Today's the Kind of Day

Today's the kind of day you...

Have a near-meltdown.

Listen to Simon & Garfunkel.

Take a looooooooonnngg shower.

Go on a walk because you have nowhere else to go.  Nor the means to get there.

Read "Sherlock Holmes."

Look at cute boots online.

Watch Penelope.

Cut out paper hearts to decorate your apartment.

Make shopping lists.

Research all the things that MIGHT be wrong with your car.

Tow your car to the mechanic... Ack!

Vent to your little sister.

Eat pancakes.

... And I did them all.

The Lauren, the Stitch, and the Wardrobe

I've been purging...  My closet, that is. This morning when I woke up I stood in front of my closet, puzzling over what I should wear. I puzzled and puzzled til my puzzler was sore, so I sat down on my bed... and puzzled some more? Really, I stood there for about 5 minutes and felt really tired after a while (it's hard making decisions when you've just woken up) so I sat on my bed and stared at my closet for another 5 minutes. It really took a lot out of me. So after giving it some thought and considering the current weather conditions, I finally decided on an outfit-- one that didn't involve wearing my bathrobe and a pair of pantyhose over my face. During this laborious process, I realized how many articles of clothing I have that I just don't wear anymore. I figured if I hadn't worn it in the last 6 months or so I could definitely toss it in the DI pile, or more appropriately, the DIE pile. DIE, hideous fluorescent orange cardigan! DIE, bleach-stained gray jacket! DIE, puffy pirate blouse! I also found a couple things I hadn't worn lately because they needed mending, so I stitched them up and now they're as good as new!  If new means slightly worn. 


I sometimes hang onto lame and outdated stuff to make my wardrobe seem more substantial. But if I don't wear half of it then what's the point? It only distracts and frustrates me, taking up space on a perfectly good hanger that it hasn't been off of for 3 years. Weeks will go by and I may still have a closet full of "clothes" I could wear, but instead I'll do my laundry because chances are I've already worn my favorite pieces. And I don't really like feeling stuck in my clothes. That usually ends up happening anyway, but that's another blog for another day. So now my closet has a few more inches of empty space and a few more bare hangers, but at least it's only the stuff I want. Maybe I'll buy some new stuff, huh?  


Maybe from here, here, or here.

Ladies

Today I've been listening to my Girls Only playlist. It's a list of songs by all my favorite contemporary female singers & songwriters, but I guess that's pretty self-explanatory. Lady Gaga is NOT on this list.  Shall I tell you who is? Oh, shall I?  Well, alright. In fact, I'll do it alphabetically.


-Barlow Girl
-Bat for Lashes
-Cat Power
-Duffy
-Eva Cassidy
-Florence & the Machine
-Hem
-Imogen Heap
-Ingrid Michaelson
-KT Tunstall
-Lily Allen
-Lisa Hannigan
-Mandy Moore (not "Candy")
-Priscilla Ahn
-Rachael Yamagata
-Sara Bareilles
-Sarah Jaffe
-The Sundays
-Sutton Foster
-The Weepies


I think I'll put together another playlist and include some more of the classics. Like Pat Benatar, the Pretenders, Heart, Annie Lennox, Linda Ronstadt, and Stevie Nicks. That will be my Girl Power playlist.  

  

Don't Parade on my Rain

Some of you may have already heard this particular rant of mine.  If it begins to sound familiar, please feel free to ignore it completely.  

Let me start out by saying I have issues. We all do. Nobody can function at 100% all the time and it is unrealistic to expect it of ourselves or anyone else. There are going to be days where you feel, despite all your efforts, your best isn't good enough. Those are the facts. And when faced with the challenges mortality presents we shouldn't feel guilty or ungrateful if we are less than pleased with how things may be going- it's an understandable reaction. So what does one do with this gloom and discouragement? We may not always be able to choose happiness as the preferred alternative. If that were true, wouldn't everyone be happy all the time? Yeesh! 

Happiness can be elusive, fleeting, and fickle for some and for others it may come more naturally. Though happiness may not always be a choice, we can choose to persevere and hope that happiness may be just around the corner. Let's just get through this bad day, bad week, bad month and keep going. Some days you may need a little rain, a little gloom, to help you appreciate those happy days when they do come. So while choosing to be happy isn't always a possibility, we should show ourselves (as well as others) a little compassion once in a while. Don't beat yourself up when you're already down.  


An old friend of mine posted an excerpt of this poem online recently and I thought it was wonderful. 

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house

Every morning a new arrival

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,

still treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent 

as a guide form beyond.

                                             

                                             ~Rumi

Isn't that beautifully articulated? Lovely. I know my "crowd of sorrows" by name. They can be an unrelenting bunch. Next is a quote from Pres. Uchtdorf's article in the January 2011 Ensign entitled "Hold On A Little Longer:"

"Our trials may sometimes seem overwhelming.  That is when we need, more than ever, to draw near unto the Lord. As we do, we will come to know what it means to have the Lord draw near unto us. As we seek Him ever more diligently, we will surely find Him. We will see clearly that the Lord does not abandon [us]... Our eyes will be opened, and we will see Him open the windows of heaven and shower us with more of His light. We will find the spiritual strength to survive even during the darkest night.

"It may be hard to see that at times, but hold on a little longer, for 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him' and wait for Him." 

Life can't always be a parade- some days hanging on may be all we can do. But I think on those days it is more than enough.    

   

SABOTAGE!

Monday night I came home from work and helped myself to a rather large dinner.  I had taken a lunch to work, but never got around to eating it because I was busy doing lots of actual work.  So by the time I arrived home I was feeling a bit ravenous.  Still, I managed to avoid going right for the refrigerator and eating whatever I could get my hands on or face in.  There was a moment I considered getting back into my car and driving less than a block down the street to Arctic Circle, but I resisted.  What can I say?  It was a weak moment for me.  I finally settled on tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich.  With a few potato chips.  Just a smattering of potato chips... followed by a dessert of banana bread- 2 slices with honey butter.  That's pretty substantial. 


After my dinner I puttered around the apartment for a little while and then at about 8:30 I made my way up to my parents house where I intended to work out with our new Xbox Kinect and later watch Hornblower with my sister.  I was anxious to get moving so I could exorcise this demon food baby that had taken up residence in my belly and was trying to add on a spare bedroom.  I was stuffed to the gills. Yuck.  


So I made it to my parents house and waddled up the walkway and into the house.  Our kitchen is en route to the basement (where I was headed) and as I passed through,  I saw them.  2 boxes from Pizza Hut, one containing a Hawaiian pizza.  My favorite!  But that's not all.  No, no.  A bag caught my eye.  A big white bag with a logo that read "Tres Hombres."  Turns out my Dad had forgotten about Pizza Night Mondays and brought home 2 orders of nachos for dinner- complete with sour cream and guacamole.  NOOOOOO!!!  Pizza Hut's bad enough (I could resist Little Caesar's!), but Tres Hombres??  That's just cruel.  And it was after 9:00, my cut-off time for the munchies.  So my dilemma was this:  Do I ignore the (delicious, yummy, tasty, greasy) food and stick to my original plan?  OR do I eat myself into a coma because the food is THERE, not necessarily because I'm hungry?  I could very easily talk myself into being hungry again, right?... No, I couldn't.  So I had only a couple bites of the nachos, passed up the pizza completely, and ran downstairs before I changed my mind.  I probably only burned enough calories during my work-out to cancel out those bites of nachos, but at least I exercised some will-power.   My month-ago self couldn't have done that.  


Yup, month-ago me would have tried to set a world record in pizza and nacho consumption.  

Fortune favors the Cookie-Eater

Whenever I get a Fortune Cookie I like to hang on to the fortunes themselves.  You never know when they may be useful or, at the very least, good for a larf.  Unless it's something like, "You will lose your arm in a freak firework accident" or "Beware the one-legged man."  I don't live and die by these fortunes, I just find them amusing.  And sometimes they're so close to the truth it's scary.   For instance, I once was having a tough time making my mind up about something and I got this fortune that said "Do what is right because it is the right thing to do."  Well, duh.  That's not so much a fortune as it is good advice.  Still...

 Here are a few I came across as I went through some of my things the other day.

"The strengths in your character will bring you serenity."

"You should be able to undertake and complete anything you desire."

"Beautiful things await you."

I'd settle for any one of those, really.