#MondayThoughts

#MondayThoughts: Almost thinky.

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It’s Monday again, strange how that happens. There was hammering earlier, but it seems to have stopped, and now I’m only hearing the noises of the street.

That’s nice.

My brain isn’t very much in a Monday place today, though I’m trying to get it there. My brain cells are sluggish.

Who can blame them.

It’s Monday.

I think we can all agree I probably need more coffee. So much more coffee.

Gallons more coffee.

I think I’m going to work on that, and I hope your Monday sparks much faster than mine has. Have a great day.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

#MondayThoughts: Plod along anyway.

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I’s gray yet bright somehow today. Seems fair for a Monday, I guess.

A lot of Mondays are like that.

I did cardio after my Daily Burn this morning, though two minutes in I realized that the trainer, Nora, had worked legs more than I realized at the time. I was jello-y.

But I plodded along and eventually, it felt pretty good.

So that’s what I have for you on this Monday morning: plod along anyway. Eventually it might feel good.

I mean you’re free to complain the whole time if you want. Whine away to yourself, who’s listening?

But put one foot in front of the other.

You’ll be at least two feet further than you were before.

And have a great Monday.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

#MondayThoughts: Let’s GOOOOOOO

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I’ve got a lot of energy today. I don’t know why or where it came from but I’m going to take advantage while I have it. It’s a nice thing on a Monday.

Yesterday I realized I lost an earring, just as I was going to take them off to shower. I looked around the bathroom, and didn’t see it.

I didn’t have time to search, I had to leave, so with the earring on my mind I got ready and on my way, less organized that I’d hoped to be.

And when I came home, I looked around for my earring. I grabbed a flashlight hoping for a telltale glint, starting in the kitchen, checking around the couch, the living room and again the bathroom.

Nothing. Disappointed, I figured that was that, and the earring was gone. That happens sometimes.

It got particularly humid last night and I’d done laundry. After finishing hanging the stuff I don’t put in the dryer, I decided I wanted to take a refreshing shower before bed. I glanced down at the floor of the bathroom.

And there was the earring.

In the middle of the floor.

I have no idea how, I looked multiple times, once with the flashlight, and had nothing. But like magic, it had returned.

Life can be like that sometimes. You think something is gone, or it’s done, or there is no chance, and yet one appears.

That’s also a nice thing on a Monday. Have a great day.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

#MondayThoughts: It’s not all urgent.

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I’m definitely drinking more coffee with my new coffeemaker. Whether that’s good or bad I’m not sure.

Probably not good, but I guess I’ll keep an eye on it.

It’s cloudy today after a night of intense storms, and I kind of hope it will rain dramatically again. I love a dramatic rain.

Yesterday I left home without my phone, something I never do, and spent the bulk of the day without it. I felt the absence, wanted to check it multiple times, repeatedly, endlessly. But could not.

And then when I finally had it again I’d missed…pretty much nothing.

We live with these things in our purses and our pockets, and their siren song is strong and constant. We have a question in our minds and we need to know right now. We think we may have a notification and we need to know right now.

But maybe we don’t.

Maybe most of it is just noise, cluttering up our thoughts and our time.

And in the end, if we let it wait, most of the time it’s fine.

And that’s me for Monday. Have a great day.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

#MondayThoughts: A lot of Mondays.

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There’s no way I’m getting through this Monday without a second cup of coffee. I’ll be back.

So that’s brewing.

It’s a bright sunny summer Monday, but I woke up with a bit of a harrumph. No real rhyme or reason, just a bit of a mood. Which I hope will improve with the liberal application of aforementioned coffee.

Saturday we went from glowing skies to thunderstorms and back again, and it’s a lot like how I feel today. Up and down.

The weather didn’t need a justification, and neither do I. Some Mondays are like that.

A lot of Mondays are like that.

Not much we can do about it, just drink our coffee, and get on with it. So I’m going to drink my coffee and get on with it. I think it’s ready.

Have a great Monday.

#MondayThoughts: Almost rainy

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It’s hot. And probably going to rain. I don’t know if the second thing is going to affect the first.

Summer is here. Even if it’s not official.

Wait, I take it back, it’s allegedly cooler outside than in. Time to open a window, but keep an eye on it bc of that threatening rain.

Window open. Not sure the weather wasn’t lying to me. Oh well.

We’re on Monday again, in a year that gets blurrier by the day, and Chicago’s return to “normalcy” gets closer by the second. What happens when we pretend the pandemic never was? We will soon find out.

I’m low on inspiration today, maybe because of the weather, maybe because it was a weekend with a lot of goings on, many of them not great. But it’s one of those single-thought-every-ten-minutes kinds of days.

Maybe I needed more sleep.

Though…don’t we always?

Anyway, that’s it for me on this Monday. Have a great start to your week.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

#MondayThoughts, Memorial Day Edition

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Today in the US we honor our fallen soldiers. The holiday may or may not have originated with freed enslaved people, depending upon who is telling the story, but nonetheless it is a day to recognize and acknowledge the sacrifices made by our soldiers and their families.

In the US, because it’s the US, it’s also a day of sales. Because every holiday is a day of sales.

I’m probably buying shoes. Probably. My cart is full and I’m ready to check out, I just want the total to be less. Alas.

Meanwhile, professional shrill Meghan McCain shook a very chastising finger at Vice President Kamala Harris for tweeting “enjoy the long weekend” on a weekend so traditionally known to be enjoyed, try googling “Memorial Day Barbeque recipes” and see if you can get through the pages before the 4th of July.

And it so happens McCain did that chastising from a casino, where she was enjoying herself so much she posted she was the “happiest woman in all the land,” because she was gambling with her husband.

Though many pointed out Meghan’s dizzying hypocrisy, I offer you the retort of veteran Charlotte Clymer:

To answer the always lingering question from my friends around the world: why yes, America really is as weird as it looks from the outside.

Thank you to everyone who served and their loved ones on this day, and have a great Monday.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

#MondayThoughts: Forward motion

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Welp, that’s my coffee gone. It might be a day for a second cup.

We’ll see.

It’s another day that seems both sunny and potentially rainy, and Chicago is nothing if not moody. But these days, aren’t we all.

It was wildly hot for the end of May last week, and I suspect we’re in for one of those summers that makes you forget winter’s utter absence of warmth. On Saturday, everyone was out, absolutely everyone, and you could see that each person put thought into what they wore, this first taste of summer with the pandemic seemingly starting to retreat.

Seemingly.

I still am confused by the CDC, but that’s a whole other post.

And inspired, I ordered a whole plethora of clothes to see me through the swelter, on a sale that where the total was less than half of what it would have been. I chose whatever struck my fancy, the total so low I didn’t need to edit my cart by the end, and each item felt like a little ticket to a future that was different than last year.

I hope I like them when they get here, whenever that may be. I am opposed to spending money on shipping when I can avoid it, which means my shipping method is rarely fast.

Anticipating is half the fun.

Have a great Monday.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

#MondayThoughts: Not the easy way…

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Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about doing things you don’t want to do. Sometimes you have to do them, they are the annoying cobblestones of life. But not always.

How do we know what will make us better if we just push through, and what is akin to punishment?

No idea.

This morning, Daily Burn had one of my new favorite trainers, he’s fantastic, his workouts are great. But it was Tabata.

I hate Tabata.

And so I gave myself permission to do something else. It was still challenging, I still got my heart rate way up, but I didn’t hate it. I enjoyed it.

And somehow that felt like cheating.

Could I have pushed through the Tabata? I’m sure that I could have, and maybe I would have felt all the better for it.

Or.

Maybe I would have felt awful afterward instead of the energized I did feel.

Still going back and forth, as you can see. But maybe we can think about like this: it’s not taking the easy way, it’s taking a different way.

Either way, that’s it for me. Have a great Monday.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

#MondayThoughts: Cheerleader or saboteur

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Do you ever get the idea to do something, get inspired to do it, and then have that little critical voice chip away at the plan, chunk by chunk, until you figure, eh, it’s not worth the effort?

Of course you have.

Unless you’re a unique kind of creature who also probably wingsuits off mountains and teaches salsa dancing to grizzly bears or something.

Give me a break, my exampler hasn’t yet become fully caffeinated.

We all have those moments when we can either don the Team Us! uniform or slouch in the bleachers in our decades-stained and threadbare “why bother” t-shirt, waiting to throw a sardonic look at anyone who glances in our direction. I agree, even putting on the Team Us! uniform can sound like a lot these days.

But.

As someone who is not me once said, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Which apparently can be traced back to Chaucer, and not, as it sounds, like a pyramid scheme hustler seeking investors.

If you don’t try, you’ve already failed, also said by someone who is not me, allegedly J.D. Barker but I have some suspicions he wasn’t the first to string those words together.

But I digress.

Your effort is your own to use as wish. And maybe some things aren’t worth it.

But the question remains.

What if they are?

Have a great Monday.

Check out  my full-length novels: 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird and FREE!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.