"September 30, 2019 - 17 - "Nice Feet"

   I guess you’ve probably been waiting anxiously for this moment when I would finally address the issue of feet beautification.  (Clearly my only blog theme seems to be 'What's swirling around my brain today'.   I've been thinking about feet, so here we are...talking about feet.)

      Possibly this will completely gross you out.  There are many views of feet in this world;  from people with foot fetishes to those on the opposite end of the spectrum who can't even bear the mention of the word 'feet'.

September 29, 2019 - 16 - "Before and After"

     Transformation is a major theme in my life.  I love all 'Before/After' images.  The 90-pound weakling morphs into Mr. Atlas, a room goes from drab to fab, a cluttered closet becomes a visual altar to organization, someone goes from being a lost tourist to speaking the language and navigating the norms of a foreign land...  

     I love growth and learning and change, in every possible area of life.  The idea that we can improve, fulfill potential, and explore possibilities, is endlessly inspiring to me. 

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     Probably the most potent manifestation of this belief is when I fell in love with this house, and thought "This house has so much potential!":

September 28, 2019 - 15 - "More Susan Slander"

     If you haven't read my feelings concerning the term 'Lazy Susan' you won't have a full appreciation of how little I'm enjoying the latest aspersions cast on Susans.  ("Useful Susan's" Post)

      I'm a flight attendant working for a large carrier.  We barely hired new people between about 1995 and 2014.  The few we did hire were laid off after September 11.

     So there's a big divide between old-hires and new-hires.

September 27, 2019 - 14 - "I Believe in Yesterday"

  * Spoiler Alert *

If you haven't seen the movie 'Yesterday', do not read this.  It will definitely ruin it for you.

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     We've been meaning to see Danny Boyle's movie 'Yesterday' since the first preview came out.  What an awesome premise! It’s one of those story ideas you just can't believe hasn't been done before.

     I had the release date on my calendar for months but one thing or another kept us from seeing it.  Then I put the video release date on my calendar and that date came and went.  Finally, last night we got to watch it.  And it was everything, and nothing, I'd expected.

     I expected a light-hearted look at all the lovely gifts the Beatles gave us.  I did not expect to be sobbing uncontrollably by the end.  I did not expect to be discussing and thinking about the movie for hours.

September 26, 2019 - 13 - "The App Made Me Do It"

Trick # 1-Pretty In Pink

      Sorry. I’m going to talk one more time (at least) about how great I’m doing on the fitness front.  It’s not that I’m trying to brag about it.  (Well, I am pretty proud of myself.) . It's more like everything I write about:  I write in an attempt to figure stuff out.

   I just keep wondering how a lifetime of sloth morphed into a 3 year habit of regularly working out 'til my heart’s racing, my muscles are screaming, and my tongue drags the floor.  

   Believe me:  No one is more surprised by this than me.  

    I partly blame that adorable little girl from Australia, Kayla Itsines, for coming up with a workout program that really works.  But mainly I blame her app for making me actually DO the program every stinkin' week of the year.  

     You might be thinking I should say I give them credit.   It is true that I'm wildly grateful for the program’s many benefits.  It has certainly given  me increased energy, happier moods, better discipline in all areas of my life, mental clarity, and on top of all that:  my clothes fit cuter.  But it's also given me a compulsive habit that takes some real time and work. 

     So how did this change occur?  What magic does this app possess?  

September 25, 2019 - 12 - "Cup of Joe"

     Any day that Michael and I wake up in the same place is cause for celebration.

     We've both traveled a lot throughout our relationship. Often it's been for work, but sometimes it's to visit friends or family, and sometimes to toil away endlessly on random houses in random places.

     Okay, really, we've just done this with two houses, in one foreign locale, but it's currently causing more time apart than we prefer.

     Really, we've just done this with two houses, in one foreign locale, but it's currently causing more time apart than we'd prefer.

     Anyway, today I'm thinking of all the things I miss when we're apart.  The list is long, but the biggest one is Michael bringing me coffee in bed.  

    It's not just the nice gesture, it’s the ritual around it I miss most.   

It's always the same:

September 24, 2019 - 11 - "Eat Your Spinach"

     You probably come here looking for a little bit of distraction, maybe even actual entertainment, but this post is really more of a a Public Service Announcement:

September 23, 2019 - 10 - "Where I Write"

     I prefer to write in a coffee shop on rainy afternoons.  It's ideal.  I put my AirPods in and listen to some gentle music, the weather isn't luring me outside, the soft hubbub of the other coffee-swillers creates a sense of camaraderie... while not requiring me to actually interact with anyone.

     This preference probably sounds limiting.  But, actually, I write almost exclusively in this environment.  If it's not a rainy afternoon, and there's no coffee shop; I just create my own.

Setptember 22, 2019 - 9 - "Taking Steps"

     Michael and I both have step counters on our phones.  We like to compare and contrast our activity levels.

     I think the most steps I've ever gotten in a day was around 19,000 steps.  We were in Madrid and headed out to explore the city early in the morning and didn't get back to our hotel until late at night.  Most of my days are more in the 7500 steps range.

     Michael told me yesterday that he topped 20,000 steps. 

September 21, 2019 - 8 - "Mindset"

     You know how sometimes you'll hear a new idea and it shakes up your entire world?

     If you've ever had this experience then you are my friend.  It indicates that you have a Growth Mindset.  And this openness to life is something I truly admire.

     This relatively small idea has absolutely revolutionized my way of looking at the world, and has given me a whole new understanding of people.

September 20, 2019 - 7 - "Exercising Discipline"

     More than three years ago (edited:  realized I began in July of '16) I started doing a workout program designed by Kayla Itsines.  A coworker told me about Kayla's Beach Body Guide fitness plan and said a lot of people were having success with it.  She suggested I search online for ‘BBG transformations’ to get an idea of what it could do for me.

     I looked at just a few of the images and stories and thought:  ‘Wow. I'm doing that.’  I downloaded her app and got to work.

September 19, 2019 - 6 - "Delivery Devotee"

     I suppose the addiction started when I lived in Manhattan.  Even way back in the Pre-Amazon-ian Era if you were in the city you could get almost anything delivered to your door at any hour of the day or night.

     This was a godsend for me for so many reasons:
          1) I was flying international trips then and my exhaustion level and inability to distinguish night from day made establishments with traditional hours challenging for me to patronize.
          2) As an introvert who spent a lot of time with masses of people the interactions involved in going out my door, down my apartment stairs, and down the street to the corner store seemed overwhelming.
          3)  Just putting on pants was an insurmountable obstacle at times.
          4)  I have a deep and abiding hatred of all errand-running.
          5)  My overall laziness about, and apathy towards, leaving the strong force field that surrounds my home has always been hard to overcome.  Some people get cabin fever quickly and just can't wait to get up and out into the big bright world.  I'm more the hunker-down-until-stores-of-food hit-critical-lows-before-I'm-involuntarily-forced-out-of-my-lair kind of person.

September 18, 2019 - 5 - "Higher Ground"

      The beautiful and affirming book "The Artist's Way" talks about how we circle back to things in life.  Like, basically, we keep revisiting and/or repeating past mistakes.

     That idea used to bum me out.  I'd see myself returning to that same friend who I regretted calling, or that same junk food that I'd just later regret having.  It felt so defeating, like:  'Crap!  Here I am again?  You've got to be kidding?!  Why am I still having to deal with this same old problem/memory/bad habit, etc...?'

     But Julia Cameron made it all make sense for me.  She says that, yeah,  it's kind of true that we do keep looking at the same old stuff.  But it's as if we're circling up a mountain path and every time we come upon that same situation  it's from a different, higher viewpoint.

September 17, 2019 - 4 - "Man Bun"

     I flew with a young man with long hair he'd tied up into a top knot.  

     It suited him.  Made him look kind of edgy and cool.  

     Male flight attendants, traditionally, (and formerly by absolute company mandate), have tended to look incredibly conservative.  I loved that this guy was doing his own thing.  

     Another crewmember, a woman about my age, mentioned his 'man bun'.  

Me:  "Cool, huh?"   She sort of guffawed and looked at me like I was a nut.  

September 16, 2019 - 3 - "Two Quotes"

     I was boarding a flight recently and had several patience-testing moments in a row.

     That last sentence is, of course, redundant.  Getting a hundred and something people, and all their baggage (both mental and physical) settled into very tight quarters, with severe time constraints, by definition,  is patience-testing.

    A man watching all the commotion and ruffled feathers around me said:  "Wow.  How do you manage to stay so calm and pleasant through all of this?"

September 15, 2019 - 2 - "Surviving the Life: Frenemies"

First off; a Disclaimer: 

     The truth is, I could fill a whole big corner of the internet with what I don't know about friendship.  I have gotten it right, and I have gotten it hellaciously wrong.  

     But I have learned some things.  So here are just a couple of my gems of wisdom.  These gems, like all gems, were formed by extreme pressure.  In this case by the pressure of those two-ton 'friendships' that hurt your heart and prepare you for the darkest challenges of life.  Stuff like political debates and bouts of strep throat.

September 14, 2019 - 1 - "Our Daily Thread"

Willpower Doesn't Work

     I'm reading (aka listening to on Audible) "Willpower Doesn't Work" by Benjamin Hardy.  It's yet another attempt of mine to form a more perfect writing habit. I've been working on this goal for some time now; more or less since I could form letters of the alphabet.  

     The main point of Hardy's book is that accomplishing hard things in not about willpower.  It's about setting up environments that make the daily work of your goals nearly automatic.  I'm only a couple of chapters in, so clearly am no expert, but I'm sharing what I've learned so far to explain how it's helped and motivated me already.

   

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     Hardy says you first have to have a compelling reason why you want to achieve something.  He calls it your "Big 'Why'".  

So here are my reasons for wanting to write: