I'm Relaxed! I am!

Today I:

• had two slices of whole wheat toast with Tofutti "cream cheese" and nutritional yeast for breakfast
• drank a cup of organic Fair Trade coffee
• made a soy latte at work; feel much better now
• walked to and from work... again, for the rest of my life, neverendingly...

Last night was one of the two nights week where I have the box (aka apartment, not TV) to myself. This is because my boyfriend/partner/whatnot (aka Joe) stays late at work. Do not pity him, however, for he is spending those hours doing one of three things: 1) reading in the office, 2) BS-ing with fellow students/co-workers, or 3) making a violin. Sometimes he even does 2 and 3 simultaneously. The result is he is a very productive student, can buy his own food, and gets a lot of reading done.

I envy his reading time. I was tagged on my journal for the last five books I've read and the results were disheartening and a tad... um... Embarrassing. (I won't go into what they were. Let's just say that I haven't been challenging myself very much, shall we, and leave it at that?) The reason my reading has been so schmaltzy lately is that to accomplish any serious reading I would need not only focus but a block of time without distractions. I don't often have that.

I was saying as much to Joe last night (Okay, maybe I was whining a little) and he suggested that I take the time while he was at work to truly Relax. (Whatever that is.)

Brilliant idea! As soon as he left, I started to Relax. I put on some music, took a hot shower, and donned my blue flannel pajamas. Then I sorted out the laundry, changed the sheets, made the bed, organized my closet, did the dishes, scoured the sink, made a large pot of vegetable-noodle soup and wrote two letters. Then I read two chapters of Knitting Harlot. (What else could I do? I was eating!)

I'm not actually a hyper or Type A person. Neither am I Type B. I'm more like the AB- personality type: cynical, generally easy going, yet frenetically industrious. For instance, knitting. To those unfamiliar with knitting, it may seem that a knitter is just someone sitting around, hanging out, not doing much. Enjoying leisure time. But in actuality, a knitter is performing an activity that sometimes leads to sports injuries and mental exhaustion.

I am actually lucky I am this laid back - it's genetic. My father is straight up hyper, On of Off like a switch, always talking. As a child he was given a carrot before bed and would carve it into a totem pole before falling asleep. As an adult he would come home from work and spend another six or more hours gardening, woodworking, etc. He is also a pack rat who actually uses all the stuff... Eventually. His grandfather and my mother's parents have taken such things to practically an artistic (possibly notorious) level. I would tell you about it right now, just to imagine your toes curling in disbelief, but there isn't time.

So instead I will tell you that last night, I:

• ate a hard candy I found on the office kitchen counter (in a box!)
• had vegetable-noodle soup for dinner with a glass of merlot
• ate a banana
• drank a Nantucket Nectar orange grapefruit mango drink
• yearned for chocolate, but was too lazy to get dressed for the trek to the 24-hr bakery, alas!