ROW80 DAY10 HAPPINESS PROJECT

ROW80 DAY10 HAPPINESS PROJECT

MY RULES PLUS ADDENDA

Okay, first off. Let me answer the smart ass, er, the alert reader who noticed that my ROW80 went from Day 7 to Day 9. Well, Mr. Alert Reader, did you happen to notice that there were two Day 5s? Hmm? Smarty Pants? Hmmm? Besides, I jumped into this challenge 2 or 3 days after it started and no one has given a hoot, so there! Nyah nyah. I think this falls under the Commandment THOU SHALT NOT BE PERFECT. 


Following along those lines, I've had a chance to kind of kick these commandments around, or as I'm calling them now, "rules." Here's my list, loosely based on Ms. Andi-Roo's Do's and Don'ts:


1. Being happy is a decision.
2. Do something, anything; engage yourself in the world.
3. 90% of success is showing up.
4. Find the flaw and fix it.
5. Persist; keep starting. If you stop, start again.
6. Always be yourself, even if it hurts.
7. Don't put it off; don't talk about it. DO it.
8. Be kind and gentle to yourself. Chances are, you have the worst hurts of anyone you know.
9. Do the work and embrace it; joyfully, joyfully.
10. Sing; don't worry if it sucks.
12. Perfection is the enemy of art and bliss, progress and productivity.
13. Tomorrow is another day -- yes Scarlett, this too shall pass.
14. Everything will be okay.
15. (the old 17.) Catastrophe now makes a great story later.
16. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
19. Smile.
20. Take care of you.


21. You're never too ________________* to __________________**
22. When you work, do it with complete passion and involvement. 


The man in the gray flannel suit lived a gray flannel life. I live a vivid life of color and wondrous sounds. It is a beautiful life. Sometimes, it is all in my own head, but that's fine. I've made it like that. My temporal life would seem dreary and sad to some. It's not. I have had a brilliant life and I continue to. I'm just in another phase.


I can hear my mother now, "Mary, if I've told you once, I've told you a million times, life is just one Goddamned thing after another." She's right. For years I was just tearing around the country and the world, playing viola and doing IT support, and now after a rather prolonged and uncomfortable metamorphosis of sorts, it has become a rich, online life. Yay me!


Some people don't even get the one life. I am grateful and happy. I also realize what a truly wondrous gift I have received. I hate sap, just like I hate organ recitals (had that gall bladder out in '02, then the 'ol uterus dried up in '05, ick) but I have been blessed with some of the most creative, entertaining, snarky, hilarious and truly sarcastic friends in the online universe. And yes, you are all here for the sole purpose of entertaining ME!


Phew, got out of that Hallmark moment alive. Anyway, I really became fascinated with the shift in dynamics of friendship several months back when I was visiting with a real, live human being from my playing days here in Tampa. She had dropped by to bring me my beloved viola, Wolf. Wolf couldn't come to the homeless shelter with me. They don't approve of mixed marriages there. Just kidding. He's valuable and insured, but if something happened to Wolf in those circumstances, it's doubtful the insurance would pay for viola and bow. Anyway, my friend brought me my viola after I moved and I was telling her about how few flesh-and-blood people I still associate with on a regular basis. It's a total of 5 people, and not all of them on a daily basis. 


There are roughly 250 people that I talk with between Twitter, Runescape and Facebook. Twitter and Runescape pretty much incessantly and Facebook several times a day. So you can see the shift. I've read the reports on how this isn't psychologically healthy, blah-blah. However, my vision pretty much keeps me house bound. I go out and like to, but it can be a chore and I am no longer as comfortable being out as I once was. I've met people all over the world online and my friends are a strange amalgam of high school friends, friends from my "virtual office" of 5 years ago, Runescape friends, blog and writer friends. All wonderful. 


Well, once again, I ended up somewhere other than where I wanted to end up when I first started out. Great.


Numbers 21 and 22 on my list I separated from the other 20, as I didn't really see them on Andi-Roo's list. I may have just missed them, or slept through them. Who knows. Well, in the interest of not being perfect, lemme give it a whirl: 


21. You're never too _____* to ______**          Pretty generic crap. 


You're never too old* to limbo**. 


You're never too Glam* to Putt-Putt Golf**.   You get the idea.


For me, it's you're never too OLD* to ACT LIKE A 12-YEAR OLD ON TWITTER, FB AND IN RUNESCAPE**.

 Okay, so maybe we're 3 here

22. When you work, do it with complete passion and involvement. I mean, EVERYTHING. 


I pretty much have been this way all my life and I try to live my life with conviction. I don't always come up to scratch. I have my meh days and who-gives-a-shit days like everybody. My ma lived life full throttle. She died at the age of 70, what would be considered young in my family. She was pretty sick for the last 12 years or so of her life, but that did not stop her. She died on the run. She lived her life passionately, up until the very end, dragging around her little portable oxygen tank, giving the "seniors" hell and feeding her fat dog more Sonic Burgers. She regularly beat the pants off the old crabs at the "Senior Center" playing Cribbage. They were in their '60s. She was cantakerous. I plan to be that way, too. From my plastic chair, possibly in front of my computer screen, hee. 


After I had to give up driving and playing and IT'ing, I was at a loss for a while. I kind of lost my bearings for quite a while. I've found them again. I've found that I can have a hell of a good time right here. Just writing and observing and "interacting" with my friends on various "social" websites. Maybe it's all illusion and I'm grasping at some kind of global chimera that doesn't exist. I don't think so. I was utterly taken with the show "Touch" about the autistic boy Jake who is able to connect globally with others. It's pretty much hooey I think, but the ideas are gentle, mystical and whimsical enough for even an old battle-axe like me to play, what if? what if, indeed.