Hey, timing.

[mrissa]

Today I was feeling utterly physically miserable again*, and it was bleeding over into the rest of my outlook, as it will tend to do. I characterized it in e-mail to a friend as the "YOU RUIN EVERYTHING, PUKERELLA!" mindset. And in the midst of this, a friend took the time to tell me that she appreciated a thing I had put effort into.

It was not, like, the hugest deal ever. She did not make me a giant wall-sized cardboard card with glitter to say thank you, and my effort was not Augean Stables-level either. But I did a thing that took effort when I don't have a lot to spare, and she took the time to not only appreciate it when she didn't have a lot of effort to spare either but to use her words to say so, and you know what? That ended up mattering quite a lot in the fight to keep the physical stuff from dragging down everything else.

So if you can, tell me about something in your life with good timing lately. We like the good timing. Yay good timing.

*Seriously one of the worst weeks I've had for awhile, in physical terms. There is a queue of stuff I am totally capable of doing that is taking forEVAR because of the amount of time body-wrangling. Whee. We'll get there. But it takes awhile.

Comments

[rosefox]

When X suggested that I take a week off work, I happened to have the next week's reviews on hand and ready to edit (this does not happen often), so I was able to hand those off to another editor who was willing to cover me and go on vacation with basically no notice. It was very handy.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Wishing you strength!

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

I had today off.

I slept in until nearly noon, didn't get dressed, read a bit, played a lot of Terraria, and in general did not do a thing on my list. And when I emailed my roommate Angela to ask if she could pick up a gallon of milk on her way home, she had just the right amount of time to do so between an opening she was done with and dance.

The other excellent timing in my everyday life is that one of the HyVees in town has samples. A lot of them. Even alot of them, which would be the most delicious alot since alot of chocolate cake. Sushi, miscellaneous produce, cheese, dips and spreads, pork chops, and sometimes wine. I go after school, which is coincidentally when all the cooking-sample people have just gotten things edible. The other HyVee near my schools also does this with pizza, sushi, fake cornbread, and Greek yogurt.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Also there's a helpful smile in every aisle.

(We have no HyVee here, but I am familiar with the jingle from earlier days. Although fake cornbread sounds ominous.)

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

I got the music to a piece I've been wanting to play on the piano since I was 15. So it's got four key changes (including four flats, then five sharps) I can handle that. I know this song like the inside of my house in the dark, and I am going to play the hell out of it. I got the music today.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Not sure whether it counts as "good" timing, but this year in Colorado, the weather has been much warmer for much longer much sooner - which means everything is about to bloom and be glorious a month early! It is wonderful and lovely, and tomorrow there will be the planting of peas and lettuces and possibly even the kale.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it's good for somebody. For me it meant earlier birch allergies and approximately none of real winter, which I love, but I'm trying to be cheerful because what else are you going to do.

[teadog1425.livejournal.com]

Sending good thoughts for the body wrangling - the best timing I've had lately, is that four years ago, just when I was despairing of where I'd ended up to in my life, I found a black Icelandic gelding, and since then he has become the most important thing in my life, and he is now my pony, and I am his girl, and he has changed my life for the better in so many ways, and his timing was _perfect_! :)

[teadog1425.livejournal.com]

He is the handsome pony - just to confirm! - in the icons! :)

ETA: where I'd ended up to in my life = after 5 years I had a PhD and not much else (eg sanity, social life, etc!)

He wasn't in a very good way when I came across him, but we have done a lot of rehab work, and he is now 20 this year, but looks awesome, and is a happy, cheeky boy, which is the most satisfying thing! :)

PS - would it be ok if I added you?

[howl-at-the-sun.livejournal.com]

Another well-timed thing Just Happened! I was reading this thread, and I went, Hey, that looks like an Icelandic horse! And it was.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Hmm, timing...

Well, we passed through Heathrow the day before passport control collapsed to three-hour queues. And while there are downsides to returning from holiday into madly socially busy, it's been good to have things - and visitors - to look forward to.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh uff da and lordy, I thought the passport queue was appalling last time I went to Montreal, and that was a one-time fluke that can't have taken more than an hour and a half. Well, maybe two. And timprov and I sang "Finlandia" in the queue but did not manage to successfully dowse for a) Finns or b) Unitarians. Three hours! Good heavens. I have no idea what we'd have been singing by the end of three hours. I'm glad you didn't have to find out either. Er. What you'd have been singing. The only person who would have found out what we'd have been singing and returned to tell the tale was poor carbonel, who really seemed to wish we'd stop singing "Finlandia" in the first place. (We only did it once. It wasn't like we did it over and over.)

[moiread]

♥ to you.

It's been pretty shit over here, between the body stuff and the job-being-cut-back stuff and some interpersonal drama stuff. I've tried to be really good this week and still do all the things that needed doing and be there for all the people who needed me to be there for them, which meant I didn't really get a break day like I usually get (and need, which is the important bit). So yesterday I was both in pain and super worn out, and mostly I just wanted to crawl into bed and cry.

Then my new leggings arrived. They fit perfectly and look fantastic, which is often hard for me to achieve in clothing. After that my brother came over, because he was also depressed and having a bad day, and I dusted off my old N64 and we played Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time like back when we were kids hiding in my parents' basement and we joked and kibitzed and had a great time. (My brother is one of the few people with whom I can hang out even when I'm at my most introverted and hermity and out-of-spoons.) After that, Kevin, who it turns out had gone to dinner with coworkers, showed up at my door with delicious take-out of a sort he knew I'd like. My bad day turned into a really good day, and I needed a good day kind of a lot.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sometimes those break days turn out not to be optional even when they turn out not to be possible. I hope you get more good days soon.

And yay leggings and brother and Kevish takeout.

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

Two years ago I figured out how to make delicious cake-inna-mug in the microwave. I hadn't done it since then, but for some reason I thought about it on Tuesday--so then I had quick tasty warm cake. Which was good, because I had to do Everything Ever (except finals) for Wednesday, and cake made me happy and less-stressed.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Hurrah go cake.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how often the gap between "I know how to do this relaxing cool thing" and "I have done this relaxing cool thing" turns out to be important in my life.

[howl-at-the-sun.livejournal.com]

This is silly, but I think you are the sort of person who can handle silly. I was playing on Twitter (for good reasons), and this happened:

Ellen Kushner: O god, that I were a man!
Amanda Halperin: So you could play Alec?
Ellen Kushner: You frighten me with your acuity.

Still so pleased.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am a person who has a high tolerance for silly! On the other hand, I am a person with a very strong default-Alec (see icon!), so it took me half a minute to remember that Ellen Kushner's strong default-Alec has very good reason to be quite different.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Miss Abby has been picking up on when I go to sleep upset: she doesn't usually park at the foot of our bed (there being sofas to lounge on and neighbors to observe) but lately I've noticed that even when the other beloveds aren't registering my distress (which is not a smack on them, since I gather I'm kind of Emperor Gregor that way -- my demeanor when quietly bereft or quietly scared aren't substantially different from how I appear when quietly amused or quietly getting on with things, it would seem), I will stumble over the dog when I get up at 4 a.m. And that is comforting.

(That said, she is also guilty of not so good timing. I really could have done without the mangled adolescent possum she deposited on the deck yesterday. Plus the corollary possum schmutz on her face.)

I hope things are less pukey and draggy soonest.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It is FOR YOU. She thought you would LIKE IT. In the same sense that the chocolates the 8-year-old ate half of were belatedly FOR YOU and most of your favorites were the ones she ate, of course, but still.

Combination of Ista spending more time at the grandmonkeys' with Mark's travel and Ista picking up on me not feeling optimal means that she is trying to hold me down quite a lot these days. MONKEY YOU STAY HERE. YOU SIT HERE AND I WILL SIT HERE AND THEN WE WILL SIT HERE OKAY OKAY GOOD.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I wrote a book review that reveals a little more of myself than I'm used to sharing publicly. I felt very insecure putting it out there. My mom loved it (but then moms are supposed to be our biggest fans, though my mother frequently misunderstands this and is one of my biggest critics because she believes it will help me grow). She told me she felt I had passed the 'apprentice' stage. (How would she know? She doesn't read most of my writing. I'm not her apprentice! But I will take praise where I can get it!) But more meaningful to me was that the author sent me a personal note thanking me for my thoughtfulness. I don't know her. And may never know her. But she felt like I understood her book. And it made me feel great, like I was part of something bigger than my everyday life. And that's how her book made me feel, too. It was perfect timing to encourage me to take a little more risk in what I release to the world.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I will look forward to reading it.

[sraun]

We got a new dog today! Ziggy is cute, cuddly, and small for a Shih Tzu - maybe eight pounds? Pictures later today, or sometime tomorrow.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yay Ziggy!

[biguglymandoll.livejournal.com]

Hoping you feel better, as soon as reasonably possible!

Something good here: It's good timing in that it's here and it's the weekend - SOBUMD decided we needed a push-mower to mow the grass. (Note that SOBUMD does not, herself, mow the grass.) And it came yesterday and I put it together and this morning I mowed the grass, with no noise and no gas and no oil, just me and the blades and the wheels. (The kids were hysterical, "Daddy, where's the engine?" "You're looking at the engine." "What? Where?")

We live on a corner, so I have to do the front and the side and the back. By the end of the summer, I may have to change my handle to the Small Ugly Man Doll. Here's hoping, at least!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

When I was consistently well enough to mow, I used a push mower. I loved it. So quiet and nice, and when there were dandelions, their heads flew off in such a satisfying manner.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

We had to stay home one morning this week to get the combi-oven and microwave fixed. Ted said he could o it Wednesday morning, so I arranged to have the repair guy come then, figuring I'd just have to cancel any meetings I had. Only it turned out I didn't have any meetings that morning, and then that my afternoon ones were all telecoms and I had a bunch of tasks that would be very good for working on at home. And THEN it turned out that Wednedsday was also the day FedEx was delivering the wallet I left in the Portland airport last weekend - if I hadn't been there to get it I'd have had to figure out where you go to get stuff from FedEx out here.

Not sure this is exactly what you meant, but the timing lined up so perfectly that it made my whole week much better.

[vcmw]

I remembered just in time two weeks ago to ask J. about getting time off on the 28th. So he got his request in on the very last morning possible, and got time off. Which meant he could join me at my Aunt Mary's 50th birthday party yesterday! It was a lovely party and my great-Aunt Mary and my mom's godmother also known by me as Aunt Mary were also in attendance, so that was the first time since I was a teenager that I've gotten to see all three Aunt Mary's at once. J. hadn't met any of my great-Aunts or great-Uncles before, and they had a good time together, and the weather cooperated by being just sunny enough for bocce and croquet on my grandmother's lawn, which we got to play with some of the neighbor's little kids. Everyone ate ridiculous New England quantities of food had a good time. So hurray for remembering just in time to ask J. to get the day off!