Office Workout: Would You Dare?

Ok - make sure to play the videos and read the pro/cons for each exercise!

Tell me: would you dare to do any of these in your office?

Your Face is Fine

Albert said this to me about 7 months ago (I remember because it was the night before my birthday...).  I didn't talk to him the rest of the night.  But what he meant was, I do not feel like catering to your insecurities in a no-win conversation where you are needlessly comparing yourself to other women.  

Or something like that.

In a world saturated by romantic comedies (they call them chick flicks, but guys like them just as much), I think women hope that a man will show up in our life, dramatic music will play, the light will go all sparkly, and he will tell us that we are the most ravishing creature he has ever lain eyes on.  And he will mean it, and we will believe it to be true.

Albert does not look at me like that (though he is the first to admit that he has limited facial expressions).  I'm not sure a man ever has, and if he did, I didn't notice.  There are some women that have a certain je ne sais quoi that makes them turn heads and break hearts like nobody's business.  I am not that girl.  Most of us aren't, and whether or not we like to admit it, we sometimes resent the girl who is.

But over the last few months, I have become increasingly ok with the fact that my face is fine.  I have tried to spend less time looking at it, in fact, and less time thinking about the stress pimples that have popped up and my funky eyelids and how my nose is shaped and my flat hair (and we could work our way down the body, but you would get knocked out by my disproportionate caboose).  I won't go into further detail because chances are, you haven't noticed the aspects of my appearance that prevent me from becoming a supermodel, and if you did, you don't care - and if you do care, we aren't really friends, then, are we?  When we try to live up to the standards we see on TV, on the internet, or even in our more attractive friends, we fight a losing battle that is frankly self-centered and zaps a heckofalotta energy. 

What actually helped change my attitude was developing this bizarre, unsightly rash that could attack at any moment.  This hasn't happened for a few months (EVERYBODY KNOCK ON WOOD, NOW), but within minutes, red welts would appear all over my face.  And due to lack of sick days and understaffing, I had to go to work like this.  No amount of makeup could cover it up, and eyeliner just hurt since my eyelids were swollen.  I had a dozen or so episodes over a year-long period, and that a-hole specialist never figured out what it was (he just poked it and asked if that hurt.  Thank you.  It did.)  So my standards have dropped.  No rash?  I LOOK FABULOUS!

It is so freeing to look in the mirror and think, my face looks fine - and feel totally content with that adjective.  I took pressure off of myself to try to look great, as defined by airbrushed pictures in magazines or glamor shots on facebook, and now I just have fun with putting on makeup and getting dressed on the days that I feel like doing so.  (The getting dressed part isn't optional, just how much effort I put into my choice of clothing.  Glad we cleared that up.) It's not that Albert doesn't think that I'm pretty, or that I don't have days where I actually do feel rather attractive, thankyouverymuch.  And as most women I know, I certainly have ugly days/weeks that seem to be in tune with the changing moon.  But overall, as I check my attitude on how I look on the outside, I find that I have far more energy to care about how I'm looking on the inside.  And I'll leave you with that.

Remembrance and Hope

Today, we remember where we were 10 years ago when we heard that the first tower had been hit, and then the second.  We remember our fellow countrymen of United Airlines Flight 93 - how many lives they saved, we'll never know.  We remember the firefighter who came back from Ground Zero, the catch in his throat as he described what he had seen.  We remember our friend and his family who were harassed in the town they called home just for looking like the men who had committed this travesty.  We remember that our classmates, friends, and family are still serving overseas 10 years later.

We hope for a tomorrow that brings our troops home.  We hope that Americans will continue to make courageous choices - because lives are at stake.  We hope that men, women, and children around the world may live in communities that are safe and thriving.  We hope that Good will prevail.

Posh Dancing

A thanks to Already Pretty for sharing this gem.  I think this works for both those who loved AND those who hated Pride and Prejudice...(*parental advisory!*)

now for the photographic evidence...

We're now at 100 active projects and counting...

I spy...81 project files on my desk...

...and in my file cabinet, and strategically placed on the floor....

I had a dream last night that someone was holding a gun to my head, shouting, “GET MY CONTRACT DONE!  No, REVISE that sentence!  I want FULL CONTROL!  NOW!”

I forgot about it until I checked my email this morning.  It was actually a pretty accurate dream.