Daily affirmations of a word mercenary
Happiness & Health Category
“Happiness and health to you on whatever path you chose” used to be the sign off line at the magazine I worked for back in the ’90s. Now it’s the category name for all my mental and physical health-related posts.
Unplugged Night #28: Shambhala Music Festival
12
Aug
2008
In: 52 Nights Unplugged, Happiness & Health, Trip Out
I spent this last weekend at my favorite festival in the whole wide world: Shambhala. The sad news this year was that Dre couldn’t go due to having used all his vacation time with family this spring. The good news was that I was there with over a dozen of my closest beloveds so while I missed my MOST beloved, it was still a great time. Plus, I got to ride in style, making the 8+ hour drive to the festival in a friend’s RV. Classy!
The RV was extra awesome because on the way home I came down with the worst stomach bug I’ve had in years, and it was really convenient to be able to barf in the RV rather than hitting every rest stop between Nelson, BC and Seattle. Ug. If this past weekend was a high point of the year, the two days since have been the low point. Barfing and crying is a really pathetic combination.
Thankfully, I’m finally on the mend and managed to eat half a bowl of pho and keep it down this evening! Then I left the house for the first time in 48 hours, leaning on Andreas and creaking around the block like an old man missing his orthotics.
- 3 Comments
- Tags: canada, health, shambhala
Summer Pierre’s acts of power
4
Aug
2008
In: Happiness & Health
- 1 Comment
- Tags: art, bravery, summer pierre
Compartmentalizing
31
May
2008
In: Happiness & Health
What are your techniques for compartmentalizing experiences?
Here’s why I ask: Yesterday was 75% crazy awesome, with 25% deep suck thrown in. Dance class! Conference call with some producers who I might work with on a TV project! Arrangements made for trip to Portland this weekend for a sponsored journalistic jaunt! Shitty news filled with lots of big potentially life-changing unknowns! Then it’s off to a delicious fancy dinner with friends to celebrate one of them becoming a writer in residence for a local literary organization!
How can one not let super shitty news dampen what is otherwise an awesome day? My technique involved crying in the bathroom for five minutes and then just making the choice: I AM NOT WORRYING ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW. How do you do it?
- 12 Comments
- Tags: emotions, how-to, question
Lasik, 18 months later
24
Jan
2008
In: Happiness & Health
I’m finally admitting to myself that my post-Lasik vision of 20/40 in my right eye is a little problematic for stuff like long hours of computer work and movies. I could go back and get that eye touched up with a laser, but honestly it’s just not bad enough to justify the risk/discomfort — how stupid would I feel if something went wrong and I was like, “Oh, where did my right eyeball go? Well, I couldn’t quite read street signs 100 yards away, so I did another round of Lasik…” It’s totally not noticeable when I’m puttering around daily life. But when I’m working for eight hours, I start to notice that the wee fonts aren’t so crisp …
So I’m making an appointment with my beloved friends at Eyes on Fremont and going in to get a pair of “sometimes” glasses. I will admit that I’m actually a little excited. I’ve missed my funky frames. I will also admit that I’m a little worried I’ll get re-dependent on glasses, once I remember just how crisp corrected vision can be.
But regardless, I got no regrets about the lasik. 20/40 as compared to whatever I was before (my contacts were -5.25) is no biggie.
- 7 Comments
- Tags: glasses, lasik, vision
Trough love
15
Jan
2008
In: Happiness & Health
Fuck yeah for hibernation season. I’ve got a nice quiet routine these days, what with Mondays spent working on offbeatbride.com, Tues-Wed-Thurs at work, and Fridays focused on relaxing and being my own trophy wife. I wake up without an alarm most days. I take the dog out for a walk every morning at 8:30 and every night at 5:30. I drink a lot of tea. I take naps. My commute is the easiest I’ve ever had. I’m lessening my compulsive need to answer every random email I receive. There’s a blanket and two pillows on the couch, and I let the phone calls go to voicemail.
This laziness is hard earned. I’m trying to break out of my well-honed habit of keeping myself super busy as a technique to avoid thinking about anything bad.
My pattern typically goes something like this: Busy! … ZOMG, SO STRESSED! Slow down? Aww: depressed. GET BUSY! (repeat)
As far as mind-fucks go, it’s quite productive. But the result was a state of chronic anxiety and (even worse) not much satisfaction from what I was accomplishing.
Last year, I started making a concerted effort to do less, and enjoy it more. Tentatively, I’ll say that it seems to be working. After several years of pushing myself and all my projects as fast and far as they could go, I find myself contented to work part time, aim low, and sleep a lot. I’m in an energetic trough, and it feels awesome down here.
- 6 Comments
- Tags: relaxation, stress, winter
Recipe for a sick day
11
Jan
2008
In: Happiness & Health
I’ve got some gentle illness, a combination of a deep cough, general malaise, and slight headache. Here’s my recipe for this particular sick day:
Pink sweatpants
Pink t-shirt
Wool socks
Unbrushed hair
High School Musical 2, Season 2 of Buffy, and Zoo
Tomato soup and toast
Dirty sheets
Andreas will be home soon, and I will stay quietly out of his way. He’s had more than enough to deal with this week, having spent the last couple days in Spokane with his step-mother, who just had some super intense cancer surgery. While he was there, Dre got the news from his mom that some close family friends drowned recently. Thankfully, me and my pink sweatpants and gentle illness don’t even register on the “bad news” scale by comparison, and so we will just watch High School Musical 2 quietly and try to not be a bother and be happy that we are going to be just fine.
- 5 Comments
- Tags: family, illness
What’s that strange feeling?
13
Dec
2007
In: Happiness & Health
Why, I believe it’s called contentment. What an unfamiliar, pleasant sensation!
- 3 Comments
- Tags: life, satisfied
FAQ: Vegan vs. Vegetarian
12
Nov
2007
In: Happiness & Health
You are vegetarian and Dre is a vegan — would love to hear more about your history/path to those choices, and also more about the practical aspects (since Dre is vegan I assume all home-cooked meals are vegan?) Any favorite cookbooks you use?
Ah yes. The joy of being married to someone with a different special needs diet. First, to clarify, I should point out that I eat fish, and therefore am not vegetarian. This makes me an ovo-lacto pescatarian or something. Andreas, meanwhile, has been vegan for 13 years.
Here’s a little window into eating at the Cheateau Fetzllings:
Read the rest of this entry »
- 16 Comments
- Tags: cooking, diet, faq, food, relationship, vegan, vegetarian
Self-medication
5
Sep
2007
In: Happiness & Health
Over the weekend Andreas worked out a little too hard and hurt himself. He’s got some gnarly fucked up muscle in his right neck/shoulder area, and although he’s still not sure what caused it (running in prep for the Seattle marathon? acro class last week? something at the gym? project management muscle strain at work? who can keep track of all his jocking out!) he’s been gimping around all week.
He’s been doing that thing where instead of turning his head, he turns his entire torso … sort of like C3P0, but with more grimacing and less of an accent. He’s also been gobbling ibuprofin, but he’s clearly still in a lot of pain and wakes up a lot at night and it’s very, very sad. No amount of massages from me seem to help, and in fact two nights ago he pointed to this weird solid mass on his shoulder and said, “Is this a bone or a muscle?” I had to report that sadly that it was a muscle.
Last night I came home from a delightful dinner with my Evil Twin and found Andreas grinning in the kitchen.
“You’re finally feeling better!” I said, giving him a big hug and noticing the lack of C3P0-ness.
He nodded and explained that he’d been in a lot of pain when he got home, and was trying to think what might make him feel better.
He slurred at me, “And then I realized, DRINKING! Drinking would make my neck stop hurting.”
I gave him my best dubious-wife look. Grinning loopily with glazed half-lidded eyes, he reported, “And so I drank a bunch of wine, and now I feel good!!” Then he toddled off to the bedroom and feel asleep at 9:30pm. This morning he reported that the shoulder felt better.
Take note of this, aspiring physical therapists: apparently three-fourths of a $3 bottle of leftover Charles Shaw Merlot will work miracles.
- 5 Comments
- Tags: alcohol, andreas, injury, wine
Recovering
17
Aug
2007
In: Happiness & Health
Getting over surgery AND a headcold at the same time is lame. But I’ll get there.
- 0 Comments
- Tags: illness, surgery
Unplugged Night #28: Shambhala Music Festival
12 Aug 2008 In: 52 Nights Unplugged, Happiness & Health, Trip OutI spent this last weekend at my favorite festival in the whole wide world: Shambhala. The sad news this year was that Dre couldn’t go due to having used all his vacation time with family this spring. The good news was that I was there with over a dozen of my closest beloveds so while I missed my MOST beloved, it was still a great time. Plus, I got to ride in style, making the 8+ hour drive to the festival in a friend’s RV. Classy!
The RV was extra awesome because on the way home I came down with the worst stomach bug I’ve had in years, and it was really convenient to be able to barf in the RV rather than hitting every rest stop between Nelson, BC and Seattle. Ug. If this past weekend was a high point of the year, the two days since have been the low point. Barfing and crying is a really pathetic combination.
Thankfully, I’m finally on the mend and managed to eat half a bowl of pho and keep it down this evening! Then I left the house for the first time in 48 hours, leaning on Andreas and creaking around the block like an old man missing his orthotics.
- 3 Comments
- Tags: canada, health, shambhala
Summer Pierre’s acts of power
4 Aug 2008 In: Happiness & Health
- 1 Comment
- Tags: art, bravery, summer pierre
Compartmentalizing
31 May 2008 In: Happiness & HealthWhat are your techniques for compartmentalizing experiences?
Here’s why I ask: Yesterday was 75% crazy awesome, with 25% deep suck thrown in. Dance class! Conference call with some producers who I might work with on a TV project! Arrangements made for trip to Portland this weekend for a sponsored journalistic jaunt! Shitty news filled with lots of big potentially life-changing unknowns! Then it’s off to a delicious fancy dinner with friends to celebrate one of them becoming a writer in residence for a local literary organization!
How can one not let super shitty news dampen what is otherwise an awesome day? My technique involved crying in the bathroom for five minutes and then just making the choice: I AM NOT WORRYING ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW. How do you do it?
- 12 Comments
- Tags: emotions, how-to, question
Lasik, 18 months later
24 Jan 2008 In: Happiness & HealthI’m finally admitting to myself that my post-Lasik vision of 20/40 in my right eye is a little problematic for stuff like long hours of computer work and movies. I could go back and get that eye touched up with a laser, but honestly it’s just not bad enough to justify the risk/discomfort — how stupid would I feel if something went wrong and I was like, “Oh, where did my right eyeball go? Well, I couldn’t quite read street signs 100 yards away, so I did another round of Lasik…” It’s totally not noticeable when I’m puttering around daily life. But when I’m working for eight hours, I start to notice that the wee fonts aren’t so crisp …
So I’m making an appointment with my beloved friends at Eyes on Fremont and going in to get a pair of “sometimes” glasses. I will admit that I’m actually a little excited. I’ve missed my funky frames. I will also admit that I’m a little worried I’ll get re-dependent on glasses, once I remember just how crisp corrected vision can be.
But regardless, I got no regrets about the lasik. 20/40 as compared to whatever I was before (my contacts were -5.25) is no biggie.
- 7 Comments
- Tags: glasses, lasik, vision
Trough love
15 Jan 2008 In: Happiness & HealthFuck yeah for hibernation season. I’ve got a nice quiet routine these days, what with Mondays spent working on offbeatbride.com, Tues-Wed-Thurs at work, and Fridays focused on relaxing and being my own trophy wife. I wake up without an alarm most days. I take the dog out for a walk every morning at 8:30 and every night at 5:30. I drink a lot of tea. I take naps. My commute is the easiest I’ve ever had. I’m lessening my compulsive need to answer every random email I receive. There’s a blanket and two pillows on the couch, and I let the phone calls go to voicemail.
This laziness is hard earned. I’m trying to break out of my well-honed habit of keeping myself super busy as a technique to avoid thinking about anything bad.
My pattern typically goes something like this: Busy! … ZOMG, SO STRESSED! Slow down? Aww: depressed. GET BUSY! (repeat)
As far as mind-fucks go, it’s quite productive. But the result was a state of chronic anxiety and (even worse) not much satisfaction from what I was accomplishing.
Last year, I started making a concerted effort to do less, and enjoy it more. Tentatively, I’ll say that it seems to be working. After several years of pushing myself and all my projects as fast and far as they could go, I find myself contented to work part time, aim low, and sleep a lot. I’m in an energetic trough, and it feels awesome down here.
- 6 Comments
- Tags: relaxation, stress, winter
Recipe for a sick day
11 Jan 2008 In: Happiness & HealthI’ve got some gentle illness, a combination of a deep cough, general malaise, and slight headache. Here’s my recipe for this particular sick day:
Pink sweatpants
Pink t-shirt
Wool socks
Unbrushed hair
High School Musical 2, Season 2 of Buffy, and Zoo
Tomato soup and toast
Dirty sheets
Andreas will be home soon, and I will stay quietly out of his way. He’s had more than enough to deal with this week, having spent the last couple days in Spokane with his step-mother, who just had some super intense cancer surgery. While he was there, Dre got the news from his mom that some close family friends drowned recently. Thankfully, me and my pink sweatpants and gentle illness don’t even register on the “bad news” scale by comparison, and so we will just watch High School Musical 2 quietly and try to not be a bother and be happy that we are going to be just fine.
- 5 Comments
- Tags: family, illness
What’s that strange feeling?
13 Dec 2007 In: Happiness & HealthWhy, I believe it’s called contentment. What an unfamiliar, pleasant sensation!
- 3 Comments
- Tags: life, satisfied
FAQ: Vegan vs. Vegetarian
12 Nov 2007 In: Happiness & HealthYou are vegetarian and Dre is a vegan — would love to hear more about your history/path to those choices, and also more about the practical aspects (since Dre is vegan I assume all home-cooked meals are vegan?) Any favorite cookbooks you use?
Ah yes. The joy of being married to someone with a different special needs diet. First, to clarify, I should point out that I eat fish, and therefore am not vegetarian. This makes me an ovo-lacto pescatarian or something. Andreas, meanwhile, has been vegan for 13 years.
Here’s a little window into eating at the Cheateau Fetzllings:
Read the rest of this entry »
- 16 Comments
- Tags: cooking, diet, faq, food, relationship, vegan, vegetarian
Self-medication
5 Sep 2007 In: Happiness & HealthOver the weekend Andreas worked out a little too hard and hurt himself. He’s got some gnarly fucked up muscle in his right neck/shoulder area, and although he’s still not sure what caused it (running in prep for the Seattle marathon? acro class last week? something at the gym? project management muscle strain at work? who can keep track of all his jocking out!) he’s been gimping around all week.
He’s been doing that thing where instead of turning his head, he turns his entire torso … sort of like C3P0, but with more grimacing and less of an accent. He’s also been gobbling ibuprofin, but he’s clearly still in a lot of pain and wakes up a lot at night and it’s very, very sad. No amount of massages from me seem to help, and in fact two nights ago he pointed to this weird solid mass on his shoulder and said, “Is this a bone or a muscle?” I had to report that sadly that it was a muscle.
Last night I came home from a delightful dinner with my Evil Twin and found Andreas grinning in the kitchen.
“You’re finally feeling better!” I said, giving him a big hug and noticing the lack of C3P0-ness.
He nodded and explained that he’d been in a lot of pain when he got home, and was trying to think what might make him feel better.
He slurred at me, “And then I realized, DRINKING! Drinking would make my neck stop hurting.”
I gave him my best dubious-wife look. Grinning loopily with glazed half-lidded eyes, he reported, “And so I drank a bunch of wine, and now I feel good!!” Then he toddled off to the bedroom and feel asleep at 9:30pm. This morning he reported that the shoulder felt better.
Take note of this, aspiring physical therapists: apparently three-fourths of a $3 bottle of leftover Charles Shaw Merlot will work miracles.
- 5 Comments
- Tags: alcohol, andreas, injury, wine
Recovering
17 Aug 2007 In: Happiness & HealthGetting over surgery AND a headcold at the same time is lame. But I’ll get there.
- 0 Comments
- Tags: illness, surgery
Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
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