routine | Another Splendid Day

Archive for routine

>Reinvention…

August 13, 2010 at 1:33 am · Filed under adventure, blog template, books, coffee, crazy scale, finances, lessons, middle of the night, milk, routine, travel

I try to have something sensible to say every night that I sit here, but I think I fail every time that I do. More often than not I repeat myself and tell you what a delicious cup of coffee I am having. I’ve just had another one and that’s the best I can do.

Coffee tastes great, but I’m convinced that it makes you very thirsty and causes you to want to drink many glasses of cold milk, which is what I’m going to do next, like I do every night. There’s never any surprise.

I am a person of routines, there’s no doubt about that, and I will not suddenly do something out of the ordinary like run around the block half naked in the middle of the night in a rain shower, although it is not raining right now. I’m limited in the crazy things I can do, partly due to the lack in my imagination and partly due to the shortage of means to carry them out. I can’t suddenly drive to Paris and park my car under the Arc de Triomphe. I think I need a similarly minded person to do those things with and who has the means to do them.

When I say I am a person of routines, I think that is only partially true. I think I have enough adventurous blood in me to go out and look for interesting things to do. They are just not within my means to do so. I’m very limited on my budget and by transport and very rarely can do anything truly out of the ordinary. I would very much like to take on a big adventure, but I simply don’t have the independent means.

Which takes me right back to this night here and my actual situation of sitting here behind my computer by my desk lamp with my glass of milk and my cigarette. I travel long distances in my mind and through the help of the books I read. In my imagination I go everywhere.I’ve read so many descriptions of so many places, and of course, I’ve seen a lot too. I have been places in my lifetime, so I’m not a stranger to the world.

I finished “Here on Earth” and started reading “The Drowning Season” also by Alice Hoffman. I’m just at the beginning, so I can’t say much about it yet, but I think I’m going to like it, just as I liked the former book. It ended up not happy so much, but the main character ended up being safe in the end and that was the most important thing, and she was ever so much wiser, although she learned a hard lesson. Isn’t that the way we all learn them, though?

I’m not happy with the design of my blog and I’m going to have to do something about it. The links are unreadable and I don’t like the background of it. I may go back to the simple template and maybe choose a different background. I’ll have to see. I can spend some time on it tonight.

Have a happy morning.

Ciao,
Nora

Comments (6)

>The early morning…

September 28, 2009 at 5:28 am · Filed under crazy scale, creative therapy, Europe, Gandhi, Jesker, mood disorders, nap, painting, routine, seasons, sleep, the States, Toby

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I woke up to the same scene this morning as I did yesterday. The dog and Gandhi on the pillow and Toby next to me on the bed, very cozily, and I hate to upset the idyllic little scene, because everybody thinks they need to get up when I do. The cats think I will do interesting things in the kitchen, which I do, because if their milk dish is empty, or if the milk has gone sour, they get new milk straight from the refrigerator and they love that. The dog wants a treat, but he only gets one if he has gone out back for a piddle, so he does a small one to satisfy me and then gets his treat and goes back to sleep. I should know by now that this is our routine, but every morning the animals need to remind me that this is what we do. Well, I can’t be expected to perform flawlessly first thing in the morning. I need to have some coffee first.

Yesterday afternoon, at around 3 o’clock, the same feelings of loathing and despair started sneaking up on me as they had the day before. I tried to outwit them for a while, but realized that I needed to go to sleep. I laid down on the sofa in a meditative position and closed my eyes and tuned out everything around me and inside of me and very soon afterwards, I fell asleep and slept for nearly two hours. I felt much better when I woke up, but I felt that I could have slept more, and later in the evening fell asleep watching TV. When I woke up, I took my medication and went straight to bed and slept until 4 o’clock this morning.

I think I need to remember that it is this time of year again, when I always have a harder time and I’m a little bit crazier than I am the rest of the time. It’s when the leaves start changing color and start falling from the trees when I do, the same as I do when in the springtime the leaves start coming on the trees. Those are my crazy periods and my father had them too. It is more noticeable now that I live in a country with four seasons, where before in California I don’t remember being so aware of that. I think my crazy periods were more haphazard, though they may have been seasonably bound, but I don’t remember, because, like everything in my past, it is all very fuzzy and hard to recall.

I do know, for instance, that traveling to the United States makes me depressed and traveling back to Europe makes me hypo manic. That has something to do with the time difference, so I don’t like traveling to the States, because I arrive there feeling very down and unable to get over it for the relatively short time that I’m there. When I get back to Europe, I’m full of energy and I have no jet lag and can adjust to the local time with no effort at all. I hate to disappoint my daughter by not going there, but that is the real reason. I’m not much fun when I’m depressed and I feel like a ball and chain around her leg, unable to cheer myself up, try as I might.

That’s just a bit of information I thought I’d throw in gratuitously. The rhythm of the days and nights, and the hours of daylight, make such a difference in your mood. If you are susceptible to that. I being a Northern European am. By all rights I should be going into hibernation now, or moving to a sunny southern country. Many Northern Europeans move to Spain in the wintertime, especially people who live in Scandinavia where it really gets dark in winter.

Shortly we’re going to have daylight saving time and that is really going to throw me for a loop. It will get so dark so early in the afternoon and I will always get up much too early in the morning. It will take a while before I get used to that. I wish we’d do away with it altogether, but I am just a lonely voice who can’t make a difference. If there were a petition, I would sign it, but would it stand a chance?

Well. that’s all very well, but now I have to get dressed and get the show on the road. I have creative therapy this morning and I’m going to be working on my third painting. The second one is done and I need to get the first two home with the help of my sister and her car. I can’t transport them by bike. The wind will catch them and blow them to smithereens, that is if I were to take them one at the time.

Have a good morning. No doubt you will see me here again later today. I have an award to give away.

Ciao,
Nora.

Comments (6)

>What did I tell you?

April 29, 2009 at 9:05 pm · Filed under creative therapy, dance class, early morning, end of the day, gastric band, irrationallity, queen, routine, sleep, the alarm clock, the Überhund, the Exfactor, Toby

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I have such a hard time waking up in the morning. The alarm clock wakens me out of a deep sleep and I need at least an hour to pull myself back into the land of the living because I have been so sound asleep. I sleep like a bear in hibernation. Quite befuddled I sit on the sofa with my mug of coffee and forget to drink it while I try to remember who I am and which day I am living in. In the meantime the Überhund wants my attention and rubs his head against my hands repeatedly and I absentmindedly rub his ears, but woe is me if I stop.

I smoke my cigarettes, but I am unable to get a fresh mug of coffee and sit with my half cold one and just don’t know what to do. The minutes tick away and it keeps getting closer to eight AM, when I absolutely need to get in the starting blocks, which I then do, quite suddenly and then there is no stopping me. I go on automatic pilot and do all the things I need to do in the correct order, so I won’t forget anything.

It isn’t really until after I’ve walked the dog that I’m fully awake and can say I am present and accounted for. Then I look at the clock to see how many minutes I have left to have another cup of coffee and if I can afford to be a few minutes late and how quickly I need to ride my bike without having an accident. I figure I can decently be five minutes late and it is not really a big deal. Anything past that is rude.

During the break in ergo therapy, I met the new creative therapist for Tuesdays and we told her honestly that I had been intimidated to come, but she was ever so nice and took the time to show me around the room and showed me all the different projects I could try working on, which made me quite excited, because I saw things there that I had not seen in the other creative space. Working with lino cuts for example, which I am already sure that I am going to try first and working with Arabian gum and water and ink, which makes real nice effects and all sorts of other things. I was like a kid in the candy shop.

But…we must address this initial fear I have to start new things, because I am going to keep running into this problem and not everywhere in life people are going to be as patient and understanding with me, so I have to develop new strategies. I have fear of the unknown.

After ergo therapy, I had a one hour break, but luckily, so had a bunch of other people and the weather was nice, so we sat out on the deck in the sunshine and I ate four pieces of nougat that I still had in my purse from an outing with Von. I had also been smart enough to bring my one PM medications and remembered to take those. Sometimes I amaze myself.

At 1:30 PM we went down to the rec room for elementary movements, which is moving sensually to ethnic music, that’s the only way to describe it. You will probably remember that I tried this once before and gave up on it, but I was bound and determined to get it right this time. Much to my surprise, I got the really hard movement right, which is moving your hips up and down while moving them back and forth and sideways, while not loosing your rhythm and then walking and stomping your feet along with it.

This is very hard to do, because you have to concentrate on so many things, firstly on your whole body stance and alignment. After you’ve done it for a while. you feel that you’ve tensed up and you have to relax and shake it all about and realign and start all over again. In between we danced loosely however we wanted to very happy music as wild as we wanted. I need some practice in this. I have a very Calvinistic body. It’s not very wild.

We ended with a meditation, which was nice and relaxing and I was home by three PM, full of energy and took the dog for a walk, who had been impatiently waiting for me to get home, because he was right at the door when I opened it.

After that, I had a cup of coffee and sat down for a while, reading my mail and looking at my almost clean living room. I still need to mop the floors, but I got a lot done yesterday and will continue tomorrow morning, which is a day off, because it is Queen’s Day.

Toby is very much better. He no longer has a snotty, runny nose and his eyes are clear. He only sneezes a little bit now, but you can see that there has been a vast improvement. He no longer makes that awful sound when he breathes and he wants lots of affection. And here I was ready to give up on him, that’s how sick he was. Good old Toby.

The Exfactor came by for a quick cup of coffee and after that I somehow found the energy to go grocery shopping, because I was all out of milk. I can’t live without milk. I also bought a six pack of Cola Light, but hadn’t realized that Cola straight from the can would interfere something awful with my gastric band and two swallows from it made me feel like I had had a super meal and I felt a huge burp that was stuck there, but wouldn’t come out. I poured the Cola in a glass and waited for all the bubbles to dissipate before I drank the rest of it. Flat Cola is the best.

Now it’s time to bring the evening to an end. The day sure went by quickly, I feel like there were not enough hours in it. I need to put my pajamas on and relax behind the dumb box for a while. Tomorrow is another day and I get to sleep in. We’ll see what time I naturally get up without the alarm clock.

Sleep tight, all you sweet people, sorry you don’t have a holiday tomorrow.

Ciao…

Comments (9)

>Cutting Class.

April 28, 2009 at 11:41 am · Filed under house cleaning, photographs, routine, sisters, sleep, the alarm clock, the animals, therapy

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The alarm clock woke me at eight AM this morning, which is really a good sign, because it means I’m sleeping well and would probably sleep even later if I could.As it turns out, I think the bed is a much better place for me to sleep in than the sofa was to sleep on, as I am really more comfortable and sleep deeper and steadier and don’t wake up with aches and pains.

Nouri keeps me company by laying right beside my pillows and there is always at least one other cat laying on top of me. The Überhund sleeps on his pillow beside the bed. It’s all very cozy and you see that the animals do like your company and seek it out.

So, after I got up, I did my slow waking up routine, which includes petting the dog while he sits between my legs and goes into ecstasy, because he loves to have his ears scratched. Then he barked at me, because he wanted to eat. It was his eating bark, which is high pitched and kind of urgent.

I made cigarettes, a whole pack full, and had another coffee and then got dressed and walked the dog in the rain and got very wet. Considering I had to get on my bike and go to the clinic, this did not make me very happy and I wished for it to stop raining, which it did not.

I gathered my things together and was ten minutes away from leaving, when I decided not to go, and it was only partially due to the weather. I suddenly chickened out and thought that I would feel more comfortable if I met the new therapist first and investigate the new work space, so I would not suddenly find myself in a strange place with a new therapist whom I did not know.

Somehow, this way of thinking seemed logical to me and it gave me a way out and I realized that I had been feeling a bit of pressure about it all that I was ignoring. I’m really not a very brave person and imagine all sorts of uncomfortable scenarios in my head before I have to start a new venture. I’d rather make sure everything is safe ahead of time and soothe my own mind.

This left me perfectly nicely dressed and made up unexpectedly at home, so I gave myself some computer time, but I will follow it up with house cleaning time. I think I will finally vacuum the living room, because it’s been ages since that’s been done, and I will hang up laundry to dry and I will dust. Then I will do whatever other kind of job I have the energy and motivation for, I will make many dents in an otherwise seemingly impossible task.

My sister just called to tell me that she got a terrible case of the stomach flu at both ends for two hours straight and that she now feels completely washed up and weak. It almost sounds like food poisoning, but she has not eaten anything out of the ordinary and no one else is sick. She was supposed to go to work today too. Poor thing.

I think I will start my work in the kitchen and get that area cleaned up first. I do have some dishes to do and some sweeping to do as well. Somehow I always feel better if the kitchen is under control. Then I have a clean base to work from. The cats won’t like me dragging out the vacuum cleaner, but it can’t be helped. It must be done. Especially the furniture needs a good cleaning.

Well, wish me luck and a lot of muscle power and endurance. Hopefully I’ll get far today.