5 Ways to Beat the Blues

In my last post, I talked about having cabin fever. This post is about things I've done to fight back those blues.

1. Sort out every junk drawer in my home. This was fun for the first 30 seconds. I was intending to get rid of things I hadn't used (or even thought about for a while), but I just ended up finding crap I might need again. Bottom line: I didn't get rid of anything, but I did buy a small trunk to store all the old makeup, lotions, hair items and keys that unlock something somewhere.
2. Actually watch the videos on my YouTube "Watch Later" list. 4 videos in, I had bored myself to pity. I spent the next hour trying to figure the state of mind I'd been in when I'd bookmarked videos explaining fractal math or they why's and how's of home insulation. I mean, really?
3. Pull out the bag of hair I bought a few months ago. Yes, hair. Hair for braiding in extensions. I'd watched a video that made the shit look do-able, but after I got an entire 6-inch braid completed, I realized the damn thing wasn't even still attached to my own hair. (I put the braid in the junk trunk because it might make a cool key-chain later on.) If I'd paid more than $0.99 for the bag of fake horsetail, I'd really be pissed. At least I got a good laugh out of the experience. And I did enjoy the video.
4. Read actual books - the kind with paper pages. Remember those? I barely did. I was thumbing through "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Biblical Mysteries" and got upset because I couldn't just click on the index and shoot right to the page I wanted. (When did I, a wanna-be author, stop reading "real" books? I only have a collection because of the freebies cart at the local library. That right there is a sad thing to admit.)
5. Remind myself how freaking old I'm getting. This is something I do every now and then, no matter the season. I'll try doing a back-bend or the splits and my body will let me know just how bad my muscle memory is. I almost didn't put this next part in here, but I have no shame, so here ya go: I can barely jump rope anymore. I don't know what the problem is. I can still dance pretty good, so it's not a rhythm thing. Is coordination something that goes with age? Well, damnit.

Just so you know, except for the laughing I do, none of this really does keep my blues completely away. Usually, after I finish laughing, I end up slightly more depressed. Who the hell wouldn't be depressed about not being able to skip rope? That's okay. I read somewhere that 10 or 15 minutes spent laughing can burn the calories found in a piece of chocolate. Great. At the rate that I eat chocolate, I'd have to laugh my way through the entire winter season.

Point of this post? Just another thing to get me through twenty more minutes of winter.

Peace

--Free