Maddy

Category: Small Joys

  • Morro Bay

    Morro Bay

    For how much exploring I’ve done in California, so little of it has been south of Monterey. I’ve visited some of the “heavy hitters,” if you will – Joshua Tree, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Sequoia National Forest – but my tendency is to drive north of the Bay especially for shorter weekend trips. As a…

  • Candy Corn Contemplations

    Candy Corn Contemplations

    It’s a Sunday Sunday. Meaning: I left the house only once, which was to go to Target for toilet bowl cleaner, and ended up buying a big bag of candy corn that I finished on the walk home. I told myself I’d cook the tofu and kale I bought earlier this week (in a fleeting…

  • Lavender

    Lavender

    It’s 5:18am but I get up anyway because it’s easier to start my day tired than it is to toss and turn in bed with only anxious thoughts as company. (No, wait, Thomas is also here…but he’s fast asleep and has been working so hard the last thing I want to do is wake him…)…

  • Good Morning(s)

    Good Morning(s)

    I love mornings because they feel like a clean slate. I don’t know if that’s always a helpful thought to have, because “clean slates” aren’t really how the world works. But sometimes it helps me to know that if I go to bed feeling depressed or anxious or angry that tomorrow is a new day,…

  • Calm on Corbett

    Calm on Corbett

    I wake every morning before 6am, not to the sound of an alarm, but to racing thoughts in my head. My anxiety has made it difficult to sleep, breathe, sit still, or relax in any capacity. A good portion of my day is spent repeating deep breaths, deep breaths over and over to myself until…

  • The High Life

    The High Life

    At exactly 4:07pm on Wednesday, April 8 – four days ahead of schedule – I achieved “To-Do List Zero.”(That’s my version of “Inbox Zero” but, instead of an email inbox, refers to the weekly to-do list I write each Sunday that details everything I want to accomplish that week, both work-related and personal.) I had…

  • Feel-Better Friday, Part 3

    Feel-Better Friday, Part 3

    I’m confused as to how this work week was only four days because it seems to have lasted ages…? In addition to being busy at work my back has been acting up, making it difficult to sleep or move around without pain. As a result (and compounded by the fact I’m on my period, wtf…

  • A New Dress (and Something More)

    A New Dress (and Something More)

    How do we know which of our words and actions – however small – will be the ones that stick with someone else? The ones they’ll remember and hold on to, despite that never being our intention or expectation? That’s a somewhat rhetorical question, since the common advice is to live your life with an…

  • Feel-Better Friday, Part 2

    Feel-Better Friday, Part 2

    Hello, and welcome to the second edition of “Feel-Better Friday!” Thanks for joining me on this quest to end my work week on a positive note. I would like to start by giving a quick shout-out to the receptionist at the imaging center where I got an MRI earlier this week: you are the most…

  • Feel-Better Friday

    Feel-Better Friday

    I started watching Schitt’s Creek a few weeks ago at the recommendation of many friends and, first of all… I was not!!!!!!! expecting it!!!!! to get so emotional!!!! For context: I finished Season 3 last night, and the Grad Night episode took it right out of me. I’ve been watching an episode per night as comic…

  • Lists & Small Joys

    Lists & Small Joys

    I sat on my couch last Sunday night and – as I do every Sunday night – stared at the week I’d anally planned ahead in my notebook, down to each 20 minute interval of time. If there’s one thing that assuages my anxiety (temporarily, at least) it’s writing lists and schedules. Something about seeing…

  • Flowers & Fullness

    Flowers & Fullness

    One of my best friends said to me the other day, “I like that you only post [on your blog] when you have something to say.” (She is also, un-coincidentally, one of two (2) people who reads this blog.) Unfortunately, I’ll be straying from this paradigm today – and likely in the next few posts…

  • Just Another Evening Walk

    Just Another Evening Walk

    The following is a conversation that happens regularly in our house: Me: “Hey Thomas, I’m heading out for a short walk to get some fresh air, I’ll be back in 20 minutes.” Thomas: “Ok, see you in an hour.” Me: “No really, I’ll be back in 20 minutes.” Thomas: “You say this every time, and…