Hot Pink: The Weekly Hodgepodge

Want to join the party?  Go on over to From This Side of the Pond  for the Hodgepodge link-up!

June 23rd is National Pink Day. What's your favorite something pink?

Flowers. 

What did you enjoy most about gym class when you were in school? How about the least?

Being the biggest girl in class made enjoying PE difficult.  I wish I could have found the fun in exercise as I do now.  Oh well, water under a very old bridge.

What memory is brought to mind by the smell of roses?

The smell of roses brings the beauty of Spring to mind.  Spring...that beautiful season when everything is new, fresh and beautiful.  I wish the new year started on March 21st instead of January 1st.  I'm not thinking of starting new in the dead of winter; I'm thinking of staying bundled up in bed.

Do you prefer to read or write?

I love both, so I can't choose between the two.  Reading the thoughts of others inspires my own creativity with words.

Sam Keen is quoted as saying, 'Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.' Would you agree? Is laziness ever respectable? How will you be lazy this summer?

I don't think laziness is the proper word for what Keen was referring to.  To be lazy means to be "averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion."  What I see happening during the summer is people working even harder on vacation/staycation instead of relaxing.  Then, they are tired and irritable when they go back to work and/or normal life and spend their time posting on social media how they hate their job/life and wish they were back at Location X.  Rather sad, really.

I know it sounds odd for me to say, but I need to find ways to include relaxation into my life.  I don't know how to just relax.  I know how to sleep, but we all know that sleep doesn't always equal relaxation.  My life seems at a constant level of intense where I have to always be doing something.  Can't let anyone think I'm sitting around doing nothing all day.

At Ft. Walton in 1990

The Florida Keys, Disney World, or a resort somewhere on the Gulf Coast...which Florida destination would you choose (and why) if the trip were today?

Although I do eventually want to visit Disney Word, if the trip was today, I'd go to Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  I went there 25 years ago with the Marching Southerners to perform at a band competition.  That was the first time I'd ever been to the beach.  It was such a whirlwind trip that I didn't really get to enjoy relaxing on the beach like I wanted to, so I really want to go back.

What question do you hate to answer?

Two come to mind:  So what do you do? and What kind of a job are you looking for?  People think that because I don't yet have a conventional job, that I don't DO anything.  That couldn't be further from the truth.  Even if I list what I do during the week, people took at me like a lava lamp.  If I got paid for what I actually do, I'd be a gozillionaire.   People just don't get it.  Just because I'm not yet paid for what I do doesn't make it worthless and "not real work."

Another dreaded question is when people ask me what kind of job I'm looking for.  First, why do you want to know?  Most people who ask me don't have any leads or prospects to any jobs; they're being nosy or just don't have anything better to ask.  Is saying "how are you?" and actually caring about the answer too hard?  Second, if I really told people what kind of job I really wanted, they'd crap their pants.  There's nothing wrong with what I want, but I also know better than to draw the ire and disbelief that I would dare want something better for myself and employment that I enjoy.  So, I'm very vague, or I redirect the question to something else. 

Insert your own random thought here.

I've been home from the Journey Training for a week, and it feels like a year.  I'm going through withdrawal.  I miss Tulsa.  I miss my new forever friends who love me unconditionally.  I miss them being in my face with encouragement.  I've had to go back into the land of "who cares."  The difference is that I'm working to cope in more constructive ways.  Monday, I was feeling really down (a combo of circumstances and the dark cloud of depression that comes from nowhere).  I wanted to eat it away so badly.  Instead, I went for a walk/run.  Yesterday was more of the same, but less of it, so I coped the same way.  I refuse to let all these wonderful changes go to waste.