"Mama said there'd be days like this..."

I call this the "Things I Do When All I Feel Like Doing is Snuggling Up Under a Blanket with Hot Chocolate and Growling at Anybody Who Happens to Try to Even Talk to Me Because I Just Want to be Left Alone in the Beyond-Cranky Mood Consuming Me"List...and also a "reminder to Future Self"...

1. Make hot chocolate. Secure said blanket. Get comfy.

2. Have a good, long cry. [In extreme cases, this actually is number 1]

3. Breathe. Pray. Breath. Pray. Breathe.

4. Stare out the window for a while contemplating the beauty of nature, the peacefulness.

5. Remember Rule #34 ("Enjoy the little things") and make a list of the beautiful little things sprinkled throughout the day.

6. Blare some tunes and do some cleaning. Singing is optional.

7. Thank God for giving me the kinds of friends who know me well enough to know when something's wrong but understand that sometimes no, I don't want to talk about it, and no, I don't want them to help me, but no, I don't want to be left alone, either. Whose presence even over the phone -- silence or non -- is comforting. Call one of those friends.

8. Think about the things that won't matter tomorrow. Wrestle myself into letting them go. Ponder things that can be fixed and ways to fix them...or new ways to try to fix them.

9. Call Papa. Or Mom. Or Auntie Cindy. Or Jess. On a particularly terrible day, call all 4.

10. Smile. Faking it is better than nothing, and eventually it'll turn into the real thing.

11. Remind myself that tomorrow's a brand new day. It might even be the complete opposite of this one.

~"[The days] come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant friendly party; but they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away." [-Ralph Waldo Emerson]~