Spring cleaning
Spring Break
New year – well in some cultures, but I’ll take it.
Even Easter and Passover speak of fresh starts.
Time to stop and take a deep breath. It doesn’t matter that I’m not at a good stopping point; when does that ever happen?
Mommy needs a time out.
Mental margarita
Everything I need to do will still be there tomorrow
Makes it easier to focus on what’s really important
Hope you had a wonderful Easter/Passover/weekend.
It was a grey, blustery day, perfectly suited to my grey, blustery mood. I was dragging my cranky toddler and cantankerous husband through that most soul-suckingly dreadful chore: grocery shopping.
All the while I was complaining about the fatigue I’m still battling, and my ever growing list of things I STILL haven’t gotten done yet.
What happened to my inspiration, I wondered. What happened to that drive that kept me up all night, not because I had to do something, but because I was so passionate about that project that I couldn’t not work on it?
“You used to find inspiration everywhere,” my husband said – rather insensitively, I thought.
That comment pissed me off a little bit, mostly because he was right. (Is there anything quite so infuriating as a spouse who is right?)
I used to be able to look around wherever I was and find something, some little something, that lit something in me.
I looked around at the displays of produce. Those peppers are really orange. Look how the water beads up and sparkles on the broccoli.
It started coming back. Not the up all night because I’m so driven type of inspiration, but enough for me to come back to the store then next day with my camera.
Not a thing changed in that store to bring about that change in me, not the lighting, not the moods of my companions, just a little shift in what I was noticing.
Also: dinner tonight is rainbow chard, black beans, mushrooms, and quinoa. No recipe, I just felt inspired to put those things together. We’ll see how that turns out.
What inspired you lately? And, what’s for dinner?
First of all a note about the weather: This is Seattle people, it rains here. There is no reason whatsover to be driving 20 MPH on I-5 just because it rains. It rains all the time. That’s what we’re famous for. Get over it or get off the road.
Once I arrived at my appointment, 20 minutes late and completely frazzled, I was more than ready for a massage. Meme & Co is a tiny little salon in a new strip mall in Federal Way. The web site needs help and the salon is a bit too small for it’s own good as well. There were three (taken) chairs in the waiting area so after checking in I ended up standing by the door while waiting for the massage therapist to come out. When she arrived she presented me with a couple diagrams of the human body and asked me to draw on there where my pain was. I was standing in the middle of the room and after looking around a minute, I walked over to the reception desk, pushed some things around to make space and used the counter as a surface for illustrating my tension. After a few quick scribbles she walked me back through the salon to the room where the massage would take place.
The salon area reminded me of backstage just before a performance. There was a palpable energy in the air, a rabbit warren of twists and turns marking off stations where people were attending to each other, running around with their hair in curlers and others sunk back in corners with their eyes closed in meditation. The only difference was the melon colored walls and huge windows.
Once we made it back to the room where the massage was to take place, I felt much more calm. The room was sage green with nice lighting and a big easy chair in the corner. She shut the door and turned the music up, a little loud for my taste, and asked me a couple more questions. Most notably she asked if I was allergic to any of the scents, herbs, and essences that they use. This is huge. Past experience at spa’s I had to make a point of stating clearly that I am allergic to grasses and echanacia.
Previous exchanges went like this:
“I’m allergic to echanacia”
“That’s nice. Here, have a cup of tea.”
“Does it have echanacia in it?”
“Yes, this tea will boost your immunity.”
“But I’m allergic to echanacia.”
“Oh, don’t worry, it’s organic and all natural.”
Spa people rarely want to admit that just because something is natural doesn’t mean it’s good for everybody. People with allergies are allergic to natural things. Duh!
Ok, moving on. Suffice to say, she made points by acknowledging that not all scents, herbs and essences are good for everybody.
As it turns out, she had turned the music up loud in an attempt to drown out the noise from the salon. The music was not to Yanni so it was ok, and almost loud enough to do the trick. The massage was very good. She’s she had great pressure control and by the time she was done, I was complete jelly. And to top it all off, it was only $65 for a 1 hour massage, which around here is an excellent price.
Good the massage, but find somewhere else if you’re looking for the overall spa experience. Much to chaotic for that.
Today started out like too many birthdays where I put too much emphasis on making today special. Talk about setting yourself up. I was cranky this morning anyways. I don’t know why. Must be hormonal.
Anyways. I really needed that first cup of coffee. We went through the drive-through to get a latte on our way to go take care of some chores (check mail, oil change, etc.). She burned it. The coffee tasted horrible, it was scalded. Of course I didn’t know this till about 8 miles down the road because that’s when i took my first sip. Oh well, Mr. H bought me another one when we got to the mall. And I spilled all twenty ounces of that one all over the brand new shoes I had just bought. Mr. H bought me a third cup of coffee a little later on – was he being sweet or was that self-preservation? doesn’t matter, that one did the trick.
The most amazing part of my birthday was the time I spent at the spa. Some people at work got me a gift certificate for Ummelina. I checked in at 4:30 and they took me back to a changing room to change into a robe and then they locked up my stuff. Then they took me to a room they call the tea spa. this room was full of comfy chairs and had bamboo shades over the windows through which you could see the fog and the leaves left on the trees in silhouette with the bright moon behind them. I sat down in one of the chairs and they brought me a cup of tea. Then they brought out a big bowl and a pitcher of warm water to soak my feet in. After soaking for a while, while sipping the tea and watching the fog roll, someone came out and washed my feet.
I rested a little while longer and then they took me back to the showers. These showers were worth the trip alone. It’s amazing what a difference water pressure makes. There were, I think,, ten nozzles most of them spraying horizontally. So I took an amazing shower and then went back to the tea room to sip some more tea and rest. There were one or two picture books laying around that I thought about looking at, but the thought didn’t last very long. It was so nice to just be still.
After a couple minutes the massage therapist came out and took me back to the room for the massage. The massage was amazing, the only drawback was that the therapist told me several times that 1/2 massage is just not long enough to really do any good. If its not long enough, they shouldn’t sell gift certificates for it. Anyhoo, that was really the only drawback. and after the massage I went back to the tea room to sit a few minutes longer and drink another cup of tea. They would have let me stay in the tea room all day if i wanted, but I couldn’t wait to see Mr. H so i got up and got dressed.
As it turns out, while I was at the spa, Mr. H went shopping. He bought me a shirt, a sweater and a hat. Oh, and by the way, yesterday he got me the most beautiful roses. there was a dozen of them and each one started out baby pink in the center and then faded to white on the outer petals. they’r starting to open and they are just stunning.
After the spa and presents we thought we’d go catch a movie and then dinner. The local theater had Harry Potter on five screens and the other three movies didn’t look interesting either. so we went to the keg for prime rib and then came home. Not bad for turning half of seventy.
So I woke up this morning in a great mood. I have no idea where that came from…
I remember getting dressed in the living room (because where else would you get dressed?) and thinking how lucky I am to have found someone who is the perfect match for me. Then while walking the dog I noticed to the east the sunrise was amazing, and the clouds were moving fast so it was constantly changing. To the west the clouds were just a thick flannel gray blanket which actually made them the perfect backdrop for the half circle rainbow that was plastered against them. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a sunrise rainbow before – but then, I haven’t seen all that many sunrises.
Things changed after I got in the truck. I think there was one or two intersections where I didn’t get a red light – those intersections had stop signs. But I still managed to hit all the landmarks on my commute on time, except the last one where I sat a quarter mile away from the office without moving for twenty minutes.
I was scheduled to attend a stress management class today, which is probably a good idea because I do have a little stress in my life right now. Going to the stress management seminar was a little more stressful than I expected though, because it took me away from a surprise staff meeting on departmental layoffs. I missed this swing of the axe, but I don’t think it’s stopped moving yet. we’ll see what happens. I guess there’s no sense in stressing out on things I cant change.
