Adventures in Regrets

I’ve been thinking about regrets this week.  Not big life-changing things. Not even smaller live ‘n’ learn things.  I’m talking about “Oooooh, drat. I knew better than that” things. On most days, if you asked me if I have any regrets in life, I’d say  ‘no’… I’d also probably be lying, since I might regret having posted this photo online, and telling you how it came to pass. 

I’m sure I won’t regret this…    

But, for the most part, I’ve (eventually) learned from my mistakes, and am pretty regret free…or at least I was until this week.  This week, I found myself adding 2 new regrets to my list.  Two regrets in one week?  How could that be?

#2 – Burpees.

At some point in the distant past, I agreed to join the 100-day burpee challenge.  That’s 1 burpee on the 1st day, 2 burpees on the 2nd day, etc. until the 100th miserable day.  On day 8, as I waddled, jumped and flopped through my 8th burpee, and my indolent body was still complaining about the previous 7, burpees had made it onto my regret list.  However, since my sister’s also doing the challenge, it gives us a reason to send each other messages every day.  Since I like my sister, and since burpees are good for me, and since #1 on the list is way worse, burpees will eventually be relieved of their regretful status.

#1 -Bugs.

I check everything  for bugs here.  I shake out my shoes before I put my feet in them, I peek in the kettle every morning before I plug it in, I check my helmet every time I put it on…but I didn’t check my mango bag. A few weeks ago, I wrapped some of the mangoes on my tree in little paper bags, to keep the bugs, birds and squirrels off them as they ripened.  On Monday, I picked a bagged mango and brought it inside. When I opened the bag, I was left standing with a beautiful mango in one hand, an empty bag in the other … and 2 dozen little baby cockroaches scattering across my counter.  Since then, I’ve been finding a disturbing number of adolescent cockroaches partying it up in my pantry.   

That is the kind of regret I’m talking about this week!

Adventures in Morning Musings

What went through my head upon waking up today (poor punctuation and all):

…it’s morning…get up, Janice.  … get up now…really, i mean it… 1-2-3 NOW! …okay, one more try, this time for real… 1-2-3- GETUP! oh for goodness sake, you know that if you get up now you’ll have time for a nice cup of coffee before class.  mmmm, steamy hot lovely smelling coffee…mmmm.  okay, ready?  get up now. get up. now. get. up. now. get.up.now.getupnow.getup.getup.getup.up.up.upupuppies puppies!….dang it, Janice, you can be such a moron…fine, if coffee won’t get you up, maybe your bladder will…you know you have to pee…no, you can’t hold it a while longer, you have to get up now…fine, so maybe you can hold it…for goodness sake, why is this so difficult?  We go through this every morning…every morning for how many years?  not counting naps, and the first few years where it didn’t matter, that means 365 days, multiplied by a lot of years…carry the 11.5…divide by something orange…haha brain, that’ll teach you to try and spring math on me before my eyes are open…oh, my eyes aren’t open…that might help…okaaaayyyyy….squint a little…good…one eye open…good…then the other…oh! it’s not raining…rub your eyes…good…keep ’em open…look for lizards…good…yes, you can blink…………IT DOESN’T TAKE 54 SECONDS TO BLINK!!! Open your eyes!! pathetic.  Alright, one foot on the floor…that’s progress…now, just one more….NONONO, cat cat! This is NOT a good time to curl up on my stomach all cute and purring and snuggly…sigh.  Late again.

Adventures in Working ’til the Cows Come Home

Sitting on my balcony this evening, I was enjoying a beautiful sunset and a lightly cooling breeze … and working industriously on my linguistics projects.  Just as the world slipped into the magic moment that only lasts for about 10 minutes, and only on the very best of summer nights, I heard the tinkling of bells.  For a moment, I thought it was the ice cream truck (well, the ice cream motorcycle with a chilly side car to be precise).  Since I had just encountered my very first freshly made coconut ice cream on Sunday, I was prepared to skip downstairs and have another.  Looking up, I saw it wasn’t the ice cream-o-cycle after all: it was the cows coming home.  The small herd of cattle that moves from field to field near my apartment was making its way around the traffic circle and heading for the lane.  Something about watching those cows heading home in the twilight after a long days grazing made me feel very peaceful and content.  It also made me realize I’ve been sitting here typing for too long.  I’m going to find some ice cream.