I was inspired very much by my friend MissConception's idea of Project Happy. An idea to focus on what we can control and what can make us happy in a time when happy is hard to come by. I've decided to call my project "Operation Smile". The goal is pretty simple, to keep myself smiling through this difficult time and find some joy in the life I am living in today. I do not ever want to look back on my life and feel like I wasted the best years of my life sulking around.
To keep a smile on my face I need to keep myself busy. My mind runs a mile a minute and when I'm bored I start thinking, too much.
CONCERTS
I love music, concerts are a wonderful thing to look forward to. My mom recently bought us tickets to see Juanes - a Colombian musician who writes his own music, plays the guitar and his general message is of love and peace. The concert tour was having a sound check contest on Facebook where the winner would go to sound check in their city, meet the band, and meet Juanes one on one. I WON! I never win anything! I could not believe it, and I still can't believe it! Here is a picture of Juanes and I this past Sunday 3/20/11. Amazing evening it was!
TRAVELLING
I love travelling but we all know how expensive that can be. To make things more difficult we have three poodles. We don't live near any family so "who are we leaving the dogs with" is always an issue. It's a big part of why travelling is not so doable for us. I've come to the conclusion that we can start making small trips and to locations that we can drive to. I have seen most of California but there are still some places I have not seen. We're taking the opportunity to take a small trip in May to Palm Springs and bring along some great friends, four couples ala "Why did we get Married" style. I'm really looking forward to it. We've always talked about doing a trip like this but have never done it. I'm in a take-action mood lately so I'm pushing for this to finally happen.
***UPDATE*** April 18, 2011
VOLUNTEER
I know how rewarding donating time can be, and I wanted that for myself. I want something to feel good about, where I can get immediate satisfaction. I went to my first volunteer job on Saturday with Feeding America. I loved it! I plan on doing this once a month. What a great way to spend a Saturday, hubby and I were up early did something great with our morning and had the rest of the day to harvest our positive energy!
Just went to my second volunteer opportunity this past weekend and it was just as rewarding as the first time. I'm really glad I'm doing this.
KNITTING
I like to teach myself how to do things. On one bored evening I started looking at how-to videos on YouTube. Suddenly -ping- I got the idea of teaching myself how to knit. After taking on this endeavor in November I have knit five scarves and am ready to do more technical stitch-work. I love giving out my work as a gift and it keeps my hands busy and my mind occupied.
READING
Since I can remember reading has been my getaway. I love getting lost in someone else's world for awhile. Again a good way to keep my mind occupied and a great stress reducer. Plus I love learning about everything. I tend to stick to crime/mystery novels but here and then I venture out to alternate reading and I just recently joined an all lady book club. We meet about once a month. I just went to the first one last week and absolutely had a wonderful experience, and I believe it will be a great way to get out and meet new people.
***UPDATE*** April 18, 2011
I've joined a book club, it's through meetup.com and I meet up for which ever books I'm interested in reading and discussing. I've gone to one meetup and enjoyed it so much. I loved spending some quality time with strangers who share the same love for reading, I met some interesting people, had good conversation and decided this is definitely for me. My goal is to do one meetup a month.
COOKING
I love to cook! There something very rewarding about slaving in the kitchen for three hours and getting the "oohs" and "ahhhs" about my food. I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself because I am Mexican i should know how to cook but I didn't get the natural cooking gene, so again I've taught myself and I am a recipe junky. I don't think the hubster minds either. Keeps things interesting for dinner.
This is it for now, I'll add, edit and update as time goes on.
GARDENING
I forgot to add this last time. I love to watch flowers grow, and cook from my own garden. We've planted flowers through out our yard, and are growing tomatoes, squash, bell peppers and serrano peppers. Very excited to watch this stuff grow!
ZOO
My newest pass time is going to the zoo whether it be for exercise (there are many many hills) or just a leasuraly walk looking at my favorite animals like the meerkats, otters and a baby river hippo named Adhama (pictured below). I love watching this cutie interact with his mother.
2 comments:
I am so glad you are doing this for yourself! I appreciate the shout-out and plan on forwarding the article you sent me about infertility on in hopes that it will bring more awareness.
I hope to someday soon come completely out of the Infertility closet and do some advocating, but I may wait a little longer until I attempt my first IVF.
You have been a great supporter and I appreciate your comments and suggestions.
I look forward to seeing what else you figure out for Operation Smile! I had actually planned on getting into some volunteer work as well. I was just thinking this to myself last night!
MissConception
Thanks again for the idea! I loved it and truly believe its helping me.
As I was reading the article I realized how true it all was. I've opened up to close friends and family but not everyone. I feel if I did I would open myself up to criticism that I'm not ready to deal with. I don't know why this feels so much like something to be ashamed about. So taboo, and no one knows how to deal with it or much less deal with you and your emotions.
It's the end of my workday and I was just in the bathroom and of course there she was (now getting punctual down to the hour she shows up) and of course my coworkers are buzzing about everywhere when I just want to curl up in a corner be alone and have my monthly cry.
I can't imagine how women dealt with this back in the day when technology was not around. We at least have this vehicle to vent and find comfort.
Anyway thanks for always commenting. I talk about your blog posts to my husband all the time. I find much comfort in them. :-)
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