Laughing in the new year . . . 2017!

Dear You . . .


God love Ms. Berry! Laughing off stress in those bell-bottom workout pants.

About stress . . .

2017 came in easy and rather dull.  The cool and foggy weather on 1/31  here in Inlet Beach held back reveling noises, but other noises have surfaced.  Development.  Construction.  Right across the street.  And down the street.  And around the corner.  And on and on and on . . .

This slamming, hammering, machine screaming soundtrack is high decibel.  Since my online tutoring work is slow now and the retail-hell job is down to minimal hours, I am here in the beach house and trying to turn lemons into lemonade (sorry about the cliche).  Like Ms. Berry, I am tragically seeking laugh medicine and a sensible perspective.

Lemons:
1.  The aforementioned noise.
2.  My outdoor-pet-cats are disturbed by aforementioned noise and my favorite (Senor Gato) did not show up this morning.
3.  My cable and wifi were out this morning and required a lengthy phone call.
4.  These outages happen at least once a month and make me edgy since televised politics-sports-etc. and beloved internet actions make me "happy" (or comfortably numb . . . thank you Pink Floyd).
5.  My ancient septic tank is damaged and seeping water (delightful).
6.  The aforementioned underemployment.
7.  Haunted by exile-feeling, so removed from urban life and contact.
8.  I need to find a new dentist.
9.  The weather will be COLD this weekend, as in really cold for Florida.
10. I am all over the place in terms of pursuing that next "fun gig".

Lemonade(thank you Beyonce):
1.   The old house walls are block-thick and when inside, screen out the construction noise a bit. Plus, I CAN WORKOUT ON THE BEACH.
2.   Feline friends Puff Daddy and Dinky did show up this morning and I have confidence in Gato's survival skills.
3.   I reached a human being on the phone this morning who talked me through the outage-thing.
4.   The library has internet!  And books.  And I am currently deep into several of those texts.
5.   My ancient septic tank is working, when babied, and not backing up.
6.   Tutoring income will improve next week when college/university classes resume full force.  And, I can look forward to a "Trump-load" of post-election essays :)
7.    Exile-feeling is sometimes lessened by the fact that I CAN WORKOUT ON THE BEACH.  And those excursions plus zillions of squats have resulted in the return of my BUTT!  I have reversed age-related butt loss!
8.    Whenever I stop procrastinating about dentist-commitment, my cheapo JCPenney dental insurance should cover the cleaning cost.
9.    The cold weather this weekend will be followed by a warming trend early next week.  This does not happen in Chicago in January.
10.   I am thinking about renewing my fitness training certifications . . . hmmmm ..... like Ms. Berry,   it would be fun to get people moving to a joyful zone, literally.

There's my ten for ten!  Functional "ades" for all bitter fruit.

Wishing you laughter/lemonade.

XO

Joyce