the days are long but the years are short...

it hit me this morning as i passed Robert in the hall at work.

who is Robert? Robert is 89 years old. he has been volunteering for our organization, the Armed Services YMCA, for almost 30 years. Here he is below on his 89th birthday, where we decorated our office with posters of what happened the year he was born, 1923.

I'm sure the math has gotten lost over time, but he's given over 20,000 hours of volunteer service. As long as he's in good shape that day, he comes to our office 4 days a week. sometimes he doesn't have too much activity throughout the day, but his favorite thing to do is play chess. i share an office with Robert. he's the only volunteer we have ever given a desk to :) To every patient who comes back in my office, he grumbles, "do you play chess?" Their answer is usually "no", but once they look over his shoulder and see his cork board decorated with Marine Corps memorabilia, they perk up and give him the respect he deserves.

Robert spent 20 years in the Marine Corps. He enlisted on March 2nd, 1942. Robert's slowing down in many ways, over the few short years I've known him, but when he spouted out that date, "March 2nd of 1942", he said it like it was yesterday. You can just see the love he has for his Marine Corps. He got out as an E7. Nowadays, an E7 is a Gunnery Sergeant. But back in Robert's time, an E7 was actually a Master Sergeant. His post-it note altered plaque that you see below makes me laugh everytime.

Robert was a non-combat Marine. He was proud to tell me he was "in for 20 years and never shot at anyone". He told me he started off in artillery. But he was recently married, and he'd watch all these other Marines leave base and meet up with all these girls and have fun, and he had to work long, overnight hours. He wondered how he could get their schedule so he could go see his wife more often? So when there was an opening, he changed his MOS (job) to administrative. And he never looked back :)

During his time in the Corps, they began issuing drivers licenses to Marines to drive their vehicles. But no one really knew how to drive them! He was in China at the time, and he became a driving instructor. He said "as long as they didn't clash gears too much and didn't hit anybody, they got a license."

After he got out of the Corps, he spent 21 years working for the US Post Office as a mailman. He has an old can of dog repellent spray, it looks like its from the 70's. He still carries it in his jacket pocket today.  :)

So what is the point of all this? To remind us to volunteer and give back, like Robert does? I'm not sure. But i do know it reminds me of my sixth Secret of Adulthood: The days are long but the years are short.

this little life...

so leaving for work this morning made me smile.

i ride my little 2 mile commute with a bike bag on my back. it's full of work clothes, lunch, oh and even a small purse.... it basically holds everything. jake hates that i carry all of this stuff on my back. he says it's unsafe because it messes up your balance, and is bad for your back. i say "ehhhhh". he's been pestering me for a while to put my panniers (aka storage bags) back on my bike. panniers are cool when you're doing a cross-country tour....

(for a cool version of panniers, see below.....)

but on a 4 mile round trip commute, i really think i'll take the uncomfortable, bulging bag on my back versus looking like a dork.

but jake doesn't agree. so as i'm leaving this morning, with my big ol bag on my back, jake's like "i really wish you will let me put panniers on your bike one day"... and i smile to myself, like a kid, because little did he know i was actually carrying weights in my bag too! well, let me rephrase... i carried one of my two 5 lb hand weights in to work. we work out after work and i wanted to bring in my own since i always bum Amy's  :)  I wasn't going to be an overachiever and carry 10 lbs of dead weight! so i carried in one this morning... and i had to smile to myself as Jake's reminding me how much he hates that i do that.... hopefully today is the day he doesn't read this blog....  (love you, dear :)

so then i get to our alley, and i see our "neighborhood friend", edward, who is homeless. he's a really nice guy who seems to have had a rough life. we try to offer him warm coffee when we see him, he's always really kind and gracious. and he has a huge beard, so i always think they, bearded men, somehow help eachother out  :) one time jake had a sandwich cooking in our toaster oven and he came out with it for edward. i was like "wow, now that's nice". i don't know that i'd be as generous as jake is, i'm like a bear when i'm hungry. but he makes me a better person, so it's a good thing. But, i digress....

So i ride past Edward, and say good morning! And he ignores me. which is funny becuase i know when he sees Jake 30 yards later, he won't be ignoring him  :)  but oh well, i think he has his guard up quite a bit and isn't too friendly sometimes. which i'm sure is just a part of his lifestyle. So, as one of my commandments tells me: don't take things personally.

then after i pass Edward, i see our neighbors and their cute little dog who lost one of his legs, just hobbing along, happy to be going for a walk.

and for some reason, i had to just smile at our litttle life. it was a nice smile though.

back to work...

This will be the first full work week I've had since December 21st! I wish every week was a 3 or 4 day work-week! we had a great weekend though. we always try to take advantage of being in a place where you can hike, go to the beach, mountain bike ride, pretty much do whatever you'd like. so yesterday, Jake and I got our exercise in by taking the dogs on a mountain bike ride up in Alpine. It was perfect weather and such a nice start to our morning. We did an out and back trail for about an hour. The whole time we felt like "wow, this trail is nothing like the description..." But kept on going. It wasn't until we got back to the car that we notice a little sign, with a tiny arrow pointing to our left, saying it was the start of the trail head. That whole time we weren't even on the trail! It was more of a fire road. Looks like we'll have to go back and do it right next time. But we did stumble across this super cool rock...

And after that, we had a nice lunch with a good friend who i hadn't seen for a little while. it was so great chatting with them, and enjoying their company. one of the commandments other people had in the book is just show up. this is interesting to me, it's such a simple thought, yet so important. in a friendship, just showing up is half the process. To me, it means make every effort you can to make plans with friends and actually keep them. so just showing up for breakfast was so important since we all have our own lives, busy schedules, and it's hard to stay on track with managing it all. so i am thankful that laura was also able to "just show up" with her husband and little man, so we could enjoy a nice brunch with them!

back to the normal decor...

so i was reminded how unenjoyable taking down Christmas decorations are. it's funny, putting them up I think i had Christmas tunes playing on pandora, i was in some reindeer flannel pjs (true story) and just happy as can be. tonight i had a moment where I thought "i'm so like my mother right now"... sorry mom, but it's true... I can just remember her always frustrated that no one wanted to help her take everything down and it would turn into a chore that us kids would all try to avoid. but our lil house is so small, that i really didn't have much room to decorate, so i kept it pretty minimal this year. at least i think so... i remember when i moved in, jake was like "you have how many storage containers of christmas decorations??  :)

in putting everything away, i thought i'd share a neat and simple idea i saw on.... (wait-for-it)... Pinterest! shocking, i know  :)  Anyways, you know how you never know what do to with your christmas cards every year?? well this little idea seemed brilliant to me! You simply hole punch all your cards, hook them with a binder ring, and then if you want to get more detailed, you can put year tabs like I did, and even do 1 piece of cardboard on the back to give it a solid backing... punch 2 brass tabs through it, get a piece of ribbon, and it will hold it all together with a lil knot! super easy and just add to it every year!

organizational ideas make me really happy!  :) 

there is only love...

my 1st Secret of Adulthood: there is only love.

a little while ago, jake and i started this journal thing (okay fine, maybe it was more my idea than his ;) that i had read about on someone else's blog. You write in a journal back and forth to each other, it can be one line if that's all you have time for, it can be a few sentences. then you hide it so the other person randomly finds it.  it's been a fun game to play and a neat way to leave each other little notes. so I was scrambling this morning trying not to be late to work (future resolution :) and a tad frustrated, tossing my pile of clothes aside, i find.... sigh ....... our journal. with a new, sweet message from jake. and you realize there is only love.

at the end of the day, all things aside, isn't that all that really matters in life??

exercise: check!!

exercise: check!!
rode my bike in to work and it was so cold this morning i had tears running down my face. but its always a nice start to the morning. then my co-work... wait, friend... (i always joke with her that it's cute she thinks we'd be friends outside of work... but i'm just playin with her) ... anyways my friend and i worked out in our office after work. we wheel a tv in there and do Julian Michael's 30 day shred!! its pretty fun actually. Then to top it off, i ran the dogs to the dogpark.

but I still can't get the breakfast thing down. my morning slipped by me and i just got sidetracked. before i knew it, it was 11 and i was so hungry i ate my tuna sandwich and sweet potato fries!! oh well --- see paragraph above, i worked it off! ;)

and i've already ruined tonight's "go to bed early" rule because i was watching pitch perfect. it was acually pretty funny. makes me feel like i missed my call as glee club member or something.... if i could sing and if my highschool had a glee club.

but i do catch myself being super envious when i watch people hip hop dance. i wish i would dance a bit more. it's kind of tied to the "be silly, be light" commandment. however, i have decided to work in some form of dance in my october's resolution of spirituality. okay so that's kind of a stretch once you see what I'm talking about... I attended a Mind, Body, Medicine conference a few years back. It was super interesting, learning about visualization, meditation, positive thinking, and SHAKING!! it was something he made us do every morning. in a conference room with hundreds of people, they'd play this fire-dancing type music (is that even a thing??) and turn the lights down, and you just shake. it's hard to catch live footage of this phenomenon, because no one wants to sign a waiver that allows the posting of a video of them shaking every jiggling ounce of their bodies... but here's a clip...

James Gordon workshop, shaking

after the conference, i did it for a few weeks and actually found it was helpful. it just got you to open up, be silly, and really loosen every part of you.

try it....! 2 minutes is all it takes.

january: vitality

I decided to start january off with vitality... (basically a fancier word for exercise, health, energy, etc...) I figured if i'm going to commit to this project for one whole year, i will need to start the year off with a healthy jump start.

exercise 6 times a week for 20-30 minutes
some of you may already do this, and it's nothing new, but for me, i'll have to make a conscious effort to get some physical exercise in almost every single day. and no, I will not count my little 3 mile commute to work on my bike.... :(

take vitamins daily
if i don't make it something i must do, i get pretty lazy with it.

go to bed earlier ... translation: less tv, and more reading!
this one is like a domino effect. i think, well hope, it will help lay the groundwork for my others. i figure if i watch less TV**, that will make me want to go lay in bed and read. and to piggyback this rule, no more cell phones in bed! jake and i have never been too focused on those things, but since we both got iphones, it's quite easy to get into bed and scroll through facebook. before you know it, like an hour has gone by and you catch yourself looking at someone's pictures, and it's completely irrelevant. i've began to have a love/hate relationship with facebook. i want to use it to keep in touch, but i'm finding it more and more of a time consumer and a negative thing. so i'm going to work on that -- in april. what?!.. one thing at a time here! :)

** the only sidenote i'll set for myself here is a pass to watch my favorite shows: "how i met your mother", "modern family", "glee" (if i'm feelin' it) and i reserve the right to add one more show to this list if i feel so inclined :)  the trick, we've learned, is to only turn the tv on 5 minutes before the show. and try to turn it off as soon as it ends... if not, you just get sucked in!

stretch in the morning
very important to get the day started right! and i can't afford to continue to go to the chiropractor, so this is the cheaper way to keep the body flexible and aligned!

eat breakfast
guilty. i never eat breakfast. i have coffee first thing in the morning, as part of my AM routine, and then i typically don't eat until 10am or so, in front of my desk at work. i'm pretty sure it would help me have a better start to my morning if i just took a few minutes to eat breakfast!

straighten up before going to bed
i thought this was interesting. i tried this a while back and found it useful. i'm the type of person who doesn't like clutter, or things out of place. borderline OCD... but who's judging, right? definitely not random people on the internet.... anyways, so i found that if i straighten up the house, like make sure the dishes are done, the blanket is folded on the couch, the shoes are in the bedroom... it makes for a smoother morning when I wake up. because i'm the type of person who will be late to work every time because i got sidetracked doing things that didn't HAVE to be done.. doing these things the night before is one less thing to distract me in the morning!

and last but not least.... 
in my happiness project, i had to ask myself, what do i really enjoy doing? crafts and projects! i love making things! it makes me feel productive, creative, and is just plain fun. so, i put a twist on my happiness project and decided that each month i will work on a craft/project. So january's project is to complete my "2012 year in review" photobook. i make one every year on Shutterfly. nowadays we keep all these great photos on our computers and phones, and they just sit there. so now i have a way that i can summarize our year, and include funny captions and stories. it's quite time consuming, but i think its worth it.

i've created these monthly checklists to keep me stickin to it! and we're off....!!!  :)

Happiness Project - January by alyshamaryc