We are nearing the gloomiest time of the year. For a few weeks, the sunset will hover right around 4:18pm in the afternoon. This is early. Not as early as some places (Bellingham), but still pretty early. To combat the gloom, I have provided a least of guaranteed pick-me-ups that can be utilized as needed:
1) John Williams, Theme from “Last of the Mohicans”
I mentioned this one yesterday, but I will mention it again today. If you’re feeling down, or un-motivated, and you WANT to feel like you could wrestle a saber-toothed tiger, listen to this song. It doesn’t get old.
2) Odwalla, C Monster or B Monster
C Monster if you’re feeling sick or like you might be getting sick. B Monster if you want large amounts of vitamin B and therefore large amounts of energy.
3) Exercise
Yesterday I was sitting in my apartment, wondering what it might be like to jump off the balcony, when my friend Ryan called me to go skateboarding. After skateboarding I felt like a million dollars (Canadian dollars). You need exercise because you need to get your metabolism going and because your lungs were meant to pump oxygen — not stale, indoor apartment air. You also need exercise because you’re fat.
4) A nice, sober chat with an animated friend
If you don’t have energy, steal it from someone else. A little social contact with a friend more animated than yourself will do the trick. Find a cozy coffee shop or a low-key eatery and talk at length about one to two topics you’re both passionate about. If you can’t find something you’re both passionate about, talk about something your friend is passionate about (he/she will be more animated). Suggestions: Is Paris Hilton sexually attractive?, Is it cool to “hate” Starbucks?, What would Bill Gates look like naked?
5) Stretching
See: exercise.
6) Retail Therapy
Sometimes it really, really works. Just make sure you buy something you like. If you buy something you don’t like, you will feel even gloomier than before. And there’s nothing worse than retail depression.
Today, the only one of these I’ve applied so far is number one (I’ve listened to “Last of the Mohicans” seven times). However, I hope to apply all six, or at least all six excluding “Retail Therapy,” due to the fact that I hate shopping.
…And when all else fails, drink a beer!
This entry was written by , posted on November 15, 2009 at 4:21 pm, filed under Morning Coffee Break, seattle and tagged party, rain, seasonal affective disorder, seattle. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
I think I have finally beaten my sickness. More snot than ever is coming out of my nose, and it’s coming out in great gobs, which means that my body is getting rid of the evil that once plagued it.
Things always come in waves for me, however. One minute I think I’m on top of the world, the next minute I realize my life sucks and I have very few friends. This, of course, is an exaggeration, but this is how I tend to think when things aren’t going well for me. The trick is to live in the moment.
Take what happened outside just now, for instance. I was so happy to have made it to school in a record amount of time, feeling more invigorated than ever by the dense Seattle air coursing through my lungs and filling every single blood cell in my body with rich, Puget Sound oxygen. I felt so good. And then I dropped my U-lock on my big toe.
If you’ve never picked up a U-lock before, they weigh about 4 lbs and feel like they’re made out of solid uranium. I was unlocking it, holding onto only the fat part where you put the key in, when the U part came unlocked and fell about three feet onto my big toe. After yelping for several seconds and huffing not unlike a frightened wildebeest, I finally sucked up my pride and finished locking my bike.
So this is why I tend to think that things come in waves for me.
But what a pessimistic way to view the world. I’m like George Costanza, in Seinfeld, afraid of any kind of success because I secretly fear that God doesn’t want me to be happy and will strike me down as soon as I achieve any kind of happiness or well-being. This, I know, is not the case. When things are going well, they’re going well. When things are going bad, they’re going bad. Because things are going well does not mean they’re doomed to go bad at any moment.
One might say I have an attitude problem.
But right now, sittiing in Odegaard about to listen to Radio Canada in French and think about how this summer I’m going to be lounging at an outdoor cafe in Quebec whispering sweet nothings into the ear of some unsuspecting Quebecois girl, I can only think that things are going to go well. I can only expect things to go truly well, because what other thing is it healthy to suspect.
So maybe this makes me a raging optimist. It’s always 50-50.
This entry was written by , posted on November 13, 2009 at 12:23 pm, filed under Morning Coffee Break and tagged chuck klosterman, party, university of washington. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.