Because I’m Happy

The other day I was super happy.  This is not a big shock as I’m typically in a good mood but this was beyond my normal happiness level.  Did I win the lottery? Unfortunately no it wasn’t anything that epic.  Was I on some kind of special happy pills?  I’m a say no to drugs kind of person so that wasn’t the cause either.  In fact it wasn’t anything particular at all as far as I could determine. 

It was fun going through the day feeling so happy and energetic and I’d like that feeling more often.  It made me wonder what causes happiness.  The only difference I can see from the previous blah day to this happy day was I had enough sleep and water.  I really think it is hard to be happy when you are tired and having enough sleep and being well hydrated help you feel rested. 

There are other activities that make me happier including exercise, being outdoors, singing, being silly and spending time with friends.  So I do try to add these things to my life as much as possible. 

Doing good deeds for others who I feel are deserving also makes me feel good.  I wouldn’t want to give money to the “chef” who pretends his car broke down since I know he is a scam artist in Orlando but I’d gladly help a neighbor carry something upstairs.   Small acts like this are not difficult or time consuming and make me feel useful and happy. 

Also I think your mindset can play a big part.  Being grateful for what you do have can make you much happier than being critical of what you don’t.  Some days I look at my small dumpy apartment, no kids and blog that almost no one reads (sigh) and feel down.  But then the very next day I think of it as the a cool pad where I don’t have to mow a yard, time for myself since I don’t to care for kids and a blog that brings me joy since I thrive on the creativity.  Absolutely nothing has changed from one day to the next except my mindset.

If nothing else you can just thank your lucky stars you were born in a first world country in the 21^st century.  Imagine if you lived in some parts of the world like Haiti where women have to worry about being raped just trying to get water for their family.  Or if you were born a couple hundred years ago when there were no cell phones, cars, central air conditioner and people died from diseases that are now preventable.  When you look at it that way your life is pretty darn good!

I hope my random thoughts on happiness and gratitude have helped you (my three loyal readers) to have an awesome day and be able to look on the bright side of things. 

Cat “Don’t Worry be Happy” Cathy 

Harpo

Somehow I got on an Oprah emailing list. I’m not sure how this happened since I’ve never been a big fan of her show. Quite frankly I just don’t get the appeal. I’ve watched a few shows and tried but it just wasn’t doing it for me. You’d think I’d like the show with my Greek ancestry as Oprah sounds much like OPA! But nope.

I saw a couple episodes with Dr. Phil or as I like to call him, Dr. Obvious. He would state very basic things like you really shouldn’t hit your wife. Really? Do you have to be a PhD to know this? Seems like common sense to me.

Then I saw an episode with a supermodel showing ‘bargain’ fashion finds. She showed a dress from the Oscars (or one of those entertainment events) made by some famous designer that was selling for $10,000. Then she showed a knock off she found for the bargain price of $1,000. News flash, $1,000 is a pretty hefty amount to pay for one dress. Sadly I think that’s more than my whole wardrobe costs!

Then there was that episode where a guy was sleeping with his best friend’s wife and everyone was shouting “Oprah, Oprah, Oprah”. No wait that was ‘Jerry’….sorry wrong show.

Lately my weight has fluctuated about 15 pounds so I like to tell people I’m a small scale Oprah or ‘Oprah light’. Perhaps the weight gain is due to all that Fried Oprah I’ve been eating…I mean fried Okra. It’s all so confusing.

Cat “yhtac” Cathy

Don’t Hate the Driver Hate The Traffic

There is one point of my daily commute that I totally dread. I have to merge into bumper to bumper traffic that is already going 40 mph. I’ve learned if you stop you will be stuck there for hours and cause a major backup. So I always shove my little car into whatever sort of a spot I can find. I was feeling silly today so as I cut into the main traffic lane I said “Don’t hate the driver, hate the traffic”. I said this to myself but I still thought it was funny and chuckled a bit. My expression was a take off from “don’t hate the player, hate the game”. I absolute hate that expression but I thought mine was funny. So do you have a take off on this expression and if so how did it come about?

Cat “Don’t hate the Blog, hate the blogspot” Cathy

Chain Gang

I recently received a chain email that was sent through my bike club. This means about 300 people got the same chain email which said you would have many years of bad luck if I didn’t forward it to X number of people. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I just don’t understand why anyone would forward things like this to people they consider friends.


I deleted the email but promptly wrote back to the sender. I told him I have to send 100 emails to avoid bad luck and all of them are going to him. If he doesn’t read them and cluck like a chicken when the moon is full he will have bad luck in the form of smelly feet whenever he bike rides for the next 10 years. I was trying to keep it light and funny and yet still get my point across…I hope I accomplished this.

So let’s do everyone a favor. If you have a sweet or funny email and you want to pass it along that’s fine. It should be done at your own discretion. ANY email that threatens you with bad luck or smelly feet or anything else and tells you that you HAVE TO forward it should be deleted. That’s what I always do. I’m not going to let an email determine my actions.

Cat “Wishing you 50 Years of Good Luck for No Particular Reason or Action” Cathy

Señior Blackberry

I’m still laughing about the way I acted the other day so I wanted to share. I had a fake mustache from a social event at the skating rink. I have no clue what a fake mustache has to do with skating but everyone got when we arrived and it was fun. This little detail will become important later.

After skating we all went out to eat. I was seated next to a social acquaintance who was telling me about his ex girlfriend in a not so nice way. I can relate to needing to talk about an ex so I wanted to be there and show support. Plus the story was pretty juicy and everyone likes a little gossip and scandal now and then. Considering this I think I was probably provoking him in some ways to share his story.

But this was not the first time he had told me the story and his ex is also an acquaintance of mine. Plus I think people often act badly in relationships for a variety of reasons and sharing this ‘dirt’ is just not a good thing to do. No matter how hurt you are and how much you feel wronged by an ex I really believe the best thing to do is realize you chose that person for some reason. Enjoy remembering the good times and learn from the bad times. Except for your closest friends (and your therapist) it’s best to just say something complimentary or nothing at all about an ex. It seems like concentrating on the negative will only bring on more negativity and make it take longer to grow and move on INMO.

So about 10 minutes into the scandalous conversation I realized I needed to put an end to it. But how? Hmmm…Surely there is a smooth way of doing it. Maybe, but I took the silly Catastrophe Cathy approach since it was all I could think of at that moment. Right in the middle of the juicy details I put my fake mustache on my phone and turned to a friend sitting on my other side and said “look , it’s Señior Blackberry!”. She thought it was cute and took a picture of my phone. This distraction effectively ended the gossip albeit in a less than diplomatic way.

I hope my acquaintance is feeling better and I hope if he reads this he realizes I’m not judging and I wish him a speedy recovery.

Cat “Señorita” Cathy

The Black Sheep of Yoga

My latest sporting adventure is a little different from my usual extremes of mountain biking and kite boarding. I recently took up Hot Yoga, which involves bending your body into all kinds of unusual positions in a steaming hot 105-degree room. You may be wondering how this could possibly pass for fun but somehow in my mind it does. I guess I enjoy it since it’s new, challenging, and good for your health. In a 90-minute class I get strength training, aerobic exercise, stretching, balance, relaxation and sweating out gallons of toxins. I've really enjoyed seeing my flexibility and balance improve over the past few months. Plus I now have many vacation pictures with yoga poses in them, which makes the pictures more fun.


Unfortunately my silly personality doesn't quite fit with hot yoga. It's supposed to be a spiritual experience. Right. I think the "spiritual experience" is more a sign of heat stroke approaching. My boyfriend and I like to act silly and so are developing a “black sheep” reputation in the class. Just last class we got in trouble for playing footsie between postures. Some people get recognized for doing a good job but we only get noticed for misbehaving. Well I guess any recognition is better than none at all, right?


The instructors say the same thing every class. There is one balance move that I just can't seem to get and the instructor says every class "if you're losing your balance, you aren't kicking hard enough". So I'm thinking I'll show him just how hard I can kick when I see him in the parking lot after class. Or they don’t get the English quite right, like in “touch your knee to your exactly forehead”. Which is different from my regular forehead how? I do believe the postures are good for your health and internal organs but there is one position where they say "20 seconds in this posture is as good as 8 hours sleep". Yeah right. Get a clue exactly guy, it's probably as good as exactly 20 seconds of sleep. Did I mention that the instructor doesn't even do the moves with the class? He just stands up there and tells us what to do. Somehow that just doesn't seem fair but at least he suffers through the heat too.


The class always ends with the teacher saying "Namaste" and the students repeating it. I never knew quite what this meant, and I didn't want to be saying "I will give you my first born" so I never said it. My boyfriend looked it up and in short it means "I bow to you" and is just a respectful greeting. So why can’t they just do what the Jamaicans do and say "Respect Mon"? Anyway, my boyfriend then sent me an email saying "I bow to you – let's come together energetically to a place of connection and timelessness". Hmmm I wonder what he exactly wants.


Anyway, it’s fun and I’m glad I tried something new – you just never know. And who cares if we “exactly” fit in?


Cat "It's Hot in Here" Cathy

April Fool

I love playing practical jokes so a day dedicated to that is perfect for me. Plus it’s only 4 days before my birthday so my whole life I’ve been told I was born 4 days late. This year my boyfriend emailed me that he had to go to Washington for a week and we were going to have to cancel my big 4-0 birthday bash. Well I knew right away that it was an attempt at an April Fools joke so I said “why don’t you just fly everyone up there or let us trash your house while you are gone. Oh, and by the way I’m pregnant”! (FYI - we’ve haven’t slept together yet). To which he replied “well, you do sleep soundly . . .”. Of course, I had to come back with “I could be mean and say I’m not surprised I didn’t feel anything”. It was a fun little exchange but I’m not sure who won this round. Let me know what you think. And take a chance and play the fool today!

Cat "It's a girl" Cathy