Blog Series Part 3: Fun & Confidence

     For those of you just joining me (or have forgotten) this list is a reminder of things I’ve already accomplished that I am proud to have done.  This is a list I can revisit when I have the blahs, or am feeling unaccomplished, or prone to comparing myself with others accomplishments.  The first part of the series is here, the second part here.

     These next 5 might just possibly be the ones I’m most excited to write about.  I was considering saving them for last, but I don’t think they are the most important, just the most fun. The theme for today is…
FUN AND CONFIDENCE!!

11.   Recorded Myself Singing.
     I have never thought I had a good singing voice. I always believed I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket.  My husband went to Berklee College of Music and a large number of our friends are musicians, so this is always confirmed for me when we go to karaoke together. However, I enjoy singing and my husband insists my voice is not horrible. Ok, he actually says I have a good voice but I’m not sure I believe him that much. Anyways, he recorded us singing the Grouch Anthem.  This is the current incarnation, although it is possible that this recording will later become more “filled out”.  It was originally created as one of my Day Zero list items and submitted to a Jim Henson compilation that I never saw/heard the finished results of.  Regardless, the process was a lot of fun and I'm really glad I put this on my previous list.

30 Before 30 Update: Items Completed! (14, 16, 29)

I am excited to report that I am already on track to completing my 30 Before 30 list.  I have 4 items completed, 2 in progress, and I'm feeling pretty confident.  Here is a quick snapshot of the first 3 items I completed.

#29: Buy a new mattress and bed frame.
This was the first item completed.  As I've mentioned before, our old mattress had springs poking out of it and was living on the floor.  We bought a new memory foam mattress and found a slightly used bed frame on craigslist.  This was actually completed while I was still in Connecticut over the summer, and my awesome husband and friends helped put it all together so it was done when I came home.

How to Dress for the Last Night on Earth

(...and look like Michelle while doing it!)

Start with:
1. Your favorite dress (I'm currently rocking my large cat print shirt dress)
2. Cable knit sweater tights
3. Tacky costume jewelry
4. Bright lipstick
5. Good shoes

Avoid:
1. All other makeup
2. Brushing your hair
3. Shapewear of any kind

Remembrance

The following is something I wrote and read at my Grandpa's memorial service earlier today.

     As an adult, and even as a teenager, I loved and appreciated my Grandpa’s dry sense of humor. As a child, however, it was just over my head and so my first impression of him was that he was kind of intimidating. He was taller than anyone else I knew, he didn’t smile very much, and told jokes I didn’t understand. As I grew older, I began to see that he was hardly ever serious and that deep down, he was a softie.

     I remembered this first impression, however, when he was scheduled to talk to my sister and my’s high school history class. I warned all my friends ahead of time that my Grandpa was coming to talk to the class, and they would probably think he was scary, but he’s not. Well, not too scary.

     Elizabeth accidently gave him the wrong time to show up and he ended up needing to come to the school twice, so there was a lot of anticipation by the time the big day came around. He came to talk about his father’s experience in World War 1, and brought some photo albums and even a gas mask. All my friends were impressed and appreciated his visit, that wasn’t surprising. What was shocking was everyone telling me how cute and adorable my Grandpa was! “Cute” and “Adorable” were not necessarily the first words I was expecting to hear. At first I just thought they were trying to be nice, until one friend told me afterwards, “I just want to give him a hug!” “Really?” I responded. “Are we even talking about the same person?!”. Obviously we were, and it was just that all of them were able to see immediately what took me a little bit longer. Despite the fact that I can hardly remember anything he actually talked about in that class (aside from showing the gas mask) this is one of my favorite memories of my Grandpa.

Blog Series Part 2: I'm an Adult

I realized while grouping my next items on my “30 things I’ve already done, accomplished, or otherwised experienced” list that I could probably group the remaining items by different themes.  For those of you just joining me (or have forgotten) this list is a reminder of things I’ve already accomplished that I am proud to have done.  This is a list I can revisit when I have the blahs, or am feeling unaccomplished, or prone to comparing myself with others accomplishments. The first 5 items on my list are here.  If I had to retroactively assign a theme to the first 5 items, I suppose it would Experiential Learning.

I'm such an adult, that when David and I stayed at a B&B for our anniversary, the first thing I wanted him to do was take photos of me sitting on all the couches. Like a Boss.

6. Learned to schedule “me” time.

This started when I was first dating David. I was working full time, going to school part-time, co-leading a student ministry, and also working as a research assistant for a professor which meant very, very little time off. Add in a new relationship, with someone who lived a half hour (or more, yay Boston area traffic!) away, and I could have easily gone into full on breakdown mode weekly. However, given my work schedule (4 days/week) I began to schedule myself “Michelle Days”. These would be on my first day off and would last until around 5pm. I would often take myself out for lunch and eat some fancy grilled cheese sandwich at the coffee shop around the corner and read trashy magazines. I wouldn’t answer my phone, I wouldn’t do homework or housework (hahaha like I did housework anyways? No), and I would love it. One day, just for me, where I didn’t have to think or fulfill obligations. Once evening time came around I’d often head into the city to hang out with David, or do laundry, or study. But setting aside a big chunk of time for that year I lived alone really taught me the value of me-time. I don’t set aside a full day anymore, but I still make a point to schedule that time in, whether it’s in the form of going to a yoga class on the weekends or having 20 mintues to myself after work. Scheduling it into my days as an actual commitment made it so much easier to say “no” to things that would pop up in that time. Saying “yes” to those things, even things I wanted to do, meant saying “no” to myself and to the time I knew I needed to decompress from my week.

Recovery

It's been 55 hours since my wisdom teeth were yanked from their sockets, I have to say...I am recovering wonderfully. So wonderfully, I feel a little silly having put this off for as long as I have! Nearly the entire process has been easier than anticipated.

Nearly. There was a slight hiccup in the beginning. 

Extraction

In less than 12 hours I will have undergone my first sedation and, should all go well, be recovering from a quadruple wisdom tooth extraction.  I've been a fairly healthy person, so I've never had surgery or needed to take pain medication stronger than prescription strength ibuprofen. I'm a little worried. But, we have stocked up on ice cream, soup, and popsicles; setup a tv in the bedroom; and washed all of my pajamas and comfy clothes.  My oral surgeon helpfully pointed out that since I'm "not 16 anymore" my body will take longer to recover, but here's hoping all goes well!

In closing, here is a picture of the newest addition to our family, Mona the Mini-Pug!