February 15, 2019

Good Things Friday (1)

I’ve been tweeting good things in my daily #GoodThingsThread hashtag to promote a more positive mindset. As a dyed in the wool pessimist, I have to actively push to think positively in the first place.

The past several months, I’ve been laboring under a near-constant feeling of irritability. My temper is Smurf-level short. I’m bored with and unhappy at my job even though it provides everything I want from a job and I’m very good at my job. I’m illogically discontent with our daily lives, even though the routine is exactly what I wanted. Nothing is cheering me up, or even denting in the fug. Not food treats, not petting the dogs, not having beloved old shows in the background while I work.

It doesn’t help that a lot of these days have been gloomier than usual. Long walks with the dogs usually get my chin up again when the sun is out, less so when battling winds that blow me backwards and rain in the ears.

It’s possible this is a side effect from the diet experiment. I discontinued my anti-depressants (prescribed for pain but definitely helped with my mood) while trying out the new diet to fix the pain issues. For a true read on the diet’s efficacy, I needed to be off the medications. If this mood relocation to the emotional equivalent of Mordor is really a chemical thing, I may have to start them again. It’d be nice if that wasn’t the case, though. I’d like to be off medications for a whole six months of my life for the first time in 20 years, it’d be novel! But no shade on medication here. If that’s what’s necessary, I’ll take them.

I was pondering making a formal weekly post on that theme here. Reading Disabled Girl’s post on the flood of good things, and a really awesome thing to do with a vehicle made up my mind. I’m going to try it out and see what happens. This doesn’t need to be big stuff, money stuff, or any particular level or category – just things that made you feel good.  Plus this is where I am going to think positively about the things we want.

This was going to be FIVE good things Friday for the alliteration but I changed course halfway through. If I have more than 5 that I want to share, I should! As should you! It felt like I should try to have at LEAST five though in the spirit of thinking positively every single day. That turned into an argument for 7 things, for every day of the week, and eventually devolved into – I’m not setting a number in the title. I’m just going to aim for 7 or more.

1. My blister paid off! I spent an hour erasing pencil marks out of an old textbook, thus incurring a massive blister, and sold it for $45.

2. Tanja‘s book Work Optional was released on Tuesday! I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC and so enjoyed it that I purchased copies for people I love.

3. Booksgiving was last week but I participated this week and it was lovely.

4. I took some casualties (farewell, layer of skin on my finger) in the doing, but I successfully adapted this short rib stew on the rainiest day of the week and that was totally satisfying. Note: 2 hours is simply not long enough to braise 2 lbs of short ribs (bought them on massive sale!) I do need a good no-sugar low-carb/higher-fiber substitute for potatoes though.

5. I packed up two big boxes of books for resale and got them out of my office. This also helped me rediscover some books that I should reread.

6. We still have our jobs – financial stability FTW. If we have to change, I hope it’ll be on our terms.

7. We worked out a new set up with JB for therapy and the first session went pretty well.

8. I have a wonderful partner.

Wishes:

• May the prices on my long watched-for backpack and water flosser drop by at least 30%.
• May PiC’s job search turn up the role that he’s looking for without the expected cut in salary.
• May both parts of that Huge Thing I’m working on at work turn out well. I’m setting things right after taking some risks that were total flops and my next two months depend on this working out.

Please join in with good things from your week and what you want!