This evening I'm particularly exhausted and unimaginative, so once again I'm going to fall back on someone else's genius. This post at Hyperbole and a Half is a pretty good description of my own efforts to be responsible. And this one probably explains why sometimes I just HATE EVERYONE ON THE BUS WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE for no particular reason.
But really, it's all good, so I recommend poking around there tonight while I'm being a bum. Tra-la-la!
Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Plan Your Dream Vacation!
Due to several long and involved phone conversations with loved ones this evening, I have no time to post anything of substance for you. However, have you heard of wikitravel.org? It's exactly what it sounds like: travel guides to a variety of destinations, written by random people with internet access. Personally, I love reading travel guides because they remind me of all the time I spent poring over them when I studied abroad. Since I found this website, I've planned imaginary trips to New Zealand (sparked by a night of youtube-ing clips of Flight of the Conchords), San Diego, and Austin. So, if you get a chance, go there and search for your dream destination. If you like, you can come back and tell me about it! (Bonus points if you imply that you'll be taking me with you when you go.)
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Fat and Fitness, Love and Hate
You know how sometimes you stumble upon something interesting on the internet, and it links to something else interesting, which links to something else... and then 2 hours later you come to your senses and now you're an expert on some completely unexpected topic? Of course you do. And as one of the distinguished few who holds a black belt in Time-Wasting, it happens to me all the time. The most recent journey I took along the well-worn side paths of the internet is one I been thinking about a lot, so I wanted to share it with you.
It all started with a post by Black Hockey Jesus, who has run at least a mile every day since January 1st of this year. At the risk of oversimplifying, the gist of his post was that if a person is overweight or obese, they shouldn't waste their time trying to achieve "fat acceptance." Instead, he or she should muster the "courage to change," because no one will ever be proud to weigh 300 lbs, nor should they be. BHJ believes that his disgust with himself is what motivated him to change his life, and his post seemed to suggest that others should also try to harness the energy of their self-hate and use it to power an ambitious fitness regimen.
While I don't fully agree with that standpoint, I found that in the comments on the post, many people did. Some even commended him for having the courage to state the unpleasant truth. Someone speculated that if a woman had written the same post, it would have resulted in a much more vitriolic free-for-all. BHJ agreed and referred to this post, which was written by a female fitness blogger named Kristen, who I had never read before. That post (the second stop on my tour of the internet) didn't say quite the same thing as BHJ's. Kristen did say, however, that she didn't buy the argument that anyone was genetically predisposed to being a certain size. She seems to feel that anyone can be fit provided they put in the work, and anyone that isn't putting in the work is just making excuses not to do something that they unquestionably ought to be doing.
From that post I bounced to this one by Swistle (who was also new to me), in which she "came out" as a plus-size woman. Swistle's post itself was, in my opinion, kind of uplifting. But once someone in the comments started criticizing Sundry (perhaps my favorite blogger) for joining the "religion of fitness," it all devolved into the same old genetics versus laziness debate.
Finally, at the end of my journey, I found Shapely Prose, which is a very well-written blog about feminism and fat acceptance, among other things. The stance at SP is that genetics do play a part in determining a person's size, that diets don't work, that exercise (not weight) determines one's health and fitness level, and that people should practice an approach to diet and exercise that emphasizes Health at Every Size.
So, now that you know what I know (and have been subjected to more links than you could possibly get through in a month), allow me to share my take on all this. From where I'm sitting, the subtext of a lot of this back and forth is that the people on the side of fat acceptance are saying, "This is just who I am" while the people on the side of concentrated fitness efforts are saying "It's hard, but I did it and so can you. If you're not fit it's because you don't want it badly enough to work as hard as I do." The fitness people are offended that fat people are discounting all of their hard work and chalking the results up to genetics; the fat people are offended that the fitness people judge them as lazy and unambitious. As far as I can tell, people on both sides are pissed because they feel as though they're being judged by people who really don't know anything about them.
What's interesting is that a lot of these arguments, when not read carefully, can lead the reader to think in terms of a false dichotomy, wherein you either a) love yourself and accept your imperfections and are therefore doomed to languish in mediocrity and obesity, or b) hate yourself for your imperfections and use that self-hate as motivation to work really REALLY hard for self-improvement.
I simply don't believe that these are our only options. For instance, the worst case scenarios are the people who truly do hate themselves because of their alleged faults, but don't find this hate to be a source of motivation for self-improvement. For some, self-hate isn't motivating at all; it's a reason to give up entirely. On the other hand, it's also possible to truly love yourself while simultaneously working to better yourself. I think that ultimately, the sincere belief that you are a valuable person who deserves good things in life can be a far more powerful impetus for change than any amount of self-loathing.
I want to point out, too, that when I say "better yourself," I'm not necessarily talking about losing weight. In my opinion, this isn't just about fat or fitness or obesity or health or however you choose to refer to it. In fact, it almost seems laughable that so many people are yelling at each other on the internet about calories and exercise, when the ways of thinking I've outlined here are really related to everything we do.
Instead of focusing exclusively on fat acceptance, as if the only people that need to worry about acceptance are fat people who've tried everything else, I think it would be far more useful if everyone focused on simple acceptance, period. Acceptance of ourselves as we are, and acceptance of others as they are. I think that rather than dooming you to mediocrity, self-acceptance makes it possible for you to work with what you've been given and make something beautiful from it. If you love yourself for who you are now, you're working for happiness now, as opposed to working tirelessly toward some abstract future in which you'll be thin/successful/awesome enough to deserve love.
And as for accepting others? I think it's really our only option. After all, is there any way you could ever truly understand the factors contributing to someone else's decisions? And whether someone chooses to work out 7 days a week or weigh 300lbs or live somewhere in between, do their personal choices really affect you at all?
It all started with a post by Black Hockey Jesus, who has run at least a mile every day since January 1st of this year. At the risk of oversimplifying, the gist of his post was that if a person is overweight or obese, they shouldn't waste their time trying to achieve "fat acceptance." Instead, he or she should muster the "courage to change," because no one will ever be proud to weigh 300 lbs, nor should they be. BHJ believes that his disgust with himself is what motivated him to change his life, and his post seemed to suggest that others should also try to harness the energy of their self-hate and use it to power an ambitious fitness regimen.
While I don't fully agree with that standpoint, I found that in the comments on the post, many people did. Some even commended him for having the courage to state the unpleasant truth. Someone speculated that if a woman had written the same post, it would have resulted in a much more vitriolic free-for-all. BHJ agreed and referred to this post, which was written by a female fitness blogger named Kristen, who I had never read before. That post (the second stop on my tour of the internet) didn't say quite the same thing as BHJ's. Kristen did say, however, that she didn't buy the argument that anyone was genetically predisposed to being a certain size. She seems to feel that anyone can be fit provided they put in the work, and anyone that isn't putting in the work is just making excuses not to do something that they unquestionably ought to be doing.
From that post I bounced to this one by Swistle (who was also new to me), in which she "came out" as a plus-size woman. Swistle's post itself was, in my opinion, kind of uplifting. But once someone in the comments started criticizing Sundry (perhaps my favorite blogger) for joining the "religion of fitness," it all devolved into the same old genetics versus laziness debate.
Finally, at the end of my journey, I found Shapely Prose, which is a very well-written blog about feminism and fat acceptance, among other things. The stance at SP is that genetics do play a part in determining a person's size, that diets don't work, that exercise (not weight) determines one's health and fitness level, and that people should practice an approach to diet and exercise that emphasizes Health at Every Size.
So, now that you know what I know (and have been subjected to more links than you could possibly get through in a month), allow me to share my take on all this. From where I'm sitting, the subtext of a lot of this back and forth is that the people on the side of fat acceptance are saying, "This is just who I am" while the people on the side of concentrated fitness efforts are saying "It's hard, but I did it and so can you. If you're not fit it's because you don't want it badly enough to work as hard as I do." The fitness people are offended that fat people are discounting all of their hard work and chalking the results up to genetics; the fat people are offended that the fitness people judge them as lazy and unambitious. As far as I can tell, people on both sides are pissed because they feel as though they're being judged by people who really don't know anything about them.
What's interesting is that a lot of these arguments, when not read carefully, can lead the reader to think in terms of a false dichotomy, wherein you either a) love yourself and accept your imperfections and are therefore doomed to languish in mediocrity and obesity, or b) hate yourself for your imperfections and use that self-hate as motivation to work really REALLY hard for self-improvement.
I simply don't believe that these are our only options. For instance, the worst case scenarios are the people who truly do hate themselves because of their alleged faults, but don't find this hate to be a source of motivation for self-improvement. For some, self-hate isn't motivating at all; it's a reason to give up entirely. On the other hand, it's also possible to truly love yourself while simultaneously working to better yourself. I think that ultimately, the sincere belief that you are a valuable person who deserves good things in life can be a far more powerful impetus for change than any amount of self-loathing.
I want to point out, too, that when I say "better yourself," I'm not necessarily talking about losing weight. In my opinion, this isn't just about fat or fitness or obesity or health or however you choose to refer to it. In fact, it almost seems laughable that so many people are yelling at each other on the internet about calories and exercise, when the ways of thinking I've outlined here are really related to everything we do.
Instead of focusing exclusively on fat acceptance, as if the only people that need to worry about acceptance are fat people who've tried everything else, I think it would be far more useful if everyone focused on simple acceptance, period. Acceptance of ourselves as we are, and acceptance of others as they are. I think that rather than dooming you to mediocrity, self-acceptance makes it possible for you to work with what you've been given and make something beautiful from it. If you love yourself for who you are now, you're working for happiness now, as opposed to working tirelessly toward some abstract future in which you'll be thin/successful/awesome enough to deserve love.
And as for accepting others? I think it's really our only option. After all, is there any way you could ever truly understand the factors contributing to someone else's decisions? And whether someone chooses to work out 7 days a week or weigh 300lbs or live somewhere in between, do their personal choices really affect you at all?
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Takin it Easy
Some days, you're too lazy to do anything but read funny things provided by people other than yourself. Unfortunately, today is one of those days for me.
To make this a little easier for you, though, I will now share with you some of the things that I'll be reading while I'm not posting anything here. And the winners are!
Postcards From Yo Momma
Sleep Talkin' Man
and...
Lamebook
Enjoy reading things more hilarious than what can generally be found here!
To make this a little easier for you, though, I will now share with you some of the things that I'll be reading while I'm not posting anything here. And the winners are!
Postcards From Yo Momma
Sleep Talkin' Man
and...
Lamebook
Enjoy reading things more hilarious than what can generally be found here!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Happy 5th of January!
Because my talent for procrastination knows no bounds, I have managed to postpone my New Year's post until January 5th. Let's all just take a moment to appreciate that.
Ok, moving on. I have recently been reading through all of the archives at Sundry Mourning, and I highly recommend that you do the same. Linda, who writes at Sundry, is an excellent writer who has just the right mix of sincerity and sarcasm that speaks to the heart of my own hateful, idealistic soul. I say all this not just for the sake of kissing the ass of a blogger I've never met, but because I plan to rip off Linda's long-running New Year's tradition of filling out a survey about the details of the previous year. Because that's what this blog has come to now. Surveys. Are you ready? Here we go!
1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
I started graduate school, and started thinking seriously about what I want my adult life to look like. I met and befriended the next generation of rock star social workers. I proved to myself that I can set personal boundaries and stick with them, even when its unbelievably hard. I did my first client interview as a social worker-in-training, and did it well, if I do say so myself. I also started training for a(n imaginary) 10k, and even though I only made it through 4 of the 8 weeks of training, it's not because I couldn't do it, but because I got derailed by graduate school.
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My resolution for 2009 was not to make anymore grand, year-long resolutions, and instead stick with small, short-term, measurable monthly goals. I did pretty well with that, I think, until I started grad school and my goal became to simply survive. That mindset pretty much persisted from August through December. So I guess my goal for 2010 is to get back into the habit of making goals. I learned some valuable lessons about grad school survival during my first semester, so now rather than just trying to stay afloat, I can start swimming toward a specific destination. That being said, my goals for the month of January are as follows:
a. get some form of exercise at least 3 times per week, and
b. work on some school work for at least 30 min each weekday.
They're not very exciting goals, I know, but they're my goals, dammit.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
I'm not particularly close to them, but two of my classmates had babies this year.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
A close friend of my dad's died, but I'm not sure if that was in 2008 or 2009. Other than that, no.
5. What countries did you visit?
I didn't leave the country in 2009, but I did visit 2 new states: Texas and California!
6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
I'd like to have more confidence in myself and my abilities, and to question myself less. I'd like to be better at accepting life the way it is instead of struggling against it when things don't go exactly the way I'd like. I'd also like to treat my loved ones with love, even when I want to kill them, and I guess in order to do that I'll need some more patience. Also, a big bag of money.
7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched on your memory, and why?
I think I'll always remember... the first few days of graduate school, the days I spent in Houston and San Francisco, the day Lee and I broke up, and the first day I saw him again after that.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Although I hate to sound like a broken record, I think my biggest achievement was probably getting into (and committing to) graduate school. And not having a nervous breakdown. Yet. Also, continually working on being a happier and more loving person.
9. What was your biggest failure?
All of the times when I gave in to frustration or fear or insecurity or anger and let myself get bogged down into an unhappy altercation with a loved one.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No, thank goodness!
11. What was the best thing you bought?
I'm going to have to say my new laptop. It was necessary for learning, but has also brought me many hours of non-academic entertainment as well.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
I was really blown away this year by all of the people that care about me and the sweet things they did to support me when I was having hard times. I have a lot of really great, talented, loving friends in my life, and I can never thank them enough.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I am continually appalled by the many narrow-minded people who treat the spread of hate as a cherished hobby, in spite of the fact that they are largely uninformed about the topics that are apparently so important to them.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Tuition and fees, school books, and food. I can't seem to turn down a dinner invitation.
15. What did you get really excited about?
Starting school, traveling, and making new friends! It's also pretty exhilarating to feel like I'm on the path to fulfilling my dreams.
16. What song will always remind you 2009?
Sadly, I think it's going to be "Forever" by Chris Brown, because my roommate showed me the wedding dance video shortly after we moved in, and then The Office wedding episode, which parodied it, came at just the right time in my life to make me cry like a stupid baby.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you...
Happier or sadder? Definitely happier.
Thinner or fatter? A smidge fatter, because I haven't been going to the gym since I started school, and I think I've done nothing but eat since winter break started.
Richer or poorer? Poorer, since I no longer have a real job and I have to pay for school.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
I wish I'd spend more time enjoying the moment.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Obsessing about the future.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
Opening presents and enjoying a meal with my parents and brother.
21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
You could say that. There are a lot of great people in my life, and I'm constantly finding new depths to my love for them.
22. What was your favorite TV program?
Community! Don't make me tell you again.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Well, there are a few people at school that are not my favorite, but hate's such a strong word, you know?
24. What was the best book you read?
I can't remember everything I read this year, so I'm just going to go with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Somehow the addition of zombies took a book I had no interest in reading and made it meaningful to my life.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I didn't really buy a lot of music this year. I did buy the new Kings of Leon album, and The Ting Tings, which wasn't new but was new to me, and a lot of fun to run to.
26. What did you want and get?
To go back to school, to find a good apartment and and a great roommate, and to learn lots of new and exciting things.
27. What did you want and not get?
Easy answers to tough life questions, and for everyone to just do what I tell them to do.
28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Definitely the new Star Trek. When I left that movie, I had that feeling you get when you've just gotten off a great roller coaster and you just want to run around the building and ride it again immediately. Good times.
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 24, and I spent the weekend at the beach catching up with old friends.
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I think if I'd spent less time stressing out about worst case scenarios, I would have gotten more out of all the great things happening around me.
31. How would describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
In a word: Target.
32. What kept you sane?
Strangely, I think cleaning kept me sane. There were several instances in 2009 when I thought I was going to lose my mind, but the crisis was averted by a flurry of focused cleaning. Also, driving.
33. Which celebrity / public figure did you have a crush on?
Robert Downey, Jr. I have a feeling that he would be both a good conversationalist and attentive to my needs.
34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Health care reform. And I'll leave it at that lest this turn into a rant.
35. Who do you miss?
All the friends that I'm not the best at keeping in touch with.
36. Who was the best new person that you met?
I can't narrow it down to just one. All my new friends at school have probably saved my life several times already.
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
Here's another variation on the theme: If you don't focus on enjoying and making the most of what you have, you cheat yourself and run the risk of creating regrets rather than memories.
Ok, moving on. I have recently been reading through all of the archives at Sundry Mourning, and I highly recommend that you do the same. Linda, who writes at Sundry, is an excellent writer who has just the right mix of sincerity and sarcasm that speaks to the heart of my own hateful, idealistic soul. I say all this not just for the sake of kissing the ass of a blogger I've never met, but because I plan to rip off Linda's long-running New Year's tradition of filling out a survey about the details of the previous year. Because that's what this blog has come to now. Surveys. Are you ready? Here we go!
1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
I started graduate school, and started thinking seriously about what I want my adult life to look like. I met and befriended the next generation of rock star social workers. I proved to myself that I can set personal boundaries and stick with them, even when its unbelievably hard. I did my first client interview as a social worker-in-training, and did it well, if I do say so myself. I also started training for a(n imaginary) 10k, and even though I only made it through 4 of the 8 weeks of training, it's not because I couldn't do it, but because I got derailed by graduate school.
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My resolution for 2009 was not to make anymore grand, year-long resolutions, and instead stick with small, short-term, measurable monthly goals. I did pretty well with that, I think, until I started grad school and my goal became to simply survive. That mindset pretty much persisted from August through December. So I guess my goal for 2010 is to get back into the habit of making goals. I learned some valuable lessons about grad school survival during my first semester, so now rather than just trying to stay afloat, I can start swimming toward a specific destination. That being said, my goals for the month of January are as follows:
a. get some form of exercise at least 3 times per week, and
b. work on some school work for at least 30 min each weekday.
They're not very exciting goals, I know, but they're my goals, dammit.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
I'm not particularly close to them, but two of my classmates had babies this year.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
A close friend of my dad's died, but I'm not sure if that was in 2008 or 2009. Other than that, no.
5. What countries did you visit?
I didn't leave the country in 2009, but I did visit 2 new states: Texas and California!
6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
I'd like to have more confidence in myself and my abilities, and to question myself less. I'd like to be better at accepting life the way it is instead of struggling against it when things don't go exactly the way I'd like. I'd also like to treat my loved ones with love, even when I want to kill them, and I guess in order to do that I'll need some more patience. Also, a big bag of money.
7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched on your memory, and why?
I think I'll always remember... the first few days of graduate school, the days I spent in Houston and San Francisco, the day Lee and I broke up, and the first day I saw him again after that.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Although I hate to sound like a broken record, I think my biggest achievement was probably getting into (and committing to) graduate school. And not having a nervous breakdown. Yet. Also, continually working on being a happier and more loving person.
9. What was your biggest failure?
All of the times when I gave in to frustration or fear or insecurity or anger and let myself get bogged down into an unhappy altercation with a loved one.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No, thank goodness!
11. What was the best thing you bought?
I'm going to have to say my new laptop. It was necessary for learning, but has also brought me many hours of non-academic entertainment as well.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
I was really blown away this year by all of the people that care about me and the sweet things they did to support me when I was having hard times. I have a lot of really great, talented, loving friends in my life, and I can never thank them enough.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I am continually appalled by the many narrow-minded people who treat the spread of hate as a cherished hobby, in spite of the fact that they are largely uninformed about the topics that are apparently so important to them.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Tuition and fees, school books, and food. I can't seem to turn down a dinner invitation.
15. What did you get really excited about?
Starting school, traveling, and making new friends! It's also pretty exhilarating to feel like I'm on the path to fulfilling my dreams.
16. What song will always remind you 2009?
Sadly, I think it's going to be "Forever" by Chris Brown, because my roommate showed me the wedding dance video shortly after we moved in, and then The Office wedding episode, which parodied it, came at just the right time in my life to make me cry like a stupid baby.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you...
Happier or sadder? Definitely happier.
Thinner or fatter? A smidge fatter, because I haven't been going to the gym since I started school, and I think I've done nothing but eat since winter break started.
Richer or poorer? Poorer, since I no longer have a real job and I have to pay for school.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
I wish I'd spend more time enjoying the moment.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Obsessing about the future.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
Opening presents and enjoying a meal with my parents and brother.
21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
You could say that. There are a lot of great people in my life, and I'm constantly finding new depths to my love for them.
22. What was your favorite TV program?
Community! Don't make me tell you again.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Well, there are a few people at school that are not my favorite, but hate's such a strong word, you know?
24. What was the best book you read?
I can't remember everything I read this year, so I'm just going to go with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Somehow the addition of zombies took a book I had no interest in reading and made it meaningful to my life.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I didn't really buy a lot of music this year. I did buy the new Kings of Leon album, and The Ting Tings, which wasn't new but was new to me, and a lot of fun to run to.
26. What did you want and get?
To go back to school, to find a good apartment and and a great roommate, and to learn lots of new and exciting things.
27. What did you want and not get?
Easy answers to tough life questions, and for everyone to just do what I tell them to do.
28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Definitely the new Star Trek. When I left that movie, I had that feeling you get when you've just gotten off a great roller coaster and you just want to run around the building and ride it again immediately. Good times.
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 24, and I spent the weekend at the beach catching up with old friends.
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I think if I'd spent less time stressing out about worst case scenarios, I would have gotten more out of all the great things happening around me.
31. How would describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
In a word: Target.
32. What kept you sane?
Strangely, I think cleaning kept me sane. There were several instances in 2009 when I thought I was going to lose my mind, but the crisis was averted by a flurry of focused cleaning. Also, driving.
33. Which celebrity / public figure did you have a crush on?
Robert Downey, Jr. I have a feeling that he would be both a good conversationalist and attentive to my needs.
34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Health care reform. And I'll leave it at that lest this turn into a rant.
35. Who do you miss?
All the friends that I'm not the best at keeping in touch with.
36. Who was the best new person that you met?
I can't narrow it down to just one. All my new friends at school have probably saved my life several times already.
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
Here's another variation on the theme: If you don't focus on enjoying and making the most of what you have, you cheat yourself and run the risk of creating regrets rather than memories.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
A Little Light Reading...
... about POW camps and health care reform: http://www.themudflats.net/2009/08/21/nazis/
This is a pretty good post that I stumbled upon after following a link I saw on twitter. Have a look-see, if you're in the mood to read something thought-provoking. Plus, it'll keep you occupied until I manage to write another post.
This is a pretty good post that I stumbled upon after following a link I saw on twitter. Have a look-see, if you're in the mood to read something thought-provoking. Plus, it'll keep you occupied until I manage to write another post.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The Universe Is Conspiring Against Me, But I'm Famous Anyway
Last Christmas, I requested and got a pretty silver necklace. It's very simple, it's just a circular charm with the word 'TRUST' stamped on it. (I'd include a picture, but I'm currently at... a place where I don't have access to my stuff.) I wanted it because I needed a new necklace and because I thought it would serve as a helpful reminder to, you know, trust. Both in myself and in other people.
I've been satisfied with it, except for the fact that I broke the chain. So I replaced the chain. Then I broke it again. And that's where we are now.
Try as I might, I am unable to think of a way to interpret this series of events that doesn't seem like a terrible omen. I'm all, "I'm going to be more trusting!" and the universe is all, "Oh hell no!"
MEANWHILE, back at the ranch...
I got a comment the other day from a lovely young lady named Valérie. She has her own blog called En Quête D' Inspiration, and also contributes to a blog called What the Ladies Say, where 20-something women from around the world write about their perspectives on self-improvement and personal development and other things that psychology majors like myself enjoy. Anyway, Valérie read and liked this post of mine, and asked my permission to reprint (re-post?) it on What the Ladies Say. So, if you'd like to go look at me being Super Internet Famous, you can see that, and Valérie's comments on my post here.
And if none of those links do anything for you, may I suggest: You Suck At Craigslist.
I've been satisfied with it, except for the fact that I broke the chain. So I replaced the chain. Then I broke it again. And that's where we are now.
Try as I might, I am unable to think of a way to interpret this series of events that doesn't seem like a terrible omen. I'm all, "I'm going to be more trusting!" and the universe is all, "Oh hell no!"
MEANWHILE, back at the ranch...
I got a comment the other day from a lovely young lady named Valérie. She has her own blog called En Quête D' Inspiration, and also contributes to a blog called What the Ladies Say, where 20-something women from around the world write about their perspectives on self-improvement and personal development and other things that psychology majors like myself enjoy. Anyway, Valérie read and liked this post of mine, and asked my permission to reprint (re-post?) it on What the Ladies Say. So, if you'd like to go look at me being Super Internet Famous, you can see that, and Valérie's comments on my post here.
And if none of those links do anything for you, may I suggest: You Suck At Craigslist.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Gratitude, Day 21
1) Great news! I got more work done today than I've gotten done in most days recently. This makes me feel good, like I haven't totally lost my mojo. I may succeed in grad school after all.
2) I'd like to spend some quality time with Walter from Fringe. We could hang out and sing show tunes and do crazy experiments with farm animals and mind-reading equipment. It would be brilliant.
3) Found a great new blog today! I'm working my way through the archives right now, where the author talks about her struggles with infertility. Her name is Alexa and her blog is flotsamblog.com.
4) I might get to go look at apartments in my future town this weekend! I like planning my future - it's exciting and it makes me feel like I'm in charge.
5) Because my bouquet from the wedding was made of artificial flowers, I can leave it sitting on top of my TV and be reminded of the good times as long as I want!
2) I'd like to spend some quality time with Walter from Fringe. We could hang out and sing show tunes and do crazy experiments with farm animals and mind-reading equipment. It would be brilliant.
3) Found a great new blog today! I'm working my way through the archives right now, where the author talks about her struggles with infertility. Her name is Alexa and her blog is flotsamblog.com.
4) I might get to go look at apartments in my future town this weekend! I like planning my future - it's exciting and it makes me feel like I'm in charge.
5) Because my bouquet from the wedding was made of artificial flowers, I can leave it sitting on top of my TV and be reminded of the good times as long as I want!
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