14: Air Conditioning

It got up to 34 degrees celcius around here today. That's 93 degrees fahrenheit for you Yanks. Not including whatever heat index there might have been.

I've spent the entire day (except for lunch hour) either in my air conditioned car, an air conditioned shop or my air conditioned second bedroom/home office.

All I've got to say is...thank goodness for air conditioning!!!

13: Serendipity

I don't know why almost every photo of a
minimalist living space shows a room almost
completely decorated in white. Sure won't ever
resemble anyplace I call home, but it's
inspiring, nonetheless.

There's something I've been wanting to do for a long time. Today, two serendipitous things happened which nudged me toward making that thing happen.

The "thing" is simplifying my life. Many times, I've said I want to do a major purge and get rid of a lot of my stuff. The only time I usually come close to doing that is when I move from one apartment to another. The best time was when I moved back home to Ontario from BC. I was pretty much forced to get rid of almost everything I owned because I couldn't find a U-Haul to rent for the life of me (silly me for planning to move on Labour Day weekend, when every college and university student in the country is moving house).

That Big BC Purge taught me something important: Things are just things and they're not important...plus, it's incredibly freeing to divest yourself of most of your possessions.

I felt as light as air. I started over from square one with only five boxes and a hope chest full of belongings to my name...plus what I was able to stuff into the back seat and trunk of my car for the drive back home from BC. It wasn't a lot of stuff. I needed help when I set up in my new apartment...gifts of used furniture and kitchen items got me started, and fourteen years later I have managed to once again accumulate so much stuff -- most of it unnecessary -- that I feel like it's swallowing me up.

I've never been a good housekeeper. I've learned to accept that and not beat myself up over it. However, I'm so bad that I live my life in terror that someone I know (or even someone I don't know) is going to show up at my door and expect to come in. No! The mess! You can't!

I figure the best way to keep a place tidy is simply to not have much stuff to clutter it up with.

Also, I have so much stuff that I feel overwhelmed by it all. It literally stresses me out. I don't know what to do with it, where to put it, where to start in on getting control of it...whether I even need most of it. The answer to that last point is, of course, no, I don't need it. I'm just too attached to it -- for no good reason at all -- that I can't bear to part with most of it. So I make pathetic little attempts to control it by shuffling it around a bit, putting some of it away somewhere that seems logical. But before you know it, it's out again. I seem to be a person for whom the objects of living need to be close at hand and not stuffed away in a cupboard or drawer.

But I'm going to -- part with it, that is. My first goal, I think, will be to get rid of 50 per cent of my stuff by the end of this year. Sooner, if I decide to move before then. I refuse to cart all this stuff with me to a new apartment where it will just start multiplying again.

So...back to the topic of this YBT post: Serendipity. What were the two things that happened to me today that spurred me into this tentative beginning at simplifying? First was a conversation I had with a couple of people at the lunch table at work. We were talking about a former colleague who, along with her husband, seems to be addicted to buying things. They must be so deep in debt. Thinking about them made me feel good that I'm debt-free, but at the same time, I thought about all the little things, all the stuff, cluttering my apartment because I so often feel that buying this thing or that thing will solve some immediate problem in my life. It doesn't. Most of it gets used once and then starts gathering dust.

The second serendipitous event was receiving an email from a website I subscribed to recently (www.theminimalists.com), which offered a really low price on a book they had written. Since I'm more inclined to read a book than a lot of web site pages, I bought it and started reading it this evening...and now I'm all fired up to minimalize and simplify my life...and hopefully gain all the advantages those things will give me, according to the authors.

So, yes, today I'm thankful to serendipity for, in effect, ganging up on me and getting me started on this. Who knows what will come of it. It'll probably be just another one of my "micro-passions", forgotten in a few months...or sooner. But in the meantime, if I can even make a start at getting all my clutter and stuff under control, it will have been worth it.

11: Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I go

I honestly don't know what I'd do with myself if I couldn't work. I think I'd go crazy.

If you don't count the last two and a half years of self-employment, I have been employed consistently for almost my entire adult life. There was one period of about three months after I first moved to British Columbia in 1991 when I was unemployed. My first unemployment cheque came in about the same time I started working again. I figured I might as well give the cheque back...I wouldn't be needing it, and I could maintain my pride in the fact that I had never accepted unemployment money from the government. I still have not to this day. And I really am very proud of that.

Giving that cheque back to the unemployment office really screwed them up, too. I don't think anyone had ever done that before! They honestly didn't know what to do with it. They tried to talk me into cashing it, but I knew they'd just ask for it back because I was working again. So I refused. They had to figure out how to deal with it. Thanks for being there just in case, and all, but I'm not taking pogie unless I really, really need to.

I like working. I was lucky enough to have parents who paid my way through college without asking for the money back, so when I graduated I was debt-free and had a marketable skill. Very lucky. I've been a graphic designer ever since...though just in the last couple of years, I've branched out into other types of work (you kinda have to take what you're offered when you're self-employed), and now graphics is only a portion of what I do.

But I still like it. I like the variety. I like the challenge. I like having something worthwhile to do. I really like being of service to people...providing something they need, whether it's transcription, or a business card design or some research into something.

For the first two years of my self-employment I worked from home. I loved that. Loved it. But about 18 months on I started to realize that working from home, all by myself all day and night, all week long, was not really all that good for my mental health. I started feeling like I might be suffering from mild depression. So when my biggest client asked if I could start coming in to their office from 9-5 every day to help cover off some overflow work for one of their staff, I was happy to accept. It's nice to go in to the office every day and see other people, interact, socialize a bit, bounce ideas around, get feedback on stuff.

I think the most important, vital, critical, can't-stress-it-enough factor about working is that it allows me to be independent. Sometimes I wonder what would happen to me if I couldn't earn a living for some reason and it scares the bejeebers out of me. I like being in charge of my own life. I like living alone. I like having a car and the money to eat out when I want and treat myself to little luxuries now and then. All that would be gone if I wasn't earning a wage. I couldn't stand it.

So...while many people might raise an eyebrow at the concept...I'm very thankful for work. For being employed. For being able to make money doing something I enjoy (most of the time), and being independent and self-sufficient. I wouldn't have it any other way.

10: The Internet

I can hardly remember a time before the Internet. To be honest, I don't really want to! It's become so much a part of my life now that I can't imagine ever having done without it.

That's hyperbole, of course. I managed just fine before the Internet. Everyone did. Many people still do. So I guess the message should be more like I wouldn't want to go back to not having the Internet. I really wouldn't want to.

I was living on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia when I first became aware of the Internet. This would have been around 1992 or so. The boyfriend of a gal I worked with was a real geek, so of course he was all up on the latest technologies. One day, he decided to teach a class at our office during a few evenings in building web sites using html. It seemed completely magical to me at the time. It was the first time I'd ever created something directly using computer code. My mind filled up with all the amazing possibilities, especially regarding organizing information.

At some point after that, I got an internet account for my little Mac Classic, and joined a local BBS (Bulletin Board System). Many younger people won't remember BBSs...they were the precursor to Internet Forums, which were the precursors to chat rooms. Right from the get-go, it became obvious that the anonymity of communicating through a computer gave many users a complete disregard to the concept of shame or politeness. Personally, I've always done my best to behave online the same way I do in person. And I realized early on too that once it's online, it's there forever...so I never did or said anything that would shame me to be confronted with again today. My online policy is: If I'd be embarrassed for my mother to see it, I don't do it.

From the BBS I moved briefly to America Online. You may remember the deluge of America Online disks that got sent through the mail in the early 90s, enticing people to join. But it was too expensive to use as much as I really wanted to, so to avoid temptation, I gave up on it. But man...I felt like a kid in a candy store while I was using it. There was so much there! Forums and information on every conceivable subject. At least, it seemed so at the time. Compared to what we have access to on the Internet today, AOL was like a small-town library compared to the Library of Congress.

And now, the Library of Congress is like that small-town library compared to what's accessible online.

I was inspired to make the Internet today's thankful subject because I had just heard an interview on CBC with a guy named Ryan Nicodemus. Ryan told of how he'd once been a successful executive with a fancy apartment and a nice car and lots and lots of stuff. At some point he became disillusioned with his lifestyle, realizing that it would inevitably make him like so many people around him at work who were miserable and making themselves physically sick in order to achieve and maintain a fancy lifestyle. So he gave it up, and now he runs a website with his friend, called www.theminimalists.com.

Since I'm always toying with the idea of purging myself of a lot of the stuff I own that mostly never even gets touched, and much of which I've forgotten I even have, I was really curious to find out more. Before the internet, I might have been out of luck. Maybe I could have found his book at the library (but probably not, as it's pretty specialized). Maybe I could have bought his book. Both of those options would have required a trip somewhere, and in one case an outlay of cash, which I probably would have put off and put off till I totally forgot about it.

But that didn't happen. As soon as I got back to my computer after listening to that interview earlier, I pulled up theminimalists.com on my web browser, and it's sitting there in another tab (one of many, many tabs), waiting patiently for me to go have a look when I finish writing this post.

I do this kind of thing pretty much every day. I hear about something that piques my interest, and I go to the Internet to find out more. Besides email and the web, I think the best thing about the Internet is Wikipedia. That's almost always my first stop when googling random subjects that I don't know have specific dedicated websites. I use Wikipedia more than any other website, except perhaps Google, simply because I have to use Google to find the Wikipedia entries I want...among other things.

I think the Internet has made me smarter. I mean it. I learn so much every day online. A lot of it is useless garbage, to be sure -- that's inescapable online. But a lot of it is very useful, interesting, valuable stuff. I also communicate better with friends and family because of the Internet. I love writing letters, but I seem to have an allergy to mailboxes. Being able to sit down at my desk and write up a letter and send it by email means that I keep in touch with far-flung people I'd usually have very little contact with.

Within the past two years, the Internet has changed the way I work too. It's changed so much. I'd say it's been a positive change. Instead of being a sponge for anything the TV networks decide to provide at their own discretion, I have become interactive with the information I choose to consume. I decide when and what information and entertainment I want to consume. I decide from whom I get it. And, if I want to, I can be a part of it...as I am with this blog, and others I maintain (albeit spottily).

Yep, the Internet plays a very important role in my life these days, and I'm very thankful for it. I wouldn't want to ever do without it again. I can see myself at 80 years, if I live that long, sitting in the lounge at the old folks' home, pecking away at my laptop, or whatever weird and wonderful new device will be de rigeur in 30 years, absorbing, contributing and enjoying my connection to the world.

9: The miracle of modern pharmaceuticals

My name is Patti and I have high blood pressure.

Hi Patti!

Around eight or nine years ago, I had my annual appointment with the obgyn. One of their usual practices was to take my blood pressure before beginning my exam. Well, I have to tell you, I don't ever want to see that look on the face of a medical professional again.

Apparently my bp was super high...like in the 200 range. "You could stroke out," the nurse said with a frantic look. "You have to go see your GP the minute you leave here."

So I did. Terrified. Sure enough, my GP...the best doctor in the western hemisphere, just so you know...confirmed the obgyn nurse's findings and immediately prescribed a medication called Altace. The Altace started to give me problems after a week or two. I completely lost my appetite. Could barely finish half a sandwich at any given meal, and just felt like shit all the time. After a few weeks of that, ready to give up and go off the meds, I went to the doctor to see if he could change the prescription.

"Just give it a little longer," he said. "These things usually resolve themselves after a few weeks." So, good little girl that I am, I agreed. And you know what? The stomach issues went away the very next day. I don't know if it had something to do with seeing the doctor and finding out it would probably go away on its own, or if I had just waiting till that very last moment that I would have felt icky anyway.

At any rate, I've been on that medication ever since. One pill every night before I go to bed. After a few years, the doctor added a water pill as well. A tiny little white pill with the unmistakable result of sending me to the bathroom a lot more often than usual. And since the only time of day I can reliably remember to take medication is just before bed, I end up taking my water pill at night, and getting up one, two, sometimes even three times during the night to pee.

Fun and games.

But...it's working.

Today I visited my GP to have my BP checked and get a renewal on my prescriptions. Lo and behold, my blood pressure was perfect. I mean Per. FECT. 126/70. That's the best it's been since I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. 

So, I'm a pretty happy camper today, and grateful to live in a time when such medications are available, and a place where I can access them reliably and relatively cheaply, even without a drug plan.

My brother, Casey, died suddenly of heart failure just a little less than four years ago. He too was very overweight. My paternal grandfather died of a heart attack also, shovelling snow during a storm. My mother had a small stroke several years ago...a stroke which actually probably saved her life. The proverbial wake-up call.

So here I am, overweight, sedentary and getting older every day. And two wee little pills are keeping one of my body's most critical systems ticking away almost as good as normal. And all I can say is thank goodness for modern medicine. I might already be dead by now without it...as might many people I know.

8: To life, to life, l'chaim

Sometimes it's best to just let others speak for you.

Dusty Smith is an atheist video blogger I discovered recently whose posts are liberally peppered with f-bombs, strong opinions and brilliance...and I love it.

I think this video captures the reason why I'm doing this Year of Being Thankful. To keep the wonder and beauty of life always in the front of my mind. To not let cynicism and disappointment take over my attitude. To shout from the rooftops that sometimes you really need to stop and say, fuck, wow...that's amazing.

Soak that shit up.

7: If it's free, take three

One of the advantages of working in the publishing industry is that now and then, free stuff comes along. Free stuff rocks.

When I worked at Chatelaine magazine for a few years back in the late 80s, there was a big counter right outside the production department, in which I worked, where editors who received promo copies of things would put said things if they didn't want to keep them. Because of that, I had one of the best recipe book collections west of Toronto, never had to buy pantyhose, and had makeup and faux jewellery coming out the ying yang. Those were the days.

These days, working at a newspaper, the freebies tend toward books, every one of which has a word like leadership, management or change in the title. Not that exciting. But now and then something a little more special comes along, thanks to deals with local entertainment venues. And tonight, I was one of the beneficiaries of such a freebie... two tickets to see Il Divo at Scotiabank Place.

I hadn't really heard of Il Divo before those tickets became available. I didn't even bother to google them till this morning, just so I'd have an idea what to expect. Okay. Kind of a fusion of pop and opera, with four guys I quickly nicknamed a boy band for cougars. I do confess that one of them...the one who looked a bit like Dean Martin, caught my eye immediately.

When the show started this evening, it became evident right away that the guy I liked, purely on the merit of his looks, Carlos the Spaniard, was the crowd favourite. A swarthy, black-haired, grinning charmer, who was actually the recipient of a pair of panties tossed on the stage. I never thought I'd see that in my life. Not only was he so charismatic that the audience practically crackled every time the spotlight was on him, he truly had the most magnificent voice of the four members of the band. A powerful baritone that just stole the show every time he opened his mouth.

Sexy Spaniards aside, the show was phenomenal. WAY better than I expected, and I enjoyed every moment. I'm not going to run out and buy one of their CDs, but I sure will perk up if I should ever see them again.

So, thanks to my company for making it possible for me to see this, and several other great productions over the years. For someone whose main source of entertainment comes through a screen of some kind, getting to see live productions now and then is really special. There's no comparison.