Adventure #40: It's the Little Things in Life

It's true.

 

We so often look at the big picture.

 

But what does it matter in the here and now?

 

Sure, we all need it in our life.  The planning.  The long-term.  The future.

 

But not right now.  And I didn't have this intention set throughout my Adventure Day, rather, I came to a decision NOW that I need to make more of an effort to appreciate that now is only happening once.  I need to appreciate that now.  And somehow, these random pictures selected throughout my day are allowing me to appreciate this concept of NOW.

 

 

Here it is.  I awake to a pink plate of candy wrappers.  These mere memories of the night before are more than just the sweetness of the candy that they enclosed just hours earlier.  They are my reminder that yes, sweet things can always be present if I make the time and if I cherish them enough.  One of those sweet things is the frequent opportunities I have to Skype my boyfriend almost every night.  He supports me through all the way to the end of tough, long days, whatever may happen (or not happen).  This is such a great reminder as I wake up bright and early and force myself to actually tidy up these left (and almost forgotten) dishes/scraps each morning.  It's the little things.

 

Yes, that's the ceiling fan in my room.  Noticing that it is on when I wake up is a wonderful thing.  It means that at the end of January, Austin temperatures are in the 70's during the days this week.  That is such a lovely thing for heat-seekers like myself.  The fan remained on while I slept last night, and I kept it on while getting ready before work.  It's the little things.

 

 Ok, so today I appreciated the lil red bow ring that I have.  It has character.  It goes with the red bow that I wear so often (I wore it today, just not visible in the picture), AND I acquired the lil bow ring for free.  Why not appreciate the little victories like the fact that I now own something that I pulled off of a cupcake during a birthday celebration at work?!  It's the little things.  (PS--don't you love my hair sticking up in the picture to the right?!  Haha.)

 

So THIS...is me at the end of my Wednesday at work.  It was a long Wednesday.  It was.  But it definitely was an enjoyable Wednesday.  I had the opportunity to be trained as a civic reflection facilitator, and while it was by no means easy, I feel that I grew so much as a discussion leader, as a coach, and as a professional.  I really hope to apply these refined skills in the (near?) future.  It's definitely exciting and motivating, especially when I see the possibilities with my current students or future students in grad school and beyond!  Oh...and the picture above just represents that awesome feeling of getting to drive oneself home (30 minute drive), play whatever one wants on the radio as loud as one wants, and not be rushed in the least (unless you count the rush caused by hunger, because that was very present bout that time!).  It's the little things.

So yes, then I got home and found surprising appreciation in lighting the candle in the living room.  Such a simple, mundane task, but just having one candle lit in my presence soothes me so much.  I really love it.  I've realized that the smell of the candle doesn't matter.  The size doesn't matter.  Just the warm glow of the fire, burning so near to me yet not a threat in the least.  Even the scent after it has been blown out soothes me somehow (and again, the scent itself doesn't matter, I just enjoy that there IS a lingering scent).  It's the little things.

 

And then I take a picture of soup.  Yes, I appreciate a dinner of hot tomato soup.  It's a quick meal.  It's right in front of me.  It's very filling.  It fits into my special diet (I think/hope).  And it's simply one of my favorite things.  Who knew a can of soup could make me so pleased with life in this moment?  It's the little things.

 

Hey.  You should try this practice.  Don't even necessarily set the intention of appreciating the little things in your day.  Just snap pictures and then reflect.  It's at THIS moment that I most needed to pay the extra attention.  And I'm happy to announce that at this moment, I feel happy, calm, and at peace.

 

Thanks for reading.

Right here.

Right NOW.



Adventure #39: Putting Things In Perspective

Today.  Oh what a day.  Yes, an Adventure Day.  But every day lately is such an up and then a down.  Sometimes up again, too.  I had a great day at work.  Yep.  Really.  Nothing extravagantly special except for the usual awesomeness from my students.  Oh--and it was Friday.  But...I had to come home to a whole lotta nothin.  Not cool.  I mean, sure, Saturday I have some plans.  But just one night of not-so-much can set me off sometimes.  I'm just not worn out enough for a nothing night.  Ya know?  Ah well. 

I wanted to have a day of perspective.  I tend to take things too extreme too often. 

Example 1:  Grad school:  boom boom boom, me, me, me, plan, plan, plan.  But hold on a minute--this is an Adventure for me AND Brian.  He'll have just graduated--and I should be considering this along with all of my chaos.  He should find an internship, a job, and everything else he wants out of the next two years.  NOT all me, me, me.

Example 2:  I feel really good today about my stomach.  It's given me issues for ages and my darn optimism so often thinks that I've 'kicked it' and am good to go.  But perspective tells me that it's unlikely and today is not 'for good.'  (Although my appreciation for its good behavior is present nonetheless).

And really it goes on and on.  I thought it might be kind of entertaining to give a different look at perspective as I went throughout my day.  Enjoy the pictures!

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Pajama design

 

 

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Herbs a-growing

 

 

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PB Banana

 

 

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TEA

 

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Jacket

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Laptop (at work)

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Lunch carrots

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Clothespin Project

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iTouch

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TIGHTS

So yes.  How bout putting things in perspective?  Actually thinking about things besides the here and now.  Zoom out a tad.  It helps.  And will continue to help.  And I look forward to it.



Adventure #38: A Grey Day

 

And here we are.  An Adventure Day with every intention of documenting my day with creatively taken photos.  I'm not going to say 'whoops' since I wasn't able to completely follow through with that.  Rather, I'd like to actually establish a rule that I seemed to have followed pretty well so far in the existence of the Adventure Blog:

 

Once a day has been officially deemed an 'Adventure Day' by myself, then it must be so, regardless of circumstances or the number of photos taken.

 

With the above taken into account (and having been created, mostly because I'm stubborn and refuse to designate another day as 'Adventure Day' in the same week), I actually DID take a couple photos, though they are only from my first couple hours into my day.  Here's those photos:

 

It was going to be a 'silly' day.  Not sure how I would classify it after all is said and done...

My herb garden!  I love checking the lil buddies as they sprout
little by little!

Peeked outside, and in fact, without the grey filter I used
when editing, the sky was still pretty grey.



I had a two part breakfast, and I had a kind of 'ice cream'
while still at the apartment.  I had a frozen banana and
peanut butter that I ground up in my food processor.  A
healthy and protein-packed start to my morning!



So yeah, that's as far as I got in my efforts to photograph more of my day, since I intended to take more pictures while at CoFo training.  You know why I didn't get that far?  Because I was majorly distracted.  On the way to St. Edward's, where training is this week, I got a flat tire, meaning that myself and the three others in the carpool yesterday were in quite a situation.  Of course it all ended up ok, and after training was done for the day I got my tire patched up ($7 total!  Thanks Nico!).  The thoroughness of this post is irrelevant though.  My day was definitely full of Adventure while struggling through circumstances and while learning/mingling at training.  More than anything, I learned that I have my CoFo family to lean on, and yesterday I became completely grateful for that.

 

May there be less 'grey days' in my future, but since I know that they are inevitable, perhaps there will be less occurring on Adventure Days.  And regardless of when these days take place, I hope more than anything that my support system will continue to be as empowering as it was yesterday.

 

Tis all for now!  Enjoy your Grey Days and make each worthy of the Adventure that they truly are. 

 

 

Adventure #37: A Picture's Worth 1,000 Words

 

 

A picture is worth 1,000 words.  I’m here to prove that true.  This Adventure Day post is 1,000 words long.  All besides this introduction, for the purpose of describing my day through the eyes of the picture I chose to capture it.  No, this wasn’t my intent because I got lazy and decided I would just take one picture.  Definitely an intentional act, so don’t think otherwise.

 

But here I am.  A Saturday morning, bright and early.  How early?  I’d estimate about 7:15am.  No, not of my own doing.  Believe it or not, my Saturday Adventure Day was a work day in both the morning and evening.  I had a writing workshop to get to, of which I am a workgroup member at CoFo and must be there to provide the delicious Panera donations that I had picked up.  That’s right, a late night venture (but scheduled with Panera, of course) had me driving off the night before to retrieve our breakfast goods to be offered to coaches and students at the workshop.  It was my last time performing such duties, and I found it to be mildly bittersweet because the nighttime drive on a typically undriven route for me was relaxing in a way, and I found myself calmed by the waiting period at the restaurant/bakery while the employee prepared the box of baked items that would have been thrown out otherwise.

 But all of that was a tangent at its best.  Basically, I needed to ensure that I was at the event and there on time—and I assure you that both were achieved.  I followed event dress code and wore my College Forward t-shirt, of which I have two.  In my opinion, Austin is still quite chilly here in January, and I chose to layer up with a long-sleeve white shirt, too.  The big frizzy hair is due to me needing to wash it today, but it behaved itself fairly well with the aid of that thick white headband that I’ve had for ages.  (I probably don’t use it often enough!)  Always matching with my attire/accessories, I popped my green studs in my ears to stick with the day’s CoFo theme.  But wait—a no-toothed smile?  We’ll just blame it on me not having brushed my teeth yet since breakfast was going to be eaten half at home and half on the car ride to work (yep, I ate grapes with my mug of tea at home and then munched on a Panera pastry as I drove to work—I got first choice of the deliciousness!)  I did decide to brush my teeth before heading off to the CoFo office, especially since I didn’t want to scare off Lauren P. in the car with my morning breath (I drove her to the workshop yesterday morning).

 Oh hey, see that gray piece of fabric on the counter behind me?  Well, that’s not a mere piece of fabric at all!  It’s my newly acquired CoFo sweatshirt that I actually wore for most of the day!   That’s right, my hoodie-hating self actually chose to wear a hoodie!  Typically I love zip-ups and don’t like pulling sweatshirts over my head, but it was a SATURDAY work day, and I was feeling especially lazy, so pulling a sweatshirt over my head and keeping it on for hours on end was ok with me—besides, how could my hair get any frizzy-er?!  It’s quite a warm sweatshirt though, and I appreciated it’s comfort throughout the day as I worked on scholarship essays with a student at the workshop.

 You may wonder why it was a full day of working for me…  It’s because it was the day of the grand event:  the College Forward Collegian Winter Reunion!  We had been promoting it like crazy to our students, trying to get the word out this past week that this free, super-fun event was happening just for them and if they could be available and get themselves there, then they SHOULD!  I’d say it was an overall successful event, with us meeting our goal of 150 students in attendance (that may be a record for the event, too!), and I think I had at least seven of my own students show up, so I was happy to hang out with them, other students, and of course fellow CoFo coaches.  The event venue was pretty awesome, with bowling, roller skating, and a meal of pizza, all of which was free for our students, thanks to the event budget set aside.  The venue also had a small movie theater and arcade games available, but it wasn’t part of the CoFo reunion package for the night.  You know what was especially cool?!  One of my students bought me a package of Lindt chocolate truffles!  You know what was especially not cool?!  While I was roller skating (first time for me since elementary school!), some random girl came up behind me and tried to use me as a balance aid…ended up knocking me down flat on my back!  I caught myself with my hand but skinned up my wrist pretty good.  I had thought I’d wake up this morning with a sore back and a bruised wrist, but all I really have is the skinned spot that had been there the day before.  Let’s just say though that I did not appreciate being the thing that slowed down this girl as she rampaged the rink with her high speeds!

 Well, it seems that my word limit is approaching, and I must wrap up.  The picture doesn’t have a lot more to offer except for the fact that I feel my fresh-looking face is deceiving.  This has been a taxing week for me in the sleep category, and this morning I LOVED getting the opportunity to sleep in as long as I wanted (sure, it was only until 9a.m., but that was all I really wanted and was MUCH better than the previous morning’s 6:45a.m. wake-up!).  Happy Birthday to me!