Nurturing my inner... bleh

Too much rain.  I've had it.  It's been DAYS.  Do I live in London?  I think not.  I'd never even survive stateside in Seattle.  (Yet now I know why they have all that great coffee in the Northwest.  To help them survive the day by confusing them with a caffeine rush so they don't think to move to Hawaii!)

I haven't been able to run pretty much at all in nearly a week because of the thunderstorms.  You just don't mess with lightning.  I've also had a mind numbing week of technically intensive work in Corporate America and conspicuous lack of after work fun plans.  Doldrums set in.  Comfy clothes take precedence over looking cute.  Energy to be a clever cook was nowhere to be found.  So, I just gave in to the great sucking void that was my living room.

Tonight, I sat my duff on the sofa and have not moved from this very cushion for hours.  I watched several episodes of funny British Comedy (oh yes, I get their humour - spelled with an extra 'u' just for them) and ate three brownie bites while drinking a beer.  (Why yes, that is about as edgy as I get.  You want a piece of me!)  Sometimes you just need to sit in your moment of bleh, eating comfort food while watching something distracting on TV, and accept it instead of trying to drum up the energy to attack that long overdue to do list.  That honestly has nothing that pressing on it and will still be there tomorrow, when hopefully there is sun.  As for right now... it's overcast.  It's stormy.  It's flooding.  And that pile of stuff on the dining room table can wait to be organized another day.  The world will not come to an end this evening due to your lack of productivity.

I felt so lazy and sluggish the past couple of days.  Pretty much when I'm not industrious, I beat myself up about it.  There is a certain amount of dubious respect (when I'm not grumbling about them under my breath) I place on those who are of the constantly high energy sort.  As I am not.  I can fly from one end of the spectrum to the other, getting more done by noon some days than I do in several other days combined.  Today was not one of my more illustrious and back-pattingly active days.  In fact, I didn't even want to write tonight.  But I skipped last night too (while being in the same rut of rainy Blehville), so, I thought I'd write about, well, obviously not much.  To prove a point.

Here's the thing... it's okay.  There is no rule that says we have to be amazing people every day.  (Unless it's been hidden in the new health care bill, which is entirely possible.)  I am not a celebrity, nor an entrepreneur.  I don't save people's lives in a hospital.  The world will continue in all it's twirling amazement when I achieve pretty much zippo in a few days.  I'm just an average girl.  And an expert sofa warmer.  That's my DNA.

But just as I was settling nicely into my comfortable nothingness, I started poking around the web and found a blog that I thought was really cool in concept.  http://newdressaday.wordpress.com/page/27/ This 30 year old, young woman decided to take on a challenge she created for herself as she too was feeling bleh (after losing her job).  Nice to know I'm not the only one who gets this way.

For one year, she was going to bypass traditional clothes shopping and instead, buy ugly dresses/shirts (with potential) from flea markets/garage sales for $1.00 and transform them into cute fashion.  One a day.  Hello?  Brilliant AND interesting.  I love that idea!  First off, it's creative.  Second, it's a wise use of money and challenges her to look at what she already owns in a new light.  Third, every day is an exciting personal challenge with an unpredictable ending.  And I don't even need to go on from here.  I posted this to an online social network in my status update and a friend wrote saying she was JUST looking at the very same thing and suggested we take a sewing class.  Ah, a spark in my bleh day.

Exhibit A: The Singer Sewing machine my parents have owned since 1970 that is now in my condo in the guest room.

Singer Sewing Machine 1970

Exhibit B: Me.

Me, circa 1971

(I didn't say that was current me.  But darned if I didn't have some keen fashion sense right from the get go.)

I believe it's time to bust it out, dust it off (perhaps have it serviced) and figure out how to use it once again.  I've had other friends tell me recently that they too have wanted to take a sewing class, so wouldn't it be cool if several of us went together.  Seriously ladies, we all should be able to hem a pair of pants or curtains in our own homes.  It's a darn shame that we don't.  And hiding behind feminism is getting to be a really worn out excuse.  At the heart of it, I really think we've gotten kind of lazy.  I know I have.  It cannot be that hard to learn some basics and it surely costs a lot less than having to pay someone else to do it for us.

It's not "1950s old fashioned housewife" to be able to sew proficiently.  Those women we often turn our noses up at were well organized, hard working and wise with their time and money.  Fair to say, often more so than we are most days with much more help.  I think it's time we stop putting them down for not dumping us into childcare so they could put themselves first as CEOs instead of nurses or school teachers who were home when we were, and started taking lessons from the amazing and sacrificial business women they were inside our very own homes.  They didn't have credit cards, house cleaners and restaurants on every corner like we have.  In fact, they were all the things we pay people to be for us today - financial advisors, maids, cooks - and they didn't whine about it anywhere near the way we do.

Time to give ourselves a quick history lesson and get in touch with some long forgotten values.