I am using what energy I can to write my happy list before I come crashing down after a 4:30am wake up this morning! On a Sunday, no less! Ah, the things we do for love (I will explain it in a moment)! So, here’s what has made me happy in the past week or so…
Watching the sun rise
Today is Mr Unprepared’s birthday. It is also the day he needs to do a 140km training ride with his cycling team for a charity trip he is doing in a couple of weeks. I don’t know what’s wrong with me (a sudden burst of love?), but I decided that I would wake up at 4:30am with him, bundle the Little Mister into the car and go on a little early morning adventure to the city, where the ride started. You know, in the spirit of it being his birthday and all. While I dreaded the early morning wake up (and had trouble falling asleep at a reasonable hour to compensate), I am so glad we did it. The Little Mister was enthralled with the novelty of getting up at ‘night time’ and despite my fatigue, the drive home as the sun rose was just lovely. The colours in the sky. The quiet on the roads. That whole “it’s a new day” feeling. I love it. Not too often, but I do love it when I have to haha.
Busting through a mental block
I’ve mentioned it quite a bit (sorry!), but I’ve been trying to declutter our study so I can turn it into a gorgeous lady blogging cave worthy of Pinterest. I was getting all excited as I shredded old documents and threw out weird useless trinkets, but then I reached a bit of a mental block. I didn’t know where to go next. I felt a bit overwhelmed. I thought that everything would have to stop, because I had no idea what to do next. Then, a visit to my parents’ and suddenly it just seemed so easy. I took inspiration from my brother who is leaving to live in Melbourne soon – waaaaah (happy for him but going to miss him terribly). He had some great stuff to sell me and observing how he was going about the decluttering process really sparked something in me. It was a lightbulb moment! I mean, some of the stuff he’s doing seems so obvious but like I said, I had a total mental block. I came home feeling ready to take the next steps (because I finally knew what they were). It was like a weird chain reaction. Suddenly inspiration returned to me and I’m excited again. I got this!
Being able to talk (or tweet) openly about my anxiety
Earlier this week, anxiety (I named her Patrice because “NOBODY ASKED YOU, PATRICE!”) was really trying to beat me down. She was being such a bitch. Telling me I was lonely and sad, when so many things in my life were actually looking pretty good (or were things I could normally find the positives about). Telling me that the things I should have been looking forward to were all going to end in dismal failure and the implosion of my very soul. Making me think I wasn’t strong enough to bounce back even if that was the case (which we all know it probably wasn’t going to be). I was really getting sick of Patrice’s shit.
I decided to tweet about it, because a couple of years ago (when it was at its worst), I decided I wouldn’t hide it anymore. I would stop buying into the stigma of it. I would help myself and others by being honest and open. Within minutes, I had wonderful responses from kind friends who hilariously got into the spirit by telling Patrice to eff off and I knew I wasn’t alone (like Patrice was trying to make me feel). While external validation wasn’t really my motivation (I was just venting and trying to put the thoughts outside of my head – a bonus if me keeping it real helped somebody else to feel less alone), I was so grateful. I started to feel better almost immediately. No joke. Being able to speak up and say you’re not feeling great does wonders. I thank everyone (online or IRL) who makes me feel safe to do so.
When the dogs greet the Little Mister at his bedroom window
It’s a silly story, but the Little Mister went through a phase where he kept turning on his bedroom lights in the middle of the night (therefore keeping himself awake). We confiscated the light bulb from his overhead light and we now unplug his bedside lamp when we’re done reading stories for the night. Meanest parents ever haha. In the mornings (especially when it’s dark and cloudy), I have to open his blind immediately so we can see what we’re doing. Our dogs have gotten used to this and have adjusted their morning routine to listen out for us and come running to the window to ‘say’ good morning every day. It’s so sweet and the Little Mister loves it.
Learning new insults
I visited our local major shopping centre on a Tuesday morning at 9am. As soon as I got inside the automatic doors, I heard a beautiful bogan specimen loudly telling a tale about her life to another gorgeous bogan specimen. It involved a moment that she was very proud of in which she had told another (I’m assuming) bogan that she was a “cheesecake c**t!” over and over. The joy on her face was just exquisite. She was almost glowing as she recounted her moment of triumph.
While it’s not a side of my hometown that I’m especially proud of, I couldn’t help but laugh to myself about it all day (and laughing is good for us). I mean, what exactly is a cheesecake c**t and what do you have to do to be qualified as one? It goes on the happy list because it did weirdly make me happy. It’s like we can make fun of it because we live here.
Where would we be without bogans, hey? (don’t answer that – it’s tongue-in-cheek rhetorical haha)
So that’s it for this week! What would you put on your happy list?
