Weekend Summary and Anti-Malaise Strategy
Molly's wanting to know how the coffee klatsch on Saturday went so I'll tell you. It was two hours and twenty minutes of wishing those people would get the hell out of my apartment.
Aunt Annoying and Uncle Milquetoast came in and immediately she threw her coat at me and said "I need to pee right now!".
She's a lady! Whoa-ohhh-ohhh, she's a lady!
I was then presented with a bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling wine that is supposed to look like a hostess gift but is really meant to be served to her after coffee. She's a recovering alcoholic. Virtually everyone says they liked her better when she drank.
After she was seated I presented Aunt Annoying with our birthday gift to her and to say her reaction to it was cool would be an understatement. She picked up the cup, turned it a little and said "Oh. Ceramic.".
I turned it over so she could see the maker and said "Porcelain.". She perked right up when she saw the mark on the bottom side of the cup. I knew that would get her because she's a brand snob. Doesn't know her ass from her elbow about actual quality but she likes a brand name.
The rest of their visit was spent with Aunt Annoying yapping about her exquisite taste in all things regarding music and literature and her sniffing her nose that B and I happen to like to watch sports. At one point she said "Well some people know a lot about the theatre and music and others like sports." and that's the point where I couldn't keep clammed up. I turned to her and said "Well that must mean I'm extra smart because I know about both! I've been to the ballet many times. I've seen Aleksandr Godunov dance Swan Lake. I've been to the opera. I've seen many musicals in Washington and on Broadway. I've seen Shakespeare performed at the Folger Theater. Do you have any idea how many times I've seen the National Symphony perform? People can be interested in both. It's okay to like sports and the arts too.".
Man has yet to invent something that could measure how fast the subject was changed after that.
The rest of the weekend was spent hip-deep in The Malaise. I found it terribly difficult concentrate on anything for more than ten minutes at a time and last night found me laying on the sofa channel surfing and fighting off tears. I was so deep in The Malaise my joints and muscles actually hurt.
And then I got up this morning and kicked out The Malaise. I'm sick of The Malaise hanging around for so long and I decided to come up with a concrete plan to ban it.
- I'm going to accomplish something every day. Today it was getting rid of all the cardboard boxes that tend to quickly build up around here since Amazon.de is our best friend. Tomorrow it may be finishing a knitting project or catching up on the email I owe to a bunch of folks but it'll be something I can get off my to-do list and can at the same time get a feeling of accomplishment.
- I'm going to keep busy. Lolling around and doing absolutely nothing makes me sink even further into The Malaise. Even if it's not something on my daily accomplishment list, I'm going to keep busy something something so I don't just turn into a pile of mush.
- I'm going to get happy and excited and interested in the good things others are doing. Mausi remodeled her kitchen. Poppy's knitting her first pair of socks. Marsha's getting ready to move back to the States. And The Lone Beader never stops beading. Lots of people are doing stuff worthy of excitement and I'm gonna get excited about it. Enthusiasm for something goes a long way towards driving off The Malaise.
- I'm going to start counting the things for which I'm grateful. It helps put me into a positive frame of mind and it's when I slip into the negative that The Malaise gets a foothold.
- I'm going to be sure to get outside more often. I tend to keep indoors more in the winter and just getting outside for an extra ten minutes of fresh air can help shake the cobwebs out of my head.
posted by Dixie at 9:26 PM
14Comments:
you forgot to mention my gnome sheets. your mind is just gnoming all over the place. happy early v-day, dix <3
I think an Aunt Annoying Beat-Down would completely erradicate The Malaise.
I'm working on a project that's drug on and on since October. Can't speak of it here, as it's super-secret. I made a bunch of progress on it yesterday, but hit a major roadblock with it today. I think The Malaise is fucking with my sewing skills.
Yeah, I'm not much help, am I? Back to that second sock.
You know Robin, truth be told I can't tell whether I shut her up because I broke bad on her ass or because she couldn't understand a damn thing I said. It's kinda hard to give someone a verbal smack-down when your grammar is so shaky. B liked it though so maybe she did get what I was saying. He'd have told me if I were only talking pure rubbish.
Ash, gnome-body has cuter sheets than you!
Well, as you already noticed, I started knitting a sweater. Whee!
Other than that, I got some bad-ass statistics homework. Can you get excited about that? :)
Kara, I'm afraid that the only thing statistics make me do is force my eyes to glaze over and start that thin trickle of drool to escape from my lips.
Lets see I am working on two quilts. Wait make that three. One for myself, one for my mom, and one for William that I hope to have done by his bday in April.
We are also getting ready to take the kids to DisneyLand in a few weeks.
William is obsessed with Mickey Mouse, and since it is between all three of the kids bday, it is kind of a present for all of them.
I can't get past The Malaise myself. I didn't get anything done this weekend worth bragging about. I just woke up from a nap 30 minutes ago.
Kara, where are you in statistics? I had three semesters in a row of stats, my last one was QA my first semester of grad school. Now it's done until... erm, well it seems I have yet another "research methods" to do for grad school which I know is code for stats, but will probably also include heavy emphasis on actual design and then, of course, there's the thesis.
Let's see, Dixie, I just got another Telemann CD, the Wind Concertos, which is so delightful I can hardly stand it when I'm not listening to it. I therefore conducted more Amazon'com shopping today to see what MORE Telemann I can find and have discovered differences in musicians and conductors and this has opened up new levels of obsession. (Telemann born in Madgeburg, btw, but you probably already knew that.)
Also, I read a recommendation on another blog for a book called The Intellectual Devotional and it sounded like something I ought to have so I bought a used copy at Amazon'com. Bascially, you read a page a day and learn new stuff. Or if it's not new, and some of it isn't, you may simply solidify or formalize your knowledge on a certain subject. What I find fun and distracting about it is that I look up collateral subjects, words, ideas, art work or whatever on Wikipedia. Brain is now simply bursting with knowledge, NO room for Malaise.
Oh, and I have an Advanced Criminology exam Wednesday that I am right now not studying for. Heh.
Glad you're working on kicking out the Malaise.
When I get some sunshine here, I'm going to send you a bottle somehow. Unless you get the sunshine first- could happen with this weird weather.
My project is big and it's going to take to spring and beyond but it's going to be great.
It involves Green Pearl and me. So everyone can follow, GP is my huge John Deere tractor that I adore. She lives at our "ranch" - a relative term here in Texas. Cracks me up that anyone would call 100 acres a ranch. But it's Texas and I love it.
GP and I are making a park. The centerpiece is an old oak tree which needs some grooming. We're tearing out and clearing out the dead wood off of about 2-3 acres. Leaving the living oaks and mesquites along with a few cacti. Then we'll bush hog to groom-hopefully in time for the spring wildflowers.
As long as my health and the weather co-operate, the park will be ready for summer.
You know, Dirk and I were talking the other night about how relaxing it is to have sports on tv.
When sports are playing on tv late at night, I feel comforted. I don't know why, but I love to have the tv on with sports just droning in the background.
I do watch sports - I like baseball and football and sometimes hockey. I used to like basketball a lot when I lived near LA (how could you not like the 80's Lakers?) but not so much now.
I don't have to actually watch it, it just has to be on.
I hope the malaise leaves soon. I've got it too because I'm sick so my house is a disaster and so am I. But I know when I feel better it will get better around here, too
Titankt - This semester is all about Linear Regression. Fun stuff. It's a graduate program in Biostatistics. Or, um, a program in insanity. Either way, it's a lot of math. :)
Tiff - Three quilts! Please take pictures for us because I'd love to see 'em. And it's one of my missions to get William his blanket before his birthday.
Tell him I dig Mickey Mouse too.
Katy - Wow! I didn't know you were digging on Telemann! And you're right - I did know he was born in Magdeburg. If I stood outside my apartment building and threw a rock due north I'd hit the Georg Philipp Telemann Music Conservatory...that's how close to it I am.
Statistics. Math. You and Kara are going to make my head cave in. Math and I never became friends. That book sounds very interesting though. I think I'll have Amazon.com send it to me.
Paula - I love the idea of you making your very own park and I love the idea of you making that old oak its centerpiece. You know you're in my prayers every day that you get healthier and stronger each day. When you are finally pronounced cancer free I want you to have a big party in your park.
Sari - I think sports is the perfect thing to have on in the background. Since moving to Europe I've changed from being a football and baseball watcher to being a soccer and team handball watcher. And offbeat sports too like biathlon and ski jumping and cycling.
Kara - does it count if I can spell things like Linear Regression and Biostatistics even if I don't know what it means?
Kara, I assume you have access to SPSS... makes statistics a hell of a lot easier, but then you have to say intelligent things about your results and that's the real trick, right? You can look like a freakin' magician doing linear and multiple regressions, chi squares, etc. But then stand there drooling when someone says, "And what does that mean?" But then you just whip out a few degrees of freedom and people fall at your feet. Ha! Love it. My grad program is criminal justice and communications. I'm VERY impressed with Biostatistics... that sounds very mathy and difficult. I picture bubbling test tubes and lots of graph paper.
Dixie, I'm jealous of your proximity to Telemann's Music Conservatory, I'd like to go there and listen to them playing. One of these days I'll make a pilgrimage and visit you guys and have a beer and some sausage.
And, just so you know, The Intellectual Devotional doesn't have a "math" section. Yes, that was a relief to me as well.
Thanks for mentioning me. I need to get a life, huh?? LOL
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