One small change
05 Aug 2010 4 Comments
in In the course of my day, Things that Interest Tags: one small change, purpose
Two years ago, I had a desk and chair, and that’s where my laptop sat and where I sat. It’s where I worked at the computer. I have a wireless router, yes, but the desk and chair were familiar and besides, why not sit there?
Then I got sick. Months of sick. I didn’t know it would be months when I first got sick, but knew it would be at least two weeks, during which time I lived on my living room sofa. I could barely hobble to the bathroom and back, and did I mention I couldn’t bend my left leg? Which made sitting quite uncomfortable. So…. oh, that wireless router, hooray!
I moved my laptop over to the couch so I could still live online ~ we who are addicted to the Internet, heaven help us! But I was and besides, I couldn’t do anything else except watch TV, so I was online more. A lot more. Eight months of more online. Then I finally got well again but by now the desk had become a collection point for cards and letters and medicine and paperwork I had to deal with and junk mail I would deal with later, and a breather-practice-thingy (I don’t know what it was called), and more cards (that pile was actually several piles, thanks to all who sent them!), and more paperwork…. By now, I could only see the legs of that desk, and anyway, I was used to working on the computer from the sofa. So I stayed there.
Then I moved to a new apartment. That I cleaned off the desk, of course, but now the habit to lounge on the comfy sofa while playing on the computer was too strong. My desk became the place to hold my printer and the TV. Until today.
Today I moved my furniture around, got the TV off the desk, and moved the laptop to the desk. Sure, I’ve still got my wireless router so I can take it to the love seat (I did a little downsizing), but my thought is, if I move it to the desk, and sit in the upright chair again, perhaps I will do more work there and less playing and wasting time. A little, sure (I’m online, after all), but simply sitting up, it means I pay more attention to what I’m doing. I have more focus on working.
It’s a mind-shift more than anything else. It’s one small change, but it feels good. Like I’m regaining a bit of a sense of purpose. Getting sick wiped that sense of purpose away ~ clean away, I tell ya’. And since a year ago (when I wasn’t sick anymore), I’ve had days of “purpose” and days of wallowing in “non-purpose”, which is a sucky place to be, in case you haven’t experienced it. But this one small change, it sort of lights a little fire under the purpose side. Maybe I’ll be able to sustain it a little longer now.
Can I arrest them for jaywalking?
25 Jul 2010 4 Comments
in Just going about my day, Things that Amuse Tags: geese, jaywalking, on the way to work
So there I am, on my way to work this morning. It’s a four-lane road, and there’s a stretch where you go uphill, then around a curve and downhill again. No worries, not hard, done it 100′s of times.
Except, this morning, there was a gaggle of geese crossing the road on the far side of that hilly curve. Out of nowhere we’re all slamming on our brakes! There was no sign, there was no goose crosswalk, there isn’t even anything around (like a pond) that you’d expect ~ or at least not be surprised ~ to see a gaggle of geese in the area. Not like at the park where I walk, where there is a pond and there are geese around.
These jaywalking geese were just…. wrong. Can I arrest them?
How can those “old” people move so fast?
23 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Just going about my day, Things that Amuse Tags: walking
I have to be amused. If I don’t see the humor in this, I may cry. Three older (60′s? 70′s?) people out walking this morning… I see them every time I’m at the park, so they’re on the same schedule as me OR they walk more. Likely the latter.
This morning I happened to fall in right behind them, and they were pacers for me. Especially the man, since he wore blue jeans and white sneakers and I could see his pace better than the two women. It didn’t seem that much faster than me, but it surely was picking up the pace, and I watched and tried to keep up, following them at a greater and greater distance (what was the STRIDE of those people??) until finally, they rounded a curve on a hill and I didn’t see them again. My pacers out-paced me.
“I’m tired” is really no excuse
21 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in In the course of my day, Things that Interest Tags: sports, summer heat, tired, walking
I’m talking about when it comes to exercise. Now, if I were severely fatigued, that would be different. But a general feeling of lethargy, or being tired in the morning because I stayed up too late the night before, or ~ well, frankly sometimes I can’t tell, maybe I’m just lazy!
This morning when my alarm clock went off at 7:00 ~ which is the time I get up 3 days a week to go walk ~ this morning when it went off, I did not want to get up and go walk. I was tired just laying there! But I did get up, I did get myself together, go out there and walk. And I did notice all the other walkers out this morning, none looking particularly lively. Not even the young men who I figured must make up a football team (or something), since they had three coaches urging them on and giving instructions. Those young men looked pretty miserable, actually. REALLY tired! But keep in mind, the summer heat even at 7:00 in the morning is pretty formidable, and I don’t know how long they’d been out there, between all their bright orange little flags in the ground.
Of course, if I’d been doing what they were doing, I would have been pretty miserable, too. They were doing those quick-running things that have a proper name, but I always referred to as “death” in high school gym class. Back and forth ~ like sprints? Between points of varying lengths. Over and over and over, right to left to right to left to right…. Another team started their right/left sprints–from lying down! Lying on the grass, face down, and at the coach’s whistle they had to jump up and run right then left, as one! Teamwork?
Looked like hell to me, but… I don’t play football. Or any sports. Hey, I just took up walking a few weeks ago!
Why, oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh whyyyyyy
19 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Just going about my day, Things that Amuse Tags: hair, middle stage, pouf, short vs growing out
do I think I can grow my hair out again?
This short short is so easy, and I like how it looks. To grow it out means going through the ick yuck gak middle stage, which on me includes a high pouf-like … pouf. I even bought a blow dryer to try and make it straighter, force it down, but noooooo, it poufs up high on my head. Even the ball cap I wear at work doesn’t stay on right! Pouf makes it slide around. Pouf makes it sit too high and I’m constantly tugging at it. Pouf looks ridiculous on my head!
Pouf was cut off this afternoon. Ahhh, I love my Flowbee Haircutting System.
The Wisdom of Winnie
18 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Just going about my day, Things that Amuse Tags: a.a. milne, winnie the pooh
Winnie the Pooh, that is. I was reading a magazine on a break at work and ran across this little item:
“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
“It’s the same thing,” he said.”
A.A. Milne
How can you not agree…?
Buon giorno, principessa!
16 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Just going about my day, Things that Amuse Tags: Life is Beautiful, walking
This morning as I was walking my usual path in the park, I passed an older gentleman who, with a nice European accent said, “Hello my Queen, good morning!” And he smiled so beautifully when he said it. Ahhhh, that brightened my whole day! Plus, I was reminded of one of my favorite movies, Life is Beautiful, because the main character there often said to his pursued love and then wife, “Buon giorno, principessa!”
I live in a Three Bears world
13 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Just going about my day, Things that Amuse Tags: too little, too much, too much too little
Thank God for air conditioning, and the person or people who invented it! And those computerized thermostats? Gotta’ love those, too. But where I live now I don’t have one of those ~ mine is the “old fashioned” guesstimator thermostat. I choose around where I want the temperature to be… but the range is very wide. The A/C goes on when it’s several degrees above comfortable, and doesn’t turn off until it’s several degrees below comfortable.
The same is true with some capris I’ve bought over the years. I have capris that are too small because ~ well, YOU know, the faith is there that someday I’ll be able to wear them! And I have capris that are too big and even so, I wear them. They look a little goofy, but they’re sooooooooooo comfortable! The problem is, these capris are only one size apart.
(Sigh…..) In my Three Bears world, there seems to be no Goldilocks magic to finding “just right”.
It’s warming up
12 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in In the course of my day, Things that Interest Tags: summer heat, walking
This morning on my walk in the park, there was no wind or breeze at all. Highly unusual, and it would have made the humidity oppressive with that sun bright in the sky. This morning we were spared that by the fog that put a buffer between us walkers and runners in the park, and that heat. Soon enough that will not be true, but this morning it was, and I was grateful.
Was it just ice cream?
11 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Just going about my day, Things that Amuse Tags: flirting, ice cream
So there I am in the checkout line at the grocery store where I shop all the time, and the cashier asked me if I needed help out with my small bag of 1/2 gallon of milk and a pint of ice cream. I laughed, so surprised! Then he asked if I needed help eating that ice cream….. What?? Was he flirting with me, or did he simply crave ice cream? Whatever it was, it amused me!
