If X=Praying Mantis, What Is Y?

Sorry for the cryptic title. I thought it was catchy. What do you do when you have an ex that refuses to let you move on? I know I don't usually talk about dating or relationships really, but it's the only interesting subject I have at the moment, so bear with me. I don't really have any "exes", per se, and most of the ones out there that could possibly fit that description are still friends of mine, so the topic today isn't from personal experience. It's about someone else's experience. While I don't know all the details, since I'm not quite a confidante, I think I can get the gist of it explained here.
    So there's an ex, who seems positively hell bent on reconnecting--not necessarily in a romantic manner, but possibly. However, the person with the ex, A, doesn't really want to reconnect. Not because of any character flaws or extreme pain or resentment that's still bubbling under the surface, mainly just that A is over the ex, who shall heretofore be known as--aptly--X. A has simply moved on.
    But how does A explain to X that A doesn't have any interest in "reconnecting"? X is persistent. X wants to spend time with A. Furthermore, A has tried several methods of showing X that A wants nothing to do with X anymore. A has not returned X's phone calls or text messages on several occasions. A has turned down suggested meetings with X several times. And, rather unfortunately I think, A has acted extremely, and perhaps excessively, mean, rude, and unkind toward X in several instances. While I disapprove of this uncouth behavior, I marvel at the fact that X has not yet taken the hint.
   Why do some people, like X, seem to sit back and take the abuse, thinking they must try harder to win someone's affections back? Why, rather than stopping and saying: this is SO not worth it, and telling that someone to put their shit attitude where the sun don't shine? Why do people like X keep at it, never giving in even when it appears that things will only end badly? (On a side note, this is a particularly interesting case study in human behavior. I thought stuff like this only happened in the movies.)
    Perhaps I can answer this question. Although I was never in such a situation when someone treated me horribly and I decided to give up on them, I have been in situations where it is quite clear that the person has no interest in anything beyond friendship, and yet I persisted. I'm stubborn that way, I guess. Sometimes, the person you're pursuing is so great--or at least your obsession has led you to believe that--that you can't let go. You can't stop trying. You can't move on. That may be what's happening here. X is under the impression that A is so great--and knowing A myself, X may have a point--that X cannot give up on A, no matter how badly A behaves.
    In spite of all this, I can't help but condemn X. If someone is treating you like shit, consistently, it seems completely absurd to continue trying to be their friend or get them to like you. Even though A liked X once upon a time, that is no longer the case. I can't believe X doesn't see that to some degree.
    A has decided, according to my most recent knowledge, to tell X that there is something horribly wrong with A, so horrible that A hopes X will decide to back off. I think this is a mistake. Not only is A lying, again, but if X is as persistent as it seems, it probably isn't going to make much difference in achieving A's end--the end being getting X to stop pursuing A.
    What A needs to do to accomplish this is to tell X the truth. What a concept! So simple, and yet, so frighteningly difficult. To really drive the point home, A ought to tell X that A has no interest in seeing X anymore. While A and X shared something once, A has moved on, and A would like X to respect that by not calling, texting, or asking to see A anymore. That kind of talk isn't easy to have with someone. I think most of us avoid it, like the plague. But sometimes, with some people, it is necessary.
    Now, wouldn't it have been so much simpler if I had used pronouns to tell this story? But, for anonymity's sake, I did my best to preserve it completely. While I hope that A will muster the courage to tell X the truth about how A feels about this situation, I have a feeling this drama might continue for a while.
     So, I get to sit back and watch this live soap opera unfold before my eyes, hoping that our protagonist will do the right thing. In the meantime, consider this: exes are like ghosts. Unless you straight up tell them to bugger off, they may haunt you indefinitely.

No means no.

Write Through the Pain

I have a headache right now. But, I insist on putting another post up tonight since I have little to no homework to deter me from writing. Writing when you have nothing to say can be painful. You feel like nothing is making sense, or nothing is relevant, or your choice of a slew of other self-deprecating criticisms. But sometimes, if you power through the pain of churning out crappy writing, then the good stuff gets a chance to resurface. For those who have forgotten this tenet, hopefully this discussion will be therapeutic. (And yes, I managed to equivocate a bit on the word "pain" in this paragraph. And yes, I now use big words like equivocate because I've taken so much logic this semester. Hazard of the trade, I suppose.)
    When the words get stuck, they need a little coercion and a little patience to make them come back out. Sitting down and writing when you think you have nothing to say is exactly the time when you MUST sit down and write. Write about having nothing to say (somewhat like I'm doing...), and whatever else may pop up; the asshole who cut you off in traffic this afternoon, or the ridiculous Birthers and how they need to get a life, even the speck of carpet fuzz on the floor next to your desk. Any of these are excellent ideas if you're stuck but need to do something to unstick the words from your brain. They may seem trivial or pointless, but you never know: the asshole driver could be the flawed hero of your next plotline, or the carpet fuzz could have some very interesting insights into what people carry around with them on their feet or what the room looks like from the floor.
    "A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men." [Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka] And don't you forget it. Write the drivel, the nonsense, the tomfoolery; write it until you're all driveled and nonsensed out. Maybe it'll help the brilliant words come forth and make themselves known in the beautiful and excellent prose you believe yourself capable of. Or maybe it'll just remain blather and you'll feel like you wasted your time writing about a piece of carpet fuzz. But, dear readers, writing is never a waste of time for people who love writing. Even when it's difficult, even when you feel like you'd rather do anything but write, there's always that blissful memory of the 3 AM frenzy when you managed to crank out 10, 20, or even 30 pages in a single night, and getting back to that feeling of accomplishment, of excitement, of ecstatic, if punch drunk, enjoyment, is the reason we writers write in the first place. Unless you're one of those writers who writes for the money. If that's the case, I'm not talking to you.
    So the next time you get the dreaded W-R-I-T-E-R-S B-L-O-C-K (that might have been cuter had I been speaking rather than writing--oh well), expel the babble and incoherent gobbledygook, and maybe you'll be able to get back to the good stuff. What started out as a rambling piece of trash could turn out somewhat interesting. We can dream. Be not afraid. Write all the boring out of your brain and make way for innovation!--or at least something you can say is less sucky than the last.

A few words to take with you: hogwash, twaddle, poppycock, rot. 

Skiing: A Review

I went skiing yesterday for the first time ever. And I'd like to share that experience since I don't really have much else to talk about today.
    First, I had planned on heading home Thursday evening, but I had a paper to write for one of my classes, so I thought I would have more success with it if I stayed at my apartment and headed up Friday morning. I wrote my paper, after several hours and much tribulation and effort, and sent it in to my teacher. I took my time a little more than I intended on Friday morning, but finally I got all my stuff together and headed home. I waited for my boyfriend, who's the skiing expert that was going to teach me a few things, to come pick me up to head up to mountains. He was late, as usual, due to bad traffic, as usual.
    Around 1:30 in the afternoon (bear in mind, the ski resort closes at 4pm), we left. We stopped to get Chipotle, so I wouldn't starve all afternoon after all that extra exertion that I'm not used to, and then we were really on our way. When we finally got there, it was about 3pm, giving him an hour, or so, to teach me the basics. We bought a lift ticket off of someone in the parking lot who was finished for the day--this is common practice, I gathered, but I felt somewhat guilty nonetheless--and we went to get in line for the chair lift. (Just my luck, the Bunny Hill was closed, so I had no choice but to go down a regular run with everyone else.)

Photo from the Road Up to the Ski Resort

    The second I got my boots locked onto my skis, I felt I'd made a huge mistake. I couldn't stand still because they kept slipping around, and I didn't think I'd ever be able to control my legs enough to get down the entire hill. I could barely move my feet to get the skis pointed in the right direction, and the ski lift was beginning to look terrifying. The chairs at least were chair level, so all you had to do was sit down. Mission accomplished. But on the long ride up the hill, the ground's distance below me varying from a few feet to nearly 20 feet, my anxiety kicked in and I started to cry. I had no confidence in myself at all that I'd be able to get off the chair lift once we got to the top, and I'd just keep going around and around until they stopped it and I could get off.
    My only frame of reference for the chair lift experience was movies and TV, and in those, the people usually jumped from the chair to the ground which was several feet below. I was afraid I'd jump and break an ankle or something, or worse, tumble back down the hill. However, I soon learned that my fears were completely unfounded and, in fact, ridiculous because when you get off the chair, the ground is right at your feet. You don't have to jump at all. You just have to get out of the way before the chair knocks you over. Crisis one: resolved. Except I did fall after getting off the chair lift. The only time that day that I fell accidentally. The other times, I fell on purpose so I wouldn't get going too fast and lose control.

Another Photo on the Way Up

    The next thing was getting down the run. The first part was very straight and not steep at all, so I felt ok. Not confident, but at least not terrified. I managed to get to the end of the straight stretch mostly unscathed and still standing, for the most part. However, there was a turn at the end of it, which was not only terrifying, but seemingly impossible.
    I won't go through every detail of the entire exercise of my first experience on skis, as this post would probably be twice as long, so I'll skip ahead. I finally made it about halfway down the mountain, though I walked across one part that was particularly ominous and steep, before the ski patrol people wanted us off the mountain since they were closing for the day, and they called a snowmobile to take me the rest of the way down the hill. This was probably for the best, as I would have been there another half hour trying to go by myself because I refused to go any faster than a slow skid.

All these were taken in the car, since I left my phone in the car, not wanting to break it from falling so many times.

     So, two panic attacks, about half a dozen falls, and over an hour later, I was at the bottom again. I skied for the first time, and rode a snowmobile for the first time, both in one day. I was pretty pleased with myself. Despite my terror, the unpleasant wind, and the fact that I am sore pretty much everywhere today--in muscles I had no idea I used--I think I'll be heading back up to the mountain. The season is pretty much over now, but there's always next year. But when that time comes, I will definitely be going on a day when the damn Bunny Hill is open.

Fear: check. No broken bones: check. I think it's safe to call that a success.

All Quiet on the Reefer Front

[DAMN!! This was supposed to be published yesterday, but my stupid apartment complex WiFi went out several times, and despite it saying that it got scheduled, it failed, so my apologies. Pretend it's yesterday while you're reading, I guess. :/ ]
Today is April 20th. While a lot of unfortunate things happened on this day, the massacre at Columbine High School, Hitler was born, the damnable oil spill in the Gulf last year, this day also means something special to a lot of Americans. April 20th, or 4/20 as it is affectionately known to some, is an unofficial national holiday for people who like to smoke pot or people who support the legalization of marijuana. While I personally haven't had much to do with this particular day in history, I know plenty of people who have. This year, the day seems to have gone off without a hitch (SO FAR--I don't want to jinx it), a.k.a. no oil spills, natural disasters, or incidents extreme violence and hatred. So, I decided to speak a little to the day and why so many anti-4/20 people could use a little mellowing themselves.
    Marijuana is still illegal in many US states, and is only "legal" for medicinal purposes in some states. For some reason, weed has been labeled a gateway drug that will lead people who smoke it to try other drugs, many more dangerous and harmful like heroin, cocaine, and opium. While there is no unequivocal proof for this claim, many people do believe it. Pot is a mind altering drug, and like other mind altering substances, alcohol, and even tobacco and caffeine, it requires moderation and caution in its usage. However, as far as I know, nobody ever overdosed from smoking too much grass. It requires moderation for different reasons. It can cause some people to lose motivation for anything besides having that lovely high that the THC brings. But, in its defense, those people probably didn't have far to go to lose that motivation anyway.
    Some people think weed is dangerous, and even a threat to the lives and safety of America's youth and everyone else, so that even to consider making marijuana legal seems absurd. This is a fallacy, based on unfounded opinions, rumors, and propaganda. It is more dangerous now, as an "illegal" drug, than it would be as a legal drug. The illegality of it breeds corruption, violence and other dangers, because cartels and growers can turn a higher profit on something that is hard to get due to its illegal status. If marijuana were legal, it could be regulated more closely, and monitored, much like alcohol production is regulated. Take note, there isn't a whole lot of moonshine these days in the states since Prohibition ended. And if the "War On Drugs" would end, with respect specifically to weed (the other illegal drugs should probably stay illegal), not only could we see the negative results disappear, i.e. the violence and secrecy involved with transporting, selling and using an illegal drug, but some positive results could come about as well.
    By legalizing it and regulating it, the government could tax marijuana and generate some more money to combat the tailspin of debt and deficit we have at the moment. The government could control who consumes the product and why. These may not sound like pleasant reasons to the average stoner who wants to fight the powers that be, but on the road to legalization, some compromise must be made, and if that means adding a federal sales tax to the sale of ganja, maybe we should just deal with that.
    So, while the extreme conservatives may still hold that weed is one of the many evil things corrupting the youth and turning everyone into a bunch of unpatriotic, lazy, anarchist, pro-choice liberals, it's high time we try to gain a little perspective on the possibility of there being more greens to cash out of what we call the marijuana industry.

Motives, Reasons and Productivity

What an amazingly unproductive weekend! I finally got my hair cut, which I've been meaning to do for about a month. But when I sat down to do homework, I worked out how much each assignment would take me, approximately, and discovered I had about 11 hours of homework to do this weekend (though not all of it is due Monday, I will probably not find eleven hours during the week to complete it). This was so overwhelming, it may have set me up for the procrastination that followed. I started off with the assignment due soonest, and it managed to put me to sleep after five pages of reading. When I woke up about 45 minutes later, that pretty much shot my motivation on the homework front. I spent the rest of the day writing and watching hockey. But I did get back to my exercise routine for the first time in weeks, so that's all right.
    Today was much of the same. Went out to breakfast, ate way too much of several things that did me absolutely no good with regard to my healthy eating plan. Watched more hockey. Headed to a birthday BBQ at my boyfriend's family's house. Did no homework once again, despite being REALLY far behind now.
On the other hand, it was quite productive personally, if not scholastically. Hair cut: check. Writing: check. Hockey: check. IHOP: check. Exercise: check. Plus, I got my first birthday present. A TV. Yeah. Totally blown away. it is a couple years old and previously owned, but it's quite an update for me. I'm still using the tube TV I got for my brithday about ten years ago. So, in that light, it was quite a productive weekend, aside from the whole homework fiasco.
    Productivity is so closely tied to motivation, but motivation is a tricky thing. It depends on so many different factors. Motivation to do something may depend on money, how afraid you are of the consequences of not doing it, obligations of various kinds, the thing you're doing could be a means to an end, or you could just be motivated to do something because it makes you feel good in one way or another. Sometimes one type of motivation isn't enough to make you do something. Sure, I feel obligated to show up to class, but I do also enjoy my class, so I'll go to it. Exercise is good for me and will help me lose those stubborn last 5 pounds, but it also makes me feel good afterward, even though the during part is somewhat strenuous and un-fun. But even with the proper motivation, sometimes we still avoid actually doing things.
    While some productivity is good--the kind that helps you be a better, healthier, more intelligent, more prepared person, or the kind that pays the rent--other kinds of productivity can be bad. Working 80 hours a week may make you money and get you on good terms with your boss, but it's going to wreak havoc on your sleep schedule and your social life. (Like it or not, positive human interaction is a necessary part of your physical and psychological well-being.) So, even if you do have the right practical reasons to do some things, there are always further considerations to be made.
    Surprising how we managed to get from not doing homework to healthy forms of productivity so quickly, but that's how it seems to go when we do a sort of stream of consciousness writing. I probably could have spent more time going into the difference between reasons and motives, but being aware that there is a difference, and knowing when you have both or neither, can be a useful decision-making tool.

Having motivation is not equivalent to having a reason.

OK, OK, I Surrender!!

Got quite a lot of responsibility laid on me today. It's a little terrifying. On the one hand, I'm fairly confident that I can handle it. I'm responsible to a fault, if there is such a thing, and I feel like I am constantly taking it upon myself to memorize other people's schedules and remind them to do the stuff they need to do too. This is somewhat ironic as I seem to have a horrible memory sometimes. I have a thought and twenty seconds later, it's gone. Sometimes it comes back, and sometimes it doesn't. And yet, scheduling, time management, keeping track of other people, these things make sense to me and stick in my head. I'll remember your dentist appointment on Tuesday, but I can't remember what I wanted to ask you five seconds ago. Oh well. Can't win 'em all.
    However, I have been thinking a lot about these new responsibilities, and the prospect of acting like a productive member of society, being a grown-up, and it's starting to scare me again. I enjoy paying my bills (gasp!), and taking care of myself, even if I'm still not that great at it, but I am still 22 for another week, and some of these adult things and responsibilities seem beyond me. It's not because I am incapable of handling them at my tender age, but because I simply don't want them.
    I enjoy having a little bit of freedom, and I enjoy having a little more say over what I will and will not do. I know I can manage these new things that will soon be a part of my life and what I do, but I wish I could delay them for a while. I still feel like a kid in many ways, and while part of me wants the grown-up stuff so people will quit treating me like a kid, the other part of me wants to keep some of that childlike innocence and enthusiasm. You're only young once, and I don't feel like I've taken complete advantage of that ideal. Yet. I'm working on it.
    Maybe the fear of having to take on these new responsibilities is just a fear of change. I think everyone has a fear of change in some respect; probably because the familiar is already programmed into our brains and having to learn something new--a new routine, a new process, a new person--means more effort and more screw-ups while that learning gets programmed in.
    Yes, I am comparing us to machines by saying our brains require programming, but that is not to say that choice no longer exists. I made the choice to accept these responsibilities, so, for better or worse, I will dive into them head on. If they prove to be beyond my physical and mental capacity, or if they turn out be ill-fitting for the direction I see myself headed in, then we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. But in the meantime, it's Friday, the playoffs are on, and I get to sleep in tomorrow. I think a little congratulations are in order for surviving yet another week and coming out on the other side with my poor addled brain still intact and functional.

Cheers, na zdrowie, bottoms up, and salud.

Happy Weekend to One and All.

A Shameless Plug for the Playoffs

If anyone out there--and based on my calculations, there probably aren't too many of you--follow hockey, I implore you to watch the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs this year. They are tons of fun, and they last from now until June. If you are not a hockey fan, or just don't get it, give it another shot. The best time to learn is in the post season because those who do know will be tickled pink to share their knowledge and love of the game with you in hopes that you too will get a little Cup Crazy.
    I'm a different breed, being raised on hockey, raised to believe that ice hockey is the greatest sport ever, and the Stanley Cup not only is, but deserves to be, the most sought after trophy in sports. My objective today is to convert a few of you out there to believe in hockey the way I do.

How To Become a Hockey Fan
Step 1: Turn on your TV. Versus and NBC (along with local affiliate stations) will be hosting the games live this year. You can pretty much count on games being on at 7pm ET every day of the week for the first round, which will last about 1-2 weeks from today. The best way to learn is to see it in action. (Pay no attention to the men behind the microphones who will favor Detroit no matter who's playing.)
Step 2: If you're not a lifelong puck-head like me, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hockey and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nhl to learn more about the game.
Step 3: Check out http://www.nhl.com/ to find out which games are scheduled, as well as stats, polls, news and more.
Step 4: Choose your loyalties!! There are 30 to pick from, you can go with whoever's in your state, or nearby, or just pick one with a cool name, excellent players, or a stellar record.


Some Vocabulary: 
1) Dropping the gloves--There will be a fight. Yes, they pretty much box on skates.
2) He iced the puck--The puck was shot down the length of the ice in order to delay the game, drawing a penalty.
3) Drawing a penalty--Getting (see manipulating in some instances) the referees to call a penalty by making it obvious you were impeded during play
4) Five for fighting--Five minutes in the penalty box (or in the locker room if the period is almost over) for participating in a fight
5) Penalty shot--The rare reward for a penalty in which a player for the team who was impeded during the play gets to take a free shot at the opposing team's goalie to try to score a goal
6) Period--Hockey is divided into 3 periods of play, not quarters, or halves. It's Canadian, what can I say?
7) Goal--They're called goals, not points, when someone puts the puck past the goalie into the net.
8) Hat Trick--When a single player scores 3 goals in a single game.
9) Gordie Howe Hat Trick--named for Gordie Howe, a retired Detroit Red Wing player; when a single player gets an assist, a goal, and a fight in a single game
10) Five Hole--Beating the goalie through one of the five holes that his body creates between him and the net; Also a style of goaltending

There are more terms, but I can't go into every single one of them here. You can probably find some of them on the aforementioned websites, or learn them as the game is played. The commentators like to explain things more during the playoffs for people who are new to hockey.

Guide to Being a Hockey Fan: 
1) Fights are a part of the game. Just go with it. They rarely get too gory or dangerous.
2) Pick on the referees. They aren't perfect, and if they slight your team, they deserve all the insults you can throw at them.
3) Cheer loudly, whether you're at a sports bar, in your living room, or at the arena itself. The team deserves your support no matter where you're watching from.
4) Don't be a fair weather fan. Cheer and support your team through the good games and the bad. 

Lord Stanley is coming to town. WAY better than Santa Claus.

Crisis Averted

After being stressed out for about two weeks now, the looming storm on the horizon has disappeared and it's sunny again. Well, maybe sunny with a few clouds.
    So, as promised, I will get into the "stressor number 2" I mentioned last week. (Just to clarify, this is the reason I've been absent and erratic from Insistent and Persistent for the last couple weeks--sorting all this out.) After long deliberation, some of which I've shared here, I've decided not to continue grad school in the fall. There are plenty of reasons behind it, some of which include job prospects after graduation (or rather lack thereof), not enjoying being a teaching assistant (which indicates probably not enjoying teaching in the future), and liking my job more than school. I never thought that would happen, but for now, I consider myself lucky.
    While I realize I have disappointed many people making this decision (a couple of whom I haven't had a chance to tell yet), being young and knowing myself well enough to make pretty good decisions about things, I had to go with the decision that would lead me in the direction I wanted to go, rather than a direction that other people wanted me to go. Sometimes those two are the same, but this time, they aren't, and I couldn't keep doing something that meant more to other people than it did to me.
    So, that's done. It's official. I turned down about 12 grand in financial aid (plus tuition waivers) for nine months of school next year--another thing I never would have thought I could do. Turning down free money is even harder than turning down free food for me. And with that done, I'm down to four weeks of school, not counting finals, of course.
    One of the best parts of finally sharing this decision is that everyone has been really supportive. I had been so worried that they would ask all kinds of questions and demand more explanation than I was prepared to give. So, me being the overachiever that I am, I prepared explanations, as in-depth as I could, to explain my reasoning. But no one did demand that kind of explanation. Not yet, anyway. But the people who needed to know most, the school, and certain family members, know now. I still have to tell the teacher that I TA for--and while I can hope she will have the same optimistic and supportive attitude as everyone else so far has had, I still doubt it.
    A good outcome of this is that I really don't regret this semester, despite the amount of stress and anxiety it has caused me. I don't think I would have known that I didn't want to be in grad school until I had done it and seen what I have seen and learned what I have learned. I'm a big fan of process of elimination, and doing a semester of grad school has shown me that it needs to be eliminated as a possibility for me and my future job prospects. However, it's not completely eliminated. I may still decide to go back, later on sometime, but if that day comes, I will definitely be applying to a different program. As much as I like philosophy, I never saw myself with a career in it.
    Although I never had the idea that the particular job I have currently would be anything more than a temporary place for me to earn money until I got my financial aid to finish graduate school, I'm glad that it has turned into more than that. A place with good people, good opportunities, and satisfying and challenging work. I'm not counting on doing it forever, or being at the same company forever, but in the meantime, I think--and desperately hope--that I've made the right choice. I get to be a grown up for the first time in my life, and for once, the idea doesn't completely terrify me.

Live and learn.

Anxiety Strikes

Basically had a miniature anxiety attack bubbling under the surface since Friday afternoon, causing me to neglect my blog for three whole days! For that, I apologize, but with nothing interesting to write about, and so much lack of focus and motivation due to said anxiety, I thought it would be best to wait to post a new topic rather than crank out something resembling a poorly polished turd.
Stressors and Anxiety Causers Countdown: 
    Anxiety causer number 3: I had to lead the review session for the test in the class I'm the TA for this evening, and I was quite pleased with how well it went. There weren't many students there, and no one asked anything too difficult. And even though it seemed like it went by fast, we were there for a whole hour.
    Stressor number 2: Also have come to a mostly decided decision, saying it aloud to someone this afternoon makes it more real, and that bit of anxiety about sharing that decision has been alleviated. More details on this decision to come (eventually), once it's actually finalized and there's no turning back.
    Anxiety cause number 1: I won't go into too much detail because it seems silly now, but I switched out my mouse at work on Friday because the new one they gave me was the wrong shape for my hand. And we're not supposed to change equipment without telling the boss, and the bosses were out of the office on Friday. So, long story short, anxious and guilty all weekend over a computer mouse.
    Is anxiety a useless emotion that should be discarded and swept under the rug as quickly as jealousy, fear, or regret? Anxiety does not accomplish anything. And oftentimes, we become anxious about something for no good reason because it turns out all right in the end.
    Anxiety and guilt are two of those emotions that strike me far too often without rationality, and in the meantime, cause distress and plenty of other unpleasant emotions. So, that's our goal for the week. Stop letting anxiety and guilt take over, especially when they override rationality. Hopefully you found this slightly interesting, as far as my posts go, and I really hope that despite being a couple days late with this post, it was a little bit worthwhile for someone.

Life is short. Don't let the little things get to you.