Category Archives: Random thoughts

Random thoughts

Learn, change, and grow #reverb10

Prompt: Lesson learned. What was the best thing you learned about yourself this past year? And how will you apply that lesson going forward?

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The best thing??  It’s so hard to come up with these things every day when I’m busy…I can easily think of good things I learned about myself, but the pressure of “best thing” is really tough! 

Good things:  I have more self-control than I thought.  I actually enjoy muscle soreness and sweating.  I can run.  I have infinite patience with small children in a one on one setting (though not in a group).  I will always be swayed by cuteness, particularly kittens and fat cats.  I love to learn, and have a constant sense of wonder about the world I live in.

So what is the best thing I’ve learned?  I will continue to learn, change, and grow every year, every month, every week, every day.  That’s the answer to both questions in one. 

Or I’m really tired.  Either way, that’s good enough for me tonight!

Random thoughts

Friendship #reverb10

Prompt: Friendship. How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst?

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Okay, so I am a bit late on this one.  I procrastinated because I didn’t have a good response.

I have had to make new friends many times in my life, because I have moved several times, and because my friends tend to move as well.  One of these days I will be somewhere more permanently…perhaps I am even there now and just don’t know it.  But until then I will continue to make new friends, and struggle to keep in touch with old friends.  Facebook is a great help for keeping in touch with old friends—both acquaintances and the sort of friend who, if you end up in the same city with them for a few hours, you can pick up exactly where you left off and have a fantastic time with them. 

It’s harder to make friends the older I get.  Sometimes I just don’t want to make the effort to get to know new people and to let them get to know me…other times I meet people who I know would be great friends, but they already have a bunch of friends.  And then many people have children and don’t have time for friends, or have nothing in common with us non-child-bearing folk.

How has a friend changed me or my perspective on the world this year?   One of my new friends loves to try new restaurants—that is always fun.  Other friends encourage me to take classes such as pottery, yoga, or spinning.  I guess if I had to sum it up, my friends tend to encourage me to get out of the house and try new things…Chris and I are creatures of habit, especially if left to our own devices, so it’s good to have friends who push you out of your comfort zone. 

Change is a gradual thing—though showing up to a new class or restaurant is a sudden burst—but personal growth is gradual.  I love having a wide variety of friends with different interests and strengths, and I know they will continue to push me to grow as a person.

Random thoughts

5 minutes #reverb10

Prompt: 5 minutes. Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010.

What to remember?

How to make a proper meal and eat tons of veggies

How to work out and enjoy sweating

The green of Belize

The blue of Honduras

How tired I feel right now, to remember it’s ok to say no to stuff

The feeling of finishing my first race

That I don’t really care for bikram yoga, no matter how “good for me” it’s supposed to be

That I want to do another spin class

All the stuff I’ve learned about teaching…how high of standards I can hold a student to

That children love icing

That a purple reindeer sweater is a great idea

Knee socks are definitely best in the cold

Sticker charts are NOT a good way to motivate most students

Salmon is delicious

My hair looks best long

My next cruise will be on a different line than Carnival

Time’s up!

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Random thoughts

Gratitude

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Prompt: Appreciate. What’s the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?

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There are lots of things I appreciate.  I spent the month of November writing here in my blog about them.

What have I come to appreciate most in the past year?  Honestly, I think I’ve come to appreciate my own humanity most.  In the sense of my life, my mortality, and my connection to other people.  I appreciate the human experience we all have here on this earth.

How do I express gratitude for it?  Must I ?  Can I simply appreciate something?  I live, therefore I am grateful.

Random thoughts

11 things #reverb10

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Prompt: 11 Things. What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life?

 

At first reading this post seems like a great idea.  At second reading, well, I’m just overwhelmed!  11 things?  and for each to answer the question, how will getting rid of it change my life? 

I decided that the 11 things must all be connected to one big thing.  My big thing that I want to get rid of for 2011 is negativity and self-doubt (really the same). 

What things bring about self-doubt?

1.  Worrying about what other people think

2.  Having too high of standards for myself

And that’s really as far as I can get.  So the next thing that brings about self-doubt is trying to come up with 11 things that do!  So maybe I need more “things”?  Am I thinking about this too abstractly?  Should I consider getting rid of 11 actual things?

I COULD get rid of 11 pieces of clothing or shoes…

I have done pretty well this year giving away clothing that doesn’t fit or that I don’t wear, but I am sure I could get rid of more.  I won’t list them here, but let’s assume there is a jacket or two, two skirts, a few shirts, two or three pairs of pants, and likely 2 or 3 pairs of shoes that I haven’t worn since moving to St. Louis OR that are just too big (yay!). 

How will getting rid of these 11 items of clothing change my life?  Well, honestly, the thing that Chris and I fight the most about is probably general household chores.  Neither of us is terribly neat, but due to my self-doubt (see above, particularly reasons 1 and 2) AND due to the fact that I would truly like to live in a neat house, I am constantly bugging him to clean, feeling guilty for not cleaning, or (on occasion and in desperation) cleaning up. 

If I have 11 less items of clothing there is more space in my drawers and closet to put OTHER things away, which might make the rest of the house cleaner.

Outcome: less fighting with Chris. 

And bonus outcome:  less self-doubt over cleanliness of house!

Well, gosh.  This is starting to sound pretty good!  Maybe I need to get rid of 11 things from EACH room….I’ll make a note in my resolution draft Smile

Random thoughts, Teaching

Quick recap of week

I’ve been so busy these past few days I’ve just been doing the reverb10 posts.  So what have I been doing?

Well, less working out that in the past, but that’s okay.  I’m still on track, and the holidays are just tough.  I ended up having two days off this week plus I’ve been dealing with leg soreness from Mike-related exercises.

I have done most of my Christmas shopping!  I’ve gotten people some really awesome gifts and I hope they all love them (or at least find them useful.)  I probably spent too much, but it’s fine Smile I just hope my family and Chris are happy with their gifts!

I got a few new decorations for the tree.  I’m really pleased with the tree this year, it just looks really beautiful.  Yesterday one of my students came in, looked at the tree and the presents underneath (I wrap my gifts and set them out), and asked “are any of those for me?”  I had to laugh—I absolutely remember that feeling—you would see gifts and hope (and hope) that one was for you…but I don’t recall ASKING!  Sometimes you would be disappointed, but sometimes you would get that surprise gift you weren’t expecting.  Isn’t it great being a kid??

I had a morning off on Wednesday where my stomach was really acting up.  I think the stress was getting to me a bit…or I had a bit of bug/food poisoning.  Who knows.  I managed to make it through the rest of the week.

I realized I messed up a bit for the weekend—I forgot to forward a memo to my students who are performing on the Metro East Lutheran joint school concert on Sunday.  I guess it’s really impossible to do everything!  I made a list on Wednesday of all the things I needed to do until December 19 (vacation) and have kept up pretty well since then…but it’s hard to keep up with the things you forget to do OR forget to put on the list.  I’m making cookies for my class students this week for mini-parties and we have three performances ahead of us—hopefully they will go smoothly, or at least, well enough!  In the past few months I’ve worked my butt off on these new school jobs and I don’t always feel I get enough back from them to make it worthwhile.  But as always, the kids are wonderful Smile

Today was a workout with Mike and a rehearsal for a choir concert.  It was my first orchestral experience in a long time, and it was quite fun!  The workout was great too—the gym has been expanding and now has a large back room with a new line of treadmills.  The disturbing part of the workout was where a creepy guy from the gym was evidently staring at me while I was doing squats.  Mike was pretty pissed—he had us move to another part of the gym (He didn’t say anything to the guy, but I think he wanted to?  I don’t really know, I kind of missed the whole thing.)  I guess that’s the problem when you lose weight and look awesome when you work out—gross balding creeping guys might stare at you.  Then again, seriously gross balding creeping guys, we women need to work out too.  If that happens again, be sure that me or one of the trainers will report you to gym management for creepy staring!

I haven’t been nearly as flexible as during my Bikram Yoga weeks…maybe I’ll need to attend another class.  I will, I think…plus, it is very warm in the class, and it’s cold outside, good reason, right?

Wish me luck tomorrow—I am planning to do my long run in the morning because Sunday is supposed to be really cold and tomorrow isn’t quite as cold.  I would prefer not to run 8 miles on the treadmill…then again, it might rain tomorrow.  So that’s why I need luck.

Chris and I went to Dressel’s for dinner.  It was wonderful!!  We split the chips with rarebit and I had pasta with a mushroom sauce.  I also had the green goddess salad because I felt guilty about not having enough veggies with my dinner—I love green goddess dressing.  (Is that a St. Louis thing?)

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this somewhat random post!  I have a busy weekend ahead of me, but I’m looking forward to some good times and great performances!