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.
Whoo. Chicken. And enthusiastic hellos to the various, Chickeneers of the High Seas, as Lucy says.
Also, every once in a while someone reminds me that it can be kind of intimidating to join the mad rush of Chicken comments. So I just wanted to say that you are loved and adored whether you comment or not.
And that the people here are just about the loveliest ever, so wander in if/when you feel like it and it will be beautiful.
The hard stuff
Still working too hard.
Especially since this year I’m trying to plan the whole year out in advance, instead of my usual let’s see what happens wheeeee kind of thing.
Too much. Ow.
Feeling deflated.
This is related to the “too much” part.
Ugh.
Understanding the effects of terrible decisions.
It sucks.
Feeling vulnerable and not trusting.
Sites being down on and off all week.
Completely fist-shakingly frustrating.
American Thanksgiving this week.
What can I say, I just don’t like it.
Me, reading the New Yorker: “Man, these people will not shut up about loving Thanksgiving. Where are all the people who don’t like Thanksgiving? Where are my people?”
My gentleman friend: “Come on. It’s not that you don’t like Thanksgiving. You just don’t like people.”
Either way.*
*CIarification: I do like the nice people who invite me to Thanksgiving. I just don’t do well with Thanksgiving itself.
The good stuff
Giving myself permission to skip Thanksgiving.
That was good.
Oh, the sweet people in my life.
Last week was so full of horribleness.
And so many people wrote sweet letters and sent cards to tell me about how reading this blog has done crazy, wonderful things for their lives.
It was amazing.
Usually Selma gets all the fan mail, and then people are all oh, hi Havi. Which is fine. I mean, she is the cute one.
But it was just so sweet to encounter this overflowing mailbox of thank-you-ness.
And Char sent the most lovely care package ever, and I feel completely … cared for. Awesome. Thank you!
Sites working again.
My Kitchen Table people were very kind and considerate about containing their freaking-out while the Table forum environment went down during our tech crisis.
And they were pretty hilarious when it went back up again.
Since, if you listen to them, they’d apparently all been rocking back and forth in a corner sucking their thumbs waiting desperately for it to come back.
You know you run a cool place online when people say things like this after it disappears for a day:
Oh, massive sighs of relief and joy! Now for a big slurp of Kitchen Table moonshine to quell the jitters and DTs of not being bathed in loverly smartnesses and ninjas and hookers and chocolate cake-fights.
It really was awful to have a day of things Not Working, and I was suffering mad withdrawal too, but seeing how over-the-top happy everyone was when it came back?
Nice!
The smaller pirate ship runs way better.
And between First Mate Marissa helping to keep everything running smoothly and Tech Pirate Charlotte trying to figure out the stuck bits, I am feeling reassured.
The most hilarious class ever.
We were going to have Mark teach a class for my Kitchen Table people this week. About combining heart with biggification.
Except that we had a scheduling mix-up.
And since I don’t have anything to say about heart in business, I taught a class on Sexiness In Business.
And it was awesome.
We got into a huge cake fight in the chatroom, and there was extreme silliness. It’s these totally fun moments with my rightest Right People that make everything good.
Furnishings?
Okay, so it’s true that I don’t really like furniture. And that I do really, really, really like open spaces.
But it’s also true that I have been avoiding treating Hoppy House like it is my real home.
Even though we have been here for a year and a week now. Remember?
Ah. Hiro pointed out some Extremely Smart And Useful Things about this.
And Colleen infused me with some of her obsessive nesting thing while she was staying with us.
And so I bought a rug. Rug! And a (non-piratey) chest. Of drawers. And a new ginormous mirror for Shiva-ing it up.
Slowly slowly.
Did some stuff I’ve been avoiding.
Mostly taking-care-of-the-pirate-ship stuff.
Fixed a bunch of wee mistake-ies.
And revised the error 404 page. Which you won’t be able to see until the next time I screw up a link. Wait, I can do that right now. Here’s my non-existent page about bunnies.
And … playing live 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.”
This week’s band is … wait for it ….
Chopped Leverage.
And yes. It’s just one guy.
The sad bit is there are no Stuisms this week. I mean, there are Stuisms but I have a little filing crisis that needs to be dealt with first. Next Chicken.
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
BUNNIES
.-= Bill Randall´s last post … Traveling Swans =-.
Yay, Friday chicken!
The hard
–I still don’t have a health plan because my doctor threw his back out today and canceled my appointment.
–Washing two sinkfuls of dishes was all I could handle doing yesterday.
–I have so much I want to do and not enough energy to pull any of it off.
The good
–I had a lovely holiday with only my wife and our best friend.
Bah. Not a fabulous ratio today.
Happy Chicken, everyone.
.-= Julie´s last post … Recovering yourself after academia =-.
Havi, hooray for you–both your tech crisis and Thanksgiving are over!
Hard this week: Flu. ‘Nuff said.
Good this week: 158 wonderful people registered for my Sovereignty teleclass last Friday. We stomped and clapped and wore our crowns and swanned around in royal regalia. And best of all, you were on the call, as was Kelly (@copylicious). People asked thoughtful, insightful questions. Great fun all around! 🙂
Have a beautiful weekend, everyone.
Love, Hiro
.-= Hiro Boga´s last post … Sunday Poem #10 =-.
Yay – chicken!
@Havi – I totally get that you don’t like Thanksgiving. (Or people.)
For me it is Christmas.
It isn’t so much Christmas itself. It is the mad dash to find something everyone will love (which I always fail at), the overspending (which also always happens), and the ugliness that ensues when trying to schedule enough time with everyone. Between my family, our extended family, family members who work retail (so they aren’t available on some days), and coordinating with in-laws and ex-spouses (I don’t have any of those but others do), it is a real mess. And I HATE IT!
And of course since everyone else loves Christmas, I come off as Mrs. Scrooge. Phooey.
Oh yeah, chicken:
Hard:
– Trying to coordinate the holiday feast without ticking anyone off.
– Making too much food (again) because people bring food that I wasn’t expecting.
– Extended relatives driving me and my mom nuts.
– Lots of silly technical issues that I can’t figure out that are slowing me and my business down.
Good:
– Went to my first derby bout, and just loved it. Very cool!
– Made it to a chamber committee meeting this week. Yay, I am making progress on my plan to get out of the house and meet actual people.
– Solved one of those stupid tech issues this morning. Finally!
– Got lots of compliments on my weight loss. Feeling like all that starvation is finally paying off. (Okay, I wasn’t really starving. I get plenty of food, and even some snacks. Just not as many as before.)
Have a great weekend!
.-= Avonelle Lovhaug´s last post … When more is less (or makes you look stupid) =-.
Oh Lordy! I just wrote a huge chicken and lost it to the ether – my wifi dropped out and I pressed send!!!! eeeek!
deep breath. start again.
woo and hey @havi @hiro @julie @bill – BUNNIES! – and to all Esteemed Chickeneers of the High Seas!
@havi, i was *shocked* to see my name at the top of the Chicken and with a link too. thank you so much. it was lovely to find that after a long treacly week.
and havi, my thoughts are with you for a tough techy week and tolerating enforced festivity – really hard for some. feel for you. x
Lucy’s week (i’ll keep it brief this time!)
The Hard
A long, tough week. didn’t know what day it was most of the time. It’s that tough bit when you’ve nearly finished and now it’s the detail, the fiddly bits, the looking for other bits of information to put in boxes bit of my european report… eurgh!
it’s not finished yet. really wanted to be done today but no.
this morning a bug erupted in the report while i was writing it and i nearly lost the whole thing – weeks of work! oh yikes. i survived, got most of it back, rewrote the bits i lost.. oh blimey.
oh and i woke up at 4.30am today and couldn’t get back to sleep. ooow.
sorry to my wife for being this quiet, stressy, grumpy, finger-chewing bag of bleh for so long. it’s nearly over, i promise.. xx
The Good
hey everyone i’ve nearly finished my report! really! i’m going to send it to Brussels on Monday! wooooooo!
i don’t hate the whole of Europe anymore!
some of my euro-partners have been brilliant this week. really helpful, supportive and funny.
my wife is ace and she’s bought a new TV. we’re going to watch Star Trek and i am *very* excited about that.
it’s the weekend, people. time to breathe and chill.
and i made a plan with my dad that he’s coming to visit with his partner and my little brother and sister. that’s going to be a blast.. we’re going to visit the Romans. they’ll be so pleased!
enough Lucy!
thanks all of you for the chickening. it’s helped so much the last few weeks.
have a great weekend..
Lucy x x
Chicken!
Thanksgiving is my favorite of the big holidays — it’s like Christmas, without the consumerist pressure. But I totally get why lots of people don’t like it.
This week’s hard:
– Holiday shows are starting out a little slow for me this year, and I’m having a little mini panic about that. Not that there’s any great dire emergency that dictates that people MUST buy my jewelry this year or anything; I’d just like to move some of this stuff along so I have some room for some new stuff that’s been kicking around in my head.
– One editing project came in early and another got pushed back a little late, so now there are two big books on my desk screaming for attention, and a few fun personal things I had planned have to give way to make sure both can be handled.
– People sometimes drive me around the bend. Little drama flareups for the past couple of weeks.
This week’s good:
– I’m getting pretty good at not letting other people’s drama affect me.
– The projects keep coming, and my clients keep saying good things about me to their colleagues, which brings even more projects.
– The Cleveland Handmade show we did last weekend was a success, and I don’t have to go stand in the corner or go into hiding. We’ve got some great local press this week, too.
– It’s time for lunch, and there’s leftover stuffing. Yum!
.-= Lori Paximadis´s last post … tidbits: overstuffed turkey edition =-.
Oh yeah, Chicken!
I… I’m sure I had a fairly OK week but I’m so in the hard right now that I have difficulty remembering.
Hard: everything.
Good: I’m drawing robots. Does anyone like robots? I have some.
.-= Willie Hewes´s last post … Looking for a Butt-kicking Partner =-.
Yeah for open spaces and no clutter.
The hard this week:
– My boss announced that he had to talk about some ifs and buts about the prolongation of my contract. He wanted to do this on Thursday but then he was in an meeting that lasted longer than he thought and had to rush to the next one and is away today, Monday and Tuesday so that the damn talk is postponed to next Wednesday, leaving me sort of cluesless.
– The feeling that goes along with having such a talk announced: uncomfortable, culprit-ey (for no reason), depicting possible scenarios…
The good:
– Since the talk is postponed I have a few more days to rethink my position, prepare arguments and think about other options. And to work on making my internal space safe enough so that potential shoe throwing won’t affect it too much.
– Some good girls’ talk
– Going away for 1 1/2 days to a beautiful place in the countryside tomorrow
Have a lovely weekend everyone, everywhere.
Need to add a P.S. because forgot to say that in the context of this whole job thing a wonderful sentence that I came across gave me lots of food for thought:
“How many of us have whittled down
our aims, afraid to reach for something big so we
cling to something small, living our lives as an
abbreviated version of its once panoramic scope?”
(© Donna Farhi, the whole text is on her website http://www.donnafarhi.co.nz under Donna’s insight)
Yeah for biggification, yeah for panoramic scope.
The only thing better than the Chicken is the Chicken + Non-Existent Bunnies.
Hard this week:
OMGserver. Which means lots of stress and no sleep and general badness and “Man… what am I not explaining correctly?”
13 people at Thanksgiving celebration. I get overwhelmed with more than 4.
NaNoWriMo. I’m at 21k words and need to reach 50k by Monday. AAAAAA!
Fantastic this week:
OMGserver! Which is so far running like a dreamboat after feeding it more memory.
Thanksgiving with 13 of the best people on earth. After I finally finished cooking and actually sat down, everything was more than wonderful.
Breakfast this morning. Had a fantastic talk with some friends and really figured out stuff that’s been going on for us.
Back in New York. It’s great to travel… but I’m happy to be home.
.-= Charlotte´s last post … Tech Wednesdays – Black Friday Sale Edition =-.
Chicken! Or as my girlfriend’s Bubbie says: “chick’m”
The Hard:
-letting some things get to the point of urgency to get them done
-moments of overwhelm about work stuff
-haven’t made it out to the gym as often as I like to
The Good:
-made some great music with people this week
-feeling proud of my girlfriend for doing Boot Camp at 7am
-I get to play with Mary Margaret O’Hara tonight! yeeee!
Happy Friday all
.-= Christine Bougie´s last post … Tom Waits tribute (with Mary Margaret O’Hara!) =-.
Chick’m! That’s even better than yelling Chicken! Thanks, Christine.
I have to go do a bunch of baking and then have a Scary Meeting, so will be back in a bit. Just wanted to re-chicken and say that I love you guys, my better-than-lentils.
Hugs all around for the hard and the stupid, and little cheers for the good. Off in a puff of flour.
This was a week, we even had snow this morning!
The hard:
Dis-inviting #1 daughter to Thanksgiving dinner because I am not in a space to deal with her eating issues and my eating issues at the same time.
Thinking this pain in my sternum was an expansion of my GERD issues. Hurting to move.
The good:
Impromptu trip to Penney’s and Hobby Lobby with #2 daughter.
Having the first pair of jeans I picked up and tried on be the right pair of jeans (ok that is not just good that is a miracle)
Squooshy socks from Old Navy. In orange!
Skull footie pj’s at Target today, in a size I can wear.
Learning double knitting yesterday (yay internet!)
Very productive studio time.
Finishing my 50K words for NaNoWriMo this week. (Thank you for the support, Emily!)
Snow this morning!
Oh, and the sternum pain is just a mean blackhead. Still hurts, but not as serious as the other possibility.
Have a great weekend, y’all 🙂
.-= Andi´s last post … Wishcasting Wednesday =-.
Imaginary Bunnies are the best kind, really.
Too sleepy to do a full recount, but this is enough to be going on with, really. I find I end up reporting mostly weds-thurs stuff in the Chickens, because Monday seems so very far away, let alone the previous weekend. Heh.
The Hard
– Trying to stumble back on track after my week of dis and only sort of making it
– So many people at Thanksgiving, half of them randomly switching to Spanish partway through conversations
– Not enough sleep
– Completely failing to do anything for Black Friday on Etsy or Antemortem
– Dish Mountain has slowly grown in my kitchen with no time to turn it back into a molehill
The Good
+ Have made some sneaky moves back toward the track
+ Kind people letting me join in on their Thanksgiving and eat their awesome food
+ Pumpkin gingerbread trifle
+ Awesome BFF^2 time, to make up for the sad flu-riddled lack last week
+ Knowing I love my kittehs even when they wake me up 17 times during the night
+ A bit of inspiration resurgence in areas I had worried were played out
.-= Amy Crook´s last post … Antemortem Arts is ALIVE! =-.
Just wanted to pipe up and tell you that I really can’t stand Thanksgiving at all. So you’re not alone. We’re out there.
.-= Darcy´s last post … Day 26: Oh, the irony =-.
Ha! I love(d) Thanksgiving when it was a food-and-fun related holiday with my Fambly of Choice (aka, the 8 years here in L.A. when the ex and I hosted Orphans’ Thanksgiving). Yesterday reminded my of why I’m generally not much of a fan. Still, nice to be able to add to someone else’s happiness from time to time, even if slightly at the expense of my own.
For the haters and the indifferent, I offer up this HIGH-larious bit of MST3K-esque tomfoolery on the YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlVXqIS0wX0
No, really–it’s awesome.
The GNARLY:
Snowy mountain pass south of Ashland. BAD! Bad bad bad.
Saying “goodbye” to the tasty foods and warmth of Hoppy House and its fine inhabitants.
70% of the drive between PDX & L.A. BAD! Bad bad bad.
The AWESOME:
Sovereign decision to skip Skedaddle and head home early.
Seeing The BF and Arno J. early.
Instigating a rug at Hoppy House (I have mad powers, people.)
My Everyman Skype headset finally arrived!
Lunch with The Sandwich.
Amazon affiliate payout: yay, free books!
***
I am seriously growing my love of Friday Chicken.
.-= Colleen Wainwright´s last post … Black (Referral) Friday: Shop yer ass off with the communicatrix =-.
Loved the bunnies’ page!
This week’s hard:
– uh, not sure… which feels quite nice!
– well, maybe one little thing, actually: going to bed ridiculously late pretty much every day this week for various reasons, and thus losing huge chunks of my days trying to catch up on sleep and waking up tired anyways
The good this week:
– my gentleman friend went to and came back from the last of this season’s book fairs, and I’m really happy to know we’ll stay home together for a little while
– I finally got the Procrastination Dissolv-o-Matic and I love it! I went through it twice already… I suspect it has a lot to do about the not-finding-much-hard-to-report thing up here – not that I got anything done (see lack of sleep and ensuing lost time and tiredness above), but it really helped me internalize the meeting-myself-where-I-am thing, and that made a whole world of difference.
– turning a potential contract into a confirmed one. Yay!
.-= Josiane´s last post … Noticing – the dragonfly edition =-.
Yikes. For a week that started with some wonderful rest and time with my husband, it sure didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped.
The hard:
– Instead of dinner with our SF family on Thursday, I got some kind of stomach flu that had me retching all day until we went to the ER and I got hydrated and some drugs. Bleh.
– Ruining Dave’s t-day with friends while he cared for me.
– Trying for two days to get through to the unemployment dept so I could reopen my claim.
– Generally crappy mood because I, too, really hate forced joviality and the next 5 weeks are the worst of the year.
The good:
+ Helping launch a site that might do some good *and* win some awards
+ Finishing (hopefully) the last project of the year. Now, it’s ALL me-time. Between health and work issues, I’ve seriously let my me-time slip.
+ The stomach-flu took the pain out of the decision to stick to my diet on national gluttony day. How’s that for a-glass-half-full? 🙂
+ Feeling much better today. Yay!
+ Really looking forward to the onset of winter. Hoping to see snow as early as next weekend. I love water in all forms.
Friday again? But wasn’t it Friday, like, yesterday?
Hard this week:
– Lack of sleep. The children are still up until all hours, and I’m still going to bed at stupid o’ clock. Stuck stuck stuck habit of stuckness.
– Nasty headcold. The Feaster got it first. Then I got it on account of his flamboyant sneezing and generous toddler kisses. Then the Oyster got it. Mnnngghhhhnnnn, and other headcoldy noises.
– I wrote a great blog post, and lots of people read it and loved it. OMG THE FEAR! I’ll never write again! In fact, why don’t I just save everyone the trouble and go and live in a hole somewhere.
– My husband had a horrible week at work, which had a range of completely understandable but nonetheless irksome effects on us at home.
Good this week:
+ Braving the demons who ambushed me and tried to send me back to my mid-teens, I sent out invitations to my birthday party (swine flu ate my birthday, so now I’m celebrating properly, dammit). And some people said they’d come.
+ That blog post … it really wasn’t bad.
+ Some tentative flutterings of what might be the embryonic rekindling of my organisational mojo began to brush at the edges of my consciousness. I’ve started to keep a to-do list again.
+ The latter may be on account of the fact that we’ve just agreed to HOST CHRISTMAS oh em gee flail thonk.
+ And and and and AND, I finally bought the Shiva Nata starter kit, in a fit of shaggit, I’m going for this last night. Exciting!
.-= Lean Ni Chuilleanain (@leannich)´s last post … Dispatches from the Gender Ghetto =-.
Chicken!
The hard:
One of my domains lapsed, and they didn’t bill me or warn me in advance or even tell me it had lapsed after the fact. It was lucky I spotted it. Really annoying. If google noticed, all my rankings will have dropped. And when I called them, they put me on hold for, like, ten minutes, and then told me I needed to email the sales team! Who have still not responded. Way to do customer service, guys.
New stuff this week plus actual face to face meeting (which I *never* do) which was on then off then on the rescheduled, and phone tennis, created an even higher than usual adrenalin current, and I’m knackered.
But I think that’s all the hard this week. Which is pretty great.
The good:
Exciting potential new client! Big job, fun stuff, lots of new stuff to play with. I love learning new stuff.
Other client signed off the designs first time – it’s always wonderful when it’s that happy and easy. I have great clients. Lucky.
Got the official acceptance letter to do the Holy Royal Arch! Ceremony is at the end of January. So excited.
Several small, friendly chats with my dad about everyday things. I really love that we get on now.
Google Wave, baby!
Hmm, let me see.
The hard:
– When people don’t understand that we’re all working on our own stuff at our own pace.
– A toddler who will not stop endangering himself for even 3 seconds (I’ve had to leave this comment once already).
– Heavy, soul-sucking traffic on the roads.
– Similar site downtime issues.
The good:
– A birthday cake hat for a 4-year-old, complete with ‘lit candles’ on top.
– Realizing that the hard stuff is what makes me stronger and wiser in the long run.
– My fabulous husband, who mostly just understands me like no one else in the whole world.
.-= Amber´s last post … Confessions of a Hippie Mama =-.
Hmmm. I used to love Thanksgiving, but every year now it seems to get weirder and weirder. I like putting my cooking prowess to use for others’ benefit, but everyone’s stuff (stuffing?) coming up all over the place is weird to deal with.
Havi, I landed on your error page once a long time ago and loved it. The new page is also awesome…basements? (Shiver…)
The hard this week:
-Getting sick on my week off.
-Lack of motivation to do anything but lie around reading Jane Austen due to said sickness.
The good this week:
-Got to spend some time at my friend’s farmlike dwelling. There was much walking outdoors and homemade blackberry jelly.
-The Pecan Pie I made because I was craving it from my younger southern Thanksgivings? So yummy. And I have leftovers. Mmmmmmm.
-Even when you’re sick, having a week off is good. There has been much hiding and seeking with the Little Bird. (It’s funny how much harder it is to hide when you’re 5’5″ instead of 3′ tall.)
-Today I got my Learn-to-Knit Kit from Tara (@blondechicken), and while I suspect I will fall asleep before I can really dig into it this evening, knowing I have all of the stuff to start is exciting. I keep wanting to pet the yarn. The dog is getting jealous.
.-= Emily´s last post … Legitimacy – Why Can’t I Give Myself the Respect I Deserve? =-.
Arrr! Happy Friday, fellow Chickeneers!
Hard:
-One of the people I love best in all the world threw shoes at me. During a much-anticipated romantic evening, this happened. He knew he was doing it, he even felt bad about doing it and apologized while doing it, but simply could not seem to stop himself; some of his stuff got triggered, and he just had to throw shoes at me. Extra-ironically, a lot of it was actually about shoes; he finds my clunky, comfy shoes (and some, not all, of my comfy clothes)…inappropriate. Ouch.
-I got slapped with a tidal wave of depression that lasted a couple of days.
-Hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for eleven. Not really my choice, but I felt compelled to do my share and work hard, cooking and cleaning and socializing along with my partners.
-Stressful stuff that’s been hanging over my head for months is still hanging over my head. Makes it hard to ever relax 100% for very long, because sooner or later the niggling worry-monster in the back of my head starts growling, “But wait, there’s still this…”
Good:
+I knew, while my sweetie was throwing shoes at me, that this was all about his own stuff, and really not about me. I didn’t take it personally (much). I was compassionate. I was patient. I found a balance between standing my ground (sovereignty! yes!) and being open to his perspective. The whole interaction could have been so much worse than it was.
+The Thanksgiving event was not the horror I feared it would be. In fact, it became an opportunity for me to use some of my superpowers!
+Shiva Nata goodness! I’m enjoying letting my practice unfold as it will.
+I’ve been having a deliciously mysterious, pleasantly exciting feeling of incubation. Somewhere deep inside of me, something big and wonderful is brewing. I can feel it, and it feels good.
Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!
.-= spiralsongkat´s last post … Blogging in the dark =-.
Hey Havi:
Wow – what a week for you my dear. Glad you could receive how much you’re loved in the world by so many – and that you liked my surprise to you.
You rock – you’ve got a very amazing slant on life – and I just look at you and am awestruck by your ability to share it with others so we can discover new parts of ourselves.
You are such a gift!
The hard:
-sleep issues
-hard adjusting to kids in the house after living alone
-relationship endings/cellular shifts: nuff said
The amazing:
-relationship endings and cellular shifts: new beginnings
-liking myself more and more no matter what “I do” or what “happens” and feeling the blessings along the way that come from trial and error: much more integrated place of self love and acceptance seems to be emerging and becoming more stable in me
-both kids home for Thanksgiving which I personally love
-Made everything off the Food Network and it all came out!
-Kids helped with cooking: sprayed my healthy boundaries first and when my youngest asked “are you making mashed potatoes today? ” I simply said “nope – taking a walk for about 2 hours and I’ll see you later. I’ve done. . . . . and I’m done cooking.” – said calmly while leashing up the dogs and away I went. they called and said dinner was going to be on the table in 20 minutes – perfect timing
-no company for dinner: just us watching survivor together and the dogs enjoying giant plates of food with bones – sublime!!
Happy weekend everyone~
.-= Char´s last post … Here’s A New Take On Patient Care: YOU CARE!! =-.
Chick’mchick’mchickm.
Hard:
~S dentist.
~Me food poisoning.
Good
Been Item!ed now, so I can stop pretending to like Havi’s New Age weirdness and go conquer somewhere else.
(Bunnies! BUNNIES! Who’s-a-little-BUNNY?)
.-= Andrew Lightheart @alightheart´s last post … Friday list #4 – When people talk they’re saying things =-.
Gee, Havi, and others!
So glad to know there are other people who dislike Thanksgiving.
I even wrote a rant about it on my blog,
and got some feedback from people who thought I could appreciate it since it’s the most non-commercial of all holidays, which is true, and I did like that perspective. But I just wanted to wallow in being annoyed by Thanksgiving a while, so I was glad to hear from other folks who find it annoying too.
I finally got that it’s not so much Thanksgiving I dislike as the fact that everyone seems to get really worried about you if you’re not going to participate in some big familial-type dinner. And a) I don’t particularly enjoy giving big dinner parties and b)I don’t particularly enjoy going to big dinner parties and c) I don’t like turkey.
.-= Waverly´s last post … Thanksgiving Rant =-.
I’m a bunny mama, so love the bunny page!
Hard: Last week a client stiffed me 40%. Always thought if someone stiffed me they would go away and never to return. I’d chalk it up to lesson learned. So that’s not the hard. The hard is that this week they kept the first of the twice weekly appointments! (Actually work with the child and parents wanted to pay at end of the week.) So will have to deal with this tomorrow. 🙁 This is so hard for me – confronting and about money. Yikes. I’d rather just take the loss, but I can’t keep taking the loss. And yes they agreed to my fee.
Had a draining lunch with a friend and by 3:30 I just wanted to go home and have a nap. She wanted to get a soda somewhere cause she was thirsty. Two hours later she went off to dinner with friends. Finally, I could go home and nap. Felt used as she needed something to fill the time and didn’t listen to me.
Actually I need to claim my sovereignty – next time.
Good: Had a good Thanksgiving with family.
My 9 year old nephew finally is over walking pneumonia. Yay.
My girl bunny Cleo needed to be held and petted for 40 minutes yesterday. Very relaxing for both of us. 🙂 The boy bunny Quigley likes shorter petting times. Both are part of the good.
Thought of you when I read this post by Neil Gaiman’s assistant (and agree with it myself) and since you’ve asked, “Where are my people?” here it is:
http://blog.fabulouslorraine.com/2009/11/taking-back-your-holidays.html
the hard:
Finding what I’d just ordered online & rec’d today for my bro for xmas for 1/2 off this weekend. And there are tons of them at the store. Grr. Amazon doesn’t price match- additional grr.
Submitting yet more revisions via beta site for this freebie photo book. Feel certain they hate me by now. Today I actually flashed on that apartment that fell through after I’d started moving in because I was too specific about all its flaws and what I’d like fixed. I didn’t want to get hit with fees when I moved out, y’know? And what’s the harm in asking? They changed their minds about me is what. Um, yeah, so that’d be triggery stuff about asking.
Anyway, almost stopped myself from asking for a couple changes to the photo book but damn if I’m gonna let typos get by. This will ultimately be either a colossal waste of my time if they bail on me or one of the coolest xmas gifts ever.
the good:
Having the sense not to go back to the store to buy my bro’s gift so I can return the other version of it tonight because it’s raining on the edge of sleet/snow and there’s wind gusts. Reminded self that my windshield getting hit by a branch or some such would seriously piss me off as the result of a pursuit for a few bucks.
I will do it tomorrow.
Today’s motto while out: Nothing but good attitude. Became a little song in my head and people were over all quite pleasant.
Scored a nice hard drive for cheap at 3:30 PM even though it rang up incorrectly. So glad I’d brought the flyer with me. Sure my gracious patience as they struggled with the security lock didn’t hurt either.
I swear nobody wants the stuff I want which is great because I’m not getting up early for nobody.
I saw nuns at the mall! And an Indian woman in a sari. Black Friday’s a lot of artificial hype by and large but there’s no better opportunity to see many different types of people out where I live.
Also scored 3 cool songs from Amazon with their free $3 credit for mp3 downloads. Still available if anyone’s interested:
“For a limited time, use code MP34FREE to get a $3 credit good towards songs or albums at Amazon MP3. Details: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=dm_tw_3forfree?ie=UTF8&docId=1000455181
You must redeem the code by November 30, 2009 11:59 PM PST”
.-= claire´s last post … Thanksgiving haiku: Back to the Future =-.
d’oh. Did not mean to write so much in your comments. Sorry.
.-= claire´s last post … Thanksgiving haiku: Back to the Future =-.
Hey chickens Havi & Selma!Hellooooo!
Wrote this before but on the wrong post – TYPICALLL. So cheeky bugger I’ve copy and pasted.
Plus I wanted to add that I ‘Obsessively go through the Archives’ Outed again! Damn it! I know I’m not alone though – anyone out there?!
Yes yes of course I loved the post. ALWAYS DO.
Lots of smiling this end and laughter of recognition. Sounds so hard peeps. Just like Christmas can be for so many of us. The Therapist normally starts to remind me that she’s available via email or voicemail if I feel desperate. He hee. Darn right.
So HUGSSSSSS for all. Lovely to hear some wonderful and wacky ways to meet ourselves right where we are in the urghhh grim! Very inventive. We’ve only got Christmas and New Years to get through now – goodness! More tips pleeeeese we’ll need ’em.
I have no clue how to get through the damn thing, Christmas that is. Not whilst in the company of family 24/7.
I try a new ‘technique’ every year. Nothing profound. Generally plastering over the cracks will do.
Like this one:
Every time Auntie says something offensive I chant to myself: ‘I agree with everything you say, I agree with everything you say’. Gooood huh?! Dalai Lama? Watch and learn.
It’s a seriously useful trick to stop myself from unwittingly challenging any statements of the troublesome kind. Which is most of the little buggers. Difficult to sustain though a whole two days of Christmas though. Especially since we are stuck in one room together – sound familiar?!
What this means: Lots of fear and watchful eyes on me in case I inevitably make Aunty’s whiter than white table cloth messy with food, or place toilet roll the wrong way round, yes I did say I also have FEAR OF PLACING TOILET ROLL THE WRONG WAY ROUND CHICKENSsss (did I mention Aunty’s clearly undiagnosed OCD), or better yet, forgetting to use the WINDOW WIPER THINGY that she places inside the shower so that there are NO DRIPS LEFT after you’ve showered. Waaaaaaaa!
Me: Weeping and rocking to sleep soon to follow.
Really it seems smarter to just keep shtum till I figure out a way to practise nvc. Even though I doubt I’ll ever manage it around Christmas time though – too many triggers!
Family – who spent time thinking up that little joke.
Well done to everyone making the best of a sometimes challenging time. Woop woop wooop!
Kisses and winks!
A new rug? Why, I bet that really ties the room together.
Good: Last year, we had Thanksgiving at a restaurant. (Minority sentiment, but TG is a happy friends and family day for me.) Being in a restaurant for it felt… weird. Sterile. The delicate pumpkin tart in a glass tasted good. But I missed the big whacks of homemade pie and the lounging around a living room. This year we got invited to three separate dinners, all cozy with lots of pie and lounging. So, good.
Hard: Anxiety leading up to these events – I was dreading one of them. It’s good to reflect on this, because it turned out to be such a nice time that I’d almost forgotten already how much I was not looking forward to it and the counterproductive avoidance maneuvers that brought on.
.-= Sandra´s last post … That would explain the corn =-.
@Amber, I have SO much empathy with this: A toddler who will not stop endangering himself for even 3 seconds (I’ve had to leave this comment once already).
Some days are just a string of fragments, aren’t they?
.-= Lean Ni Chuilleanain (@leannich)´s last post … Dispatches from the Gender Ghetto =-.
ooo and…
The hard
Two days of work next week which won’t even cover half my bills. So managing ongoing anxiety.
Uncertainty.
The good
In spite of ongoing work/money drama I feel sooo full of beans, creativity, libido for life.
Trust and Hope for things to improve – I have truck loads of that at the moment.
Good feelings that keep washing over me. Like magic.
I know I’m not alone in the financial hard.I know this won’t last forever.
Huge feelings of warmth and gratitude to my many and varied helpers.
Watching things change. Wrote my first three pieces and put them on FB this week. I didn’t plan it, it just kind of happened.
Gratitude for being able to grapple with and begin to practise and make my own nvc in relation to my love.
@Nina-Nenah – you are awesome.
@claire – oh, not at all! I write ridiculously long posts, so it’s only reasonable that this place attracts especially verbal commenters. People totally write novels in the comments sometimes, and no one minds a bit. Promise!
And thanks for the Neil Gaiman assistant bit.
@Jane – sounds rough. Yuck. Sorry. I wonder if you can just present your client with a bill, saying that your policy is to have everything paid up front and you’re sure it was just a misunderstanding.
Either way, hugs. And bunnies.
Yes Claire – pls see evidence of ridiculously long posts here @ Nina-Nenah above! You’re not alone!
Ohhh Havi.
I’m so sparkly right now you could plonk me ontop of a Christmas tree and I’d be happy. Thank yoooo! xx
Well spotted: Nina/Nenah/Leila. He hee. Figuring out one’s internet identity/name must take time. Even here amongst all you chickens.
Hugsss.
@Havi – I spoke with them – yay – that was hard. I ended up recommending where they could find lower priced service providers and that since it was a misunderstanding we were even.
Thanks for hugs and bunnies. Right back at you. Do you have bunnies at Hoppy House? 🙂
Thank you thank you thank you.
Also, it may be the least interesting page on your site, but the basement is still way cool! Now if you just add a few beanbags and an old TV …
.-= Luke´s last post … Ighalsk and Motivation =-.