Life lessons – Page 12 – Sidewalk Face

Smile

February 20, 2021March 9, 2021by Sidewalk Face at Eagle-Crow-Owl2 Comments

Today’s the day. The last of my good looks fell off. I didn’t have much left and what little remained was totally worn out. I couldn’t even pick it up off the floor as it fell into a giant dust bunny. So that’s it! We just don’t have that asset to work with anymore.

I don’t feel bad. It’s exactly as it should be. I shall continue to try and be somebody that people like to be around and conversely; I shall enjoy my anonymity to the fullest as I move through the world. I like to observe and it’s easier to do that when no one is observing you.

I still have the most important outer garment and that is a smile. A smile makes everyone beautiful.

Exercise, Striving to Be Better

I Just Invented This Round Thing. I’m Gonna Call It a Wheel.

February 4, 2021March 9, 2021by Sidewalk Face at Eagle-Crow-Owl2 Comments

What I am about to tell you is something you already know. Everybody knew it but me. Actually even I knew it but I forget. Ready?

If you listen to workout music while working out, you will work out harder. I worked out so hard yesterday, I was sore all day. And I only worked out for seven minutes.

Here’s the story. The pandemic gutted my old exercise routines. No more in person yoga class. I don’t have a laptop to move around the house for doing online classes. I did one in front of my office computer and frankly, I am in front of that thing enough as it is. My friend Mary told me about the YouTube channel Fitness Blender. We can play that on the tv in the living room so all three of us started together last fall. The group energy was great and overcame decades of home workout inertia. Alas, husband and kid injured themselves, back and ankle, so it was just me. As a group we were watching a variety of videos but for the last two months I’ve been doing only one, the same one every day.

The Scientific 7 Minute Workout Video – Bodyweight Only Total Body Workout

It’s only Seven minutes! Even I can manage seven minutes a day. I have no idea why I prefer the repetition to novelty but I do. For the first 6 weeks of this routine I listened to podcasts while exercising to trick myself into the desired behavior like giving a small child a lollypop after a shot. It worked, I kept showing up. But I was aware that I was not very aware. I knew I wasn’t fully in my body.

This week I was finally ready for music. I hit play on my evening playlist. The first song was happily upbeat and quite pleasant but then a morose slow jam came on. Ugh!!! No! Stop high stepping and swipe next. It went on like this as a new item was added to the running mental to do list, make workout playlist. Yesterday I start it and get one song added. But at 8 am I can’t recall ten move your ass songs. Let’s see what Spotify has put together. That’s when this song came on:

From the second it started I already couldn’t wait to hear it again. Best life coach ever in the form of music. I was immediately dancing my way through the workout. I was doing every set at four times my usual speed and intensity. And I was loving it! I can hardly type out this post because I am so psyched to get back to it! It’s not just the music, he is talking straight to you. If you are alive I know you ain’t reached your best yet. He is laying it down! You got more! You can do more! You can see more! You can be more! Yes! Yes! I am feeling you Disclosure! Thank you!

So, here’s the wheel – if you want to push yourself while exercising and love every minute of it, listen to this song! I’m just gonna add a little Rage Against the Machine to balance out the sweetness and we should be a whole lot stronger in a few weeks! Pushups, get ready to finally go into the double digits!

Humor, Relationships, Technology

The Technology Isn’t Working, Can You Help?

January 29, 2021May 8, 2021by Sidewalk Face at Eagle-Crow-Owl13 Comments

I have a couple of mottos I live by. One is:

It doesn’t matter how you feel, it matters how you act.

Saturday, I had an Olympic level challenge for this particular virtue. I didn’t medal. Ugh!

So, I had carved out some time to make art. I was doing it; I was listening to music and drawing. You might associate that activity with me but it’s actually really hard for me to draw before 5pm because of responsibilities. And here it was not even afternoon teatime and the markers were out and it was happening! A very pleasant half hour ensued.

Then my cell phone rings. It’s mom. She’d texted earlier that she couldn’t log into Facebook. Though I’d called her right back she is only now returning my call to help. Two and a half hours later I abandon my drawing and hustle to the kitchen. I am late starting dinner. As I chop onions, I review what just happened. I suck! Was I really just that mean to mom? Did I really use that tone of voice? What is wrong with me?

I’m not gonna belabor the plot synopsis of this play because it’s one we’ve all seen. It’s a play we’ve all performed. We’ve all been cast in both roles, the technological idiot and the person trying to help the idiot. The play sucks and everyone hates it. And yet the play has run nonstop for decades. It’s called The Technology isn’t Working, can you help? I know I’ve never felt so helpless as when I am in the idiot role. I mostly only know what I know now because of the number of times I’ve had to play the idiot. Part of the frustration of that role is you don’t know what you don’t know. Hard to be specific about ignorance.

On that note, the reason it’s so difficult to help my mom is because she doesn’t know the simplest terms. She doesn’t know if she is accessing Facebook through a browser or an app. I tried to zoom with her so I could see what she was seeing but she only had her phone so she couldn’t screen share. I tried to transfer her to her laptop, but she doesn’t know her log in password. I have it. She’s in. But it’s useless because she doesn’t know the Wi-Fi password. Cascading problems. I am feeling so much anxiety. Let’s just try to deal with one at a time. Let me ask some questions to get the information I need to understand the problem.

Do you know what a browser is, yes or no?

The screen says…

No mom, just yes or no, do you know what a browser is? Do you know what that term means?

When I click on the…

Mom! Mom! Stop! Please just answer me with a yes or no.

She can’t. I don’t know why. But I have to listen to reams of gobbledygook to try and parse the information I need. It makes me physically upset and my tone of voice stops being the way I want it to be.

Somehow, I do get her back into Facebook. I feel like I just got a Nobel prize. I am so proud of myself. I gave her a stern lecture about passwords and we hang up.

While still taking an arrogant bow at the end of the play for being the person who solved the riddle, the curtains immediately raise on a new play called You are a Terrible Daughter! What’s Wrong with You?

My mother has done so much for me. How many times has she stopped what she was doing to help me? Too many to count. I could never repay her with my time. I have to see helping her as a privilege, not as a roadblock. I call her back, apologize for being not so nice. She doesn’t care, she loves me, and she got her Facebook back. If I am going to medal in the next round, I need to improve my workout. I need to remember to be grateful in the moment of difficulty. I need to tattoo that motto on my arm.