This week, I, inadvisedly and foolishly, tried to do all the things. My ambition and enthusiasm and cockeyed optimism really know no bounds on certain days and weeks. So, a week later and one grant proposal, one conference proposal, one awards nomination package which included revisions of a personal statement, a teaching log, a CV, and someone else's letter of recommendation for me (ha, apparently that's a thing and I did it - interesting exercise), three kids' dance classes, one kids' soccer practice, one kids' soccer game, 10 mini-rehearsals for a student recital, the student recital, 10 mini-lessons for my beginning piano class students, 4 committee meetings, 10 normal piano lessons for college students, 8 normal lessons for pre-college students, 3 music history classes, 2 piano classes later, and one Friday night dinner hosting for two families with kids that are friends with my kids checked off my list and I am re-thinking my sanity level. Actually, I remained remarkably sane this week. Just powered through it. And, got it done - to varying levels of competence and success. But, DONE. :)
So, I may have indulged in a little retail therapy this weekend. First up was new sunglasses (polka dots! roses! I look like a movie star!):
And, you definitely need to have a stylish bag for those spring/summer trips to the gym and the pool and those classic 1940's and 50's movie weekend getaways - think Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine or Grace Kelly and Cary Grant in a convertible - wind whipping through their hair:
And, then there's this - with the scents of my two FAVORITE flowers:
Other funny and/or lovely and/or wonderful and/or thought provoking things that I found on the internet this week include:
This lovely picture (I want to go to there) was posted on the site of one of my favorite bookstores from my two years of living in Iowa - Prairie Lights Bookstore (go there if you are anywhere near Iowa City). The caption for this photo was a quote from Edith Wharton - "Open wide the windows. Let me drink in the day."
I read a Salon article today about the science behind why maintaining weight loss is so hard. I thought I might post it here, but I came to the end of it and the take-away message was that one's problems with weight loss seem to be buried deep within one's biology, one's genes, evolutionary processes, and one's psychology. Basically, it was all "Good Luck, sucker. You are fighting a losing battle." So, I'm going to erase that message from my mind and, instead, post this funny thing:
I totally aspire to the "badly drawn dolphin" type, although "whatever this is?" comes in a close second! Also, "vortex" and "broken slinky" are excellent varieties of body type, am I right???!!! Ha, ha, ha.
On a more serious/profound note, I cannot express the extent of my happiness that Brené Brown is coming out with a NEW BOOK. Her other books - "The Gifts of Imperfection" and "Daring Greatly" fill me with hope and optimism for myself and the world. Apparently, she has now taken on the subject of emotional resilience. Here's the book cover:
This and the new Mary Oliver book "Felicity," which will come out this fall, are going to carry me through the next year on a wave of extreme enthusiasm. That and videos like this one of another one of my heroines make me feel like I have lots of things to aspire to:
I will share two healthy "brags" about my wellness work this week.
1) I invited two families with kids over to my house on Friday evening for a casual dinner. Normally, this would find me taking extreme measures on Thursday and Friday of picking up every item cluttering the floor in my house and making plans to wow everyone with my mastery of Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon (I had to look up how to spell that. This means I should never make it. :)). Instead, I moved the clutter to the side of the room, popped some garlic toast (ready-made) in the oven, boiled some pasta, spooned up some spaghetti sauce from a can, poured the salad-in-a-bag into the bowl and sat down with a glass of wine. And, everyone had a great time despite my embrace of mediocrity in hospitality! What's more is that I did. not. beat. myself. up. at. all. about. this. C'est la vie!
2) Speaking of not beating myself up about things, I have made some real progress at eating without shame this week. I've had a couple of guilt episodes (remember guilt is "I did something unhealthy or bad" and shame is "I am unhealthy or bad.") over a couple of meals, but for the most part I just ate and didn't obsess. This is HUGE for me.
So, I have some modest goals for this week: 1) Get to bed every weeknight by 10:30pm. (I am going to try and tackle some sleep issues that I have - I am going to try and have some alone time/me time in the mornings rather than late at night as I am wont to do.) 2) Get 20 minutes of sunshine at least once during the middle of each day at work. (If it's raining, I'll do something else for myself during a break). 3) Eat a protein shake (with kale, flax, etc.) each weekday morning. I've been doing this every three days or so, but I want to get back into the habit of every weekday morning being the same routine. On the weekends, I'll make myself an egg, two sausage links and some whole grain toast. Because I do love me some breakfast.
This week doesn't look quite so crazy, so I'll look forward to meeting you again on the blog, dear reader, to report on my comings and goings and musings.
Thanks for reading!
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