Day 3724: Nice!

“Nice!” I just said to myself when I woke up with plenty of time to blog and get to the hospital for my first day of work after a week-long group therapy conference, where several people told me I was nice. When people tell me I’m nice, it’s often after I’ve given them a sincere compliment and I usually respond, “I’m not nice, I’m authentic.”

Yesterday, when my nice husband Michael and I went food shopping, I saw another nice little yellow Honda Fit in the parking lot, so I pulled into the space next to it and took a picture.

Nice!

Later, I noticed that somebody had left a note on my windshield and Michael and I speculated on what it might say. My guess was that the note said “nice car!” Here’s the note:

That’s so nice and here are my other images for today (which include several images shared by a nice guy on Twitter):

It IS nice to believe in yourself. Here’s the first thing I find on YouTube when I search for “nice”:

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Nice!

Thanks to all the nice people who read this daily blog, including YOU!

Day 3677: Out of the frying pan

Today’s Daily Bitch has a different ending for “out of the frying pan into the fire.”

It still means the same thing: going to a worse situation when trying to better your current one.

No matter how we phrase it, that’s a fear that can worry us or even paralyze us about taking action — maybe I should stay in this frying pan because if I move, it might get worse!

For example, we stayed with a malfunctioning dishwasher for months (Michael had to bail out the non-draining water every day!) and now that we finally got a new one (delivered yesterday), I’m thinking we were afraid we might be going out of the frying pan into the fire, imagining things like “What if the new one doesn’t work?” “What if the installation people scare Harley so much he gets sick?” and other fire-y thoughts. Instead, now our frying pans can go into a dishwasher that was installed easily and works great. And Harley, as you can see, is neither in a frying pan nor a fire.

Now it’s time to move out of the frying pan …

… into the rest of the images for today.

Because we’re focusing on frying pans and fires today, you might think that “Burns Supper” means something other than this:

Happy Burns Supper Day and because it’s also National Opposite Day, maybe I’ll assume that I’m going out of the frying pan into BETTER situations today.

Here’s what I find when I search for “out of the frying pan” on YouTube.

Thanks to all who accompany me as I go out of the frying pan into other places every day, including YOU!

Day 3461: Overused words

Last night, I overused words to ask this question on Twitter:

One of the first answers to that question was “love and hugs” and several of us used words to express our feelings that those words could never be overused.

Do you see any overused (or underused) words in today’s blog post?

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Compliments may include overused words but I still recommend them.

Here’s what I find on YouTube when I look for “overused words.”

I also find this …

… and this:

I love that I introduced that video by Ann Chirisu with the first overused word on her list (“this”).

Can “thank you” ever be overused?

Day 3376: Assumptions

I’m assuming I’ve written about assumptions before. That’s because so many people assume and if you’ve heard the joke about people who assume and asses and you and me, you could assume that assumptions can get us into trouble.

Do you have any assumptions about why I’m writing about this today?

Somebody posted that on Twitter yesterday and I assume this is relevant, here and now, because assumptions are everywhere. I assume that if I look at the news, I’ll find assumptions wreaking havoc all around the world.

Now I’m checking my assumption that there are some great quotes about assumptions.

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Do you have any assumptions about the rest of my images for today?

I have no assumptions about why March 30 is such an action-packed National Day. My assumption is that I could take a walk in the park on National Virtual Vacation Day because I’m working virtually from home and I’m off on Wednesday afternoons. However, because assumptions often don’t come true (which I assume you’ve gleaned from this post), I may not be in control on National I Am in Control Day.

If you looked at all of my images above, I assume that this song might be going through your head:

I don’t have any assumptions about what kinds of comments I’m going to get about this “assumptions” post.

Regular readers of this blog probably have assumptions about my ending this post with gratitude, and they’re right!

Day 3108: I love a parade

I love a parade and I loved unexpectedly encountering a July 4th parade when I went out for my morning walk yesterday.

Here’s a parade of photos from that parade:

To avoid a parade of questions about this, “SQU” stands for Squantum.

I was told that after the parade, a prize would be given for the best float. I think it’s a toss-up between “The Pandemic Ends” and “Miracle on Squantum.”

Here’s my video from the parade, which I love:

I hope you love this parade of other images from yesterday.

I can’t get enough parades of gratitude, so thanks to all who parade through this daily blog, including YOU!

Day 2181: How to accept personal comments

How do you accept personal comments — compliments or criticism?

As we approach the end of 2018, I’m resolving to accept all personal comments the same way.

With gratitude and joy.

I’m not saying that accepting personal  comments with gratitude and joy will be easy.  Compliments and criticism can be very difficult to accept, for different reasons.

Therefore, I shall now practice this new resolution, as I imagine all sorts of people giving me personal comments.

 

 

As I embrace the preciousness of this moment, I believe accepting personal comments with gratitude and joy will be good for my self care and for the care of others.

Also, it helps me to remember that personal comments are often the reflection of the person making the comment. In other words, it’s nothing personal.

I look forward to your personal comments on this post.

As always, I’m joyfully and personally grateful to all those who helped me create today’s post and to every person who visits this blog, including YOU.

 

Day 2034: Is this good news?

If you look at the good comments in yesterday’s post, you might notice that some good people had some trouble discerning whether that post had good news.

The news in today’s post is that I can relate to that confusion.  When I look at the news these days, I often ask myself and others, “Is this good news?”

It’s probably not news that I’m going to share many new photos and relate them to today’s topic.  I ask you, good readers,  is this good news?

 

 

Is this good news that my son Aaron took so many photos of camera-shy Michael? I guess it depends on your perspective and on who you are.

Is “Good News” by Manic Drive good news?

By the way, I continue to get good news about my dentist‘s recovery from a double lung transplant.

I look forward to all the news in your good comments.

Is this good news that I always thank those who help me create these posts and — of course! — YOU?

Day 1985: What do you do with an unpleasant person?

What do you do with an unpleasant person?

You could hide,

read a book,

take charge, wear distracting socks,

keep your distance,

take a pause,

drive away, drink tea,

appreciate yourself, honor your soul, give yourself a compliment,

be open to other people’s compliments, be the hero of your own story,

and/or write a song.

Today, I’ll be spending the day with many pleasant people for the first day of a three-day group psychotherapy conference in my pleasant birthplace of Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

I look forward to reading your pleasant comments.

Many thanks to all the pleasant cats and people who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 1542: Exclamation points!

At one point yesterday morning, I exclaimed, “There’s the topic for my next blog post! Exclamation points!”

Exclamation points are valuable!

I now exclaim that I saw exclamation points at many points throughout the day!

 

 

I shall now exclaim all these points!

• I love my work!
• When things suck, it’s important to remember that you don’t suck!
• I love Egyptian Licorice Yogi tea!
• Fear of commitment and fear of failure are very common human fears!
• I often write helpful phrases up on my white board!
• I love ice cream!
• I’ve stopped eating kale because it has so much vitamin K, it screws up my INR blood levels!
• I don’t miss kale!
• I love spring!
• Spring is here!
• Today is going to be very cold in Boston!
• The cold doesn’t bother me when I know it’s going to end soon!
• I’m not going to have chips and dips on National Chip and Dip day because I’ll be working late leading a therapy group!
• Yesterday, somebody said to me, “We all say the same thing about you — Ann is a great group leader!”
• I love compliments!
• It helps to exclaim positive points because we tend to forget them!
• I love the Beatles!
• Help!

I hope you exclaim some points in a comment!

Thanks to all  who helped me create this post and to you — of course!

 

 

Day 1204: Yipes!

Yipes!

is something people say when they’re

• surprised,
• scared, or
• amazed.

Every day, I have reasons to say

Yipes!

because life can be surprising, scary, and amazing.

Yesterday, I was surprised, scared, and amazed because

• I spent a beautiful Sunday discussing membership with other group therapists and didn’t resent being indoors,
• several people mentioned that somebody they cared about had recently died unexpectedly, and
• I got a lot of praise for my contributions to the success of the day.

What makes you say “Yipes!”? How about the photos I took yesterday?

 

Yipes!  I didn’t know that Yipes! was an American rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

You can find Yipes! singing “Blink of an Eye” here on YouTube, with several Yipes!-inducing lyrics including:

Where does the time go?

Yipes! Where does the time go?  It’s time for me to end today’s post.

Yipes!  I almost forgot to thank Yipes, group therapists, and you — of course! — for visiting, here and now.