Inspired by this thing I’m doing at work, knackered from entertaining my interesting in-laws while they visit this week while simultaneously launching a nation-wide festival (our main period of events started in earnest yesterday), I thought I’d snatch a moment to myself, grab a bowl of granola, and jot down the Things I Have Learned In My Week So Far.
1.) There is a fine line between self-awareness and self-involvement. The former creates thoughtful people who strive to understand themselves in order to treat the people and environment around them with dignity and love; the latter creates a person who is almost entirely unaware of their environment and the people around them. Many people walk that line without ever even knowing it. Some confuse the two.
2.) I am not a person who looses weight under stress.
3.) I am a person who can apparently survive on nothing but wine and cheese cubes.
4.) There is nothing that aggravates my partner more than a person who cannot savor the moment. This includes wine gulpers and individuals who fixate on lists.
5.) Fortunately, my partner assures me that I am a moment-savoring kind of gal.
6.) If I am lucky enough to have ten quid to burn, I’d go to a play, a castle, a tour, a movie, a reading, a pub, a nice meal out, a rock concert, an opera, a grocery store to buy snacks to throw a party with, a stationary store to buy nice papers to write home on, a book store to buy the stories to fuel me; I would NEVER choose to spend it on clothes. Shopping is not fun. It is something I do because I live in climates that force me to wear clothes and I don’t sew.
7.) This one I stole from Stefan Sagmeister: Trying to look good limits my life. Seriously – I am at my most beautiful when I am simply healthy, comfortable, well-fed, hydrated, laughing and the thought of checking a mirror, sucking in my gut, or reapplying lipstick is the last thing on the planet I’m thinking about.
8.) I like the cancelled Joss Wheaton show, Firefly, even though it is a half-breed of the two dorkiest genres of all time: Outer Space Adventure and the Western. We are watching it on DVD and at first I hated it but then I couldn’t stop watching it and now it has seriously grown on me.
9.) I like my job a great deal lately. I come home full of life from jam-packed, oh-my-god-its-4.30-and-I-still haven’t-eaten-lunch, crazy days. 9-5 days that involve meetings, data entry and other office shite leave me feeling like the life has been sucked out of me.
10.) My favorite Indian dish is four-lentil dahl with naan bread.
Today I am popping into work in the morning but I have the afternoon off to take my in-laws and (brave and emotionally frayed) husband on a road trip to St. Andrews to see the North Sea, visit the old castle ruins, and have a proper Scottish Seaside Day – you know, the kind where it rains on your ice cream cone. I’ll probably learn some new stuff today too, including how to get there. And how to drive British-style with a skittish, nervous American mother-in-law sitting in the back seat.
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What have you learned this week?
::Random Tangent::
It was relatively sunny when I started this entry 15 minutes ago and out of NOWHERE the sky turned black and rain is pissing down in torrents. It’s the PERFECT DAY for the beach! Hahaha!
