"With self-discipline most anything is possible." *

Being just after the holidays and twelve days into the New Year, I'm doing a belated set of resolutions -- not all of which started or will start this month.

"The Mighty" is doing #52SmallThings, or 52 weekly goals, which I'm going to try to follow. That said, as I've learned at different times in my life, Thomas Jefferson's quote in the title, nothing is impossible, but you really have to be committed.

One of the non-resolutions that I made at the beginning of the year was to stop drinking soda of any kind. The only soda allowed this year is ginger ale or Sprite for stomach bugs or in recovery after surgery. I had my last soda on December 31st at work. I did have ginger ale this past Tuesday, but it was to help with post-surgery nausea and dry mouth after my D&C.

It's been hard at times, especially at work, but I've been successful at fighting the cravings. Mostly because I haven't given up caffeine in addition to sodas. I drink plain water, Hint water, unsweet tea, or coffee with milk. The biggest thing was to avoid the empty calories of all that sugar, as well as the chemicals in diet sodas.

The other thing I've been reining in has been online shopping. It was meant to decrease drastically if not stop altogether. I've had some slips (I bought tennis shoes online tonight), and I've managed to spend a small fortune at a boutique coffee shop today, but I haven't been shopping online as much. I "shop", but don't fill baskets, carts, or whatnot, and I'm definitely slowing down on the "Click" option.

Pat offered me 100.00 to give up Facebook for a week. He didn't think I could do it. As it's my main form of entertainment and expression, it has been hard. Normally, before surgery, I would have requested prayers and good vibes from my friends and family. It makes me feel safe even if I have an almost superstitious fear of NOT having the thoughts of others to carry me through scary things. But I didn't log on to post, and I didn't have friends post for me. I let my mom and my best friend Rhonda know that I wouldn't be available on Facebook or Messenger, however. Mom and I have been talking on the phone more, and Rhonda and I have been doing more regular texting. I'll call her tomorrow, too.

As you might have noticed, I've also been posting in my blog a bit more (this is my third post today). I've also been writing letters. I do plan to go back to Facebook, but I'm going to try to curb my use of it to an hour a day instead of the many hours I was on in the evenings and on weekends. I may even limit it to three days a week for the time being.

For some of my #52SmallThings, I want to try a week without sugar and maybe make it two, and see how things go from there.

I want to start working out more in between my training sessions with Scott at LA Fitness, so I'm shooting for two trainings and two workouts on my own. I have a ton of sessions to use, but two a week will be good enough to start. That can't start until after the 23rd due to post-op restrictions, but it's a nice goal for the end of January.

I want to spend more time writing to my friends and encouraging them. Not just on facebook, but via cards and letters. This includes family, too. I didn't get Christmas cards out, but I want to take a week in February to write them all.

I also need to start the DASH diet that my cardiologist recommended for me. I have the cookbooks, but I haven't read them and they aren't in my kitchen where I could make better use of them. For that matter, since I am already trying to cook more at home rather than sending out for dinner so often, I need to spend a week or two where I actually make a meal plan, a shopping list, and actually cooking from the DASH books.

It will all take self-discipline. Motivation comes and goes, but I need to decide when to do things and just make myself do them.



* Thomas Jefferson

"The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency." *

"Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?"

The following is by Florida writer Adam-Troy Castro, shared by a friend on FB:

'An anguished question from a Trump supporter: "Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?"

The serious answer: Here’s what we really think about Trump supporters - the rich, the poor, the malignant and the innocently well-meaning, the ones who think and the ones who don't...

That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought "Fine."

That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, "Okay."

That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, "No problem."

That when he made up stories about seeing muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, "Not an issue."

That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn't care, you chirped, "He sure knows me."

That when you heard him illustrate his own character by telling that cute story about the elderly guest bleeding on the floor at his country club, the story about how he turned his back and how it was all an imposition on him, you said, "That's cool!"

That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw.

That when you heard him brag that he doesn't read books, you said, "Well, who has time?"

That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn't commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, "That makes sense."

That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, "Yes!"

That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man's coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, "What a great guy!"

That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, "Thumbs up!"

That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, "That's the way I want my President to be."

That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they're supposed to be regulating and you have said, "What a genius!"

That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, "That's smart!"

That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was the middle of water and you have said, "That makes sense."

That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, "falling in love" with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, "That's statesmanship!"

That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids. has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas - he explains that they’re just “animals” - and you say, “well, ok then.”

That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise.

What you don't get, Trump supporters in 2019, is that succumbing to frustration and thinking of you as stupid may be wrong and unhelpful, but it's also...hear me...charitable.

Because if you're NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering.'

* Thomas Jefferson

** With thanks to my husband for sharing this with me.

*

"Hair is a beautiful form of self-expression." *

Back in August, I shaved my head bald as part of a fundraiser for a coworker whose daughter has leukemia. Three male coworkers also shaved their heads, though not all the way bald. We raised a total of $10,000 for the cause. Because the little girl, Emma, couldn't grow her hair back right away, I kept shaving my head for the next two months. The last day I shaved was Halloween, and I went to work dressed as Mr. Clean.

Since November 1, my hair has grown out a little more than an inch. Everywhere I go, I get compliments on the sticky-up, natural color head of hair that I have. It's mostly dark brown with a whole lot of silver highlights (God's graffiti?). 

Today, even my psychiatrist commented on it, telling me that this hairstyle really suits me and she suggested -- as I have already been thinking -- that I should keep it this way.

So that's what I've decided to do. Keep it super short. i went to Great Clips today to get trimmed around my ears and the back of my neck. I used styling putty for the first time today to make it super spiky. 

Never in my life did I think I would have hair this short (much less be completely bald for two months), but I like the freedom it offers. Getting ready for work is a breeze, and speaking of breezes, I can drive with my windows down because my hair doesn't get in my face. I like how the grays are coming in across the top of my head and at my temples - it makes things kind of sparkly. 

For freedom and self-expression ("Hey, I can defy cultural norms," "Hey, I'm a free spirit!"), you can't beat short, short hair.


* Carolyn Aronson