Book Commercials & Misanthropic Observations

O dear, is my resentment sticking out from under my skirt?

Lipstick really is one of the great consolation prizes for us women making $.78 on the dollar.

Checklist

8 bags = 240 GALLONS of junk removed? Check
Floors, toilets, sinks, dishes done? check
vacuum- including newly visible closet carpet? check
dust? check
dogs nails clipped? check
fixed insurance question at clinic? check
took Jeep off policy? check
cancelled RV policy? check
took Beetle in for 5000 mi service? check
fridge cleaned out? check
junk drawers so clean they now open and close smoothly? check
silverware drawer organized? check
have super fun catch-up session with Martha? check
New dedicated “grilling tool man drawer” complete with new butane lighter and woodchips for smoking? (little gift for Paul when he gets home) check
follow puppy around and spray everywhere she stops to sniff carpet? check
deep clean carpet? that’s next.

It’s been a good vacation!]]>

Gasp

My beautiful sister said to me a sentence that included these words “I’m just not into lipstick.”

“Hannah!” I cried out, desperate to get through,”There's true happiness in lipstick!”

I'm going to have to re-evalute what it means to be saved.

muhuhahahaha

Paul is a, well, hoarder of things.

I am taking advantage of this otherwise long spate of time without him to THROW STUFF AWAY! Yesterday packed 4 thirty gallon contractor bags of clothes and bedding for Goodwill. Today I am looking at 3 1/2 of the same wonderful huge bags of garbage. I'm not even close to done.

If I could get a dumpster without getting in trouble when he heard about it later I would in a heartbeat. For now I'll settle for “storing” stuff in the basement unless it's easily justifiable garbage or goodwill.

Anger Trigger: “Mind Reading”

Frequently it is not the event itself that provokes us but what we decide the other involved person is thinking or feeling about us.
When someone behaves in a manner that is against our 'rules' we arbitrarily decide that we 'know' their motives. We decide that we are able to read their minds.
For example: when a car cuts us off we get angry because we 'know' that the driver saw us and did it anyway. If someone turns up late for a meeting we get angry because we 'know' they do not respect us. If someone in our family misunderstands us we get angry because we 'know' they are doing it deliberately.
In such cases we don't bother to ask them what, exactly, they are thinking or feeling at the time. After all why should we? We decide that if they truly cared about, respected, loved us they would live according to our rules - or they would 'know' that their behavior was going to upset us and not do it.
This kind of warped thinking may seem humorous when read in cold print but is frequently the kind of thinking that goes on in those moments when we are simmering and coming to the anger boil.
This occurs through lack of self-awareness - we get into the habit and it becomes our normal way of thinking. Then it's as if there is a mental program running in the background that guesses what a person is thinking, decides that they feel negative toward us, and then starts up our anger motor.

ack

It's time to move on from Anger. It's useful sometimes, a bad habit, control yourself, done.

World clock

My Palm has a program called World Clock that shows a map of the world, with a moving shadow to show where it's day and where it's night. I somehow think I am “checking on” Paul by looking at the map and tapping on India to see what time it is there. It tells me it's 10:11 Pm in New Dehli right now. Silly program, very precious to me right now.