Entries from September 2008
For an artist or an athlete, being “in the zone” is a desirable state to be in. It’s also called “Flow.” From Wikipedia…
Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.
I experienced this a lot in school, writing papers or short stories, designing websites, producing multimedia, stuff like that. Without entering this state, my papers would have sucked and they would have taken me twice as long to write.
Yesterday after finishing my post here, I experienced “flow.” Unfortunately, it caused me to forget about my daughter at school. I “flowed” right past our usual departure time of 2:30 and finally thought to look at a clock at 2:47, 2 minutes past dismissal. Of course, it turned out to be no big deal. Chloe handled it better than I expected; I was prepared for a lecture.
I was hanging hooks in the basement, dragging out winter clothes, sweeping, laundry, scooping cat poo…real cool stuff. When it occurred to me that I had another daughter, I was trying to get ink off the bill of a pink hat.
It did make me realize that I need to strive for this state of “flow” every day, or even better, two to three times a day. It’s about being “‘in the moment.” If you have lost all track of time, you’re doing something right, but don’t ask Chloe because she would strongly disagree.
Categories: Meditation · My Life · My daughters · The Power of Now · happiness
Tagged: cat poop, flow, in the zone, kitty litter, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi
When I’m in a writing rut, it’s best to just sit here at the computer and start typing away, so I have blocked off 30 minutes to write maybe the most boring stuff ever written in the history of the internet.
WEEKEND REVIEW
Our weekend revolved around two soccer games, one Saturday (a tie) and one Sunday (a loss). Though I will admit that the games can get exciting, sometimes my attention drifts to some of the more boisterous soccer moms and dads sitting around me. I always wonder how much the players, in this case eight-year-old girls, hear from the sidelines. I think they have an ear for their coaches because they trust them and know that they have to do what they say. They may block out most of the other stuff.
At one point our daughter was near us, fighting for the ball and my wife starts yelling “Get it Chloe! Get it Chloe!” Was this useful advice? Of course not. I suspect that the excitement of a close game coupled with wanting badly to see Chloe do well is why Jennifer started screaming.
For the most part, I stay silent. When I do say something, it’s when she’s near us and she probably doesn’t hear me anyway, you know, because of the other parents.
After Saturday’s game, we visited a Dairy Queen drive-thru. Chloe got a chocolate crunch cone. Ainsley had a cup of chocolate ice cream with sprinkles. Jennifer ate some kind of chocolate mint blizzard. We told Chloe that we were celebrating her hard play and her first 3rd grade progress report. Though she got all A’s, I told her that we would love her just as much if she brought home all F’s. I also said something about how grades don’t really matter as long as you’re doing your best. We don’t want to be the parents who expect perfection, scolding the kids for getting B’s. I remember some parents like that when I was in high school (not mine).
After Sunday’s game, we visited the St. Louis Bread Co. which could be my favorite restaurant. Ains got a chocolate chip bagel. Jennifer had creamy tomato soup and a salad. Chloe had her usual: cheesy broccoli soup with a whole wheat baguette. For, me I love having coffee there, but it was too late in the day, so I just had an iced green tea.
Saturday evening the girls rode their bikes (I walked behind) down to the school soccer fields where we kicked the ball around for about an hour. My right foot is still sore from this!!
Saturday night, Jennifer and I watch “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden,” which is Morgan Spurlock’s follow-up to “Super Size Me!”
My time’s up and this sucked as bad as I expected, but it’s something and that was my goal. Here the rest of the story in bullets.
- Saturday morning, Jennifer went to yogilates, Chloe had her Brownie “Cookie Caravan” where her troop sold Girl Scout cookies at the Red Apple Restaurant.
- Also Saturday morning, Ainsley and I went to the library. On our way home, we passed Chloe holding her cookie sign up on the highway.
- Late Saturday night I finished watching “The Man Who Wasn’t There.” A week earlier, I had zonked out watching it.
Categories: My Life · My daughters
Tagged: cohen brothers, Dairy Queen, Girl Scout cookies, morgan spurlock, soccer, soccer mom, st. louis bread co., super size me, yoga
Ah, it’s so much more enjoyable posting about getting rid of stuff.
I love to read. I read 7 days a week, 365 days a year, so you would think that I have tons of books. I used to, but I got tired of moving them from apartment to apartment–so HEAVY!! Here’s a list of ten books I recently donated to Goodwill. This brings me back down to 252 items.
- The Associated Press Stylebook & Libel Manual
- The Yoga Mini book for Stress Relief
- Living Well on a Shoestring – I have held onto this book for many years
- The Complete Home Decorator – Purchased was I was rehabbing a house in Pana.
- Decorating 1-2-3
- My Cat & Me – You’d think I would keep this with all the cats running around here lately.
- Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook – No more use for a non-vegetarian cook book
- The New Oxford American Dictionary – I thought of all the new words added in the past 10 years, online dictionaries made this expendable.
- Meditation in Action – Not an easy read compared to the other meditation books I’ve read
- The Everything Zen Book – This was a recent purchase, good book, but not a good decision to buy.
Categories: 100 Thing Challenge · Clutter · Meditation · Simple Living
Tagged: books, Clutter, stuff
Unfortunately, I have a list of items that have entered my life in the past couple of months. I had a moment of weakness in Old Navy. The mannequins looked so nicely dressed and I was a mess, so I bought a sweater and a couple of polo shirts.
Let’s see, I also forgot to list a few items way back in April. That would be three cd/dvd cases. I counted the discs, but not the cases. I’ll just list everything with a brief description. I love lists. After these additions my possessions are back up to 262.
- Funky driving cap – I have a thing for these, though I don’t see many others. This one came from Kohl’s
- CD/DVD case – I forgot these in April. They each hold 50 discs, I think. Eventually, I will get rid of these.
- Light blue polo – From Old Navy, on sale.
- Chicago Cubs pennant – From my childhood, forgotten in April. It fell off the basement wall when we had all the rain recently.
- Nike workout shorts – From Kohls, they were expensive but nice. Since I spend so much time at the YMCA, I thought I deserved a new, high quality pair of shorts. These replaced an old pair.
- Gray workout shirt – From my t-shirt supplier, cost like $1.75 wholesale price.
- White workout shirt – Even cheaper than the gray shirt.
- Bracelet – I made this to replace the rubber band around my wrist to remind me to “BE HERE NOW.”
- White polo shirt – This has gray stripes, it was cheap at Old Navy, clearance.
- Green sweater – Got home and realized that it’s partly made of wool, so I may take this back to Old Navy.
- Dark blue polo shirt – Purchased this to go under the sweater, so it may be returned too, $10.
- Long Sleeve Converse button-up shirt – A steal at the Goodwill, new with tags, fits good.
- Brown Cargo shorts – Another steal at Goodwill, only $2.00. I may get rid of an older pair to make room for these.
- 16gb iPod Nano – You cannot hold one of these and NOT want one. It is so sleek and frickin’ cool. It has a capacity to hold like, four thousand songs.
Categories: 100 Thing Challenge · Clutter · Simple Living
Tagged: 100 Thing Challenge, Clutter, consumerism, Ipod, nano, old navy
September 23, 2008 · 1 Comment
Somewhere along the line, I recycled some magazines without subtracting them from here. I gathered them all this afternoon and recorded them in the 100 Thing Challenge section. This cut my possessions from 254 down to 248. Here are the magazines I have right now, copied right from my “inventory.”
- Magazine, Printwear, Sept 08
- Magazine, Printwear, Aug 08
- Magazine, Vegetarian Times, Oct 08
- Magazine, Vegetarian Times, Sept 08
- Magazine, Vegetarian Times, July-Aug 08
- Magazine, Family Fun, June 08
- Magazine, Health, June 08
- Magazine, Runner’s World, Oct 08
- Magazine, Vegetarian Times, July/Aug 07
- Magazine, The Healthy Planet, Sept 08
- Magazine, Body & Soul
- Magazine, Body & Soul
Magazines pile up fast, a lot faster than I can go through them. I suspect that magazines pile up in many a cluttered homes.
Categories: 100 Thing Challenge · Clutter · Simple Living
Tagged: body & soul, Clutter, magazine, veg times
There was a time when I thought meditation was just plain weird. Therefore, anyone who meditated was a weirdo. Well, I was wrong. Besides recognizing the traditional pose and “om” mantra from television, I didn’t know a thing about meditation. Still, I judged. Many people attack what they don’t understand. If you’re not “like me” then you’re a misfit. Thankfully, I’m getting beyond all that nonsense. I may have my shorts on backwards and inside out. I may forget my name. I may fall and break a hip. But, at the age of 36 I’m learning how to be a truly compassionate human being. I’m not there yet, but I’m trying.
Tens reasons to meditate
By Sharon B. Gilbert, Ph.D.
- Oneness with God and creation
- Stress reduction and decreased anxiety
- Reduces the noise and chatter of our waking minds
- Pain reduction and management
- Supports the immune system
- Reduces blood pressure
- Improved memory and ability to learn
- Feelings of peace, calmness and an awareness of self
- Improves moodiness and irritability
- Feelings of rejuvenation
Categories: Good Karma · Meditation · My Life · The Power of Now
Tagged: compassion, Meditation, om
September 21, 2008 · 2 Comments
On Fridays, my oldest daughter has karate class at the YMCA. This class has been on Fridays at the same time (5:00 p.m.) for quite awhile now. Two days ago, I totally forgot about it. It was unsetling because earlier in the day I almost forgot that she also was to be dismissed from school at 11:20 instead of the normal 2:45. It was 10:30 when it hit me and my heart skipped a beat (I hate that feeling, just like the second I realized I forgot karate).
To my credit, I didn’t sleep well the night before. Jennifer fell asleep on the couch. Ainsley crawled in bed with me at some point and at one point I remember one of the kittens licking her face. We laughed about that. She fell back asleep; I didn’t.
When I have a bad day, sometimes from lack of sleep, it seems like it takes the form of being indecisive and then feeling bad about it. The weight of everything that needs to be done is a little heavier. I feel pulled in different directions. I can’t decide what to tackle so I end up doing very little. I felt that way Friday until about 4:30 (when I should have been tying Chloe’s karate belt).
Once in awhile, Chloe really gets into preparing a meal. She will set the table, write menus for everyone, help me do whatever I’m doing in the kitchen. I decided to go along with the whole “restaurant” game and we spend an hour and a half fixing spaghetti, baked potatoes, salad, etc.
It was nice to spend the time “present” with the girls. On a bad day (which are, luckily, very rare), once I can commit to something, I feel much better. 
After dinner we went to the opening night of The Great Forest Park Balloon Race. On this night, all of the hot air balloons are tied down, but blown up. At dusk, they shoot fire up into the balloon. I don’t know how this works, actually. It involves a lot of heat and bright light to the delight of the thousands of people there. The coolest balloon each year is this humongous Energizer Bunny balloon. Among the dozens of balloon, people are spread out on blankets or folding tables. Many people bring food and drinks. For us it was a last minute decision to go (unlike two years ago when we arrived early and witnessed the “blowing up” of the pink rabbit), so we spent most of our night walking to and from the event.
While leaving, walking down a steep hill, Chloe decided to roll down (you can expect an 8-year-old to WALK 10 miles, can you?).
At the bottom of this hill, we all had to jump over a small creek. Is creek the right word? Crick? Anyway, with Ainsley riding on my back, I jumped over. Jennifer said something like “Whoo Ainsley good job” then raised her hand to give a high five then tripped over a log.
I’m running out of time before it times to go exercise, but I can’t forget to mention that I’m sitting here with my shorts on inside out. My pockets look like socks hanging from my hips. This just goes right along with me wearing my shorts backwards to the YMCA. I don’t know what’s going on. It may have something to do with last winter when I fell three times in a span of two weeks: once at Chloe’s school, once outside my doctor’s office, and once in our garage. In my defense (again) one fall was ice-related and another fall was condensation-related.
Categories: My Life · My daughters · happiness
Tagged: Balloon Race, Energizer Bunny, Forest Park, old age, St. Louis
September 15, 2008 · 1 Comment
I’m on pace to fall short of my targets, especially on the mileage and water consumption. If I could just break my coffee addiction, I could make up some ground. I did read some good news about a month ago about coffee and tea. Before, they were said to increase urine production and didn’t count towards one’s hydration, but a new study found that both coffee and tea does count, so it’s possible to stay hydrated by drinking other beverages besides water. However, water is the best thing for you and I have no inclination to jack up my coffee drinking, though it’s more enjoyable for me.
We’re in apple season, so I’m going to do my best to down two a day.
Categories: Fitness · My Life · Nutrition · Progress
Tagged: Apples, Bananas, coffee, hydration, jogging, Water
We finally found homes for two of the three kittens that we have been fostering. We decided to keep “Trouble,” the polydactyl kitty with the huge thumbs. The other two, Polly and Tiger, went home Wednesday with a young, female law student who has accepted a position with a law firm in Chicago. We miss the little beasts, but they should have a fine life in Chicago. She has already e-mailed pictures.
A couple days later, we brought in a new kitten to care for. This little guy, named A.J., is an orange, long-haired, four-month-old fluffball. He’s slowly getting used to Sammie, our dog, but still hisses when she gets too close to him. A.J. is bit needy.
Yesterday morning, A.J. pooped in the kitchen pantry.
On Tuesday, Darla, a white and orange kitten will arrive. I think she’s about four-months-old too. It’s highly unlikely that we’ll hang onto these kittens like we did the first batch.
Categories: Animals · My Life
Tagged: cat, kitten, polydactyl
September 12, 2008 · 2 Comments
I received two signs this week that I am now older than dirt: I found out that I’m near sighted and I exercised at the YMCA with my shorts on backwards.
Mothers always know best
About a year ago, my mom suggested that at my advanced age, I should be wearing glasses. I scoffed. The only vision problem I noticed occured when I was laying horizontally on the couch and insisted on Jennifer reading subtitles to me (and feeding me grapes?). It seems that I could read them fine sitting up. That probably wasn’t true.
I also have an astigmatism (I searched Google for “stigmatism”). My near sightednes isn’t that bad, so I won’t have to wear glasses all the time. I have come to terms with it (after my initial shock–I reacted with a smile and a resigned “My mom was right” to the optome-guy) and I am now excited to pick me out some bad-ass frames.
Who wants to dress me?
This other problem is more worrisome. I have lost the ability to dress myself. Some shorts loo
k the same frontwards or backwards. However, these shorts do NOT look the same both ways.
On the way back to our vehicle, Ainsley and I were walking on the speed bump, just messing around when I tried to put something in my pocket–maybe a “special” rock she had picked up. Normally, placing an item in my pocket takes, you know, a second or two. Keeping my eyes forward, I became frustrated foraging my thigh area feeling for the opening. That, of course, is when I realized that my shorts were on backwards. If it was possible to put them on upside-down, I’m sure I would have done that too.
I had to return items to both Best Buy and Office Max, so I corrected the problem once we were back in the vehicle. Ainsley got a kick out of the situation because it’s her who normally has her clothes on backwards–usually her underwear.
Categories: My Life
Tagged: eyeglasses, old age, optometry, YMCA
