Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Throwing in the Towel

I’m seriously beginning to wonder why I bother to go the gym at all. In the last few weeks, I’ve noticed that the towels that are distributed at the gym are just smaller than they used to be. As I sweat a waterfall and prepare to take a shower, I wrap a towel around my waist. I should say I attempt to wrap a towel around my waist. Where is the towel? Why is it so small? Have they begun to give out hand towels instead of bath towels?

I can barely stick one end of the towel into the other to cover myself. I have to walk around holding the towel so I wonder what the heck the point is. And then I realized that this might be the club’s way of getting people to feel more confident of walking in the nude. Could it be? I don’t think so. I just think that there is some kind of conspiracy going on. Or, I’m gaining weight instead of losing it. Even Fat Bastard had a towel that covered him. I might have to reconsider my trips to the gym….

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Here

Here they tell you

To write differently

To not be you

Here they tell you to act a certain way

A way that is unnatural

To who you are

And what you think

Here they tell you to think out of the box

But when you do they criticize you

Here they tell you to be efficient but

How are bureaucracy and hierarchy a means of progress?

Here they tell you to speak your mind

But when you do, you get crucified.

You get told to control your thoughts, don’t show your emotions.

Become a robot.

Here you need to say yes and never disagree

Here they kill your spirit

Here they make you work long hours

And when you do, they give insincere thanks

And nothing of meaning – no bonus, no constructive criticism.

Feedback is meant to be just feedback

But it kills your spirit and makes you wonder

Why you bother to get up every morning to

Come to a place that doesn’t appreciate you

For the great person you are

If you are intelligent, you won’t get anywhere

Where you get tortured worse than in a prison camp

Because it’s emotional and mental

All there is to know about here is

That it’s time to run far away.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Stress Relief

Almost every morning I drag myself out of bed to get to the gym. I need to pursue this routine to release stress but also for my health. Lately this task is creating more stress than relief.

This morning I got on the elliptical machine with my book in tow. I was climbing, climbing along and sweating up puddles when I heard someone who sounded like they were regurgitating. I wondered who was going through this action and hoped that maybe they had left the gym if they weren’t feeling well. Two seconds later, ‘Hack, Hack!’ again. I looked to see where this noise was coming from and it was none other than the guy on the machine next to me.

I continued my work out and decided that if he did it again, I would say something. And of course he did. Hack! Hack!

So I said, “Excuse me, but you don’t sound very good. Are you sure you should be exercising?”

His response was to ignore me and continue to hack away.

I really wanted to whack him in the face with the tome that I’ve been reading. Instead, I just got off this machine and moved to the one as far from him as possible.

So I asked myself why people insist on being jerks. This, of course, was completely against the reasons I go to the gym. Thinking this way only made my stress levels raise. In order to bring them back down, I decided I’d go kick one of the punching bags and pretend the punching bag was hacking man. I felt better almost immediately.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Great Expectations

You can never expect others to be like you. It might be really cool but actually, it’s not. This immense world is made up of so many unique people that it would be boring to have two people be the exact same. This week’s theme, boys and girls, was expectations of others.

The first time it reared its head was in an argument with my husband. He had said to me many times that I expect him to be like me. For some reason, this week, the accusation finally hit home. I occasionally do expect too much of him where I don’t usually of others. I realized that I needed to take a step back and reevaluate my treatment of him. I’m not entirely sure where this re-focus will take me or us but it was something that had to be done for both my benefit and for us as a couple.

The next time the theme of expectations reared its ugly head had to do with a work situation. Someone accused someone else of something and I didn’t think this accusation was accurate for a number of reasons. 1) The person making the accusation is guilty of the activity themselves. That stuff always bothers me 2) Even if the accusation is true, why can’t people see past certain things to understand what is really going on behind certain types of manifestations? 3) If you give people feedback about their flaws, that doesn’t mean you can’t live with it to some degree and learn to look past them, right?

What bothered me about this second demonstration of expectations is that you can’t change people. You can only change yourself. So, before you go out saying stuff about people, look inward first. Are you complaining about something in another person that you do yourself? If that’s the case, you should probably be the brave person and work on your own issues first before projecting onto others. It seems like a small step but it isn’t. However if more people would do this, then it would save an awful lot of heartache and animosity in the long run.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Leaves of Tea

About a month ago, I co-hosted a baby shower for a dear friend. One of the key parts of this event was a tea leaf reading. I think fortune telling can be great fun. I’ve had my palm read on numerous occasions and have had my tarot cards done as well. However, I’ve never had my tea leaves read.

In hindsight some of the things that were told to me at past fortune telling events have actually come true. I find this fascinating because at the moment when the actual fortune is being told, I think it’s a big bowl of malarkey. Of course everything is a thousand times clearer in hindsight, don’t you know.

My reading contained an awful lot of animals which lead many of the attendees of the baby shower to conclude that perhaps I am moonlighting as a farmer when I’m not working in corporate America. The first animal that was mentioned was the zebra. The explanation of this animal is that I have to accept change because like a zebra “I can’t change my stripes.” So at some point in the next couple months a major event was going to happen that I just had to accept. Hmmmm…

Along with the zebra, there were a number of dogs which made complete sense since I already have two. In the company of these two dogs, I’d be adding another dog in a few short months. The description of the dog was given to me as well. I’ve certainly kept my eyes peeled for this dog.

Then the menagerie became a little odder. Somehow I’m supposed to meet a horse. The fortune teller asked me if I liked horses and I said, “I don’t dislike horses. As long as an animal isn’t a snake, I’m ok with it.”

A couple of weddings are supposed to happen in which I’ll play a big part. I didn’t realize I knew so many people getting married in upcoming months. Fascinating really. The utterance of a cat was conveyed of which I’d have to be most careful because it represented a woman in my life.

The last of the animal kingdom to make an appearance in my fortune was a turtle. The turtle represented calmness because a turtle just floats in the ocean and doesn’t disturb and isn’t disturbed by too many things. Ultimately, things would seem easier in my life by the end of next year.

It was a pretty interesting activity and everyone who had their leaves read discussed their fortunes with the other attendees and some were very funny. Overall, I’m happy with what the fortune teller had to say because at least I won’t be plagued by a pointy-faced man who happened to grace a couple of the other ladies’ fortunes.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Enjoy the Silence

For all the wonders of communication that I proclaim on a daily basis, there is something to also be said about silence. I spend a lot of my work day listening to and engaging in idle chit chat because it’s the polite thing to do. After a while I just want to tell people to pipe down and just keep it to themselves. I don’t care to hear all your shallow breathing and useless words. I don’t care to look at your family pictures or know what you did over the weekend. I know that sounds horrible but there are some people whose mere utterances just drive me up the wall.

You know who they are - people who talk just to hear themselves talking. Yet they proclaim that others do the same thing without once looking at their own behavior. It’s maddening really.

Every so often it’s just nice to hear the clicking of the keyboard and the generation and production of work without being interrupted by some meathead chatting his brain out on the other side of the floor. And, really, do we need to hear this noise? Is it going to fight cancer or stop world hunger? No! So, how about every so often (maybe once a day), why don’t we all just sit in complete silence around other people and just enjoy it. It’s really a very nice thing to do. It could teach us how important words really are when we don’t overuse them. We know we over consume…does it have to be that way with words too?