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.
Zip!
This week kind of went by in a blur.
But here we are.
Yup. It’s definitely Friday. No getting around that.
Hi.
The hard stuff
Wrong side of bed.
A couple of days this week just didn’t work. As days.
I don’t know. Kept losing my clarity. Or couldn’t find it to begin with.
Just lost in the foggy and the fuzzy. And it took me TWO HOURS to do Wednesday’s post (which was half-completed when I started).
Agggggggggh.
Wednesday.
Speaking of Wednesday, it was brutal.
Not grounded. Depressed. Summer. Way too hot. Groggy. In bed. Miserable.
Also in pain. Arms hurt. Head hurt. Stitches hurt.
It was just generally not fun to be me on Wednesday.
It is also not fun to be me in the summer.
I tend to forget this every single year, but I really don’t do well with summer.
Pretty much everything horrible that has every happened to me has happened in the summer.
And the associations tend to catch up with me. Once I remember that oh, right, this is just my annual bout of summer misery, I can start to move through it.
But it takes me a while to get there.
Putting down baskets.
On Monday we had Jen Hofmann do a genius guest class for my Kitchen Table people and I begged her to do her awesome “how many baskets am I holding?” exercise with us.
Man, recognizing how many symbolic freaking baskets I’m carrying at any given moment is depressing. And carrying them is exhausting.
And putting them down is scary and hard. But I did it. Or worked on it, at any rate … which leads me to the good.
The good stuff
Putting down baskets.
I finally got around to canceling the VIP options on all of my products.*
*If you’ve already ordered one before yesterday, you can still totally do your session with me. So no worries.
Also finished planning the curriculum for two programs so that those baskets can go to the closet until I’m ready for them.
I looked at my baskets. And even though I love the stuff in them …
Down. They. Go.
Extreme self-care.
EXTREME!
Seriously, I’ve been treating it like an extreme sport that I’ve just gotten completely addicted to.
This is also hard, but I’m really, truly making this a practice.
Naptime. Trips to the Angel Refueling Station (aka my meditation closet). Bed. Kindness. Permission.
All the stuff that’s hard for me but really, really good for me.
So that’s a win.
Rose City Roller Derby Finals!
Okay, so admittedly my beloved Guns ‘N Rollers came in fourth, cough, last.
But the Breakneck Betties beat the High Rollers in a brutal fast-paced super-exciting bout and that was very cool.
And Danielle was there. And Dana the Spicy Princess. And our bartender. And a billion other people. And I love Portland.
Actually knowing people to run into.
So yeah, that’s a sign that hey, we live here now.
Because in San Francisco, I never ran into anyone. And in Sacramento, I didn’t even meet anyone.
But somehow in Portland the whole “knowing people” thing is working for us. This is new. And fantastic. So hooray!
We (my gentleman friend and I) even ran into our acupuncturist at the Neko Case concert. And if that doesn’t prove we live in Portland, I don’t know what does.
My gentleman friend made homemade ravioli.
With porcini mushrooms from the farmer’s market.
Oh, and he also made his own sourdough starter this week.
Because, you know, it’s not enough that he’s smart and funny and completely gets me and is the world’s biggest goofball and I love him. RAVIOLI!
And … STUISM 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.
Ooh! This one might actually be my favorite Stuism ever …
I was talking to Stu and my gentleman friend was yelling “What?“, because this often happens when you talk to yourself converse with software.
Especially when you’re shouting things like “Work already, you stupid piece of crap!”
Anyway, I yelled “I’m not talking to you–I’m talking to STU!”
But I forgot to silence Stu and he wrote it down. Except that he didn’t write what I actually said.
Instead he wrote:
“I’m not talking a deal to Congress on August 2!”
Fabulous.
The rest of this week’s Stuisms:
- it encloses UN instead of “it closes you in”
- beer is healthy instead of “fear is healthy”
- When we strapped on instead of “when we eavesdropped”
- Prince of pal instead of “principle”
- Or hmmm instead of “okay”
- we cannot tax a sum of missed communication instead of “we can unpack some of this miscommunication”
- him is like pure myth instead of “seem less like a pyramid”
- and a DVD for personal ads instead of “an itty bitty personal ad”
- a gray base for teaching workshop’s instead of “a great space for teaching workshops”
- the endless psych of Moore crappy beans created instead of “the endless cycle of more crap being created”
And … new at the meme beach house!
Yes, that’s a Stuism too.
My brother and I have this thing where we come up with ridiculous band names and then say in this really pretentious, knowing tone, “Oh, well, you know, it’s just one guy.”
So this week, I bring you:
Spontaneous Fruit Party
Me: “Did you catch Spontaneous Fruit Party at the Wonder Ballroom? They were opening for the Pneumatic Mushrooms.”
Ez: “Dude. I heard it’s just one guy.”
Yes!
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.
Follow
Wow, I get to start off the comments! Unless someone else posts before I finish typing. This is what happens when I don’t have to WORK on Friday!
The hard:
– complete exhaustion. Mental & physical.
– Unreliable internet connection which interfered with class prep AND raised my blood pressure.
– finding out that adding a measly 3 hours to my pay to cover duties not in my job description is considered to be a “new position” and thus won’t happen because we are under a hiring freeze. A lot of anger about this since my boss is getting paid a LOT and is not coming close to doing all that he is supposed to be doing which pushes the work onto me and extends my day. Boss is out of town for personal reasons (aka ego building) for 4+ months. A big load of frustration that I don’t know how to cope with.
– The tax situation with the former client is STILL unresolved. Tuesday’s meeting was a waste of my time since the accountant that is handling the interaction with the tax department missed a critical hearing in 2006! This situation is completely bizarre.
– I’m still in the midst of a “shoestorm”
The Good:
– Taking yesterday afternoon and going to see the Pixar movie “UP”. Bring kleenex……
– A perfect dinner with hubby after the movie
– Going to bed BEFORE 8pm last night
– A very sweet card from my students congratulating me on my acceptance to the doctoral program plus belated birthday wishes. Made me smile yesterday morning when I was feeling crabby about having to go to work.
– Cooler temps this past week!
– Requests of the Universe posting – very, very helpful!
Have a great week everyone!
P.S. Havi – hope your summer funk passes soon and that the pain recedes.
Havi – congratulations on putting down some of your baskets! I need to think about this myself. I think I’m carrying too many baskets right now, too.
The hard:
Still lots of work. Crazy busy.
Still getting over horrible illness from last week (and now hubby has caught it!)
Trying not to focus on wayward sibling who is apparently trying to destroy his life with bad decisions. Really difficult. I want to help, but I can’t control him, you know?
The good:
Made some good progress this week. Cross a thing or two off the giant list!
Thanks to Havi’s awesome posts, I was actually able to think about myself in a more different and creative way. I’m no pirate queen, but I did realize I’m a bit of a detective, which is way more fun than “programmer”.
Weather was really cool here, which is bad for people looking for a nice summer, but gave me an opportunity to start hacking down one of my giant bushes that is just too big to live. (My landscaping is attacking our house. It needs to be ripped up and redone.) So yeah! One bush down (15 more to go.)
Avonelle Lovhaugs last blog post..The life and times of a software detective
Hard:
Paying $2000 unexpectedly to both the surgeon and the dentist; fortunately, I could cover it.
Arms and wrists starting to show signs of repetitive stress–not good, because I’m taking today off of work to write an overdue research paper.
Worrying about money, thinking about all the things I need/want to buy before I leave the full-time job for full-time school in the fall.
Still haven’t started an exercise/early rising pattern. This will be a key to my success in the fall, and if I can’t set the pattern now, I won’t be setting it then.
Nervousness about buying some software and DVDs I feel that I need for school. Yes, they’re an investment in me, but my stomach is fluttering. (And I need to buy some new shoes, shirts, etc to replace my falling-apart ones.)
Was elected head of an organization and feeling bits of self-doubt as people email me and come to me looking for leadership. Me? A leader? When did *that* happen?
Good:
Great talk with the banjo teacher today, who is as much counselor as teacher. Made the point that ‘working hard’ is OK, but suffering is not. You can work hard and feel great about having focused and worked hard, even if the results didn’t match your expectations.
Blue skies and mild weather in central NC instead of the usual sweltering humidity.
Got back to posting on my blog and heard from friends who read and liked the posts. I’d stopped blogging as ‘punishment’ for not working on the research paper. Bad idea.
Ordered Havi’s yoga and shiva nata packages, and the Nomadics series of exercise DVDs. Part of my plan to take my physical care in a new direction.
Getting my car washed and waxed.
As always, Havi, thanks for providing a safe place for this kind of stuff to happen.
Mikes last blog post..Old-world skillz
Hmm. Glad to say I had a pretty good week. In spite of it being a PMS week.. guess I’m finally following my own advice on how to deal with it, and delighted to find it works. Yay!
Hard but few: Got news from a friend that she has kidney cancer.
Learning how to navigate a relationship that has to change emotionally while not yet being able to change logistically. If that makes sense.
The good: Friend with cancer called on me for support.
Someone bought a shiva nata dvd off my site. Yay for all of us!
Working diligently on a guest post for a certain friend’s shiva nata blog. Yay again!
Cleaned out a very icky cobwebby storage area, mostly for its highly symbolic energetic potential.
Finally talked to Jen Hofmann on the phone, even after nearly napping through our agreed-upon call time. She’s awesome!
Spearheading a massage/shiatsu/charity thing (also kinda hard, as I’m not typically a spearheading sort..)
Tightening my tribe.. sending hand-written letters to all my shiatsu peeps of the last 5 years to say hi and how are you, and can I help?
I think that’s it. Thank you Havi…I love doing this. And I hope your summer gets easier, and lighter.. {hug}
Ginas last blog post..the thrill of the kill
Is the Meme Beach House going to be a feature from now on? 🙂 I tried to do a drawing of the Meme Beach House, but it turned out terrible so I’ve given up for now. It featured Stu serving drinks.
Hard: Feeling aimless, hot and ill. Was home from work with some kind of cold (swine flu means we have to go home if even a little under the weather). There’s no way to keep our house cool in this kind of heat. Felt very sorry for myself through it all.
Getting all bummed out over not having any money before realising it’s because I bought a new bike and sent the insurance money to my savings account. Next time: more attention.
The good: Yoga! Whooo! Yin Yoga is very different to the yoga I’d been doing so far. Good different, but kind of shocking different, too. Like: holey moley, what is happening to me? “Fragile and vulnerable.” The Dude is not joking. o_O
Built a little website on Sunday. On top of being really quite pleased with the results (it has oranges), I now feel much more relaxed about the whole website-building thing. Because it’s so not a big deal, I can do one in a day. *poof* Ha! Take that!
Getting back in touch with the good things about the job job (AKA the day job). Actually, I think not having a lot of time for my Thing helps me focus during the time I do have. Or something.
Hi other chicken people!
Havi, I’m sorry about all your hard this week. And so very glad you’re setting down some of your baskets.
Hard this week: Scrambled communication involving an email address that didn’t get transferred over from my very dead computer to my new one.
Good this week: Wrote a blog post. Sent out my newsletter. Had a massage. Went out to dinner last night with my dear friend and sat around on the deck, talking and laughing, in the late evening sunshine for hours. 🙂
Have a beautiful weekend, everyone!
Love, Hiro
Hiro Bogas last blog post..The Art of Belonging–Happy Birthday, Canada!
hm. , you know what i’m loving right now? I woke up feeling great, I am all smiley and having a very difficult time remembering the hard this week. Now thats some good progress! thank you Havi for this space… this community. its amazing 🙂
Alas, the hard:
money money money money. major lack of it, with sallie mae breathing down my neck. i really want a weekend/ couple nights a week job to get back on my feet, but so do the other thousands of completely unemployed folks in PDX. I will try anyway of course. but it brings me down thinking about how impossible it might be.
being stuck in the middle of lack of money at work as well. nothing I can do about it, but have to book plane tickets and pay for catering and office supplies and… people get frustrated and I am in the middle unable to fix it. blech.
feeling guilty for not putting my passion and skills to work to make that extra money I need. I have lovely vintage fabrics, antique buttons, paints and canvasses, drawing supplies of every sort and wonderful paper. Why don’t I just do what I love and try to go make some money selling it? this is Portland freaking Oregon, the easiest place ever to make that happen….. so yeah, hard. my biggest point of stuckness.
Good:
SUNSHINE! it is good for me.
totally PMSing and Havi’s emergency destuckification thinking worked and kept me from sliding into a 2 week long self loathing fest. whew! man, a nice change for sure
ate vegetarian all week. I discovered I only eat meat because its comforting. I want it when i’m feeling bad and then i feel guilty eating it. This week was the first time I realized it is a comfort/crutch/bandaid thing.
I am about to go hit the new gym in my building and run for the first time in ages. there is also a machine i used to use at physical therapy so i can build my bad knees up properly… which means skateboarding will be back in effect!
forward progress feels so amazing. thank all of you folks for sharing all your stuff here, it is very encouraging to me 🙂
oh! the whole thing that prompted me to post! haha… Stu called me out by name 🙂 it may be nothing, but I like to think its a road sign 🙂
@ilikered – whoah, I can’t believe Stu called you by name, though also in association with crappy beans, which is kind of ridiculous. Silly Stu.
Yay for all your realizations and forward movement. Very cool. And … do you have an etsy shop??? 🙂
@Willie – rock on. I am completely into featuring the Meme Beach House in some capacity every week, even if it’s really only just to make me laugh.
And yeah, that whole fragile and vulnerable thing is powerful stuff. And really weird to have permission to experience. Eee.
@Hiro – LOVE LOVE LOVE to you, my sweet.
@Gina – I love that it’s PMS week across the board for my readers. It’s like roommates. We can get a whole Fluent-Self-ified cycle going. Oh god, what a terrifying thought.
Hug back to you!
@Avonelle – oh that is a lot of hard! And I hear you on the baskets thing. Man. Baskets.
@Mike – so glad you’re back to blogging … thanks for not punishing us/you anymore. 🙂
@Gadgetgirl – that’s one hell of a week. So much to go through. Big hug for that. And thanks for the reminder that I want to go see UP and that I will also cry like a baby. Excellent.
Stu seems to be entertaining some political aspirations….Congress, the U.N., taxes… and beans? I guess they have that senate bean soup..
I prefer the idea of Stu and the tropical drinks at the Meme Beach House. Hmmm, tiny beach umbrellas for Selma. 🙂
The Hard this week:
–Playing docent at the art museum when I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Meeting my sister’s gentleman friend when I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
–Second guessing my reactions to my own new relationship- deciphering the spectrum of normal communication frequency, and my reactions to how often we talk/text. A lot of ‘am I overly concerned or not’ confusion. A lot of not feeling ready for a relationship just yet, a lot of “no one is ever ready” back and forth in my head.
–Running into the ex-fiance was strange, and difficult, but not as difficult as I imagined. Enough time has passed, I have done a lot of personal work and healing, and it showed.
The Good this week:
–Having a nice time meeting up with my sister and her friend at the art museum, and the strange coincidence of running into a 30 something “retired”, genuinely amnesiac mafioso on the train home, a man who is surprisingly pleasant, if crass. He didn’t remember the last time we met- very, very surreal, but not a bad conversation.
–Very nice time at the gentleman friend’s company picnic. Scary fun sunny motorcycle ride. 😀 Great group of funky, young creative co-workers. Waiting out a thunderstorm, Lots of warm fuzziness.
–Placed a personal ad on my online diary, with near instant results! ?!!? Wow. Crazy.
–Helped a friend organize and declutter in a loving healthy way.
–Spontaneous (free) Cubs tickets- and then a grand slam, and a win! Holy Cow! 🙂
Overall a great week, even though I am susceptible to the Summer Blues. This week it is great to go through the Friday Chicken, or I may have been drawn to looking more at the “Hard” than the “Good” (and great. Which definitely includes Havi. Thanks.)
The hard:
Freaking out about the THING I came up with last week. I mean falling apart. It got way too big.
Worst. Jet lag. Ever. Going straight from meltdown mode to a 16-hour transatlantic trip and then directly from the airport to my office: owwwwwwwww.
And then I had to attend a conference. Demanding. Pressure. I had trouble paying attention because I was fighting about whether I should be doing this job and what that means about me as a person. (Also because I was exhausted!)
And the moment I started feeling a teensy bit better about that, grief about my breakup (on hold for the THING meltdown) had a chance to come up again.
The good:
Writing my Kitchen Table application today! I wrote about the THING and about some blocking patterns that revealed themselves during transatlantic meltdown-processing. (Man, do I ever stop working?) Also about what kind of KT outcome would blow my mind. And you know what? Just thinking about that – longing for this thing and being so stuck and clueless about how to get to it and *asking* for community support and resources to *help* me cross this chasm that I have never been able to cross – was incredible. Incredible! So hopeful. Hope! A week like that, and I end up with hope?
Asking the now-ex-bf for something I need from him. More asking, you guys! And less trying to deal with everything on my own.
Havi, very glad to hear you had your EXTREME self care going on during your hard week. Aww, cared-for Havi. (and: role model!)
{{{{Anna}}}}}
Just flying 16 hours would be enough to put me into a meltdown. Now bracket that with what you did on either side and I give you tons of CREDIT for surviving and posting about it! AND ending up HOPEFUL!!!
Thanks for sharing!
The good:
Another Project That Sucks found me. I have to add another item to my list of Eight Ways That Software Projects Suck because having the lead developer in federal custody was not on it already. Wait, is that good? It’s an opportunity to help, anyway.
Havi darling, your Pirate Queen post completely and totally and utterly hit home for a dear friend of mine, who now actually answers to “PQ.” It’s kinda cool that way.
Yet another Project That Sucks resulted in an hour-and-a-half phone call with the lead developer. I know I can make it Not Suck, but need more yoga to figure out how.
The hard:
Hey, that current Large Client can start sending money any day now, okay?
My PQ had quite a jolt at work the other day. Her project really sucks. Just saying.
Havi:
*mwah* to you! I love what you’re saying about running into people you know. I moved about four miles within Cleveland and don’t know anyone here after two years! 23 years previously in one neighborhood spoiled me. It’s an adjustment.
You have a glorrrrrrrrrrrrrrious weekend too!
–Extra Crispy
Oh, Havi, I totally feel you on the summer stuff. With me, it’s not so much about bad memories of the summer; I just hate it and everything it stands for. (Wrote a poem about it a couple of years ago. Like to hear it? Here it go!)
The hard:
– Had a rough day on Wednesday; went to Panera to participate in a webinar while my dear husband cleaned the house. Perfect, right? They’ve got the WiFi and the nice mellow mochas? Wrong! The WiFi is only for 30-minute bursts between 11:30 and 1:30, and my webinar was from 11 to 1! Wednesday failed me, and I failed it.
– The dear husband was diagnosed with a mild hernia on Monday. He needs outpatient surgery, and I know he’ll be fine, but I also know he’s probably a little anxious.
– My shinguards and grappling gloves still haven’t arrived! Will I have to go for my belt test next week with bare limbs?
– How much of a dingus I’ll feel like if the link doesn’t work in the first paragraph here.
The good:
– Finished up working with a client, getting her home office in order a year after her husband passed away. I could see some real changes in her energy level and optimism. Felt good!
– Walking Peach the dachshund every day this week. Good exercise for both of us, which means a doggie more likely to go to bed without a fight.
– Doing work in the Mark Silver Heart of Money class. This is some emotional heavy lifting, but it feels good.
Happy Fourth of July weekend to my fellow Americans, and Happy Friday to everyone!!
Catherine Cantieri, Sorteds last blog post..Land of the free, home of the Sorted
Okay! I’m starting to love the Friday Chicken check-ins. They are awesome. ♥
And! I have a thing to say about that! For those who like the Friday Chicken, there is a blogger I read who also posts a Monday Pride Thread each week. I find it a really good complement to the Friday Chicken – actually I’ve been Pride-Thread-ing since before I’ve been Chickening (a bit sporadically, both).
She is called Synecdochic and she is here.
So onto the Chicken!
The hard
-Fantasizing that people hate me when I know it’s not true.
-Not wanting to be social this week. At all.
-Leaving an event I really wanted to attend because the crowds were freaking me out.
The good
Oh, so much good!
-Talking to my doctor, who is the sweetest, most understanding person in the world. I could not have landed better on my feet with this doctor if I tried.
-Getting a therapist recommendation – actually, a therapy centre recommendation – from the same sweet and understanding doctor.
-Having my doctor refer me for an assessment for Asperger’s Syndrome, which is one way or the other going to answer a lot of questions for me.
-Becoming a member of my local cinema. Cheap movies for me! (Movies are one of my favourite forms of me-time.)
-Making some progress with noticing what’s going on with me (see: destructive fantasies, as above) and treating myself with a little more compassion than usual.
-Ordering the Non-Sucky Yoga package and reading the stuff about the DVD and yoga in general. (Now waiting impatiently for my package to arrive!)
-Seriously considering also joining the Comfort Cafe.
See? Lots of good! Oh, and also:
-The fact that the good way outweighed the hard for me this week.
Aaaaaand I’m done.
Lucy Viret (aka randomling)s last blog post..On the stories I tell myself.
Oh God. I forgot stuff. AND AND AND.
-On the hard side: Finding out that my blog has stopped emailing me comments for no reason I can figure out. Siiiigh.
-Also on the hard side: Washing. Still.
-But on the good side: Two people contacting me, one via email, one via the blog, to offer me staying-clean-related support. Peoples, you are awesome. Havi, you are also awesome for inspiring me to post about what I needed.
MWAH. Now I’m really done.
Lucy Viret (aka randomling)s last blog post..On the stories I tell myself.
Yay!
@Lucy – Double Yay for you, sweetie. That’s a lot of good in there. Wow.
And I had meant to say to you on the other post and forgot that I have had the same issue at times when I was depressed. Like, I just could not do it. And could not want to do it.
So just wanted to offer that reassurance and reminder … and I loved your brave wonderful tiny personal ad for help with it and I am sure that it is planting internal and external seeds like crazy.
@Crispy Mark – I like you so much!
@Catherine – wow. I’m sorry your Wednesday sucked so much but am weirdly relieved to know that I wasn’t the only one battling Wednesday in ridiculous ways. Maybe Mt. Hood was in retrograde again.
Also, thanks for sharing the poem.
@Anna + Ingrid – hugs to both of you!
ilikered: oh yeah, list up those antique buttons and fabric on Etsy, and people will be all over it. I love antique buttons!
Stu should so totally be the poolboy/bartender at the meme beach house. He can bring us towels and frosty drinks and utter incomprehensible phrases all the while. But he’ll be so easy on the eyes it won’t matter.
This week for me, the hard:
– A leak I had thought could be fixed by recaulking around the shower wasn’t so easily fixed. The ceiling below is now wet(ter) and gross(er), and fixing it will involve an actual plumber. I hate dealing with plumbers, but I hate using the other shower even more (whoever invented low-flow showerheads didn’t realize that if you cut the flow of water to half, you double the amount of time one must spend in the shower to get the shampoo out of your hair properly).
– The leisurely July I had envisioned for myself just got more hectic with the arrival of a couple of can’t-say-no projects. Maybe I can slack in August.
This week for me, the good:
– Yay, exciting, interesting (and good-paying) new projects!
– I hosted a fun gathering for a dozen members of my Etsy team last weekend and remembered how much I love having people over.
– The last of the dreaded and disgusting white carpet is GONE from the living room as of today. And I don’t care if it stays boring cement with remnant stripes of glue for a while as we decide what we really want to do in there.
Lori Paximadiss last blog post..it was seven years ago today…
Yay for fake band names! We currently have “The Unfortunate Swan Incident” as our leading band. 🙂
I’m so sorry to hear about the hard this week. But I’m so happy that you have the wonderful gentleman friend to make you yummy food and just generally be there for you. He’s really good at that (in addition to so many other things).
Here’s my Chicken:
The hard: Depressed, worried, and angry over my continued health issues. Really sick and tired of being sick and tired. I’ve been taking lots of baths and trying to give myself permission to just feel lousy for a little while longer. I’ll be doing the shiva-flail/dance tonight after the hubby goes out. I think it will help – it always makes me laugh.
The good: I spent a few hours organizing the storage area on the ship. It’s great to see a little order in a chaotic space. I also got around to filing for my name change, which is all kinds of exciting. And I let myself get bullied into hitting “publish” on my first blog entry. It’s not the kind of great post that I wanted, but it breaks the seal, which I needed.
Have a wonderful week, everyone!
Hey Havi:
I hope you’re feeling better by the time you read this. I really do – tough stuff when you don’t feel good.
I can’t think of a single hard for the week. It is all overshadowed by the fact that I got sleep – every single night since Sunday – deep sound sleep.
And, for me, that changes EVERYTHING. I just don’t function well without it.
I also discovered the wonders of having a timer in every room – not to be obsessive but just to help me stay more aware of where my day is going.
Lots of physical exercise too this week – walks every day with my dogs, pilates, yoga, walking dvd’s – 3 of 4 every single day. Heaven.
Also, got LOTS of work done. . . more than ever on a consistent basis. Think that the sleep, food, water, exercise, and regular online support – all have something to do with it.
Am compiling pictures of my family, mom and dad’s family, etc – and putting them in order as well as making some dvd’s for the kids of the favorite ones setting them to music. I took all these pictures stacked in the closet, basement etc to a studio to sort through – I’ve never done anything like this. One minute I’m looking at shots of me as a child, the next I’m looking at my kids as babies. No order to any of it- YET – but what a kick that all this has happened to me or someone I’m related to.
I commit to keeping track of my sleep, movement, food and water – because life is so much harder when I forget to take care of those daily needs.
Big learnings for me this week on that score!!
Taking care of basic needs = less struggle and more ease with work, relationships, etc.
Love it. Have a great weekend
xoxo
Char
I’m late to the Chicken, but I wanted to participate when I had a moment.
The Hard:
My BFF spent 3 days in the hospital this week from chest pains, shortness of breath, and bleah. Way too soon from losing Stuart to his heart attack, and it just threw everything for a loop for me. He’s out now and fine, with a diagnosis of too much stress and taking a few days off, but still. So hard to deal with, and I didn’t even end up visiting him in the hospital — he declared I wasn’t allowed to see him in the gown. 😉
Getting behind on everything because of Stuff. Accidentally Structured Procrastination. Not-so-structured procrastination.
Still trying to find people to take over the Stuart project, still finding it really hard.
Just feeling very @_@ and off my game today. And all week. Bleh. Tired Amy is tired, but has no time for a nap.
The Good:
My BFF is okay!
Getting back into the work groove and getting things done in time for the hard deadline, if not the earlier, softer one I wanted to make. And I painted stripes on my tiger! And wrote a good solid blog post today while not doing the other, harder work. And sent a chapter of Novel #2 to my beta group. Things Got Done, despite all the fog and bleh.
Shiva Nata! I got my DVD and have played with it 2 days this week, all I had energy/time for. Sore shoulders didn’t last, thank goodness, and I already had one interesting effect. I went to a meeting with a client yesterday, lots of walking around by myself to and from, and I noticed people kept smiling at me — and I realized it’s because I was looking up, and not down at the ground/my feet. Posture win!
Kitties and friends and new connections. And clients who buy me High Tea.
Amy Crooks last blog post..Working With Me
So this week I was all out of sorts too, but at least I didn’t get stitches & crazy nurses & dropped scissors, etc.
Speaking of which, I was so unfocused, I failed to keep up with this week’s The Fluent Self and Havi gets stitches and crazy nurses and dropped scissors, etc., so I will always be a faithful reader from now on.
Havi’s fate rests in my hands!
I have been thinking about Classified Ads this week and just today I read a funny thing. A musician acquaintance of mine is going to star in an independent film so that’s been interesting to me and a big to-do around these parts and all that.
In a newspaper article about all that, he said that 3 years he had decided he wanted to be in a movie and have his music in a movie. He was very specific about what he wanted and why he wanted that. Now, mind you, he didn’t just sit there. He started keeping his eyes open and his wife (who manages a lot of his business stuff and is a super go-getter and who I wish was MY wife) put his picture on a casting website.
Turns out, this director (a real director with international credentials) saw him, loved him, cast him and his band in the movie, and his music will probably be used as well. (And if it’s not, really, what’s wrong with those people.)
So, there you go.
Have a great 4th of July, everyone!
I’m totally with all of you that have a hard time in the summer. I don’t hate it, because it’s far too beautiful in Seattle to hate, and I don’t have any bad memories from years past. I’ve done a lot of thinking about these kinds of anniversaries and actually most of my falling in love happens in the summer so it should be good, right?
But I just never get anything significant done in the summer and feel aimless and like I’m scattering in a hundred different directions (so the basket workshop would have been totally useful for me!). I’ve tried to convince myself to be OK with thinking of summer as a time when I flit, like a butterfly, from lovely flower to flower but that’s never really worked. I prefer the focus and intensity I feel in the spring and fall.
Hard: Finding out the bank (because of homeland security regulations) won’t accept the name I’ve been using for 30 years because it’s not on my driver’s license so they changed it on their records and now I can’t deposit any checks made out to me so I have to go change my name legally. I have some resistance to this and I’m not sure why.
Good: Working with my web designer on the launch of my new website, which is gorgeous. Learning how cool WordPress is for creating websites.
Hard: Realizing my idea of what I am doing with my business is morphing even as we’re taking this BIG step towards changing the face/shape/structure of my business.
In good time,
Waverly Fitzgerald
http://www.schooloftheseasons.com
It’s really almost not Friday, but since I’m late here because of the Good, I’m going with it.
The Good: A day with the kids, doing just ordinary fun stuff. A walk to the park with my lady friend. Making a really nice flower for the basket for my lovely bike. Working in the garden. Building a compost heap! The Dusting Off the DVD conference call–which was really great. A very helpful meeting with my counselor. Many small epiphanies in a string (some of which may, on reflection, turn out to be not-so-small).
The Hard: Wishing that work would take a different turn than it’s likely to. Not yet finding that motivation to start working on the novel again. The everyday challenges of money, and time, and energy, and skill to do well at all that’s needed.
I send wishes for comfort and joy, which are needed just as much at this time of the year as any other.
Melyndas last blog post..Steampunkery: Robot Children
Ze hard:
Going home to my family’s farm.
Leaving my family’s farm.
Coming back here to the place I still can’t really call home, but is still a really lovely place to be. But still. It’s not home!
Ze good:
Going back to my family’s farm.
Being back with my hunky spunky again. He smells good.
Waking up on the farm. As challenging as it is sometimes, that place is still utterly in my heart and spirit as home.
ark.
Missing the farm tonight!
Goddess Leonie | Goddess Guidebooks last blog post..Goddess Allsorts: Brought to you by poo edition