Every spring, as the weather warms up and more and more skin is exposed to the light of day, I begin to see the need to get myself back on track and feeling healthy.
The Easter Bunnies have been eaten and now it is time.
Today I am doing a 24 hour detox.
I’ve done program detoxes before and realized that I already have everything I need to reboot to default settings. So, I have my favorite detox tea. And my Vitamix…
And don’t forget lots of water with lemon too.
I felt great until about noon and then, even though I don’t ingest a large amount of caffeine, what little I was missing started getting all snarly with me. And the guy who came to look at the AC units in the house kept talking to me. Seriously–talking.
But I’m still holding up. One meal to go–I won’t mention that it’s Pizza Tuesday at the Sabatini house. *head thunk* Gosh, I just want to curl up in a ball and sleep. Just seven more hours and all the after school activities to go.
And here’s the thing–I’m not 100% sure if a 24 hour detox makes me miserable because I’m detoxing or I’m just brutally hungry and crabby. BUT there is one big reason I always find myself doing it at least once every year. If I can survive that 24 hours then anything I put in my mouth the next day is spectacular. If I don’t go cold turkey, but cut back instead, I find that I struggle every day, feeling deprived.
Make sense? Heck if I know. But for now, I’ve got to believe that one day with a clean plate gives me a clean slate.
Lately I’ve been thinking about Quirky Don’t Want To’s. Never heard of them before? I’m not surprised, I like to make stuff up whenever it’s convenient. In my world, the Quirky Don’t Want To’s are the bizarre, unpleasant things that cross the line–the line between chores and activities I enjoy doing or will tolerate AND stuff I avoid at all costs. Need an example? Here’s a few…
*I will do laundry all day long, I’ll even fold it. But it’s that last step–putting it AWAY that I find soul crushing. It’s the reason, if you stop by for an unexpected visit, you’ll find sheet and towels on my dinning room table. *sigh* It’s festive, right?
*Raking leaves or cutting back bushes. I’m like a sculptor when I pile and prune, it’s an act of art, but don’t make me bag the leaves and stems. *pouts* The yard work is the clean up. The clean up of the clean up is cruel and unusual punishment. Where’s the yard elf?
*If you feed me, I will help clean up and do the dishes at your house, but I really don’t want to divvy up the leftovers. There’s way to much pressure, like container choices or what you want to keep for lunch tomorrow. And what you secretly don’t want to keep. And what about what I want to take? Or even worse, what I want to take, but shouldn’t because my pants are getting too tight. And opps were those your good containers and now I have to get them back to you? Ummm that’s not going to happen.
*I love to help out at my kids’ school when I’m comfortable. (Think book, writing, soccer, dance related activities etc…) I do know I sometimes have to do things outside my comfort zone. (Like the 8th grade Pizza Fundraiser.) And once I learned how to do it, all of my skills from working at Denny’s came right on back. (watch me handle a tray of food people!) But DO NOT make me the chair of anything or an officer in the PTA. Not if you know what’s good for you. I am not an organized, responsible adult. I am a SPAZ who masquerades as a parent.
*If you are MY child, I will clean up any and all disgusting fluids or solids that get ejected from your body during illness and injury. Not my favorite activity, but I’ll cope–IF YOU ARE MY CHILD. I solemnly swear. But the deal breaker is whining. I will sit with you, cuddle with you, jump up and down a 1,000 times to get stuff that makes you feel better. I’ll clean up the ejected stuff. I’ll even look at your broken bones and skin that needs to be sewn back together. Unless you are a whiner. Just a note with broken bones and flapping skin, I have been known to get really light headed once the adrenaline wears off, so try to make sure I land someplace soft. Thank you.
*I would rather pick up food off the floor of my kitchen and wipe the crumbs and dog hair off of it and eat it (30 second rule and all) than clean toilets. I hate cleaning toilets. Maybe the fact that I’ve birthed THREE squirters has something to do with that. Did I tell you about that time in the middle of the night when the toilet seat was down… Yeah–I don’t want to clean toilets. I’d rather do all the other Quirky Don’t Want To’s than clean the stupid toilets. I am not kidding. Those of you out there that think cleaning the bowl is calming and therapeutic? I think you’ve got a screw loose, but you’re totally invited over for relaxation therapy any time you’d like. *grin*
And just so you know, the more I contemplate the Quirky Don’t Want To’s–the faster I think of more. They are like dust bunnies, multiplying right before my very eyes! Oh, look there’s that screw you were missing LOL!
In order to stop thinking about my own quirks, I need to fixate on yours, so tell me what’s on your Quirky Don’t Want To List…
Lately I’m having an unusually hard time coming up with blog posts. At first I thought my struggle was because I’m busy, both with life and writing. And I’m sure that plays a role, but after careful consideration, I don’t believe that’s the truest of answers. I think the most accurate reason for being stuck is that I have internet whiplash.
Unfortunately, blogging and social media have begun to seem a bit off. Kind of the way state testing and the common core feels uncomfortable. I’m not against some testing or having standards. In fact, I think they can be wonderful tools, but there’s something, not-quite-right about the current state of our educational system or the things going down on the internet lately.
For the first time, the trolls and the cyber bullies feel bigger than the things about social media that give me great pleasure. And then there is the sheer intensity of the opposing and highly volatile online opinions. I’m not suggesting that I only want to hear one side of an argument. I love intelligent conversation–I really do. But it is April of 2015 and already I can’t deal with the political FB stress. The hate mongering. How will I ever make it until November of 2016??? I refuse to comment, but can I also stop reading? I think I need to.
Of course, I’m smart enough to know the internet is the same functional and dysfunctional slice of pie you see in any microcosm. You should see some of the screaming, crying, throw-down dinners that have been had in my family over the years. I’m no stranger to the cray-cray, in fact I can bring the cray-cray just as much as anyone. But somehow the rapid, viral reach of the internet seems more sinister than I’d ever considered it before. When I fight with my family and friends, we make up and eat dessert and stuff. The world wide web doesn’t do that. Instead of stories I’ll laugh about at my kids’ weddings, there’s online shaming, which is probably as easy to catch as the stomach bug in a day care facility.
This is where the internet whiplash comes in. If you want to be heard, you MUST say something worth hearing. If you say anything worth listening to, there WILL be people who dislike what you’ve said. If you’re lucky those people simply disagree with you, but if you’re unlucky, it’s highly likely that they’ll abusively attack you online. My feelings about this state of affairs are whipping back and forth with such intensity it’s almost painful. One day I feel brave, the next cowardly. One minute I feel energized, but the next it’s depressing.
I’ve been trying very hard to find the remedy to my internet whiplash. I’ve been searching for a black and white truth that would clearly define how I move forward with my cyber life. As you might expect, that isn’t really working out for me. Today’s blog post sums it all up perfectly–writing makes me see things clearer, all while mudding the same water quite a bit. So, there’s only one conclusion…what I need most is to be unsure. If I’m rigid, I will get injured. Instead, I need to be bendy. Perhaps it’s time to be flexible and blog when it feels organic and not blog when it doesn’t feel good. It’s a scary but liberating thought for someone who’s blogged regularly for years, but I should probably only blog when I have something important to say or share.
Is anyone else dealing with internet whiplash? What’s the worst part for you? What do you do to combat it? How do you feel about blogging at the moment?
I’m losing track of blog posts, the laundry is piling up and no other “projects” in the house are getting done…much to my husband’s disappointment.
But I love it because it means I’m writing. To hell with unpacking the rest of my stuff from when I moved in just over a year ago. Piles of stuff everywhere aren’t disorganization for a creative person–they’re a fort!
Recent discoveries in neuroscience reveal that “the flow state” might be the most addictive experience on earth. The mental and emotional payoff is why highly creative people will suffer through the highs and lows of creativity. It’s the staying power. In a real sense, they are addicted to the thrill of creating.
This is why, the closer I get to the “end” of this manuscript, the harder it is to do anything else. As I inch along, the addiction to possibility becomes more intense, making me want to abandon the rest of the world so I can be holed up in my imaginary one for as long as I wish. It sounds so simple, but the reality of living with an addictive flow state is a mash-up of creativity, sanity and motherhood and it can be a bit painful to look at, kind of like an eclipse LOL! I just try to remind myself that soon enough I won’t be celebrating my creative flow because…
5. They create in cycles.
Creativity has a rhythm that flows between periods of high, sometimes manic, activity and slow times that can feel like slumps. Each period is necessary and can’t be skipped just like the natural seasons are interdependent and necessary.
So, I guess I’ll unpack stuff then. Or maybe not, I’m sure I can find better slump activities to do. *grin*
What other things on the list resonate with your creative soul? Or are you stuck living with one of us highly creative fools? If you are, which one of the 20 drives you bat shit bonkers?
And did I apologize for working on my manuscript instead of this blog post? Yesterday was a great writing day. That doesn’t make me a fartbag, right? I want to sincerely apologize for blowing you off and asking the Vlog Brothers to save my butt, but I can’t, because a good writing day is what it’s all about and let’s face it–I know I’d do it again LOL!
What’s the “worst” thing you’d unapologetically blow off for your writing or your job, even if it sort of makes you a fartbag?
