Debspalette's Blog (29)

So the day after my last post, I continued with cat care and neighborly activities - since both my traveling neighbor and my evacuated neighbor were not around on garbage morning, I put their trash bins and recycle bins out when I did mine.   I'm not sure how Leah was going to carry hers - looked like she had cut up cardboard from cleaning out her basement - and it was heavy, so I felt good about that.  I left a sudoku puzzle out for Leah, I knew she had come over to use my living room…

Note to myself, start writing every day!   At any rate I wasn't sure of a gift for yesterday.   While at the gym in the a.m. there were several news stories about the slew of storms and tornadoes.    The clip they repeated several times was a picture of the tornado coming directly at the building and a woman's voice praying and asking God to let it go by.   Then the news team set out to find her. During the day I may work on employees pc's and someone invariably has the MSN website up - and…

Let's see if I can write something readable here!  I know my weekends are ahead of me when I am mentally making lists somewhere between 2 and 4 a.m., which I was doing yesterday.   I wanted to fit in yoga, work, laundry, groceries, the basketball game, and unfortunately a wake - where I would be paying respects on behalf of my family - my brother in Oregon, my mom in CA.  Originally I thought of taking the wife some piece of writing - but anything seemed inadequate.  A great couple going…

Yesterday I was on the phone with support people ALL day - literally.   My ear hurt - especially when I have the headset cradled so I can use two hands to type.   I am still up to my ears in the proverbial alligators sorting the new system out and devising adequate recovery plans.   And definitely out of sorts about the whole thing because it is one of the reasons we hired our consulting company.   At any rate by the end of the day I was mentally exhausted, should have gone to yoga but chose…

So yesterday morning I hunted around for a candy dish w/ a cover that people would not be able to put their hands in....sounds like I really don't want them to have the candy.    But no, I just thought it more sanitary because this candy isn't individually wrapped.   Found out that the mini cadbury eggs, hard shell -delicious insides are another favorite of some co-workers.   Found the glass candy dish in the xmas decorations box - so both made it to work.    Later that morning, I was…

So I knew I had to start over again and I knew I was going to volunteer my time at Helping Hounds on Sunday (day 1).   The dogs walked me and ran me for over two hours.  I think a couple are back from foster, so they might not be getting adopted after all.  Some more new puppies, but they are spread out in different crates so they are not from the same litter.   On Monday I mailed a package to my daughter that included Girl Scout cookies, a new sweater, stockings and a Food Network magazine…

I finished my first round about 10 days ago.  I thought about gifts every day, but not in the compulsive way I did before.  I still walked those lovely dogs, made food, challenged my first morning interactions ....but I think I have noticed that the dynamics change - it's very subtle.   I am back because people have given to me and I want to continue this 'practice' (like my yoga practice!)   On Monday one of our main systems crashed.   This particular event has happened twice in the past 6…

Yesterday's first gift was an email that I sent to a consultant who has been working on a project with me.   He is a big Giants fan and after their awesome win I knew he would be taking Tuesday off to continue the celebration (he might have even gone to NYC), but he couldn't take Monday off because someone else in his office had already requested it.  So even though I knew I would get an 'Out of Office' message, I wanted to tell him to have a great time.   I can appreciate people getting…

Kudos to all you gift givers that have been giving and giving and giving - like the everReady bunny.   Yesterday I did meet someone new to yoga and she admitted that she hasn't been at it very long.   She said it must be doing something good because she knows she feels better when she's leaving the class than when she came in;  and I told her she was doing great and to keep coming back.   My neighbor friend on the other hand has never liked exercise.   She used to walk w/ her husband and a…

Hurray for weekends!  Please slow down!  I started out my Sat morning with an attempt to sleep 1 hr later, but I turned on the light and continued the book that is overdue.  Made my spicy lentil soup for the week, got off to 8 a.m. yoga class, with Shel, the downtown teacher subbing for Edie.  Wonderful slow stretches and awakening.   I had read about Feb being self love month, so I decided to sign up for a 2 hr Chakra Purification workshop for myself next Friday; I will think of it as a…

So my daughter called last night to tell me her package arrived yesterday (although delivery was estimated TODAY)  and she had been just thinking about those maracoon cookies AND she gifted one to her assistant who had helped her w/ a tedious project.   So I think of that as paying it forward and the gift mulitplied!   She also appreciated the one running sock that I found in the laundry - hopefully it will find it's mate.   She is the first person I have told that I was doing the 29 days -…

Thought I would greet the first 10 people I see this morning w/ a big 'Good Morning' ; like 'Welcome to the planet and aren't you glad to be alive?'   I do believe it can set the tone for the day.  Since the first place I go most mornings is the Y, and I see alot of the same people, I thought it would be easy.   Not so.   Especially since everyone is in a hurry, on a mission, or 'plugged' in - meaning they are looking down at their devices!   I did get a few in.   Going to try that again…

One gift I will give today...I am going to spend at least 5 minutes with myself figuring out why I feel compelled to feed people!   So I was going to make lemon bars this morning and bring them to work  (BTW I also think many of the same people are benefiting from my gift giving- I hope that's fair)    And yesterday, walking back from getting my soup, I was hoping this 'street person' - for lack of a better description, who was talking to a well dressed man walking down the street, would…

Okay, so my daughter lent me Under the Dome by Stephen King - probably last Thanksgiving.   And I put off reading it and started it again just before Christmas.   She drew the line at lending me 11/22/63 (about the assassination of JFK, which I really do want to read)-  until I finished this one first - 1000+ pages.    I found Killing Lincoln a compelling read, which is saying alot from someone who never liked history.  So I let my library books pile up, returned some on reserve and FINALLY…

It's mid afternoon already - another example of how time gets away from me.   At 4:30 a.m. with one darling cat sitting on my chest asking for breakfast and another one kneading the pillow above my head, I was asking myself what I can give for a gift today.    Some days, I am grateful for thinking I only have to count 'X' more days.    As soon as I went to the door to let one cat out and saw the railing full of snow, then checked the driveway in front and noted my 'plow guy' hadn't been…

Who said a work week should be 40 hours?   Can we get 40 hours of personal time in on a weekend?  barely - although I do give it my best shot some times.   So I didn't make it to Helping Hounds Friday night, the week got the better of me.   I planned my schedule on Sat w/ yoga, work reviews, errands, w/ a midafternoon stop at Helping Hounds and then finish w/ groceries and home to make dinner and watch the SU basketball game that I DVR'd.  

So I walked into HH and checked all the…

Yesterday I was also able to give a phone charger to a coworker.   I used to carry it around in my bag but stopped when I got a new phone.  Since he has asked me a couple of times to borrow it, I thought I knew exactly where it was in my totally compartmentalized junk drawer at home.   Sure enough, found it, brought it in, he thanked me - and hopefully makes his life a little easier the next time he lets his phone run down.

Decided to try another Indian dish - rice lentil cake called…

Just to finish yesterday, I chose the Arthritis Foundation to donate $ - from my choice of Easter Seals, American Heart Association, and American Red Cross.  Since I take naproxen on occasion for my knee -  two surgeries years apart - and it is slightly arthitic, that's the group I chose.

This morning I was able to give a cute Thank you card to one of the staff members at the Y.   In it I thanked her for making the Y a friendlier place.   During the past few months we have had brief…

Well, yesterday could have been one of those slippage days.   It served as a gentle reminder that it is so easy to fall into old habits, old patterns, old behaviour -  especially if one is used to letting the buttons get pushed!   I'm actually embarassed to go into the details of the situation (guess that would be the norm, we want people to see us at our best).  So I knew that words came out of my mouth (before my brain reviewed them) and I may have hurt someone's feelings.  I knew I must…

Over the weekend I had stopped at the Indian store for idli mixes and such - and to pick up a pot for my friend at work who would like to start making some indian dishes.   No pots.   So I decided to loan her mine to try it out, before she made the investment.   So before I loaned her the pot I made a batch of idlis and included half the batch with the loaner pot, and gifted her two other mixes to prepare herself - one idli, one sanbhar (the spicy lentil soup).   She ate an idli for…