I Gotta Say it Was a Good Day

What can I say, it was another great day.

Another random weekday day off, another day full of potential... sort of. Of course, Covid-19 is forcing everyone to change up their routines a bit and though my options were a lot more limited as far as potential activities goes, today that did not hinder me one bit. The weather played a big part in my positive mood and for the first time in ages I was able to do one of my most favorite warmer weather activities: [late] morning coffee on the porch.

"I'm staying. Finishing my coffee."

When the weather is warmer more consistently (didn't we have snow a few days ago??) that bush to the right of the rhododendron is a massive hydrangea that explodes with blossoms all spring/summer long. Aside from being pretty to look at, it gives me a little semblance of privacy as I sip my morning coffee(s) and enjoy the sunshine. Even though it's not at that point yet, it was still a pretty pleasant way to spend some time this morning. 

Also noteworthy is the fact that I made a little more effort to dress up today, for no other reason than to make myself feel better. That green bicycle button-down is one of my favorites. It's super cheeriness made it perfect for a bright sunny spring day. I also wore one of my favorite watches (check it here, though I have the smaller white-faced ladies version)- it's a little too nice to wear to work regularly (my job can often be physically demanding in a way that is... potentially dangerous for watches) so I broke it out today. 

I filled the rest of my morning with a little relaxing putzing around and sewing but in the afternoon, I absolutely had to take a walk. For about an hour and a half I walked along one of the rail trails in the area and by the end I was tired but definitely not disappointed. 

Such blue skies! This trail runs along the Assabet River and some other random ponds and things making for solid scenery. It's not a boring walk.

This is where I turned around and headed back to where I came from. The bike trail technically ends here but across the way is a dirt road you can continue your walk on, though it's not a good idea if you're trying to zone out and listen to podcasts because it's an actual road that cars occasionally drive on. I've never taken the left and gone into the Wildlife Refuge, but it's on our list for someday!

I shared the trail with a ton of bikers, walkers, skateboarders, and even rollerbladers.

Some other things that made today a great day:

-During my early evening porch session, the neighbor's cat came to either ignore me or stare at me, depending on, I assume, whether or not he (she?) thought I was paying attention.

-I somehow cobbled together a pretty good quarantine dinner with stuff I had hanging around: a shallot, jalapeño, half a jar of salsa, tomato paste, a chipotle in adobo, frozen roasted corn, garlic, and crumbled up extra firm tofu over rice, topped with cheddar, and served with tortilla chips. Highly recommended. You can call it a burrito bowl and pretend you did it on purpose. Also, if you're one of those people that get nervous about tofu, my fiancé didn't immediately know it was, in fact, tofu. There are no... texture issues here if that's what freaks you out.

-This porter from Founders Brewing Co., one of my all time favorites that I am enjoying as I type:

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-THIS African black soap face mask, because I am fancy. And also because I have what they call "problem skin" sometimes but I prefer to focus on the fanciness.

Now, I'm about get some couch time with my fiancé and Doctor Who, a pretty good end to a pretty good day.

*Yeah, yeah I did take the blog title from Ice Cube.

Ever heard of Chaos Theory?

Work has been rough since my return from vacation. All the covid-19 restrictions on visits and passes  and cancellations of school and outings for the kids at the hospital have left them bored and angry and since they have a lot on their minds already (it IS a psych hospital after all), having a lot less to motivate and take their minds off of things has... well lets just say things are a little more chaotic than normal.

Luckily, this is my weekend off. The quarantine could work in my favor here and give me every excuse to recuperate at home, take it easy, and get back in a good headspace for the upcoming week. So far it's been pretty good and, oddly enough, dinosaur themed as if it were planned by a 9 year old boy (are they still into dinosaurs??).

It started last night. I finally watched Jurassic Park and was able to check one more movie off of my "OmG YoU HaVeN't SeEn ThAt MoViE?!" movie list (it's long). I was not disappointed and am now a little bit in love with Jeff Goldblum.

With that still on my mind, I decided to do a little sewing today and made this sweet pin (see my last one here):

It took an age to get that T-Rex skull to look like a T-Rex skull but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out and I'll be sporting it soon. I felt like it was a pretty good message given our current circumstance so it seems especially fitting to wear now. 

After I was finished and in that in-between-activities limbo, I was suddenly struck with the strong urge to go out since I'm not supposed to go out. I settled for a walk and ran into these little dudes along a row of bushes on the side of a house:

More dinosaurs!

As I rounded the corner I was confronted by the sight of a woman hanging out of her open front door looking at me. I suddenly became super interested in checking how many minutes I had left on my podcast (the Hidden Brain episode "Don't Panic!") so I didn't make further contact but I suspect she saw me lurking on the side of her house and did not approve. Why put interesting things if your yard if you didn't want people looking at them?!

Anyway, I found another excellent thing on my walk:

Working at a hospital has become especially stressful. Aside from the added chaos mentioned above, it's a little scary just waiting to see if someone is going to get sick here. If my coworkers get sick and our already too-short staff pool becomes even fewer, I'll be force to work 16 hour days often if they can't find enough staff for the next shift (we're required to maintain a certain staff to youth ratio at all times). I'll be drawn pretty thin until I get sick myself, and I will then inevitably pass the virus on to my fiancé. I don't even want to think about what will happen if the virus gets to the kids. 

It all could certainly be fine of course but the myriad of possibilities constantly hanging over my head has my nerves a bit jangled, making it more difficult to deal with the "regular" stress at work. Seeing things like this make me feel a little better though. It also serves as a little reminder that I have it pretty good. Work may be stressful but at least my job is secure and I'm making money and able to pay by bills. Not all people are so lucky right now. 

I'll adjust to the new circumstances eventually. In the meantime, days like this will help with that. Hopefully tomorrow is just as relaxing. Stay safe (and inside!!!) everyone!

Oh, and back on a lighter note:

Vacation, all I ever wanted

I've been on vacation! I went home to North Carolina to visit my brand new baby nephew (and, I guess, the rest of my family ;) ). It was a fantastic time, per usual, but now it's back to the grind.

We got home yesterday,  roughly 6 hours later than originally intended due to some flight delays, so I decided to take today off from work. I'm glad because now, in the cold light of day as I sit on my couch at noon in my pajamas watching baking shows on Netflix, I'm feeling that tidal wave of everyday life racing toward me as a lengthy "to do" list forms in my head.

^This basically sums up my feels right now.

I'll process how awesome my vacation was and how much it made me happy later but now it's hard to do that as I stress about all the things I have to do (or think I have to do). It's not just the simple everyday tasks that I have to get back on track now, but upon reentry into normality I'm reminded of all the grand plan things I've been meaning to do but keep putting off, like job hunting for instance.

Instead of spiraling into an angry unproductive black hole and ending up even more unprepared to go back to work than I was yesterday, I figured I'd share my routine I sometimes use to get back on track post-vacation in the hopes that I actually, you know, do it.

"Sagittarius A* is the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy." (source) Perhaps this is the black hole where all my energy and productivity goes.

1. GET READY. I'm not one to scoff at a good couch day, but if you're stressing, it's not going to make you feel any better, trust me. Getting up and going really resets your brain into a more productive mode. I personally like to use this time to get ready as if I have a hot date or big event later because lets be honest- you're doing all that extra work to make yourself feel more confident and ready, not just to impress anyone, so it'll make you feel better.  For me, this means:

• Absolutely boiling hot shower. Straight up poach yourself. Especially after a day of airports and planes, just fry those germs off of you.
• Take your time. Shave if that's a thing you do. I recommend a hair mask- they're cheap and do wonders for my dry, fine hair. 
• Post shower body oil! I get dry as hell in the winter and nothing feels more luxurious than putting on body oil. Seriously, you'll feel like a new person. I use Dr. Teal's Relax & Relief body oil- it's pretty cheap, the bottle lasts forever, and it's my favorite smell. I use Trader Joe's Rose Facial Oil for my face because using anything rose scented makes me feel like a Lady.
• While you absorb all your glorious scented oils, do all the little extras you don't always do. For me, this can include finally taking off that super chipped nail polish and sprucing up my cuticles, rogue eyebrow hair plucking, other hair removal we don't talk about, whatever. Put makeup on even if you're not planning on going anywhere.
• Take care in getting dressed. That doesn't have to mean get fancy, but take a minute to choose things that specifically make you happy. Take your time, look through all your things. 

2. MAKE A LIST. Sit down at your desk or a table, get your fancy notebook (everyone has a thousand fancy notebooks, right?) and make a list of all the things you're panicking about doing. Just dump your anxious brain onto the paper. After making this list, most of the time I'm surprised to find that its not so daunting written down, and much easier to face. 

3. DO A THING. Start small. I usually start with a cleaning task because having a clean and organized apartment makes me feel like a Good Adult, thus bolstering me for further tasks.

4. DO NOT DO ALL THE THINGS. You probably won't finish your list. That is ok. Don't forget to prioritize doing something for pure enjoyment's sake- you just got back from vacation but it's not going to make you feel any better to immediately cut all joy out of your life. 

5. REMEMBER THAT YOU'RE JUST AN ANGSTY HOUSE PLANT. Take in nutrients. Drink lots of water. Get some sun if possible. 

6. TAKE A WALK. If weather permits, some movement and fresh air will do wonders for your mental state. Also, if you over indulged like I did on vacation, you will be feelings sluggish and require exercise. Feel free to move this step up a few notches on the list if you need more help getting your brain in gear after getting ready.

7. HAVE A SOUNDTRACK. Do all these things to music that gets you going and makes you happy. I recommend searching for "Star-Lord's Zune" on Spotify which is a pretty epic and lengthy playlist based on the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtracks. 

After all this, hopefully I'll be in a better mindset and then the bigger things I have to tackle won't seem so daunting. Well, time to get on it I guess!

Had to do it because: 

1. Who doesn't think of this song when someone says vacation?!

2. Who doesn't love a good 80's music video?!

You're welcome.

I read: Starship Troopers

A few shades of nail polish ago, I read Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. I'm a big sci-fi fan but prior to reading this book, I'd only read one of the "big three" English-speaking classic science-fi dudes, the other two being my main man Isaac Asimov (a personal ultimate favorite) and Arthur C. Clarke. I came upon this copy in a used bookstore so I figured I'd finally cross that guy off the list.

A lot of early sci-fi is very, um, "men adventuring in space, possibly killing things, maybe picking up some chicks" and while that is all very good from a purely entertainment standpoint, it is not my cup of tea. I love adventure but I also want it to make me think. And, you know, not be ridiculously misogynistic.
Not to detract from the great contribution Heinlein has provided to the genre, or his talents as writer, but in my head I put him into the above category, assuming he was one of many (many, many, many...) who really focused on traditional male readers (to be fair, I'm sure men made up most of sci-fi's early readers especially). I can imagine there's numerous studies and essays etc about this but back to the book at hand.

Starship Troopers, at first glance, definitely seems to fit that old school man's man type of sci-fi I mentioned above. There's war! There's fighting! There's very few ladies but when they show up you are assured that they are super pretty lady-like ladies! It turns out to be a thinker after all though, closely examining patriotism, sacrifice and what it means to be a true citizen. Especially interesting to me personally was the heavy use of corporal punishment and this strict sense of moral code being instilled in everyone, keeping society in order and criminal activity minimal to nonexistant. He's built an Earth with as close to a militaristic society as you can get without having soldiers stationed on every street corner- you're only allowed to vote or hold office if you serve in the "Federal Service," in whatever capacity they deem is right for you.

I may not agree with a lot of the ideas Heinlein puts forth but I'd still give this book 3.7/5 stars. What's the use of only reading things you agree with? The only way to grow as a person is to constantly collect new ideas that force you to reconsider or reaffirm you own. This engaging space adventure is the perfect opportunity to expand your mind a bit and think about your own personal views so I'd definitely recommend it.

Did Everybody Say What A Good Day That It Was

I had a great day today.

I work in a hospital which of course needs to be staffed 24/7. This means I'm expected to work every other weekend which also means I have the odd day off in the middle of the week to make up for it. Especially as of late, I've had issues filling these midweek days in ways that leave me satisfied when it's all over. I've been getting up later than I intend, not being productive enough, not doing enough things I enjoy, overall just feeling as if I'm wasting my valuable days off.

Despite having a clear idea of my issue (even I'm rolling my eyes at myself for this "issue"), I've had such a hard time fixing it. I've been spending so much of my days beating myself up for not enjoying myself and trying to force myself to do things that I end up, you know, not doing any of that. As they say, worrying about wasted time is more wasted time (my next cross stitch sampler??). It's a strange cycle of self-created problems I've gotten myself into but today... today was perfect. I don't know how I managed it but it was the ideal blend of relaxing, productive, and fun.

Since this blogs original purpose was to remind me of all the good things, I've decided to make a list of a couple of the things that made it so good. Hopefully I can shake off ridiculous this day-off funk I've gotten myself into.

First up is a fine beer, which I'm enjoying as I type. We're super into trying all kinds of good craft beer (heavy dark beers being my favorite) and New England has it's fair share. I stepped a little out of the area for this one (Mast Landing is out of Westbrook Maine) because it's recently turned into one of my go-to favorites. Beer Advocate rates it pretty highly too, if you're into that sort of thing. A good, super-smooth stout with it's own unique (but not overpowering) peanut-y flavor.

Plants! This past year, much to my delight, I realized the apartment I was currently in actually had enough light and room for plants and that I was ready to become a plant mom. My former apartment was a small studio and super dark so I was pretty excited to run out and buy some plants.  I have a Rubber plant named Rubbert Plant that's thriving and a Purple Wandering Jew that I have somehow kept alive (they're kinda tricky) but sadly, I had a Purple Waffle that didn't make it (RIP). Today I decided his pot needed a tenant so I went to a local nursery and for something to replace PW... and of course I couldn't leave with just one plan. On the left is an Oyster plant and on the right is a Rattlesnake plant. They've already been repotted and have settled in their new homes.

I've actually made progress on my embroidery journal! Yes, I'm super behind still but once I get the fabric cut and ready to go, usually it's smooth sailing from there. I like that I can just sit and stitch without much further thought. And, as a bonus, I think I'll actually work down that great big ball of random thread scraps.

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The Repair Shop is a BBC show which is currently on Netflix. The premise is that people bring in their broken family heirlooms of all types to be restored by master craftsmen. It's pretty much the perfect thing to watch while you have your coffee and bagel in the morning- you get your heartwarming stories but you also get a really interesting look at how things are repaired. I also love the idea that people are working against the idea of this throwaway culture we currently live in. It makes me want to like, I dunno, go out and fix things or something.

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I'm pretty into watches- I love learning about the different types and movements and history. Recently I've been on a pretty intense eBay hunt for a good vintage one and today, I found an old Waltham that was in decent shape, especially considering the price. I went for it and can't wait to get it in the mail next week! I've been wanting a Waltham- it's a company with a solid history of making good watches... and I happen to live relatively close to Waltham!

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Other things that made this day great:

-Laundry! Yes I hate changing the sheets but it needed to be done and going to sleep in a bed with fresh sheets is pretty much the best.

-It was an absolutely beautiful day. Clear, bright blue skies, and mild temps (especially for a New England February). I was able to repot my new plants on our screened-in porch without freezing!

-I went for a walk. It was short but it still felt nice to spend more time outside and move a little.

I have a bonus day off this week- hopefully this coming Wednesday is as magical as today was. In the mean time, enjoy a bonus song from which I sniped the blog title! 

Move It: Snowshoeing

Yeah that's right. Snowshoeing.

For those of you that are unaware, snowshoeing is basically when you go on a hike but since there's snow, you strap these onto your feet:

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As the wiki link above says, they stop you from sinking completely in the snow so it's more of an awkward walk as opposed to an awkward trudge. As almost always happens when I do something I was apprehensive about, especially something involving physical activity, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked it. That was mostly because LOOK:

This doesn't even begin to show how utterly beautiful the hike was. This particular part of New Hampshire recently got hit with an ice storm so despite the cold, it was totally worth it to take a walk through the ice encrusted trees shining in the sun with a bright blue sky in the background. I felt fantastic afterward, the only downside being that I took no pictures (I took the above one before we left), though it was probably best I just focused on enjoying myself (and not falling).

Usually when I'm confronted with the possibility of some sort of new type of physical activity, I'm filled with dread. I always assume that I'm not in good enough shape to do it and that I'll drag the rest of the party down with my sluggishness. Luckily (???) for me, my anxiety over speaking up about it and not feeling bold enough to stay behind overtakes my doubts about my physical abilities so I go anyway.

Clearly snowshoeing isn't the first time I've felt this way. A recently peer pressured activity that worried me was kayaking and it quickly became my ultimate favorite warm weather thing to do.

What's so good about kayaking is that it doesn't matter your strength or skill level, there's a situation that is right for you. For example, my first time kayaking was on some ponds and small lakes in New Hampshire. The still water made it possible to kind of amble along at my own pace and get a feel for it. The second time I went, we kayaked on a sluggish bit of the Nashua River in Groton, Massachusetts (above picture). Slightly more difficult as you are occasionally (depending on which way you're going of course) fighting a bit of a current but I still had no difficulties. Also I saw a bunch of turtles so there's that.

My crowning I-got-roped-into-this-and-complained-the-whole-way-but-I'm-super-proud-of-myself-for-doing-it activity though, has got to be hiking the Franconia Ridge Loop. It is about 8.6 grueling miles and took us an entire day-you basically go straight up a mountain, then along the peaks of 3 mountains, then back down. There's 3,822 feet of altitude gain and it's classified as a "difficult" hike and for "experienced hikers only," which I most definitely wasn't. It is ROUGH but I freaking did it

Aside from the most supreme sense of accomplishment, it's worth it for the views alone which were-and I don't used this overused phrase lightly-absolutely breathtaking (figuratively and literally). I could bombard you with photos but if you really want to see more, just click on the link I provided above. The picture I did include was from the top of the ridge and the easiest part of the hike. I could've just stayed up there all day... if I didn't mind scrambling back down the mountain in the dark anyway.
There are other decent mountain hikes I've done (Mount Monadnock for instance) but that one I think is my peak (pun not intended but definitely encouraged).

I can't think of any other new and potentially challenging activities in my near future but clearly I shouldn't be so hesitant. In any case, as fun as snowshoeing was, I can't wait for it to warm up and get back outside... without all the layers!

Made it: Journal cover

Remember that time I talked about making an embroidery journal for this year? Yeah, I haven't done that yet. Yeah, January definitely already finished. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Progress has been made however, and still while I still maintain the (somewhat blurry) memory of what this past January was like no less. I've been doing a bit of clearing out and I unearthed this blank notebook type thing with 6 thick cardboard pages. I don't know what it's original intended purpose was but it is  now gonna be my embroidery journal. Not satisfied with the plain sad cardboard colored cover, I decided to paint it. It had this nice cut out design, it seemed a shame to leave it a dull brown. Below is photographic evidence of my progress.

I just used some random acrylic paints I happened to have, as shown above.

This is the rest of the blank notebook so you get an idea of the construction. I'm going to do the month embroidery on a piece of aida cloth that'll fit on the page with a little space around the edges, then tape it in with some fancy washi tape. Like I mentioned above, there are 6 pages so I'll do 2 months per page, front and back. Perfect!

A close up. Did I originally intend to have the "2020" in that exact spot or did I accidentally get a smudge of paint there that I needed to hide? We might never know...

I'm really pleased how it came out. Now all I have to do is start on the actual embroidery, preferably before the end of this month. Ahem.

Somewhat random I know, but I'll leave you with the song that I feel like I had stuck in my head for the entire month of January because it's awesome and um. Because I mentioned January? Anyway, enjoy.