A quarterly look back: Q3 2016
October 12, 2016
In February, inspired by Cloud, I decided it was high time to get back to the business of being me. Life isn’t all about work, money, and family. Life is meant to be lived, and we are meant to grow.
What I read
Last Woman Standing, by Thelma Adams
I can’t recall why I snagged this one, might have been free on Kindle for a limited time, but I loved the idea of reading up on the woman in Wyatt Earp’s life. I’m familiar enough with Wyatt Earp’s general legend, but I was always curious about the woman by his side.
It was a mostly satisfying read.
The Daughter of Union County, by Francine Thomas Howard
This was an Amazon Prime First free book. Didn’t enjoy it. Maybe it was just too hard reading about the horrific American racism towards black people in the past that simply has not stayed in the past. This is racism now, and it’s not even subtle or that much diminished. Interracial marriages aren’t illegal anymore but we haven’t come very far beyond that.
Sorcerer to the Crown, by Zen Cho
This was very different in style from her last book. It wasn’t hugely complex, but I really enjoyed the story and the characters. Also the names. Nidget!
Six-Gun Snow White, by Catherynne M. Valente
I wanted to love this but it sat uncomfortably with me. Not sure why, it was well written and creative, but maybe I was reading it with the wrong mood.
Where I went
Also we roadtripped down the coast to outside of SLO. It was only a blistering 104 degrees, no big deal. Luckily we stayed at a decent hotel where we all enjoyed air conditioning, cool tile floors, and an indoor swimming pool. Luxuries!
What I made or did
On a whim, and a strong desire not to either mark up baby clothes with Sharpies or risk losing any more clothes at daycare, I bought some twill tape and cross-stitched JuggerBaby’s name for name tags. The first one took me an hour and I managed to average a mistake every ten minutes: freehand stitching meant my letters were a bit crooked, my Xs were totally non-uniform, I trimmed the twill tape too close to the letters so it started to fray dangerously close to the name. I chalked up the first few problems to beginner’s skills, and salvaged the fraying bit by sewing a piece of fabric, folded over the end bit, onto the tag as a colorful “backing”. Almost looks like I meant to do that all along! Bonus: it covers up the ugly backside of the cross-stitch.
What I learned
I can do any load of dishes (handwashing) in ten minutes or less. That means a heck of a lot of other things that feel onerous or time-consuming are probably not nearly as difficult to shoehorn in as we think, when we’re not thinking critically.
I picked my battle one morning after PiC complained of a stiff neck that’s been getting worse since “last year”. Because of aging.
I declared mandatory nightly 5-minute-yoga sessions, no excuses. Nine pm, or within a hour of nine, but no skipping. He practiced more yoga than I did way back when, and I only did senior yoga at that, so I knew he’d likely say yes but I also didn’t phrase it as a question.
We don’t have a choice about getting older but we can choose not to get creaky and inflexible along with the years.
Just give me five minutes, pick your stretch or pose, and start your deep yoga breathing. Five minutes is so easy, you’d find yourself at ten minutes awfully quickly if you were truly relaxing. We ended up doing fifteen minutes in our first round. Nothing fancy. He in his jeans on the yoga mat and me in my pajamas on the rug since we just have the one mat between us, easy as pie. No, easier than pie. I even started getting that tingle in my fingers that means some good stretching is getting that circulation going.
Just five minutes. Plenty of things I can’t do for a sustained five minutes, sprint, hold my breath, pull-ups, but laying on the ground and breathing slowly while my muscles remember what it’s like to have blood flow? Yes, this is possible.
