Girly Do's

Here it is, Saturday, and its my girly day; a day for taking care of me. My hairdresser, Erin, is fabulous. She's a lot of fun, we talk about all kinds of things (related to men, of course!) and she does a GREAT job on my hair! (its carmelized and cut...) By the time she's done, she's always telling me to go out, take my hair out onto the town and show it off! eh, Not so much fun doing it alone. But. I do take the opportunity while I'm in the mall to do some shopping. Today's bargains, a sundress, a top and slacks, all for $45. Then with a coupon for $5 off, this necklace and some earrings.

While it's not always 'me' .... some days, you just gotta be girly!

girly HUGS to everyone!

PS: Erin... if I need a pep talk for *that*,
you can bet I'll be calling you! hehehe

Learn to be Present

A couple weeks back, I found a website on Zen Habits, and one of the postings asked, "How can you bring calm and peace to the middle of a stressful, chaotic day?" The answer: "learn to be present". It can change your life, and it's incredibly simple. When you're doing something, learn to focus completely on doing that one thing. Pay attention to every aspect of what your doing, to your body to the sensations, to your thoughts.

Ok, so not always so easy, but it does take practice! I have to admit, I had a very productive two days, and I'm definitely not stressed. In fact, I found a few joys and simple laughter in my day. Let me tell you about them.....

First, in my job, I process the items that are returned to my store. So I get to see all kinds of things, even things I don't want to see! With that in mind, I'm working on some of the apparel returns, and I notice this jungle print item. When I picked it up, it felt padded, like a bra. But upon closer inspection, I found it wasn't a bra, nor was it a swimsuit item, it was panties! Padded panties!! Being a chubby old chick, um, no WAY do I care to add something to the derriere that isn't already there! I laughed and couldn't imagine who .... ok, more like I didn't want to imagine who...... *still chuckling*

Later on, one of the guys was bringing me a damaged bookshelf; Conrado said "Hi Linda, como esta?" and to his surprise, I answered back, "muy bien, e tu?" He looked at me and said something that I assume meant "Oh you speak Spanish" and continued talking to me. I laughed and shook my head. "You speak Spanish?" he asked in English. "Poco" I told him. We laughed about it for a bit. Later in the day he came by again, I thanked him and he said "you're welcome" back in Spanish, as if to teach me. (My apologies if any of this is spelled wrong....)

Between the "being present", accomplishing good things with my job, and finding things to laugh about, I realized that we forget how much fun it is when you make a choice to find little joys in each day. Make it a good day with little joys!

HUGS to everyone!

As an added afterthought, this month marks
my 10 year anniversary in my current job.
I can't believe how much time has gone by,
and how many things in my life
have changed in those 10 years.
They've all been good things,
and I'm thankful for every one of them!

Go Exploring!

Have you ever just said "the heck with today and ____ (fill in your choice of chores hehehe), let's take off and go do something?? Well, I've been feeling that way a lot lately.

With August here, and nearly done, I have been taking a few vacation Fridays, gotta have some relaxing time before the Holiday Rush hits stores everywhere. And rather than use those Fridays to do work around the house - oops, in July I used a couple of Fridays to paint bathrooms here at home - but last Friday, I got up and had the urge to just go, somewhere, anywhere, exploring. Ended up in a small town called Globe (view pix here) and had a really good time with myself. Of course, it was fun texting with my bestest friend who was following along on Google Maps, and sharing tidbits about where I was. I wandered the historic downtown area; fun times, and my creativity took an upswing again.

Today, I felt the same way, and ended up driving to Canyon Lake. The drive itself winds around Superstition Mountain, and into Tonto National Forest, which embraces almost 3 million acres of rugged and spectacularly beautiful country, and is the fifth largest national forest in the US. Canyon Lake is one of four reservoirs that were formed by the damming of the Salt River in the U.S. state of Arizona. The lake was formed by the Mormon Flat Dam, which was completed in 1925 after two years of construction. Canyon Lake has a surface area of 950 acres. (facts obtained from wikipedia). (view pix here)

Again, it felt really good to be out, exploring, learning, sight seeing, and just enjoying the day. Sometimes its hard when you're a "wanderer", never knowing where you're going, how long you'll be gone, and most of all, what you'll need. So I didn't wander onto any hiking trails, as I didn't dress for that, nor did I bring enough water for the kind of heat we've been having.

If you haven't gotten the urge to wander, sight see, or just plain take an old fashioned drive with no destination in mind, maybe its time you think about doing it again. August is a great time for doing that -- before the rush of back to school, the arrival of fall and holiday traditions get us into that busy mode again.

HUGS to everyone!

Determination

Sometimes, the best thoughts
are the ones someone says about you.
Today, my best friend told me the following:

I know you... and the one thing you have
that always impresses me:
determination.

You get tired
you get doubts
you get scared
but you always push forward.
and that is something pretty damn cool to see.

So, I looked up the definition and found:

• de·ter·mi·na·tion/diˌtərməˈnāSHən/Noun

• 1. Firmness of purpose; resoluteness.

Well, I guess I do get that way. I can be quite determined once I make up my mind. Although I think my mom categorized it as being "stubborn". But through so many changes in the last seven years, my best friend has seen them all; has known all my fears, the worries, and put up with the Pro's/Con's lists. And he still hangs around, loves me through it all. (Love you, Prof!)

I've gone through some pretty major life changes in that time, divorce, moving across country, some scary surgeries, buying my own home; even the minor life changes that challenge us all can make us determined in some way. I think the key to being determined is not giving up, pushing past the fears, not letting them hold you back. You can achieve your dreams, your goals, if you're willing to be brave!!

HUGS to all my determined friends!