cleverly disguised as a responsible adult

My team at work has decided that we need to be happier. So we have the Happiness Initiative. It's based off of a TED talk that posits that if you do certain things every day, you'll improve your overall happiness. These things include meditation, exercise, listing out gratitudes, journaling, and performing small acts of kindness. I'm participating in this because I can always use more happy.

• I'm doing the meditation because meditation is awesome. I'm nearing the end of the Self-Esteem pack and I think it's helping.
• I'm doing the journaling because I found an app that gives simple prompts - what are you thankful for, what are 3 good things about today, what would make tomorrow better, etc.
• I'm doing the random acts of kindness by inflicting art on others. Every day at work I choose one of my zentangle art cards. I pick a person on our team and write them a note on the back of the card. I then either give them the card with no explanation or just leave it on their desk to find. This gets these cards out of my office and has made people smile.

I'm not doing the daily exercise. I know it'd be good for me, but I'm so out of energy it's not even funny anymore.

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Alex is sick. He got hit HARD by the head/chest cold that Emi brought home from school last week and shared with me. I still feel a little puny, but I've been mostly functional the whole time. Alex started running a fever Sunday night and started having trouble breathing. We went to the dr on Tuesday, who prescribed a nebulizer for albuterol instead of just his inhaler. Getting the damn machine was a bureaucratic NIGHTMARE that Downwood finally got figured out yesterday morning. Little dude gets to go back to the dr today. He's not getting better. He may get to have another vacation at the hospital. We'll see.

We're still waiting on the results of Downwood's EEG. He may or may not have a seizure disorder. We'll see.

Emi has Pokemon bribes to do better at school. If she does her homework without being asked, she and Daddy will play a game of Pokemon at the table. If she passes her reading checkout tests on the first try, she gets a special card. She loves math and science, but has trouble with reading and wanting to do well in it.

I'm tired. I went to bed really early last night, but still feel unrested. No me gusta.

I'm worried about my friends. I feel like I can't do anything other than offer stupid platitudes. Maybe we need to go out for coffee again. Maybe we should move our coffee date to Milwaukee to bring in more friends. Stupid winter making everything seem bad.

So far today I have:

• Slept in
• Had coffee
• Had spiked coffee
• Walked to the tattoo parlour/art gallery
• Henna-ed three lovely ladies
• Found out that my local reputation is "She who knows about excellent, high quality things." I'm not sure how this happened, but i'm okay with it.
• Got commended on my speedy henna work
• Got complimented
• Talked to grownups
• Finished the NY Times daily crossword - it included "chillax" and "jello shot" as words today. I weep for humanity.
• Walked home
• Appreciated the ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS DAY!
• Got my new lotion (Yay Foam on the Range) and new henna order - I now have the white glitter henna! Yay!
• Made a late lunch of cream cheese/sriarcha scrambled eggs (don't judge me!)
• Played Facebook games
• Had more coffee
• Finally finished two winter hats for Emi from an impulse fabric purchase back in January.
• Chilled out.

Later today I will:

• Pick up Emi from school
• Take Emi to the park (if she wants)
• Maybe make dinner
• Play GW2 with Downwood.
• Drink more cider
• Not beat myself up over how I chose to spend a day off of work.