Read Dream Escape

My reading level is at a dangerous low and it is affecting my everyday life.  I have spent a lot of time in the real world these last couple of weeks, and I am sure I don't need to tell you that it has not been a good one for a lot of people.  Different people have different coping mechanisms and mine is to read.  I like taking a few minutes when life gets crazy to go to another world and forget about the crappy parts here for a while.  When I don't get to do that, I get  cranky and stuck in my own head.

Lucky for me the remedy is easy...read.  So that is what I am going to do.  I have a couple minutes here and there and I am once again make it a priority to read something for fun.  I have spent a lot of time reading, watching, listening and experiencing things that while necessary and even good to know, have not let me get the breather I need.  So if anybody needs me in this last hour before I have to head to work, I'll be reading reading reading.  Happy Reading Everybody!

I'm Done

I'm done with the bitter cold, I'm done with work, I'm done with being stuck inside.  I'm done with stupid politics and the media who reports on all the inane and buries the good stuff.  I'm done with selfish people, I'm done with stupid drivers who cut me off and then go 10 mph below the speed limit. I'm done with people not doing what they said they would do.  I'm just done!

So if anybody needs me I will be curled up in my chair, ignoring the real world and hiding out in the various places created for me by the wonderful folk we call authors.  Unless you are bringing me coffee, please do not disturb :-)  Happy Reading Everybody!

Impromptu ReDesign

Hello Everybody!  In case you haven't noticed I decided to do a redesign of the blog last night.  Yep totally random, hey even though I have a thousand and one things to do at this exact moment I am going to do a total and completely unnecessary redesign of my own personal blog right NOW sort of thing.  I do that more often then my poor Hubbin probably likes, but what can I say, impulse control issues.  Impromptu upending of my life in big and small ways is not abnormal for me. Once I was having a bad year, yep not a bad day, week or month, a whole entire year of crappyness.  Anyways I had to move back in with my parents and as wonderful as they are it was not something I wanted to do.  I moved into half of a partially finished basement to help take care of my brother who was all broken to pieces (that's a fun story) and it was just miserable.

 So being the completely random person that I apparently am I went and bought purple paint, not just any purple paint, but a deep, rich, dark, awesome purple paint.  Luckily for me my Mamma is an incredibly amazing person and instead of freaking that her 20 something daughter was going to randomly paint her basement purple, got out a brush and helped :-) (she may have just been feeling guilty for passing on the "redecorate when life sucks gene" 'cause I totally got it from her).  Oddly enough transforming that basement corner from a room of gloom to a piece of rich purple heaven actually helped me a lot, it gave me a sense of control, and a space that was completely my own in all the chaos.  Having a space to curl up and read in the few minutes I had between jobs and school was my 15 minutes of therapy a day, and having that space be so utterly mine was the trick I needed to safely escape for a while.  Anyways, I use my need to change stuff around me as a way to control life when it gets crazy, or to make a token change when I feel things are getting to stagnant, or just 'cause I feel like it.  I hope you all enjoy the redesign and feel free to leave me any suggestions or stories on random chaos you have caused just for kicks and giggles.

Escape

Had a really really long past couple of days.  I was on weekend duty at the station, had a family emergency, had to sit in a cold classroom, made a couple avoidable mistakes, had people issues, no sleep, and I attempted to cook for 15 hungry firefighters/EMS crews.  Needless to say I was not in the best of moods at several points these last couple of days.  I desperately needed to be in at least two places at once, I had multiple issues that all had valid demands on my time, I was worried, stressed, tired, frustrated, and cold (seriously I like the cold, but I don't think I was warm once this weekend)!  I was at my wit's end, I felt like I was ready to snap and go ballistic on people who may or may not have deserved a good tongue lashing, instead I took a slightly more saner route.  I went to my bunk and pulled out my book and read.  Instantly I was able to go away from all the crappy stuff.  In the twenty minutes I allowed myself to read, I was able to let my brain release all that tension and frustration.  The book took me somewhere else and let me be part of another story and that was all I needed.  When I was done with my mini-break I found myself much calmer, much more able to come at my problems (most of which were not that bad, they just all happened at once) from a more logical manner.  This is one of the reasons I always keep a book on me, all it took was a second to open the pages and another minute to get completely immersed in the story.  This little pick-me up made all the difference in the world.  OK enough whining, but seriously if you are ever feeling overwhelmed, stop everything and read, even if it is just a couple of pages.  It is amazing to me soothing effect a reading a book can have.

Escape

Have you ever had a day that feels like everything is going wrong?  Isn't amazing how little issues that are usually not that big of a deal seem so much worse when they all happen at once?  What do you like to read when you are upset?  Have you ever had a book stress you out so much that you had to read a different one just to calm down?