressful. And really loving the concept of Right People. Makes the whole thing so much less scary.
Tomorrow we’re going to play at the International Street Fair and eat good world road food and see dancers and have fun. Yay!
I hope you all have a great weekend too!
Andis last blog post..Self Curating
Your four-day weekend sounds heavenly, even if you had to go through the Gates of Reno to get to it! 🙂 May there be many more.
My hard this week:
Tired beyond belief.
A man in a big truck backed into my car in a parking lot and nicked the bumper of my lovely little Toyota.
My good this week:
Pajama Day! I spent all of Tuesday morning and a good part of the afternoon in my pj’s. Which was restful and delightful and delicious. Got dressed in the late afternoon, just in time to go and get a massage.
Man in big truck was nice, and nick in bumper is now fixed.
Had my first session with an exercise physiologist who gave me wonderful strengthening exercises for my hip and leg. I’m still limping, but am now walking without a cane!
The sun is shining and the hummingbirds are back!
Wishing you a beautiful weekend . . .
Hiro Bogas last blog post..Flourishing at the tideline
Like R, hubby finally working with me too. Whether to separate or stay together remains to be seen. But things are being said to each other that haven’t been for 20 years. Good. And Hard. But less Hard than letting fear keep us in a miserable place.
Yay.
Ginas last blog post..Happy Martyr’s Day
4 day weekends are heavenly and if it means having them in my special places, braving the gates of Reno (or for me the hell of Newark)is part of getting there. Awful, but then bliss. Understanding completely.
The hard: Dealing with my 13 year old’s propensity for lying, over and over and over. Grrrr!
The good: Farmer’s market walkable from my house, lovely pile of compost ready to be fed to veggies and flowers. My amazing front bushes are about to burst into bloom and I am salivating with anticipation.
The great: My oldest son looks as if he’s going back to college! That’s the best news I’ve heard this week.
Thanks for a spot to share.
Dana, Spicy Princess
Dana Corey, Spicy Princesss last blog post..Rubbing Your Lover the Right Way
You know when you laugh so hard that you get a hiccup that just won’t go? Yeah, that’s what Stu just did to me! 🙂
Your good stuff this week sounds very good! The wedding must have been fabulous!
The hard:
– getting myself to take the medicine the doctor had prescribed (though I really don’t like taking medicine), only to have it make me feel totally wrecked for at least an hour every time I took it, and it didn’t even have the intended positive effect. Ugh! Will have to experiment with a higher dosage next time to see if it will at least do what it’s supposed to be doing, but I’m not looking forward to the double-wreckage that will most probably ensue.
– not being able to work as much as I’d have liked on my Thing.
The good:
– writing to Naomi with a question concerning my Thing, and getting an encouraging answer from her that will help me move forward. Yay!
– Having Sita Sings the Blues live in my mind ever since I’ve seen this gem of a movie, and inspiring a few people to go and watch it through the post I have written about it. Awesome!
– though my ribcage doesn’t seem to be 100% healed, it seems to be well enough for me to be able to get back into Shiva Nata’s arms again. I tried it yesterday and it felt *really* good! Happy dance! 🙂
Josianes last blog post..Back into Shiva Nata’s arms
Off camping myself in about an hour. Nothing heavy duty, just a few days in the woods with guys and far too much food. Oh, I’m the “I need to hike all day” type, so we’ll see who I can drag along.
Nature is better than anything sometimes, isn’t it?
Jonathan Vaudreuils last blog post..Align your relationships with what you need, not what you think you need
Reno definitely sounds like pure horror for a (an?) HSP. Always a drag when the journey (your favorite word) to and from the vacation spot is unpleasant.
My hard this week:
So busy and feeling like I really want time off from the day-job. It’s happening soon, but only for a few days, which feels like it won’t even make a dent. Especially since much of that time will be spent working on my ittybiz.
Lots of bizarre, inexplicable technology problems, making my work take 3x longer than it usually does.
The good:
Got some wonderful copywriting help (from Rebecca Leigh!), so I’m hoping to have time to work on my site very, very soon. It’s wonderful to start to have a vision of where I’m heading.
Victoria Brouhard (@victoriashmoria)s last blog post..What’s Happening, Hot Stuff?
The hard:
My SBH was away for a week. Ick. Lonely. Not the good kind of lonely either.
Still doing the much-hated day job.
The good:
Beans! The beans in our garden are up, along with the sunflowers, tomatoes, carrots, onions, kale, lettuce (first salad of homegrown lettuce this week!), spinach, and marigolds! Yea! And beans!
My SBH came home! And much rejoicing was had by all.
It’s Friday! Yea!
Another week of wonderful Selma-and-Havi posts. Challenging, but in the good way.
christys last blog post..Putting the “How” in How-To
Hello, I’m new! I’ve been reading the Friday Check-ins for a couple of weeks but this is my first time jumping in.
I’m really going to hit the “submit” button this time.
First: Holy cow, those Stu-isms are HILARIOUS. May I borrow one and see if I can start a sentence with it and turn it into a short story? (Or at least use it in a sentence and see where it takes me.)
Hard this week:
My friends/coworkers have been on vacation since last Thursday and I miss them. A lot.
Because of this, I’ve been running our business almost by myself this week. At least I’ve been able to call them when I have questions and such that I need to run by them.
Also, I wasn’t able to do all the things I wanted to have done this week. So I feel kind of bleh about that.
Good this week:
My friends/coworkers are coming back tomorrow! Hooray! *dances jig*
I’m chilling at a restaurant with iced tea and free wi-fi and the weather is SOOOOO beautiful today.
None of the horrible scenarios that my brain concocted for this week happened.
I called several people without panic attacks. Since I hate telephones, this is good!
Hope everybody has a lovely Friday!
Lessee…
The hard:
Panicky feelings when I talked to my business coach or contemplated the 11 “Get off your ass and…” emails from Naomi still sitting in my inbox!
The pain in my jaw that my doctor tells me will only go away when I learn to relax the surrounding muscles… or if I let an oral surgeon take a bone saw to my jaw.
That moment every evening when all hell breaks loose between the puppy and the elderly cats. Somebody’s barking (and it could be me), somebody’s running, somebody’s throwing up and somebody’s hissing. You’d think I’d be used to it now, but no.
The good:
Helping a client clean out her late husband’s office, cheering her on and encouraging her. Also calling some places to find grief counseling and computer classes for her. I think I might be able to make a real positive difference in her life, and that fills me with such joy.
Working on my laptop on the patio on Sunday & Tuesday. Perfect weather for it, and I could half-watch the pets sniffing around outside too.
My husband’s love. Always.
Two really butt-whompin’ kickboxing classes this week!
I finished writing a “riff” track for the movie Robot Monster on Tuesday, and although it took many times longer than I thought it would, if I do say so myself, it’s damn funny.
Strawberries are in season, and there’s a you-pick place not too far away.
On balance, not a bad week. Hope everyone’s weekend is great!
Catherine Cantieri, Sorteds last blog post..Amazing Web Productivity Tools: All Things Google
I can’t actually decide if I’d rather have a “magic opera cloak” or a “magic hacker cloak.”
What if it was an opera about hackers?
EVEN BETTER, a magic opera about magic hackers!
Joels last blog post..Ironic Art
I think I was little Frink yesterday too.
How does Stu know these things?
Maybe you should give Stu a position on the pirate crew. He could be your Tia Dalma, the voice of the voo-doo.
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0001224/bio
@Joel – ohmygod a magic opera about magic hackers. It practically writes itself! GENIUS.
@Michelle – absolutely! Write as many stories as you like with the Stuisms. Maybe we can work some of them into Joels’ magic opera that is now a magic comic opera because how could it not be.
Sorry about all the hard. I also hate telephones and also concoct horrible stories about things that are going to happen, so completely relate to that!
@Dana the spicy princess – hug! I miss you, sweetie!
Yay for pajama day. And for all the other bits of good. And internet hugs all around for the hard. You guys are the best and this is seriously one of my favorite parts of the week.
And keep sharing the hard and the good because it is so completely lovely to know that we’re all (more or less) going through the same crap. 🙂
My local Safeway has a special some weeks for Friday chicken (whole roasted chickens for $2-3 off), and it always makes me think of these.
Also, how is it that I keep thinking on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday that it’s weird how it’s not time for the Friday check-in yet, but when it shows up on Friday I’m always surprised?
Both Hard & Good:
I’m discovering that in-person networking is by far the best way for me to find new clients. This makes my introvert self want to crawl into a hole and sleep for days. I’ve spent a lot of time this week wavering between triumphant hope and utter exhaustion.
The Hard:
Lots of things that want my money to be spent on them, not so much money for spending.
The Good:
The weather’s been really beautiful all week, a reminder to appreciate where I live.
Made a lot of progress on my selling-my-art business — I have a name, a url, and a logo. Next up, template design!
Naomi’s laryngitis got me 3 new prospects for various sized projects, and gave me some time to catch up on other audio stuff waiting for my attention.
Had lunch with a friend of mine today, at the pub that serves double chocolate stout milkshakes. So I had one of those and feel fat and happy, and full of smiles.
All in all, a week with a lot more good than hard.
Amy Crooks last blog post..It’s Good to be Small
Oh, Havi, I’ve been meaning to tell you but I always forget, so now that I think of it, there you go:
People have been doing subtitle translations of Sita Sings the Blues into various languages, and I immediately thought of you, O Pirate Queen, when I saw that someone has started doing it in pirate talk! 🙂
Josianes last blog post..Back into Shiva Nata’s arms
Oh, extra bonus good:
Marissa-for-Havi and Naomi-for-her-and-Sonia both wrote me back this week when I asked them if I should give them my money, and gave me real answers. This is so awesome, I just can’t explain how much I appreciate the serious answers to my wembling. It’s just amazingly comforting, and makes me feel way better about not having the money to buy all of everyone’s awesome products all the time.
Amy Crooks last blog post..It’s Good to be Small
I thought pastafarian weddings involved pirate garb? I’ve never actually been to one. That sounds really awesome.
The Hard Stuff
-Two weeks of not sleeping too well, living on fast food, and being generally over-stressed caught up with me and I developed a high fever, a nasty sore throat, and that horrible full-body, achy-dizzy feeling.
-I made a nasty mistake that was difficult to fix and totally guilt spiraled over it.
-Have been having a terrible time getting myself to keep packing and am really behind where I should be (which is finished by next weekend).
The Good Stuff
-Two weeks of not sleeping too well, living on fast food, and being generally over-stressed caught up with me and literally forced me to stay in bed for a day and a half. Still not feeling too great in body, but feeling much sounder in mind.
-Sold my dining room table.
-Had a couple of really good conversations with two close friends.
-Visited the ocean for the first time in months. (I live in San Diego, so it was never that far away, but I kept putting it off.)
Keely H.s last blog post..Happy Writers Worth Day!
It’s been one of the greatest weeks and one of the hardest! And for the same reasons. I’m practicing the Art of Possibility (great little book!) by pretending I can just go ahead and do anything I really want to do (mostly about connecting with cool people).
The good: it’s incredibly fun and exciting!
The hard: it’s incredibly scary and exhausting!
So now I’m going to pretend I can just go ahead and take it easy, pull back a little and it won’t all go away.
Thanks to you and Selma for all your inspiration!
Lynne Tolks last blog post..Love the Inner Cry!
It *seems* like this week was mostly “the hard”. Not feeling well physically, but not bad enough to stay home. Horrible fights with my husband, and I can’t seem to stop obsessing about being afraid to trust him right now. Work … well, work just sucks at the moment. Lots of people scared about the economy and micromanaging everything so they can feel in control. Not my favorite environment. Nowhere near enough sleep this week, either.
The good–I’ve started learning the legs in Shiva Nata! Went to shavasana right after SN this morning and promptly started sobbing, which was probably a necessary release. (I usually resist crying, even when I’m alone, so this was actually good).
Fights with husband are making the actual issues more clear, and it’s also more clear where each of our issues dovetail with the other. Could be easier to find ways to pattern-interrupt and move into more useful dialogue as a result.
I took the first steps toward setting up my own home-based business. Still lots of steps to go, but I crossed off at least four items from my to-do list! And I got my first class recording from Naomi at ittybiz.com!
Had a great post-Mom’s day dinner and drinks with my adult kids, ending at a comfy pub over pear cider and silly stories. Awesome being their mom and yet not having to “mom” them anymore.
Anna-Lizas last blog post..Pollyanna versus the Wednesday of the Eternally Damned Spam
Yeah, OK, it’s not Friday any more. Can I Chicken anyway?
Hard: had to get the old bike fixed up (after my superbike got stolen). Wasn’t cheap. General money worries pecking away at me.
Working hard on my book to try to meet the deadline for a Big Event next week, thinking “I’m not gonna make it, I’m not gonna make it” and then my computer died. Gave up, told everyone I wouldn’t make it, and now, ironically, it looks like I will after all. Left me feeling frazzled.
Good: I got a new book soon! I had serious doubts about its merits while working on it because it’s silly and nonsensical and hastily drawn, but right now I love it. Because it’s silly and nonsensical and I drew it in the space of two weeks. I Rock!
Listening to some awesome audio info: the recession call and marketing for nice people: http://marketingfornicepeople.com/ Awesome stuff. Has me sparking with ideas and hope and terror. Did I mention the terror? Yeah. Oh, also the Recoding Your Mind meditation. Awesome stuff! Thanks Havi!
Thanks everyone! See you next week!
Willie Hewess last blog post..What kind of person would have the Codename: Pepsi?
Havi, sending you hugs as you recover from your Reno airport experience. I can completely relate to how you feel. I’ll be flying in less than 2 weeks. 4+ hour flight each way. Never pleasant. Always mentally and physically exhausting.
A week of cycling between hard and good, but mostly good.
The hard – wrapping up enough loose ends to leave on vacation resulted in very little sleep.
The good – I took 3 minutes off my marathon time (walking version) last Saturday. New PR 6 hr 40 min!
The hard – I couldn’t walk (or stand up, or deal with curbs/stairs) very well for at least 72 hours post marathon due to incorporating some short jogging intervals. Note to self: Don’t do things in a marathon that you didn’t do in training. I knew at the time I was going to pay for it, but I got into a race with my watch!
The good – VACATION! No alarm clocks, lots of quality time with hubby, time at the spa (heavenly hot oil massage!), mid-day naps!
The scary – Turned in all my materials for my application to a doctoral program. Now I have an interview next week. Fears that I’m not good enough are consuming me despite having written a strong statement of purpose, having a great resume (thanks to guidance from career development office) and an awesome recommendation letter from my department chair. Why can’t I view myself as others see me?
Hey Havi & eveyone,
I always find coming back to work after a good holiday difficult. I usually humour myself by planning my next break or reading a whole heap of travel lit, so I fool my mind into its own holiday.
I’m really keen to see some more of the systems works you’re doing. My PhD used complex adaptive systems theory to explain how the culture (I won’t unpack this concept here) of a government agency acted to create the kind of co-management it created with Aboriginal ppl. I think systems theories are amazing.
We (as a collective) have only just begun to explore them as a way of thinking about the world.
Amandas last blog post..Wednesday Whiteboard #5
This is another “following-for-a-while, first-time-jumping-in” comment. So glad to hear that I am not the only person who completely melts down within 100 feet of anything casino-ish. I have to teach a couple of seminars in Las Vegas at the end of the month, and am already dreading having to walk though the hotel lobby just to get between my room and the meeting site…bleep, bleep, BLING, flashing colored lights.. aaaarrrrgh! Practice mind control and speed-walk for the exit, is my strategy.
Hard: for the first time ever, I totally kicked someone with toxic properties out of my life.
Good: Kicked toxic person out of life! Hooray! Refreshing, wonderful, head-clearing. Should have done it long ago.
@Ann – I can’t even tell you how reassuring it is for me to know there are other people who fall apart in the vicinity of those damned machines.
It makes me feel way less weird.
Also hooray for no more toxic stuff in your life. Head-clearing = fantastic. Love it.