Birthday presents of a different sort

Hey everyone!  I thought of something really unusual but fun to do for my birthday.  In honor of celebrating my 29 years next week, I am challenging myself to do 29 random acts of kindness by Thanksgiving.  I’m hoping that not only could this interesting, but it will also be satisfying and inspiring to myself and others.

Here’s where you come in.  For my birthday this year, I want you to do this with me.  Puh-puh-paleeeasse?  I’m leaving the amount of acts up to you.  You can do 29, too.  If you’re younger, feel free to go with your own age to make it more personal.  If you’re older, no pressure to take on more than you’d like.  The point is for this to be fun and achievable – and hopefully it becomes contagious!  We could all use more good news in our day.  Help create it and move it forward.

Document what you do because you want to keep track, but I also want to hear (or see if you take pictures) about what you’re doing.  Don’t over-think it.  If you want to keep a list, do that.  If you want to start taking photos of some of these things, do that too.   This isn’t supposed to be so complicated that we find reasons to talk ourselves out of it.  Spreading kindness is supposed to be simple.  As it should be.

And did I mention that you should have lots of fun with this?  You all just might make the me happiest girl in the world if you do this, too.

Inspired

Maybe it’s the warmer weather or the longer days throwing me into this mood to come out of hibernation and do something productive, but lately I’m definitely inspired.  It’s time to use this inspiration and channel the worries of the world into something great.

My amazing cousin Katy is just 6 months older than me.  I’ve always considered us to have a close relationship even though our distance between houses has never been shorter than an 8 hour drive.  My dad once observed that she and I just pick right back where we were the last time without skipping a beat.  Katy was always the honor student, the athlete, the stylish one.  She was also my pen pal, my fellow explorer, my slumber party host, and one of the best friends I’ve ever had.  Katy now is battling melanoma, which has put everything else in life on hold.  Clearly cancer doesn’t discriminate because if it did, it would have backed away from someone who the world needed many more of.

Katy has been going through her treatments and documenting it all on Twitter and CaringBridge.  I’ve kept up with all of it and never once have I come across a complaint she’s made.  Actually, if I could make a complaint here, I would say that she doesn’t complain enough.  It’s starting to make the rest of us complainers feel bad. 

If anyone can kick cancer’s ass it’s this chick because she’s unrelenting at tackling any obstacle that ever comes in her path.  I’ve been thinking of ways to help show support and I’ve come across my new project.  I’m going to make bracelets for her family and friends to wear to honor her fight.  I also hope that she can feel the solidarity because I’ve been reading the message boards and it’s heartbreaking how isolated so many people report feeling during their fight.  I’m going shopping tonight in search of materials for a prototype.  Stay tuned for pictures to come!

If any of my most excellent readers (that’s you!) have any tips on making bracelets, or suggestions for other ways to make use of this inspiration  (particularly with melanoma awareness or fund-raising), shoot ‘em my way!

Be happy and be healthy!

Basta Cosi

I’m thankful to have a job.  Even with as much as I complain about it, really, I am thankful.  Lately I’ve been wondering about how much of my own sanity I should sacrifice for it, though.  There are too many greedy people who I deal with daily who have lost sight of what is really important in life – the free stuff.

So here I am, trying to rationalize why I’m not creating a faux sickness, cashing in on my 2 weeks accrued vacation, and looking for jobs online while on tour visiting friends and family (biggest argument against it:  bad juju to be messing with when I don’t have the best genetic makeup anyways.  Also, there’s my conscience saying “You’re better than that!” each time I think of this).  An alternative course of action would be to summon the best of my creativity to reinvent the most dramatic and awe-inspiring “I Quit!” scene there ever was.  In this plan, I go to work at Barnes and Noble where I can be surrounded by books, music, and happy people (the mind remembers what it wants about working in retail).

Alas, I will trudge in my heavy winter coat (or will it be warm tomorrow?  Who knows these days), scrape the ice off my windshield, procrastinating however I may until 7:53 when I can do nothing more than drive to work, sit in my sad cube (imagine Pam’s desk from The Office and then cringe with me), and try to find value in doing clerical work and helping computer-illiterate people find our website over the phone.

Like any aspiring optimist, I try to find joy and humor wherever I can.  Brad, hairstylist and gossip confidant, sighed with me as I told him about Aaron and my trip to NYC last month.  Brad and I get along for a number of reasons:  First, he has a picture of himself with Nick Arosio from TLC’s “What Not To Wear”, which I used to watch religiously.  Also, he loves The Golden Girls (even dressed up with his friends as the fabulous ladies for Halloween).  And to wrap it up, we both love love love Paris, New York, and David Sedaris.  Sigh…

I haven’t had my hair cut regularly, or semi-regularly since I was a kid, but now that I do it has almost become a luxury that I allow myself.  It’s $35 every 8-weeks but also a built-in therapy session.  I get to look good and decompress at the end of the day.  And just when I was feeling great and ready to head home tonight, I noticed the cashier/host/booking boy’s neck tattoo which was written in flowy script, “In Your Face, World“.  This guy wasn’t built like a bouncer or intimidating, ready to stand up in the world’s face.  He said he got it in his early 20′s when he was in a different place in life and just thought “Who cares!” (I may know a thing about that…only I was 18…).  Well, whether or not he regrets his message to the world, it was like a billboard to me saying “HELLO ABBY!  Stop taking things so seriously and just chill out!”.

Take it however you want, but I hope you too find an unexpected billboard to help you through your week.  And remember folks, let’s not take ourselves too seriously, eh?

PS – I started a book club on Jan. 3.  There are 4 women so far and we’re reading “Committed” by Elizabeth Gilbert.  Feel free to read along if you are looking for inspiration via book.

Finding My Zen

In the last month or so I’ve had bizarre and seemingly random things happening to my health.  $410 in doctors visits and a wide range of tests have determined that they are unable to determine a cause at all.

I am currently treating an eye inflammation that is caused by an auto-immune reaction.  It’s rare to have it once if you don’t have a chronic auto-immune disease and I’ve had it four times now.  Both doctors and residents at the research hospital have had a field day fishing for causes.  I’m happy that they couldn’t find anything wrong, but if it’s not the 30+ culprits that they tested me for, then what’s causing the body to freak out?

I decided to be proactive and not sit around waiting for the next referral or lab work.

After researching on the internet, I had an “Aha!” moment.  Auto-immune reactions can be triggered by stress.  This is a start!  The eye inflammation is auto-immune, and the swollen lymph glands can be tied to that as well.  And then there’s the giant knot of tension in my left shoulder that has been hurting like hell. Life is great, but (other than my depleting NYC budget due to health care costs) there is one thing eating me alive with stress:  My job.

More “Aha!” Moments

Although I’m happy in other aspects of my life, I have recently had another “Aha!” moment when I thought about my own life.  I hold the weight of the world on my shoulders every day, and although it’s what I’m used to and what I expect of myself, it’s far from healthy.

I used my Groupon to enjoy a 90-minute massage at Massage Envy.  Afterwards the masseuse informed me that the knot of tension in my left shoulder was much larger than normal, and it was constricting the blood flow to my arm, causing the mysterious pain, numbness and tingling I had been experiencing.  Wow.

She clearly missed the rusty Honda Civic that I rode in on, because she recommended I come in every other week for treatments.  Oh, to have that kind of money!

When I went back to my family doctor for a follow-up, my most recent resident grinned from ear to ear as he gave a big goofy wave from down the hall and then addressed me by my name.  This resident has developed a particular lust over my medical chart and unusual family history, so he and I have great, enthusiastic conversations over things like bone spurs, MRIs and other romantic medical topics.  It actually goes both ways because I was a biology minor in college and I do love talking in medical jargon about my health.  I told him how the massage went and he felt the knot.  Still there, still knotty.  It amazes me how shocked these professionals get when they jab their fingers into it.  He said he couldn’t feel a difference between the muscle and bone.  Oops.  I’ve since named the knot “Lulu” after the woman at work who makes my life hell.

Now that it has a name, it’s time to do something about my livelihood because, frankly, it’s killing me.  And not even killing me in a fun way, like living a rock and roll lifestyle.

So I’m taking a stand and…

Changing what I can

I adjusted my schedule and despite the initial hesitation from my supervisor, I now leave work 15 minutes early on Tuesdays (doesn’t seem like much, but is a lot to ask here in Crazyland, LLC.).  This is when I attend a “restorative” yoga class.  As it turns out, this is just what I needed!  We spend 75 minutes after work in a fairly dark studio listening to relaxing music while contorting ourselves into poses that allow gravity to stretch us out and free us from stress and tension.  It definitely hurts-so-good.  We slump our shoulders so much in the day, hunched over keyboards and staring at computer screens.  This type of yoga helps to restore the body to a healthy frame.   You don’t realize how much you need this until you’re laying on the yoga blocks for the first 10 minutes of class, I’m telling you.  Look into it!

Since I’ve been working to eliminate what stress I can from my life and restore my mind and body, I’ve noticed huge differences!  I’m much happier and I’m making a solid effort to explore and improve my life in all aspects.

• I’ve found a love for English black tea
• I bought amazing curtains in the clearance section at Target for just $7 and the retail therapy worked wonders on my living room karma (c’mon-they’re high quality AND they match my sage green accent walls perfectly!).
• I’m working on taking longer walks with the dog and enjoying the fresh air just a little longer than normal (a huge oversight believe it or not!)
• I have had great adventures around my beloved town of Carrboro this past weekend and though I’ve recently decided that I may in fact want to move to Brooklyn within the next year (yeah-surprise!), I’m so happy with my spot on the map in the here and now.

Other great news – In 70 days I will land in my soul-mate city and the amazing 5 days that I hope will never end will in fact begin.  I would say I’m a pretty fortunate gal.