Today was ridiculous. RI-DIC-U-LOUS. And, I have this thing that happens when things get ridiculous. It's kind of awesome. I start thriving on the ridiculousness and crisis response endorphins start kicking in, and I just come up fighting. I have noticed this many times in my life. I am actually quite good in the middle of a stressful situation. Give me peace and calm for a while and I totally fall apart, but give me an occasion to which I need to rise and, people, I RISE.
So, anyway, I just got off the treadmill after a long, RIDICULOUS day having confirmed that
Total calories consumed: 1303 (Sadly, the day required me to eat at 7:30am and not again until 7pm - definitely not ideal)
Total calories burned: 200 (35 minutes on the treadmill)
Total pounds lost so far: 27 (1 MORE since last time!!!!)
Last week's posts were just depressing, weren't they? Well, I was due some good energy and Saturday's sunshine breathed the life back into me. SUNSHINE. A few hours at a local park, and I was much more sanguine than I had been last week. I am, quite frankly, the human equivalent of a solar lamp. Fill me up with sunshine one day, and I'll continue shining twice that long. So, again, thank you southwest VA for never failing to switch up a weather pattern one second before I go totally insane. Gracias. And, for the record, after Thursday's post, I went to my Friday morning physical trainer appointment, looked in the mirror as I was doing this new, crazy, cable weight thing that was attached to my leg like a house arrest ankle cuff, and saw a happier, healthier person than I would have seen three months ago. So, no more ridiculous comparisons with internet people who clearly need to get a grip. Because I am, in fact, getting a grip myself.
On to today: I'm not even going to list the things that went ridiculously wrong today, because I kicked their asses (excuse the language - it's the endorphins. Really.) to the curb. No more comparisons of my glorious self with anyone else today. No more wishing for some other existence. No sir.
Here are some great things that happened today:
1) I interviewed a potential colleague and had some stellar conversations about life and music. It's so great to talk with people for whom you don't have to translate your professional/life experience.
2) I had a fantastic lesson with an elementary school student who was unexpectedly doing some nuanced things with her pieces and (she tells me I'm easily distracted - you think?) had a great conversation with me in which we bemoaned the lame-o Girl Scout troop that thought she'd rather sew something than make a fire or learn how to survive in the wilderness like the Boy Scouts do. (Caveat - I'm sure that not all Girl Scout troops are like this). I love girls like this. It makes me feel good about the future. She's going to be building airplanes or conquering the world in some way, I'm fairly sure. Or maybe just being quite happy to be herself.
3) My washing machine was fixed by a fantastic, helpful person whom I CANNOT THANK ENOUGH. One cannot overestimate the effect of a functioning washing machine on one's mental health.
4) I made about 6 lists. These lists have now convinced me that I can handle anything. ANYTHING.
So, while I'm in battle mode here, I'll share an excerpt from a poem by Marge Piercy entitled "For Strong Women":
A strong woman is a woman who craves love
like oxygen or she turns blue choking.
A strong woman is a woman who loves
strongly and weeps strongly and is strongly
terrified and has strong needs. A strong woman is strong
in words, in action, in connection, in feeling;
she is not strong as a stone but as a wolf
suckling her young. Strength is not in her, but she
enacts it as the wind fills a sail.
What comforts her is others loving her equally for the strength and for the weakness
from which it issues, lightning from a cloud.
Lightning stuns. In rain, the clouds disperse.
Only water of connection remains,
flowing through us. Strong is what we make
each other. Until we are all strong together,
a strong woman is a woman strongly afraid.
***************************
Now for the funny stuff. I was looking for some really appropriate motivational quotes/pictures for this post and got sidetracked (did I mention I'm easily distracted?) by despair.com. Dear reader, do you know about despair.com? You'll need to check on that now. I'll wait until you get back here.
OK. So, here are my "motivational" posters today. ENJOY.
Well, dear reader, have a great week. I'll see you on Thursday.
Thanks for reading!
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