There have been a series of things this week conspiring against many of my plans. Could be a planet alignment or karma or bad luck or just the way it goes sometimes. Things like a laptop battery at less than 5% when I met my writing friend for a 3-hour writing session (luckily there was an outlet available at
Common Ground and luckily I had my power cord). Or the check to the phone company which bounced despite the money being in the bank and ending up without outgoing phone or internet service (quickly remedied - but still a pain and couldn't be taken care of when it was discovered at 10:00 at night). Or leaving home 15 minutes early to make sure morning rush hour traffic didn't make me late, only to end up stuck on a bridge due to an accident on the other side after avoiding the construction on my usual route which was forcing everyone to one lane and avoiding the other two possible bridges due to accidents announced on the radio; yes I was late and it took me 70 minutes to make the 35-40 minute drive. And more.
My point? It's been a trying week. When I was woken up by the phone company at 7:30 this morning, telling me that the phone problems I'd discovered last night were due to the bouncing but shouldn't have check, I was not happy. That was that proverbial final straw. Life sucked. Everything was conspiring against me. All I would ever have is struggle and I was sick of it.
I lay in bed, pulled up the covers, and stuck out my lower lip.
Then I thought: maybe I should try going for a swim instead of moping. Naw. Too much trouble and what's the point, anyway? But maybe, I thought. Just maybe, it would help at least take the edge of my growing grumpiness.
I cajoled and pleaded and promised myself an East Indian Tofu Ranchero breakfast at
Old Wives' Tales if I went. And I sent a text message to my workout buddy about my struggle to deal with the stress in my new way and even better, by swimming (a walk would have been good, too; but my body likes swimming and it's a nice balance for my work). She sent back words of encouragement and, with that, I was able to finally drag myself into the bathroom to put on my swimsuit, then clothes over, grab the other things I needed, and get to the gym.
About 44 laps later (I was going for a mile, but there was a water workout class that came in before I hit the 60 lap mark) I got out, showered, and went to my car feeling better than when I went in. I felt physically better and my energy had improved; I was still emotionally upset, but at least I wasn't trapping it in my body. An improvement, but still grumpiness reigned.
I kept my promise of the rancheros and looked over my plan for tonight's T:BA:08 events. The first one received a rave review from
Mead Hunter, a local dramaturg, so I thought it would be good. And the grumpies were putting a damper on last week's excitement about T:BA finally being here.
Only five minutes into that first event,
BUILT, all of the grumps took a serious back seat. Some live performance - and interactive at that - mixed with a small self-selected crowd (reservations required, even for us pass holders), and my creativity and sense of life returned. I didn't forget about the other little things, but they did become little.
More about T:BA soon. But, for now, I have my missing piece: performance/theater/dance/art back and that, coupled with some exercise, improved not only my mood but my entire outlook on life.
...now if I could just bottle this...
