Friday, October 28, 2011
I'm sure you can tell by the facial hair on these three people that there aren't children in this picture. I hope you can see from the bubbles that Mel and Rich and I were having fun like children when Lissa took the shot. I'm here to remind you, once again, to take time to have fun and play no matter your age or circumstances. Laughter relieves stress. I particularly love laughing at myself, but today I'd love to laugh along with you.
Let me give you some examples:
When I was about three or four years old my cousins came to see me. Their mother was there, too, but I mostly played with my cousins. They were boys. I had a little fire engine with pedals. In an effort to impress my cousins, I jumped into my fire engine and pedaled hard down the sidewalk, mouth open wide as I screamed the siren song. Unfortunately, I choked on a fly.
When I was four we lived in a duplex on a busy street in Ventura, California. It was a long time ago, back when people didn't lock their doors as often as they do now. I overheard my parents talking about a poor little baby who lived next door. My imagination took over, even that long ago, and I decided that little baby needed to be rescued from his mean parents, and I was going to be the rescuer. So I waited outside on the front porch and peered through their screen door until I saw the baby crawling alone on the floor. I pulled open the screen door, raced into our neighbor's front room, grabbed the baby, turned back to run with the baby, and fell on him. He wasn't hurt, but can you imagine how my parents must have felt when I explained to the neighbors why I did what I did?
When I was in fourth grade I was still impulsive, and there were times when that impulsivity earned me public humiliation. I liked a guy in my class named Willy. I wasn't madly in love with him or anything, I just liked him. I was walking past his desk one day when, for no reason I could afterwards fathom, I leaned over, patted him on the cheek, asked how he was doing, and kissed him on the cheek. Willy turned red and ducked. The whole class, including the teacher, burst into laughter.
How about you? Have you ever done anything that your friends will never let you live down? Did you ever do anything so crazy and impulsive that you wonder if some UFO took over your mind for a few minutes one day? What's your most embarrassing moment? Think about your childhood today, and even if you don't come up with anything wildly memorable, I bet you'll have some fun reliving times from the past.
Labels: blowing bubbles, Childhood memories, girls having fun, Playing, relaxing
Hannah Alexander
posted at
12:42 AM
Comments (20)
Friday, April 15, 2011
Have you ever experienced a vacation in which nothing went right? The dream you had of a fun-filled week worked for everyone around you except for you?
Since this happens to me most of the time I don't even plan what I'll do on vacation anymore, I just go. Then I won't get my hopes up to get them dashed.
This past week, however, I didn't follow the plan. I wanted to get ahead on my manuscript--due at the end of April!!--so I went with the intention of getting thousands of words written and to walk the paved trails of Big Cedar near Branson. Unfortunately, my hip refused to cooperate. I realized I needed my recliner in order to have a comfortable position to write, since I cannot sit in a regular chair, and there were no recliners in my room. I felt like the person in the cave in the picture, watching everyone else have a good time while I was standing in the dark.
Not only couldn't I write, but when I ventured out on my first walk down the hill, my leg went out on me. I mean, it stopped holding me up for several minutes. A little panicky, I called Mel, who was driving to do some target practice with his brother. So I couldn't talk to him. I finally made it back to my room--in a lodge at the top of the hill. I couldn't get to a doctor nearby, so I called the spa--which I ordinarily would never do, since Big Cedar charges tons more than my regular massage therapist--but I was desperate. They got me right in, and a therapist named Julie had to help me back to the massage room. She spent 90 minutes working on my back, legs and shoulders, and when I walked out of that spa I was a new woman!
I walked up and down those hills at Big Cedar for the rest of my stay. That therapist was a miracle worker. I know what some people think when they hear about massages, and there have been some massage parlors in the past that earned the legitimate ones an unfair reputation. These therapists are trained, they know what they're doing, and the good ones can really help us health-wise.
If you haven't been to a massage therapist, I suggest you try it just once. Ask for a relaxing massage, and if you're uncomfortable, ask for a woman. The most therapeutic massages go more deeply into the muscles and they can sometimes be painful at first, so start small and build up. If you haven't been to one in a while, I suggest you go again, and try to do it more regularly. Consider this an additional bid for health, because that's exactly what it is.
Now, can anyone tell me what a Swedish massage is?
I forgot to ask.
Labels: out of the game, Playing, watching others play
Hannah Alexander
posted at
11:44 AM
Comments (6)
Friday, December 03, 2010
Diann's post yesterday inspired me, and since Barbara, one of my fifty-five maternal first cousins, sent me some cute pictures yesterday, I thought I'd share, knowing that at least Diann would enjoy this. But first, can someone tell me if this is a fox or a coyote? I'm thinking fox because of the bushy tail.
At any rate, the minute I saw this I thought of Diann and smiled. Not that I think Diann is a fox's hind end, mind you. Not at all. Just that I can see her diving into the snow like that. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure this little animal is after a littler animal for dinner, but let's not think about that.
Yesterday, Diann got me to thinking. I don't play much in the snow anymore. I used to. My parents used to take me to the mountains when we lived in California so I could see what snow looked like. I really didn't get it, though, until we moved here to Missouri, where there are no mountains, and where there are days--sometimes even weeks--when we can step outside into all the snow we want.
I found out snow can be used for lots of things. You can build a fort, you can use it to put out a fire (our barn burned the first year we moved here) and you can make snowmen, snow angels (snow angels are a lot less work than snowmen) and you can also take a handful and sneak it inside someone's clothing and listen to them scream. (That was the year Mel first discovered what he'd gotten into when he married me.)
My favorite thing to do with snow, though, is make snowcream. I've been warned that it can be bad for you because of the contaminants in the snow, but what foods are totally free of contaminants these days? Besides, we live in a small town amongst other small towns with very little air pollution--and if you know better than me, please don't burst my bubble.
What's your favorite thing to do with snow?
Labels: Have fun, Playing, Snow
Hannah Alexander
posted at
11:18 AM
Comments (10)
I'm sure you can tell by the facial hair on these three people that there aren't children in this picture. I hope you can see from the bubbles that Mel and Rich and I were having fun like children when Lissa took the shot. I'm here to remind you, once again, to take time to have fun and play no matter your age or circumstances. Laughter relieves stress. I particularly love laughing at myself, but today I'd love to laugh along with you. 
Delicious
Have you ever experienced a vacation in which nothing went right? The dream you had of a fun-filled week worked for everyone around you except for you?
Diann's post yesterday inspired me, and since Barbara, one of my fifty-five maternal first cousins, sent me some cute pictures yesterday, I thought I'd share, knowing that at least Diann would enjoy this. But first, can someone tell me if this is a fox or a coyote? I'm thinking fox because of the bushy tail.
