So, you know how some days it just seems like you are losing at life, and some days it seems like you might actually be winning at life? Most days are in the middle, right? You get some good news, but it is most likely going to be balanced by some disappointing news. You accomplish something significant in your work or personal life, and then totally mess up some other minor thing. Yin and yang.
Those losing days are, blessedly, infrequent for me but when they happen they are brutal. You know what I mean. You are late for a meeting because you can't get your kids to put on their shoes and get out the door and so you snap at them, even though they are 5 years old and, frankly, have other better priorities than getting on their shoes on your time line. So, you walk into the meeting and everyone else is there and you have already been elected to do some awful task that no one else wanted to do. And then you have a confrontational encounter with a student about some grade that you realize you probably did calculate wrong. Meanwhile, you've just realized that you said something totally thoughtless to your friend without realizing it. And, it's raining outside and you forgot your umbrella. So, you go outside holding your coat over your head and slip and fall in front of a group of students and twist your ankle and get water all over your pants. And, in your meeting with your boss you say something totally idiotic which is deservedly followed by an uncomfortable silence. Those days are THE WORST. THE WORST. The only thing you can do about that is apologize to everyone (even people on the street whom you have never met) and go home and hide under the blankets with a pint of Ben and Jerry's (of course, you will not do this now because - LIFESTYLE CHANGE!).
Well, dear reader, today was NOT one of those days! I think I may have won at life today! And, because I am cognizant that the "losing" days are never more than 24 hours away from me, I am DETERMINED to savor this particular day and enjoy this feeling of good will. Let me outline for you what a winning day looks like for me. It's quite possible that I have much lower expectations as I have gotten older and wiser, so don't expect too much here. That actually reminds me of a funny comic I saw on the internet today. Let me go find it.....
1) This winning day was prefaced by nine full hours of deep sleep without interruption. This might be the first night in 2 months that followed that pattern. No stress-related insomnia. No interruptions from children climbing into bed with me. Just a boat ride down the river Lethe. SLEEP. Now that I think about it, this night of sleep might have just been the rocket from which I was shot into the "day of winning"! (I'm just trying to use as many ridiculous analogies as I can...) WIN!
2) My kids and I had a lovely and easy entry into the day with some snuggling and some conflict-free morning routine. There was laughing. There was sharing. There was following my directions. I was even able to brush hair without any tears. WIN!
3) I got to my 9am meeting on time and the President of the college started the meeting (which included several faculty, alumni, administrators, and trustees) by quoting something that I had said in a meeting yesterday and saying that I had captured something profound and essential about the process we were engaged in and about the college as an institution. WIN!
4) My meeting was followed by two successful piano proficiency exams that did not make me want to defenestrate. WIN!
5) I had decided what musical example I wanted to use on my theory exam and was able to find it in an anthology within 5 minutes. WIN!
6) I listened to some guitar exams - one of which included McCartney's "Blackbird" - one of my FAVORITE songs. And, the girl sounded good on it. Also, it's interesting to note that my winning day basically, at this point in the day, made me magnanimous and generous about even the two totally unprepared and, possibly, tone-deaf students who gave exams. WIN!
7) I gave a piano lesson to a student who told me that she adored her Mozart duet. WIN!
8) I walked out of my office to go pick up my kids and the sun was shining and there was a delightful breeze and the sky was so magically blue that I immediately thought of the word CERULEAN. And, then I just said CERULEAN over and over and marveled at how freakishly beautiful that word is. WIN!
9) My fantastic soon-to-be-new-music-department colleague e-mailed me about coming into town this weekend and asked to have dinner with me on Saturday. WIN!
10) After picking the kids up at preschool, I spent a lovely 45 minutes with our favorite play-date family and planned another play-date for Saturday at our house. WIN!
11) Before I left the parking lot at school, I texted a friend and he sent back a series of hilariously auto-corrected texts regarding Moby Dick related and procrastination of grading related matters and then texted me that he thinks that he thinks autocorrect is the 21st Century version of demonic possession. And, so I laughed and laughed and laughed. Long and hard. The kind of laughter that released all the tension I have felt for the past year. All of it. Even now, just thinking about it, I am totally laughing. WIN!
12) At the kids' bedtime, I read a story about Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Does Not Think She Is Extinct. This story includes a character named Reginald von Hoobie-Doobie. WIN!
13) I just worked out on the treadmill for 50 minutes. Listening to a Gillian Welch concert on youtube. WIN!
14) OK, at this point you probably realize that I've decided that brushing my teeth deserves a WIN!
The accumulated goodness of this day has caused me to want to spread my winning pixie dust on everybody and everything. So, ENJOY, dear reader, ENJOY!
One must enjoy such days. Because I'm pretty sure that any minute now I will find out that I have inadvertently done something morally reprehensible or made some awful mistake. Oh, maybe not. Maybe not. If anybody out there knows that I have done such a thing today or yesterday or last week then please, please, please wait until tomorrow to tell me.
Here are my stats today (weigh-ins will only occur on Monday posts now):
Total calories consumed: 1639
Total calories burned: 325
Breakfast:
Lunch: OK, not so great here, because I didn't plan well and bring my lunch to eat while listening to guitar exams, so I had three chocolate chip cookies out on the final exam refreshment tables....(this still does not tarnish my WIN!, OK?)
Dinner (I ate about 2/3 of this):
Yeah, that's my daughter's hand photo-bombing. She's really into doing that with my food pics now. Also, she's awesome. That's a WIN! every day.
In any case, dear reader, I hope that your day was as winning as mine. I'm sure that you deserve it.
Thanks for reading!
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