BLAH

   Have you ever felt not funny?  Keep wise ass answers such as, “When have you ever been funny?” to yourself.

   It will be better for my mental well being (and for the purposes of this blog) to believe that everybody has low spots in their lives.  I am more interested in what puts you in those low spots and how you drag yourself out.

   I have existed in one of those lulls for the past month or so, and as a guy who loves looking under the rocks of life, I have been examining what put me there and what can extract me.

   As for the former,  I am placing some of the blame on the weather.  I never need to experience a Michigan winter or spring again.  The never ending variety of cold stuff falling from the sky, smothering cloud cover, gray and sheer length of these two seasons is killing me.  I take a daily med to prevent migraines (it’s called propranolol and has saved my life), that renders my hands and feet cold during the warmest days and freezing in winter and spring.  Painful!  I also love and miss outdoor activities such as swimming, tennis and drinking beer.  I understand that you can perform these three sports indoors, but to enjoy them at their fullest means being outside.  To give you an idea of the depths of my disgust for the Michigan weather, I have adopted Anna Maria Island in Florida as my fantasy home and have dreamed about relocating to this southern Xanadu (I fantasize about fishing, and I hate fishing). 

   Work has also been a pill.  I understand that the country is in a recession, and that Michigan has been hit harder than most, but I am sick of cost cutting, watching pennies and the “I’m just glad to have a job” mantra.  Like many companies, my place of employment has cut staff to a minimum.  This means more and harder work for those still employed.  Stress, both physical and mental, is the result.  I am whipped at day’s end.  My voice, mind and spirit are waning.  I fall asleep on the sofa most evenings, though once in a while I have the wherewithal to actually get up and go to bed.  Still, I’m just glad to have a job.

   Finally, a cloud of sadness has settled over my extended family, a cloud as large and oppressive as any real cloud that we’ve experienced this never ending winter.  My mom’s older sister Mary Lou died recently.  It was rough on everybody, though the effect it had on my Mom bothered me most.  Anxiety was not limited to my side of the street.  My wife and her extended family have been dealing with issues related to age and health during this lengthy hibernation period.  Like my feelings toward my mom, it has been most difficult watching the wear and tear on my Andrea.  When the phone rings and your wife says ”Oh No” before she knows who is on the line, it’s a bad thing.   In general, I have heard more about sickness, age and death in the last six months than in the rest of my life combined.  A function of getting older with older friends and relatives, no doubt.

   

   That is what put me in a mood.  Now what will get me out?

   The day before Easter, my oldest son Max pulled out some old family videos and we sat around looking at them.  I watched images of my birthday in 1990, Easter 1991 and a vacation in Myrtle Beach in 1992. 

   This could go one of two ways.  I could sink further into a funk looking at full heads of hair, vigorous parents and laughing families.  Or, I could think about what made the people in those old videos so damn happy.  I chose the latter.

   Full head of hair Jim didn’t worry so much ( in all candor, I probably never had a full head of hair).  He did not obsess about tomorrow.  Young kids will do that to you, you’re only concerned about their next bowel movement or nap.  Whatever the reason, it’s a good way to be.  Living in the moment is proper, worrying about ten minutes from now is a waste of time.  I also laughed a lot.  We laughed at how the kids swam, how my mom and I walked (like two bears) and how my mom hated to have the camera pointed at her.  Laugh more.  In the old home videos, I was doing more stuff, going more places and interacting with more people.  If there is ever a moment in your day when the question arises, “Should we go _______?”, the answer is always yes.  You will either have a good time or it will bite and you will have a good story to tell.  Example:  This past Sunday, my wife Andrea wanted to go to the Women’s Expo in Novi with one of her girlfriends.  Alas, none were available.  Even though the Wings were on later that afternoon and a Women’s Expo seemed dreadful, I went.  I had a good time too.  Andrea and I laughed at the odd variety of booths (apparently chicks are interested in skin care, food, purses and clean carpets), talked adult talk and had a nice lunch.  Any moment with your wife, even one spent at the Sweet Sass booth (“Sweet Sass is the new ketchup”) is better than sitting at home on your ass.

   I’m not stupid, or not that stupid anyway.  I understand that the video camera does not roll on an average Wednesday while you’re cleaning up the dinner dishes.  It rolls on special occasions.  But I stick by my three pronged plan of attack:  Don’t worry, laugh and do stuff.  These are my observations and solutions.  Like plans to get fit, you will have to tailor your plan to match your own set of circumstances.  

   In a desperate attempt to get readers to react to some of the crap on our site, I am asking you what gets you down and how you get out.  If you think I am a witless Mary Sunshine, I would like to hear that as well.

Cheers! Jim