Some Great Reads

I read.

A lot.

So I thought I'd share some of my favourite books that I've read in recent months. In no particular order of course.


The Hour I First Believed - Wally Lamb

One Day - David Nicholls

Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen

Tully - Paullina Simons

Room - Emma Donoghue


I first read "Tully" when I was in my early 20s, and loved it. Re reading it now 7 or 8 years later (although it feels like a lifetime ago), I still quite enjoyed it. I did find, however, that the title character frustrated me much more than she did the first time around. I re-read it for book club, with a group of girls around my own age (ranging between late 20s to mid 30s), some who have read it before, some who were experiencing it for the first time. Interestingly, not many enjoyed it too much. Those that hadn't already read it disliked the characters and the story, those who had found Tully much more immature and dislikable. I guess it just shows how moving through different life stages can totally influence how you experience the written word. Definately makes me question whether I REALLY liked or disliked some books I've felt strongly about!

What are some of your favourite books? Have you re-read them? Would you?

Just a quick post to say, after years of sometimes hellish, sometimes blissful shiftworking, I started working Monday - Friday, 8am-5pm, or as I like to call it - "Proper Grown Up Hours". So I finally have a reason to say - and mean - and properly understand the relief in...

"THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY"

And I can relish the thought that I can sleep in tomorrow morning, feeling like a normal person. Aaaahh. Bliss. Love.

Have a lovely weekend people!

Mx

Headaches... The bane of my existance. *sigh*. For most of my life I have suffered headaches when

A) I get stressed
B) I am having what I will tactfully refer to as 'those bothersome girly iss-wahs' (spoken in a delightfully light French-esque lilt)
C) Those occasions where I forget that my glasses/contacts aren't, in fact, an optional accessory to make me appear smarter
D) My day has been going too well, and the planets align to shoot me down in flames

So I guess what I'm saying is I suffer a lot of headaches. "Suffer" sometimes being the operative word - I like to share my woes. As they say, a problem shared is a problem halved and all that ;)

Unfortunately, most of the time, if I am unable to alleviate it and go to bed with a headache, it tends to be approximately 47.6 million times worse the following morning.

Sometimes analgesia works, sometimes it doesn't. It has been suggested to me that Acupuncture can work miracles for persistant tension headaches. Any thoughts or experiences with this? I acupuncture-naive and am thus suitably intrigued, hopeful and apprehensive, but excited to try it! Now I just need to find a reputable practitioner. My other thought is that I should vastly increase the frequency of my attendance at my local beauty salon/day spa... Massage time for me! I wonder if my accountant would see this as a good investment?
Keep your eyes out - I'll write a post of my acupuncture experience once experienced.

Or... volunteers to come over and feed me chocolate and give me a head massage?

Anyone??

So I achieved something today. Actually I achieved many things.

I pulled off day one of the first course I have ever fully organised and ran completely on my own.
I survived my first lecture to a large group of people without running screaming for the hills.
I troubleshooted (troubleshot?) a number of minor issues - unregistered participants, special diets dropped on me at last minute, missing signs, computer glitches...

Sounds like all in all a pretty successful day, right? Sure, there are things that I may do differently next time. But all in all I was pretty happy with my performance and the way I coped with everything.

So why is it, in all that 'feel-good-ness' that the one thing that affects my perception of the day is the bad feedback? In perspective, approximately 90% of the feedback was great. But the 10% that wasn't so great is what stays with me. Why, as humans (or as women? But that opens a whole different issue...), do we do that? Belittle our achievements, no matter how great, instead choosing to focus on the minority, the one piece of feedback that says you could do better.

I intend to try to change this about myself. Starting now. I had a good day and I climbed - and conquered - one of my personal mountains.

I got up and spoke in front of a large group of people, remained coherent, and didn't have a panic attack.

And I'm damn proud of that.

Mx

I'm an INFP personality type.

Apparently this means that I tend to keep to myself. I don't need other people to keep me going, I draw my energy from an internal source. I find, in fact, other people can often exhaust me, and I tend to dislike large groups, particularly when a) it is a large group of people I don't know, and b) I am the centre of attention. This does not bode well for me when I have to do a presentation in front of around 50 people. Now I realise that 50 people may seem to some like a small group, but in my mind, 50... 500... same difference. So I am trying to prepare while also trying not to think about it too much.

No wonder I have a headache.

Mx

I have written a journal since I was a little girl. As I have grown obviously the content changed, but so did the context. Looking back through my diaries shows more than just life events. They show the mental and emotional changes that a girl goes through as she moves from youth, through puberty and adolescence, and then the progression from young adulthood to mid and late 20s - where we find ourselves now.

When I was young mostly the entries were chronicles of my day, events both good and bad. This moved onto, well, to be blunt, a bit of a poor me period, or teenage angst I suppose you would call it. As I matured, I wrote less, putting to paper both the good times and the bad, but only those that I felt 'noteworthy', events in my life that I either felt needed recording so that I could look back and remember fondly, or decisions that I needed to ponder on and figure out exactly what I thought and wanted.

As I move through my 20s, technology is advancing at a rate that - for someone moderately technologically incompetent such as myself - feels like it is running away from me. So I thought that I would move some of my thoughts into a forum where I can put it out there for others to read and ponder on themselves, and perhaps share some thoughts on so that we can all grow.

I enjoy writing and hope to develop my skills via this blog. I will aim to post at least once, if not a couple of times a week, but this may vary due to work commitments and fluctuations. I have recently started working in a job I did not - and at times still don't - feel ready for. But as this is a short term thing, I feel that I have to give it the best that I've got - knowing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, as it were. I have decided to look at it as a chance for me to prove to myself that I am able to do it, whether or not this is a job that I actually WANT to in the long term. Knowing that I CAN do it makes it an easier decision to make, as I know that I am not turning it down because I'm scared that I CAN'T do it.

Personal development is something that I feel strongly about, but I also feel that it should be development that you want. Otherwise it just becomes a chore. I also wish to clarify that personal development does not necessarily mean career development. Take a class, learn a language, join an online dating site, go dancing... whatever it is that gets you involved in life. If all you have in your life is your career, then no matter how satisfying your job is, there will always be something missing. It is just that you may not notice this until you stop to think about it.

I'm going to leave it at that for now... Mx