MBTI = INFJ

So, was going through Nester's archives and saw this entry.

Clicked through and took the test, and shocker: I'm INFJ (Introversion, iNtuition, Feeling, Judging) - making up 1% of the population. I should be a minister, professor, or counselor.
Husband is nearly my polar opposite (an ENTP) but supposedly the best match for this weirdo.

Famous INFJ's? Mother Theresa, Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandella. Wonder if they'd like Real Housewives too?

Balloons in the Backyard

One of the really cool things about living here is probably that our town has a Balloon Fest every summer. If the wind is right, a half-dozen-or-so balloons will take off from or land in the field behind our home. Because the weather was perfect, we saw dozens of balloons float over our roof top. This year's favorites: the carousel balloon that 's a regular sight in town, and a new penguin balloon. I ran up to snap a picture of these two landing in the field this year ('09).

I think that every time I need to vent, I'm going to mitigate it with a picture that reminds me of something cool. In the last three days, both the refrigerator and dishwasher have died. We just had to replace the motherboard on the computer in July and paid over $300 to fix the microwave a couple of months ago. Yes we could have bought a new microwave for almost as much, but I'm feeling like we really need to mitigate the huge footprint that we're already leaving on the earth and actually fix the stuff we have instead of tossing it aside for something new. Another bonus: warranty on fridge expired July 28, and the problem is more costly/complex than pretty handy Hubs can handle on his own.

Aren't the balloons really cool?

Paint Therapy

Lately I've been focusing on things in which I either have no control, or it's my responsibility to take over all control to steer my family onto a very difficult path that I feel will leave us better off in the long run. I know that all of this cryptic vocabulary doesn't make it any easier for anyone to help or understand the situation, but I can't really get into it any deeper here.

Without going into detail, I will say that I've been feeling extremely trapped in my current situation, worried about the welfare of those around me, and the welfare of my husband pracitcally killing himself to make everyone happy with the result of keeping everyone miserable. I've been angry about the situation, scared, sad, even devastated. I've also been working so hard to 'put a good light on it' and just deal with the situation and be happy for everything that's going right. This was working out okay until a couple of months ago when we got the rug pulled out from us in a certain regard. A couple of weeks later there was more bad news that left me depleted, then about a month ago a series of events transpired that basically destroyed any hope that this situation would be fixable in any measure whatsoever. That's when I realized that there is a very sound solution, but this means that I actually have to be assertive in my convictions and that I actually have to lead this family and not just follow grudgingly along the path to ruin. I felt the opaque fog that's been struggling to smother me the last few years go away. Instantly. I've been working on the plan for a few weeks now, and I am more convinced that I'm definitely on the right path, as hard as it is to navigate.

So, I've been finding ways to keep me from dwelling on this stuff 24 hours per day. That's where the paint therapy comes in. I found this little bird for $2 at Salvation Army. I've been wanting to try a project like this to see how it would come out.


After a little white paint meditation, the bird emerges a bit more to my taste. Here he is making my bookcase look so much nicer.

So here's to making things a little better, and a bit of paint to make it all easier to deal with.

Gilad Spotting

Just watched Burn After Reading, and, John Malkovich working out to Gilad? Awesome.

...4 miles today! Not all running, knee was feeling a little sticky, so I took it a little easy.

Get the ball rolling

So, I've managed to overcome a bit of my inertia of late. I managed to work out three days so far this week. Most of my challenge is just getting started. I worked out (Cathe Slow and Heavy chest and back, ow) on Tuesday, then husband asked me to go to the track with him and the boys. I said that I'd walk a couple of laps. Well, I got there and started to walk, and of course the music started to get to me and I wound up running a few miles in my trail shoes. Hubs knows that if I get started, I cannot help myself and have to continue until I get in a full workout.

So that's the idea for the rest of the week. Of course 6 veg/fruit per day, 6 waters per day, and FIVE minutes of working out. Five because I know that if I can just get started, I'll get in a full workout.

Any other tips for just making it happen?

Inertia

We all have things going on in our lives that give us the excuse to not get it together, and I have a bagful, but they are just excuses. I know that by staying healthy and fit I'm way better equipped to handle the crap that gets thrown at me on a day-to-day basis.

Despite several aborted attempts, I have not maintained any real focus this summer when it comes to exercise and healthy eating. I went to Weight Watchers and was feeling really gung-ho about losing the 10 lbs I wanted to lose, but when I got to the magic number, my focus dropped and I started slagging off on exercise and eating crap at meal times. I had a pretty good wakeup call this morning when (TMI alert) I noticed that my bra is starting to spill over with the abundance of chest that I'm sporting. I am NOT going to buy new bras - they are too expensive and I'd rather save my money for something good.

It's like I'm trying to roll a giant boulder (not my chest), and I'm great as long as I keep moving and don't let my focus shift. If I let my focus lag just a bit, that boulder is impossible to move. That's where I am right now; headed uphill, bracing the boulder so it doesn't roll backwards and squash the crap out of me. I'm just looking for a little reserve of strength to get it rolling in the right direction.

So today I'm going to journal my food, I'm going to get (at least) 30 minutes of exercise, and I'm going to eat 6 servings of veg/fruit.

Woman Worrier

So, Death Case Scenario: it's where normal people look at glass of water filled to the halfway point and say, "it's half-full'" or, "It's half empty." People like me look at it and say, "I'm going to pick up the glass to take a drink, it's going to slip out of my hand, and I'll fall and bash my head off of the corner of the counter while trying to save it."


Just to further illustrate Death Case Scenario in action, I put together a little list of irrational fears. Usually the minute I think of them, I laugh at the absurdity, but it is the way I think.

Irrational Fears: Home Edition

• Do you know how sometimes there are worms in old, cloth books? Or that there are pantry bugs that can get into your flour, sugar or whatever? I sometimes worry that at some point between manufacture and sitting in my cabinet, my tampons could harbor an infestation that I'll unknowingly insert.
• I worry that while running with my dog, she'll dart to the side quickly and I'll step on one of her legs, breaking it.
• I've worried that my sweat will cause me to be electrocuted by my iPod.
• I've wondered if the glaze on my coffee mug could be tainted with lead.
• I've wondered the same of the vitamin I take to be healthy.
• If my knitting is next to the bed, I have to move it before I go to sleep because I fear that I'll fall out of bed in the night and be impaled on one of the needles.

Any one else do this from time to time? What's your worry?