Busy Busy...But a Brain has to Break By and By

Exhibit A. Still wearing work attire. No, I have not been upstairs since my arrival home.

Exhibit B. In my work nook. (now sitting on a pillow because the floor is a lot harder on the rear end when you're working than it is when you're sprawled with a book or your laptop...)

Exhibit C. Busily typing fingers.

Exhibit D. Concentration.

Exhibit E. Blanket around shoulders in lieu of sweater (again, upstairs).

B took that pic of me about 15 minutes ago before he left to go see a movie. I may do that again once I can see the light of day....And to think, I didn't even procrastinate this time!

Ok, I think that's all the break I'm allowed to have right now. Back to the wheel. Sorry for the messy letters, I could've figured out how to put real ones in, but that definitely would have gone over my break time limit.

Sheezers I just found out that T's on his way home - already? Dangit. Okay now I'm really getting to work...

Wish me luck!

Positive Pause

Today will be devoted to finishing up my DQP, so please accept my apologies for lack of a proper post.

Go here instead - it'll help make your day better, I promise.

Today's whiteboard quote:
"Make the world a better place, one thought at a time."
~Unknown

Best of Intentions...

This weekend I planned on hunkering down to reel out that 30ish page Doctoral Qualifying Paper that I need to mail off this week.

....yeah. And this is what actually happened:
It's not like I didn't work on the paper at all, I certainly did...do...some work on it.

But, it's now needless to say that this week will be a busy one getting everything ready. I'm envisioning the paper as a piece of fabric I'm weaving, with all of the information I find from my sources serving to be the threads and yarns and the finished paper as the fabric forming under my fingertips, which hopefully will end up being neat, complete, beautiful in its organization and warm and lovely in its insight and usefulness.... so we'll see how it goes.(visualizations help me, can you tell?)

But as for yesterday afternoon, I think watching Amelie at home, going to the beach, getting some Vitamin D, doing the 5-step rule (as in, when the water hits your feet you go in for 5 steps, then are free to high tail it out as fast as need be) that T introduced to me in order to cool off without losing a foot to hypothermia caused by the frigid Pacific water, and then going home for an evening of relaxation and gentle work, was just what the doctor ordered.So here's to the week! May yours be productive and happy, and may mine too!

Today's whiteboard quote:
"Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure."
~Oprah Winfrey

Opportunity

Today's mantra (and whiteboard quote):

"The fool sees difficulty in every opportunity, the intelligent one sees opportunity in every difficulty."
~Nahsti

Today I'm running late, and am (still) hormonal (which for this 2-hour span = feeling insecure about any and everything), so I have my work cut out for me.

How about you? What opportunities will you choose to see today?

Happy Friday!

Curious meeting on a Wednesday afternoon

Remember those flowering bushes around campus I described several posts ago?

Well the flowers are just about totally shriveled up now so the bushes are mostly just green again, which is fine with me - I like them green too. And I suppose that some bees still find nectar or whatever they're looking for occasionally, but mostly the happy busy buzzing is gone.

Incidentally, Wednesdays are my busiest days and at about 4:00pm I move my car closer to the building. My street parking ends at 4, and instead of leaving to go home (which I do every other day of the week), I stay a smidge later to clean up from a tea that we have every Wed afternoon that ends at the same time I usually leave - 4. So I'm rushing out to my car with full arms trying to hurry (I was running a little late), and passed by the bushes mentioned in that earlier post on my way to the street parking where my car was.

At that moment, something flies out of the bush, up over my head and is gone. I thought nothing of it. Bees don't particularly freak me out (that goes for bees, not wasps, mind you. A certain traumatic experience comes to mind in the back of my Dad's huge maroon car at age 8ish that involved my sister sitting completely still, breathless, as the rest of us watched a giant wasp crawl across her closed eyelid. It was summer and the wasp had flown in through one of the open windows and landed on her. I still remember my Dad's urgently soft voice "Michal, don't move"...). But back to the subject, I'm cool with bees.

So, like I said, I though nothing of it. About 2.7 seconds later, I felt a little pain on my forehead. The two things were completely unlinked for me and I absentmindedly untangled one of my arms to brush that spot, when my finger landed upon...

it.

That damned bee.

It was stinging me on the head.

"What the heck?", you may say. That's what I said too! (I didn't do anything to the friggin bee)

So there I am, in my "I'm a grown-up" office attire, absolutely flipping out on the campus sidewalk, squealing who knows what, and brushing my head and hair in that if-it's-stuck-in-my-hair (WHY did I wear it curly that day) then-I-want-to-get-it-out-but-I-don't-want-to-have-a-beestung-finger sort of way. And honestly, I was beyond disgusted and didn't want to touch it anyway. Of course I forgot that I'd worn a couple of pins in my hair that day so every few steps I would stop and frantically brush at them until I remembered, after about 3 such mini freak-outs, that no, they were not alien objects after all.

And yes, of course, there was someone behind me on his cell phone, probably wondering what in the world was wrong with me. I didn't turn around to see if I knew him. It's a small campus.

Thankfully I caught the bee mid-sting so there is no damage visible now.

Yikes.

(I'm not gonna lie - it is comforting to think that I have come away slightly stung but mostly unscathed by the encounter, while she's almost certainly in bee heaven by now...that's how I roll)

Moment Living

Today's whiteboard quote:

"The more you live in the moment, the more you value its gift of peace, safety and stability."
~Marlana

Today I'm in a rotten mood because of scheduling (and let's be honest, hormones). There's just too much to do! I'm approaching a deadline for my doctoral qualifying paper (DQP) that's terrifying and that, although I've been working steadily, I'm afraid I won't meet, work is getting busier by the day and I'm on the brink of falling behind, my classes are rough (as in, instructors criticizing my work and me not understanding even after the critique is explained what I've done wrong), I'm trying to start up my business and all that it entails (I'll link it once the website's up, maybe it'll happen this century), I'm doing my buddy's wedding invitations and she wants to change them every time we talk (seriously, come on!), I still owe my father those paintings, and I'm having trouble sleeping.

If that's not a recipe for stress, I don't know what one would be....

And I cognitively know that the answer (as usual) is in mindfulness. It's not too hard to do, you just have to remember to live in the present moment -

Make a realistic schedule for the day that addresses all that you have to do.
Focus on what you're doing as you're doing it.
Remain aware of your breathing and the flavor of your thoughts, trying to inject gratitude in whatever way possible.
Drink enough water.
Eat often enough.
Go to bed earlier.

So, today, I'll be attempting to follow that list. Wish me luck. I know you stressed out folks out there may benefit from the present-moment-mindfulness track as well ;)

I'm Back!

Well I've returned from the land of the rain, haze and shadow...

...otherwise known as Hazleton, PA.

T and I discussed on the return flight, between sharing his ipod headphones and listening to Ted Talks, the way that the weather really made H-town feel more dreary than it actually is. Inside any of his family members' warm and bright homes, you'd think you were in a lovely setting, but as soon as you step outside and have to open your umbrella and raise your collar, you're reminded of this sad fact -

The summer there lasts for about 3 days.

And this year we'll miss them. So hello sprautumter. Yep, that was a "spring", "autumn" and "winter" conglomeration that I just made up. But it's the truth of the matter (the very sad truth, at that).

However, weather notwithstanding, it was a lovely trip. It was great to see everyone, as I previously said, I had my very first birthday cake and candle-blowing-outing that alone would've made the trip worthwhile, and I'm suitably exhausted this morning.

On that note, here's today's whiteboard quote:

"Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms."
~Kahil Gibran

So, in honor of knowing myself, my goals for the day will be to:
#1) Hydrate (planes and all that).
#2) Focus (and catch up on all the things that I'm 5 days behind on).
#3) Exercise (do I need to cite East Coast food here? I realized during this trip that what they consider 'diet' food is what we just usually eat. Let's just say that an extra set of crunches is definitely a good idea for me presently).
#4) Get to bed on time (stinkin jet lag).

Hope you're having a sunny start to the week, no matter whether it's inside sun or outside sun!