An Ode To Friday

Ahhh, Friday.  You sweet, sweet day of the week.  None of the other days seem to have your glamor; your attraction; your mystery. 

Sure, Monday comes with so much promise. The start of a new week that offers potential for accomplishment.  All of the items on my “to do” list that will get addressed.  Mountains climbed; missions accomplished.  But dear Friday, when I glimpse you from that distance (from Monday), you beckon so alluringly.  Don’t fret.  I see you back there waiting patiently.  I’ll be with you soon.

Tuesday arrives.  It holds an awkward position in my relationship with Friday.  Tuesday is barely any closer to you than Monday, and not nearly as close to you as Wednesday.

Wednesday is a time of reassessment.  On this hill, this highest point of the week, I can see you, Friday, with all of your seductive charm.  A promise of things to come, but also a warning that you will be arriving before I know it.  So Wednesday becomes a time to realistically determine what can get done this week, and what must be punted until the week resets itself on Monday.  Time to dig in, double-down and forge on.  There are things to do and they must get done.  And the reward (other than the reward of knocking things off my list) will be that I’ll get to see my fair Friday when the work is completed. 

Thursday comes and though I may try to focus on the work at hand, it becomes harder to ignore you.  I start to catch whiffs of your tantalizing scent.  You whisper my name in the hallways.  I hear you, my dear friend.  Patience.  I’m coming.  I promise.  Almost there.

And then, praise God, you are here.  Right beside me.  Together once more.  I wear my jeans to work in your honor.  A tipping of my hat to you, letting everyone know that it is Friday – and all is once again right with the world.  Together, you and I make plans for the weekend.  The fun we’ll have.  The things we’ll do.  The friends we’ll see.  Bless you Friday for showing up without fail each week.  There are few friends truer than you, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

-- Frosty

Languages

So I take Latin in school, and the kids who take Latin, including myself, always have the same argument with the kids who take Spanish. Which language is better? There are the arguments about the teachers and the workload, but when you boil it down, the real question is which language is a better language itself. 

Of course, being a Latin student, I am slightly biased to think that Latin is better than Spanish. But when I force myself to think from the perspective of a Spanish speaker, I could see the arguments that could (and have) been made. 

Obviously, the most noticeable case in which I have heard why “Latin sucks” is that Latin is (supposedly) a dead language. In some senses of the term, yes, Latin is a dead language because it is not fluently spoken by any group of people anywhere in the world. But really, Latin is even more alive than Spanish, so to speak. Anyone in the world that speaks English, or even any of the romantic languages at all, is actually speaking languages that come from Latin, and sometimes, with phrases like “i.e.” or “e.g.,” they’re in fact speaking abbreviated forms of Latin. So really, Latin is everywhere (not to mention it helps with the SATs), and you see remnants of Latin in English all the time, even if you don’t know that’s what it is. 

Over all, despite my possible bias, I think that Latin is better than Spanish. Just some food for thought.

Love, Holly

'Tis The Season

So this is my first blog for Holidailies 2014.  And I had noooo idea what to write about so of course, I consulted my husband.  His suggestions were very telling: 

Teenagers: Where to start? Nah, I am not sure I even have the energy for this one! 
Absentee Contractors: I hear your collective sigh here…forget this one - let’s not get aggravated. 
Home Ownership Headaches: Kind of goes along with the one above.  Better skip this one, too. 
The Holiday Season: Okay, but what? Fun stuff to do? Gift ideas? Recipes? Done to death. 
Christmas Shopping Strategy: Too short.  Shop & wrap until you drop. 
College Visits: Check back with me in a year on this one!

And then it came to me: I recently heard an interview with Martin Short on NPR.  I do not think I ever realized how smart and sage that man is.  Anyway, he talked about his Nine Categories. These nine classifications relate to different aspects of his life that he evaluates regularly (like, quarterly!) and actually gives himself a grade.  As an actor, his primary motivation for doing this over the course of his career is not to squander, nor get discouraged about, the months when he is not working. 

A perfect thing to write about for this time of year!  The beauty of this process is it serves many purposes that roll up into one big benefit: keeping your life on the track you want it to be on.  No cat’s-in-the-cradle laments, no deathbed should’ve-worked-less-and-played-more regrets, nothing, nada.

At this point I can feel you begging me to reveal the categories that Martin Short so carefully and wisely crafted so long ago.  Well, without further ado:

Self: Are you taking care of your mental and physical health? Can’t really do anything else well if you don’t do this properly.

Immediate Family: Your children – spending enough time with them? In a good, productive relationship with them?

Original Family: Siblings – same drill as above

Friends: As you get older, maintaining friendships becomes an effort.  Have you kept up?

Money: Are you doing the best you can with what you have and overall being fiscally responsible?

Career: Getting more out of it than you are putting into it?  Happy with where you are?

Creativity: This is one of my favorites.  What are you building/changing/making beautiful/enriching yourself with?

Discipline: Also an interesting one. Taking steps to curtail a particular unwanted behavior or characteristic?

Lifestyle: Are you getting out much? Leading a life that is interesting to you and in line with your belief system?

So, my internet friends, how do you rate?  A’s on everything but one thing? Easy to know what to do in that situation.    B-‘s in all categories? Sounds like it’s time to do a little soul-searching.  My hope is that each one of you who reads this sees one little change that you didn’t realize you needed to make before you sat down to read my little essay.  That is my gift to you this holiday season.  (OK, technically it’s a re-gifting from Martin Short.)

HAPPY HOLIDAILIES 2014!

-- Eve

A Sonnet For My Girlfriend

For fun I wrote a sonnet for my girlfriend. She sassed me about how it wasn’t correctly in iambic pentameter and all so I’ve written a better one that I’m more than happy to share. I’m not actually upset but I was inspired so please enjoy.

For my girlfriend I wrote a nice sonnet,

An ode of beautiful words and my praise,

In which she went forth and shat upon it,

Not actually, but you get the phrase.

I know you show affection through teasing,

But I was proud of my worded child,

And writing this one, my mind is easing,

This one is great, it makes hormones run wild.

Although I may not be a Will Shakespeare,

And my rhymes may not be extremely great,

I hope this act will give your sass some fear,

Because you’re honestly quite fun to date,

So mind the internet is my new tool,

And my sonnet was really pretty cool.  

Thanks for reading.

--Rudolph

My Life Is A Gas

It’s that time of year again.  December is upon us and we are ready to take on the Holidailies challenge of writing a blog every day this month.  I got elected to go first so here goes.

MY LIFE IS A GAS

Did you ever notice how most tasks, and especially the ones that we least like to do, always have the tendency to fill up whatever amount of time you give yourself (or others give you) to do them?  It’s kind of like a gas.  I remember once learning in science class that a gas will expand to fill whatever container it is placed in.  If placed in a small container, it is heavily concentrated.  If placed in a larger container, it will spread itself out to fill the entire space, just less concentrated.  Now a gas isn’t making choices to do this – it can’t just decide to hang out on the left side of the container and leave the right side gas free.  It doesn’t work that way.  It’s not in the gas’ nature.

In contrast, we all have free will and control over our actions. 

If we have (or someone else has) set a deadline for a project of thirty days, we can always say “To heck with that.  I’m going to do it in a week.”  We can but we rarely do.  How many of us chart a course to deliver early?  Not many.  Let’s call this Path A.

Some of us (many of us) are diligent.  We start the project, make a plan with milestones to complete all of the parts making steady progress.  We always finish in the amount of time allotted.  That’s great.  Let’s call this Path B.

Others of us (and you know who you are) are the procrastinating type.  Thirty days?  No problem.  Ten days go by.  We’re not worried.  Still have twenty more days.  Another ten days later.  Guess I should probably start that project.  Those last ten days are pretty hectic and we may worry for a moment or two about whether we’ll actually finish on time.  But by day 30, we’re done.  This is Path C.

In all 3 paths, the project got done within the time allotted.  We were given thirty days to do it and by God, by day 30 (or earlier in the case of Path A) we turned in the finished project.  We delivered as requested and right on time or sooner.  That’s good, right? 

I guess so.  But is one Path better than others?  Does one produce a better result?

Under Path A, sure we finished early.  So I guess that’s good.  But could we have done a better job if we hadn’t rushed through it?  Could we have made use of the rest of the time allotted?  Perhaps if we didn’t turn in the project so early, we could have completed it in a week, rested for a week, and then revisited it during our remaining 16 days to fix typos, refine our approach, and take the project to the next level?  Maybe.  Or would we just have procrastinated for the first 23 days and then ultimately use the same 7 days to complete the job?

Under Path B, we made methodical, steady progress.  We planned each step of the way.  There was never any question we would finish on time.  If we stayed on schedule, it was not an issue.  And by breaking the project down into bite-sized sections, we could focus on each section individually and give it our best effort without being overwhelmed by the project in its entirety.

Finally, under Path C, we basically squandered our time during the 30 days.  The good news is we got plenty of other things done.  The bad news is that the last 10 days were hectic, stressful, exhausting and we may not have put our best foot forward on the project. Under Path C, so much of our attention is focused on actually finishing the project on time that the overall quality of the project is likely to have slipped.

So back to my original question – which approach is the best?  I think the answer comes from each of us individually.  I know people who fall in the Path C camp who find they can’t do their best work unless they are facing down a looming deadline.  They get an adrenaline rush from working under those circumstances.  I also know some people who follow Path A, but many more who are in the Path B camp.  So maybe the correct question isn’t “which approach is best” – but rather “which approach is best for you”?

Thanks for reading.

Frosty