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OT - Women Wednesday

Aniki-Moderator's picture

Happy Hump Day, STalkers! Yes, the title says 'women', but this pertains to men, too!

While plenty consider this time to be a season of joy, that's not always true for everyone. Joy can be hard to find due to:

  • Loss of loved ones
  • Health issues
  • Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
  • Job problems (my best friend lost her job last week)
  • Family problems
  • Simply overwhelmed by the hustle and hustle

It's important to remember that THE most important thing to take care of is YOU. We've heard the saying... 

You can't pour from an empty cup.

A getaway isn't always possible - especially this time of the year. What do you do to keep your cup from being empty? It can be something as simple as taking a nap or having a full body massage...

  • Power naps (daily, weekly...)
  • Plan a few hours to lose yourself in a book (fuzzy socks, old sweats, my 50s vintage papasan, a fleece throw, a thermos of hot water for tea, cranberry cookies...)
  • Go to the movies (I go alone)
  • Indulge in a mani/pedi
  • Go for a hike, bike ride, or some outdoor activity and commune with nature

The important thing is to take steps to refill your cup. What do you like to do?

Comments

Kes's picture

I was so sorry to hear about your trials and tribulations on the Meh Meh Meh thread.  Hugs (((Aniki)))  For myself, I have been having a bad mole on the top of my head investigated and have to go to the plastic surgery clinic a week today to plan its removal.  I suspect it's a melanoma.  My elder daughter has bad flu and is off work, trying to care for her 2 boys - and I am trying to care for her - from 150 miles away.  Plus I hate Xmas! 

Aniki-Moderator's picture

Hugs right back, Kes! I hope all goes well with the mole removal. Ugh. Bet you wish you could reach through the phone. I'm always a little blue this time of year. My grandfather passed away on Christmas Eve when I was a kid. He was stoic and gruff and didn't say much. But his hand was always there to guide your hand or steady you and I miss him to this day.

Evil4's picture

DH, DD24 and I just got over pneumonia. We're all better but still trying to get our energy back. After tomorrow I'm on 24 days of glorious vacation, which is the longest I've had in my career.  

I'm a prolific knitter. I ADORE knitting. That is probably my main way of doing something I enjoy. 

I'm a heavy duty tea drinker. I like to decompress with a nice hot cuppa. If it's later in the afternoon it'll be an herbal tea. 

Aniki-Moderator's picture

Evil, I hope you, your DH, and DD24 are back to 100% soon!

No knitting, but crocheting is quite popular with both sides of my family. My preference is sewing by hand, which relaxes me.

What herbal tea do you like? I rarely drink tea, but prefer herbal. 

Evil4's picture

Oooo! Crochet! DD24 wants to learn how to crochet and so do I. I'm on my last day of work before I'm off for 24 glorious days and DD and I are going to start crocheting. Crocheted items are really in right now.

I've always wanted to sew too. I hate dragging my machine out though. I will look into sewing by hand. My mum did everything: knitting, crochet, sewing by hand, quilting, embroidery, etc. 

I'm a tea reviewer, so I have hundreds of teas. DH and I have our nightly ritual of sitting together and drinking a cup of rooibos together. I would say that rooibos is the herbal tea I drink the most. It has antioxidants and minerals. DD loves spearmint tea the best, so I keep that in the house. Chamomile is another favourite. There's a jujube leaf tea that I get from a Chinese tea website that specializes in Chinese teas. I love that one the best, I think. I'm also a tea snob and drink organic loose leaf. Surprisingly Amazon Canada is a good source of buying loose leaf teas in bulk. I get a pound of organic rooibos from there as well as a huge bag of chamomile. 

Oh shit! I went off on a tangent. LOL Tea is a passion of mine, so it's hard for me to keep things short and sweet when it comes to tea. LOL

ImperfectlyPerfect's picture

I love doing my art Aniki-Moderator- it breathes life into my soul. This is what I love to do and if I could spend every waking hour doing it I would- it gives me the abiltiy to breathe. <3 

Rags's picture

Or.. am I.  Hmmmmmm!

Dirol

No really. I am just kidding.  Im a boxer-brief guy.  How I spent years of my youth and young adult years in a Speedo, or as the Aussies call them... budgie smugglers... while a competitive swimmer is hard for me to understand these days.

I'm fortunate that I can compartmentalize things well enough that I can enjoy the enjoyable stuff and either quickly address the not so enjoyable stuff or solve it for good then get back to the good stuff.

I am on the last day of monster antibiotics after a very painful and raging sinus infection.  It was decidedly uncomfortable.  On Jan 9 I have a consult with my ophthalmologist/ophthalmic surgeon to decide what to do with my 44 year diabetic eyes (Dx'd 44yrs ago next week) .  My vision is crystal clear between retinal hemorrhages then I live with clouds of what look like millions of bees as the blood breaks up and absorbs and the hemorrhage sites heal. I have had several LASER procedures and can't have any more.The solution, that might  or might not work, is to suck all of the vitreous humor out of the vitreus chambers, do some micro surgery on my retinas, replace the vitreous humor with man made goo, inject an air bubble into that chamber to hold all of the work in place while it heals, then lay on my stomach for as much as 10 days while it all heals.  The last consult was pretty direct. Doc said that she would not recommend it if I can just deal with the cyclical bleeding and healing.  It does not hurt at all but it does drive me nuckin futz during the cloud of bees phase.  I think we will just go to quarterly injections to minimize retinal hemorrhaging.

DW is being her usual rock star self but does struggle with some seasonal anxieties and does periodically focus on those who are no longer with us during the holidays. She does get sad over the course of the holidays. Not constantly, but I know her and I see it when it happens.  She will undoubtedly have some rough patches with SS not being with us though she and my parents are the BFF squad and DW loves my aunt who will also be with us. DW makes my already amazing family that much more incredible.   No doubt I will get the crumbs of interface time as well.  Just kidding on that. Though my DW and my parents have incredibly close relationships.

(((Hugs))) who could use them over the holidays. Take care of yourselves and you and your SO take care for each other.  Keep the Krampus's where they belong and enjoy those who you enjoy spending time with. Or better yet, let the Krampus deal with those who need to be dealt with and you and the quality folks hang with St. Nick.

Deep breaths, and take care of you.

Merry Christmas and a very happy 2025.

Give rose

 

thinkthrice's picture

And play the violin but that went out the window years ago.  Maybe I'll pick it back up when stuff settles down

If it ain't one thing, its another.