Meditation

It is pretty much mania at work just now. Particularly today, now that my boss has gone on maternity leave, one of the guys is on leave to go skiing for a week, and the last member of my team is, well, not here. That makes me the whole academic team (I work for a university). It's been really fun. Really.

So I have taken up the first of my challenges today. According to Jacob, I am required to "meditate for a minimum of 10 minutes a day", so I decided to take a dedicated 'time out' out of working day to try and do that.

Yeah, that worked out well.

Lesson 1: Meditation is hard. What's up with that? Isn't it just sitting with your legs crossed and thinking of nothing? Climbing into the void? Swimming in the colours?

I went up to the rooftop level, empty of students, and sat on a table in the sun, eyes closed, back straight, breathing slow. The sun's warmth on my skin was a welcome visitor. I heard the vents humming. I heard the crane beeping. Then I remembered there was a camera on the roof and thought of the guys in security watching me. A siren wailed from down on the street. I wondered if my timer was working. I fiddled with my phone for a bit to check.

So. I did ok for what I figured to be around 8 minutes, but ultimately I tried and failed on Day 1. That's ok. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare. I like that this is something I have to unexpectedly learn, and not just immediately be able to do.

I expect this will also come in handy when trying to switch off the notion of how I'm going to complete everything else on my list... which I will post as a separate page shortly.

Nerves...

I have been too busy to blog lately. Sorry about that. Some stuff happened and I sent the rest of the postcards and I'll scan them and post them here soon. And now it's totally my birthday. Today! Damn straight! I got some brilliant presents and ate a caramel cheesecake and all in all have been very spoiled so far. Ben and I are going out for dinner tonight, to one of the lovely little posh looking restaurants mere stumbling distance from home, and will probably consume far too much wine, which will be a great time to come home and wade through the postcards that have piled up in the Forbidden Drawer of Destiny. I will post again. Oh yes.

Milk

Remember that thing I said about milk cartons a few posts ago? Yeah.



(I know it's blurry, but the date is accurate)

FLOSS

Ben asked if there were any challenges I was expecting to receive. I had to think about it, but no, not really. He thinks somebody else will come up with his idea, because apparently it is "a bit obvious". I said that it might be obvious to him, not necessarily anyone else.

That got the brain cogs turning, and I must admit that I have a few things in mind that I'd like to receive. That doesn't mean I expect anyone to come up with them. I "stole and embellished" this idea from a friend who did a similar thing to this in London, and some of her challenges were fantastic. I don't want to list anything before I see the postcards, but I'm starting to think that I might start a list too, and anything that doesn't get hit by my magic 29 will give me some things to do after I turn 30.

Not all of them are very exciting. For some reason I got this image in my head of somebody just writing the word FLOSS in giant letters on the back of the postcard. I really need to take better care of my gums.

The random pursuit of happiness

Somebody posted a link on Facebook yesterday which was a survey that a friend of theirs had put together for their psychology degree. It was trying to gauge the effect of Facebook use on our general psychological well being. Being a sucker for a good quiz and also underwhelmed with my work situation at the moment, I took 10 minutes out of my day to fill it in. By the time I got to the end of it, I realised: this is probably the happiest I've ever been in my life. Frankly I don't think Facebook has had much to do with it, but it was a lovely realisation nevertheless. I mean, I knew I was contented, but considering how messy my emotions have known to be in the past, this is not only reassuring but inspiring - knowing I've followed my heart and head in the correct measures, and ended up here. Life is good, and beautiful, and real.

My large and vibrant circle of friends are a big part of this. Last night I had 2 separate friends sell the virtues of 2 of my other friends; each one proclaiming "how great is So-and-So! She's so wonderful!" and each time I've said "I know! Isn't she just?" and my heart is warmed. Not only because it's cute to see my friends meet and get on so well, but because it is such a direct way of reinforcing how freaking brilliant they all are. So much so, that they are instantly taken with each other. I just love it.

They treat me pretty well, too. While I am not a nervous performer, I do have hella anxiety about certain exterior things, such as "marketing" and "how I should look" (something I deal with by ignoring it completely). The fact my friends are there supporting our humble little band is amazing in itself, and we do really appreciate the after-show banter when they go on about how great we sounded or how we looked like we were having so much fun. But somebody said a strange thing to me last night. She said: "You looked exactly the way you were supposed to look." Me, in my scruffy jeans, dirty cons and lovely old scarf, not feeling beautiful in the slightest, but still apparently looking the part, and being myself.

I'm a very, very lucky person.

I know this post has nothing really to do with the project, but I just thought it would be nice to remember. These are the people who are going to lead me for the next 12 months, and I have every faith in them.

Old skool

I've got some postcard cramming to do in the next week. You may notice my 'creative flare' may decrease more as my desperation kicks in... it just happens that the next five are people from my early (and ongoing) years...

Rondalyn & Kimberly


Mum & Dad


Emma


Sister Eileen Mary


Heath


It's a good thing my parents wouldn't know the internet if it crawled into their kitchen and made itself a cup of tea, because they would be freaking out if they knew I'd posted their photo on it (even if it is circa 1982).

July.

July. Yup. I guess crunch time is coming. I used to think it wasn't really appropriate to get excited about my birthday until I saw the date on a bottle of milk. Milk only stays good for maybe a week or so. I figure a week is sufficient time to get psyched about these things. You don't want to peak too soon.

Holy crap I just looked at the calendar. The 'adventure' starts in exactly 3 weeks. I have been lazy and not done any more postcards. Well, not altogether lazy - there has been moving house and all that to contend with. And it is COLD and my little fingers can't do the fiddly cutting and gluing bits. ... Pity that's such a crap excuse.

I think I've only got 2 postcards back anyway, so it's gonna be a bit dull to start off with. Ben has been speaking to people about it and he tells me he thinks a lot of the challenges are going to be "pretty epic". This scares me a little bit. If any challengers are reading and still short of ideas, could you maybe go for something that I might actually achieve without needing hospitalisation, training or therapy? That'd be nice. Ta.