Dear Reader,

I MADE IT.   I survived all the things.   Sunday evening was the arrival point.   While I was watching Mad Men (ONLY ONE EPISODE LEFT - BETTY DRAPER IS DYING! - PETE CAMPBELL IS GETTING A HAPPY ENDING?),  I constructed a long, involved diatribe of a blog post (and I mean DIATRIBE) about how exhausted I was and how I really hated Mother's Day (see the Anne Lamott essay on this making the rounds of the internet.  Brilliant!  And, while you're at it, look up the clip of John Oliver skewering Americans and their hypocritical love of Mother's Day while being one of only TWO COUNTRIES which denies paid maternity leave - the other is Papua New Guinea.  And, then, if you are not satisfied, also look up John Oliver's rant about standardized testing.  Because John Oliver. Is. Awesome. Sorry for that digression...) and how I was wallowing in a pity party and how I was the awfullest person, mother, teacher, musician, cook, bicyclist, writer, interior designer, DJ, Rocket Scientist, Rockette.... Basically the awfullest everything.  And, how nobody loved me.  And, how I was going to quit all my jobs, give up my children, move to an ashram in India and learn how to breathe again.  Holy Mother of God.  It was quite a rant.   It did have a clever little analogy to Luke Skywalker hanging from the bottom of Cloud City with his one hand, but that was about the only thing I could have inflicted on my dear readers with a clear conscience.   So, I deleted it all.  And, finished Mad Men.  (Where's Peggy?  She better be the star of the last episode or I will write angry letters to Matthew Weiner.  Very angry letters.  One a day for a year, at least.   OK, I'm digressing again.) And, went to bed.  And woke up to everything seeming much better.

Amazing how that sleep thing works.   Ha.   Anyway, we have now entered the Week of Lisa.   I'm pretty sure that if you check your iCalendar on your Mac, it will have Week of Lisa blocked off this week as a national holiday.  Go ahead and check.  I'll wait here.  

See?  OK, let me continue.

Today I had interviews with candidates for administrative assistant for my Division of Visual and Performing Arts.  Can I tell you HOW EXCITING it is to have this position become a reality???   Also, a talented prospective piano major just dropped into my lap today.   Also, I received a grant to research possibility of starting a chamber music festival at my college - of which I will be the ARTISTIC DIRECTOR.   And, I had a sushi lunch with a friend wherein I ranted inappropriately and unfilteredly for nearly an hour and a half, thus relieving myself of my emotions (I also listened to her rants, too!  No, really!).   And, I went to restorative yoga this evening and I felt so good in my body during that hour like someone was treating me with such tenderness and affection -turns out it was ME!   An auspicious beginning to the week of Lisa.  Thank you universe, for rewarding me for running the gauntlet last week.   I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow.   I am going to Asheville on Wednesday with two friends.   My dance card is filling up for lunches during the next week or two.   Academics at the end of the academic year = serial lunchers.  :)   If anyone has anything unpleasant to discuss with me during the rest of this week, they can just take a flying leap.    Week of Lisa, people, Week of Lisa.  

The end result of all of this positive juju today is that I had tremendous reserves of patience during my piano lessons this afternoon and I had tremendous reserves of patience while my sweet girl read (aloud!) the longest book in the universe about SpongeBob SquarePants.

Anyway, it just goes to show you that sometimes you end up where you want to be, even if the path there is not a straight one.   I will now provide a graphic:

I will also share, unrelatedly to anything above, that I now have enough hair to put in a tiny ponytail:

Kind of a Gibson girl vibe, right?   Or maybe a 19th century kind of vibe?   I often, admittedly, wish I looked more "put together" than I do.   I know so many well-coiffed, thin, fashionable, attractive women.   But,  sometimes, I appreciate my disheveled and creative appearance.   Sometimes.   This might be one of those times.  :)   Because, you know, it's the Week of Lisa.

In an effort to end this incoherent, but largely positive, post, I will offer a quote from "True Refuge" by Tara Brach:

"The more you remember to regard yourself with kindness, the more readily you will find a sense of connectedness and freedom from trance. You can practice anywhere, offering yourself the phrases of lovingkindness as you walk, drive, and conduct the tasks of daily life."

Thanks for reading!   Enjoy the Week of Lisa.  :)