End of the Month

Firstly, I'd like to say "you're welcome" to Starbucks & PJs for all the money I spent there while writing this month. I'd also like to send out a "you're welcome" to the people who own the Internet because I have used it much more since starting this project. And a very big "you're welcome" goes out to Blogger - you never would have seen as much activity from my blog if it hadn't been for my ambitious nature.

Now for the rest of the post...

ArachNOphobia

My friend says I should write a post about how I have a problem because of how much I don't like spiders. But I say THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM. It is normal to dislike a venomous, evil, loathsome creature such as the spider. So I am just EXTRA normal. And I don't want to talk about it anymore.

What I would like to talk about is... well... damn it. Now that I've brought them up, I can't think about anything else. :( I really, really despise spiders. I do have to take issue with the word "arachnophobia" though.

Arachnophobia is defined in different places as different things. Wikipedia says that it's is "a specific phobia, the fear of spiders and other arachnids such as scorpions." The other arachnids are not the ones I have a problem with, however. Scorpions, though I've never confronted one personally, don't make me feel like I'm going to vomit. Same for ticks, which are also arachnids... those don't freak me out either. The medical dictionary gets more specific, though, saying it's "an abnormal fear of spiders."

Umm... can somebody please explain to me exactly what might be normal about liking spiders? I say THAT is a disorder: arachnophilia. Yeah, let's add that one to the Wiktionary: arachnophilia - n. the abnormal love of spiders.

Custom Road Signs

So, I've said a thing or two in my little blog regarding how I feel about driving laws and other drivers. To piggy-back on this idea, I have created just a few custom road signs that I would like to see on the highways of North America:

First World Problems

After writing my post yesterday (where the poor stick fellow took one for the team because my hair dryer didn't work... R.I.P.), I realized that being frustrated by a hair dryer that doesn't work would be an absolutely preposterous idea to someone who has absolutely nothing.

"You mean you have a machine that blows your hair dry? Here we just call that the wind."

That's when I started really thinking about how ridiculous some of our "problems" are, did some searching and stumbled upon this tumblr site full of First World Problems. I am, of course, very likely the last person to have heard about this site to-date, but for me, this was a very timely finding.

I can't think of anything we have to complain about here in the Land of the Privileged that doesn't fall into this category. Every single problem we have here in the First World is a first world problem. Just in an effort to try and prove my very own self wrong (how's that for rhetorical arguing?), I tried to think of just ONE problem that wouldn't fit the description. Just one. It didn't work out so well. Here is the list I brainstormed:

Death by Letter

Forget color by number. I give you... DEATH BY LETTER. Who was the control freak that invented the color by number idea anyway? "Hey kids, this hat should be red, those shoes should be green... NO! NO! NO! I said the shoes are green! The hat is red!! You've ruined everything!" Do you know what that kind of thing did to a kid who was already well on her way to being (or possibly even hardwired from birth to be) a rule-follower? Maybe I should have discussed that with my therapist...

So here I am. It's like that scene in Limitless where the letters fall from the ceiling all around Eddie Mora... except without the letters and far less typing because NZT doesn't exist. Also I'm on my couch, not at a very neat desk, wide awake right now trying my best to continue my challenge to write every day for an entire month, but there just aren't so many words available at this time of night.

The Value of Things

I've found myself having this conversation dozens of times over the last 7 years, and as time goes on not only is it easier to have, but it also serves as a healthy reminder to myself of what is important... and what is not.

It doesn't take a catastrophic disaster like 8 feet of water in your house after Hurricane Katrina to experience the loss of things. Sometimes we accidentally misplace things we hold dear. Sometimes those things are taken away from us. "Stuff goes away" is a lesson we've all faced at one point or another. But it's the lesson we take away from those moments that really helps to shape how much value we put on things.

What I have learned is this: Things are just things, and buy insurance.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Possibilities

I tend to be the kind of person who wants to do it all, even when doing it all is not possible. How many times have I been told, "only do today what can be done today." This, I believe, is very good advice, but when I originally got the idea for this post, the entire concept was very different than what is about to be written...

I'd like to take this opportunity to turn this idea on its head and flip it inside out: "Only do what can be done today" some days is the equivalent of "Only do today what you can possibly find it in yourself to do." Eliminate the full realm of a day's possibilities. It might be that you "can" do that abbreviated list of things (because you cut out certain other things that would overextend you), but should you? Should you do all the possible things every day? I say no. While it's a good general rule, there are definite exceptions.

Some days, it's all you can do to just put one foot in front of the other. Some days, eating 3 proper meals is a grand accomplishment. Some days, if you remember to feed the dog, you feel like you should have been awarded a medal. Some days, just knowing what is possible for you on that day and just doing that is plenty enough.