An owl for luck? (40/100)

Tonight when I was walking home from work, I saw something I've never seen before in nature, let alone sitting in an inner city park. I noticed a rather large bird sitting on a sign just inside the fence. I stopped where I was, then it turned its head almost 180 degrees to study at me. It was slightly threatening even though I'm not its prey, beautiful and serene: a masked owl (I'm guessing on the species based on this website). I feel so lucky to have seen this amazing bird from 2m away. It lifted my spirits after a boring, unmotivated day at work.

39/100 – Twitter post – Pitching my non-fiction teaching book to some fellow teachers – lucky they're already friends so it's not too hard a sell.

Taste of summer (38/100)

On a friend's recommendation I bought strawberries the other day. They were on sale, and she had eaten her punnet and told me they were delicious. We had ours on pancakes this morning and they were very juicy and flavourful. I don't expect that in fruit at this time of year. So tonight I'm grateful for yummy, red berries in Winter.

Happy viewing is like pickles and peanut butter. (37/100)

My husband and I don't often agree on what to watch. Inevitably it ends up being a compromise and one of us is not entirely happy with the choice. It's fine that we have different tastes, but on a Friday night I like curling up and watching something together. My husband has got into Game of Thrones, whereas I saw a few episodes and got bored with all the conniving and killing. Tonight, though, I felt like watching mindless fantasy – I don't know why. It's like a pregnant woman's cravings: why does she want pickles and peanut butter? So tonight my husband and I curled up with the cat on the couch and watched Game of Thrones. I don't know that I'm into it and I'll certainly never be fanatical like some of our friends, but I enjoyed it and may even watch it again. For a change I think my husband and I were both happy with the night's viewing.

36/100 – Twitter – Had an excellent first @Meetup of the Women Who Write group - met many interesting, creative types and had a nice glass of wine too.

Trying a new tactic (35/100)

I've submitted a short story to some competitions this morning. Usually I would tinker with a story for several months or longer until I got the mysterious feeling of it being done. Then I would prepare to submit it to various places and make more tweaks before hitting the send/submit button. This time, I wrote the story after a dream, which is typical. After initial feedback from my husband and two rounds of workshopping and subsequent fixes, I decided to send it in. I don't have the feeling that it's done, but I'm not sure what else to do to it. This time it's like the story is finished on an intellectual level rather than a mysterious, emotional level.

That not-sick feeling (34/100)

The best thing about being sick is recovery. Yesterday I lay in bed all day; I didn't get any chores or writing done; and I only ate simple, comfort food. I also watched a lot of mindless TV. In contrast, this morning I woke up feeling normal – a little achey and tired still, but mostly fine. I got some writing done, then went to the doctor to make sure I was actually on the mend. Afterwards I got lots of chores done and went to work. I'm always amazed and grateful when I go to bed one night feeling ill and wake up the next morning feeling basically better.

33/100 – no writing, sick day

Sleep spectacle (32/100)

I had a strange and vivid dream last night: I had gone back to my previous school to teach three days a week. The classroom was a double room, in which I taught with a nice, energetic, young teacher. I started at the beginning of the second term so the classroom was already in controlled chaos. To add to the first-day-back excitement, there was a Hallowe'en Haunted House show (six months early) coming to perform for the school that afternoon and they were setting up in my classroom. Just before I woke up I remember walking to the staff room, checking behind me to be sure I could find my way back to the room because there had been some new build since I was there, and wondering if I was supposed to be on playground duty. I shrugged and thought to myself, 'They should have given me an induction so I knew the yard duty schedule. The principal will probably be angry and petty about it, but I can laugh that off because they didn't provide the information. I'm going for lunch!' I enjoyed working with the younger students, but the same old stress and dysfunction were still evident at the school. I woke up certain that I need to take the teacher wellbeing article to writing group (see below) and try to get it published in a magazine for educators.

31/100 – Twitter – Can't decide what to take to writing group tomorrow: non-fiction article about teacher well being or a synopsis for a half-developed novel. 

* I've decided that part of the point of this posting every day is to make my blog more active. The same goes for Twitter, which I hardly ever remember to post on so that's why I've now added it
to the mix for days when I can't think of anything longer than 140 characters long.

Terrific Tech (30/100)

I'm amazed and thankful tonight for the capabilities of the modern television. I put music on through
the speakers while making dinner because the sound is better than with the computer and the TV now connects to the internet. We watched a movie and the definition and colours were hyper-real. Seeing the Hawaiian resort setting of the movie made me excited to go to Thailand in a few weeks. Finally, moving the little laser pointer remote makes an excellent, if expensive, cat toy. Yay for a lazy Friday night being entertained by impressive technology.

28/100 - Twitter - Got great critiques for my story The Light Box on @scribophile! Thank you. 
29/100 - Migraine Game

Sun, sandwiches and service (27/100)

Today it was sunnier than I expected. It was one of those lovely, bright, crisp sunny Winter days. Then I met a friend for lunch and we had yummy sandwiches and hot chocolate. Finally, my car went in for servicing and I was able to pick it up just in time before I went to work. That meant a new car with fresh oil to drive to and from work, which is a treat when it's cold and dark after work.

An unexpected reply (26/100)

A few months ago I sent a query to an editor at one of the big publishing houses who I know from the writing and editing Diploma classes I'm taking. I hadn't heard anything back so, after about a week, I consoled myself and figured she has a policy of not taking personal queries or something. To my delight, I got a reply today saying she hadn't realised she never sent the reply and has been very busy. Additionally and more importantly, she agreed to look at my manuscript! Now I'm brimming with excitement and nervousness for the possible outcome of her read-through of my novel manuscript. I'm grateful to my course for introducing me to industry members; I'm thankful for the record-keeping of email programs so that she could look back and realise no reply had been sent; and I'm so appreciative of the chance to send my work to an actual publishing house. Now to manage my emotions for the next few weeks until she replies again.

I feel lucky (25/100)

Today I went outside to wash the car and the sun came out. Washing the car was much more enjoyable since I was in the only patch of sun all day. I got some vitamin D and didn't mind getting soaked by our leaking hose nozzle. Now the car is clean, at least until a bird lands on the wires above it or the wind knocks leaves off the tree. I also got brownie points from my husband for doing it.

The other reason I feel lucky is because I haven't had a migraine in a week and a half (knock on wood). In the past week I've done several things that often would lead to a migraine: shopping in the city all day, teaching a class with new material and forgetting my pills one night. Based on all this, I'm going to declare the combination of my new medication and kinesiology a success.

Self-administered Yoga (24/100)

Tonight at dinner I was feeling weighed down and unsatisfied with weekend lethargy. It felt like I'd wasted the whole day, which was not really true, but that's the attitude my mind had adopted. I did some good critiquing and writing this morning; I had lunch with a friend; but then I came home and read and napped on the couch by the fire.

I don't know to what degree my lethargy was caused by being tired and needing recuperation or whether it was a symptom of not doing anything active. Therefore, after dinner, before we watch a movie, I took myself into the bedroom and did some yoga. I feel more awake now and like I've done something worthwhile. I even accomplished something that I wasn't sure I could do: the plank for two minutes. My friend had been on a two-minute plank challenge a while ago and I always wondered how long I could last. She started at just under a minute and got to almost two minutes of holding the position before the month-long challenge ended. She seems like a fairly strong, fit person so I figured I wouldn't be able to match her starting time, let alone get to two minutes. But I did! I might try to add that to my daily routine like my friend did and see how long I can stretch the time to.

Blessings in abundance (22/100)

I was going to write a frustrated, self-doubting post tonight about how I don't think my writing's improving with these daily blogs. For some posts I feel 'flow' or in the zone as I write them, but most are too short, piecemealy and forced to feel like the writing's really working.

Instead I had several wonderful things happen unexpectedly today: a late birthday present from my mum that had been delayed in the mail for three months arrived; I found out that a guest blog post I wrote a while ago went live today; and I got lots done at work including clearing out my old filing cabinet in readiness for a new, larger, more permanent desk and filing cabinet that will come in the next day or two.

Please note that day 21/100 was written on The Migraine Game.

I ❤︎ Cinnamon ❤︎ (20/100)

I tried a new kind of tea this morning, the scent of which took me back to my childhood. It's not a flavour my mum or grandmother used to drink. It wasn't grown near my house or given to me as a special treat. This tea is cinnamon flavoured and smells just like the cinnamon hearts we used to eat  on Valentine's Day in school. A whiff of this tea reminded me of many a Valentine's Day party: running around the classroom distributing cards with cheesy messages; sitting with my best friend afterwards praying there would be a card from the guy I liked; finding the card, then dissecting what his message was really saying. All the while eating so many cinnamon hearts that our tongues burned red and the taste lingered for days. Ah, the sugar-coated, red dye-laden days of my youth!

Go with the flow (19/100)

Tennis this morning was excellent. I experienced 'flow' as I've been reading about in Mihaly Csikszentmihaly's book of the same title. I was acutely focussed on the game and could hone in on particularly fascinating aspects of it. For a while I watched the rotation of the ball and how it changed when hit or bouncing off the ground; then I listened to the sounds of the game; for a time I felt my body doing what it needed to do to hit the ball accurately and smoothly. All this concentration meant that I mostly zoned out the other people playing around me, even the guy watching us and the angry man we'd taken the court from. Normally those factors would cause me mis-hit because my attention would be divided between playing and self-analysing. Aside from the mindful pleasure of this morning's game, tennis also was drug-free pain relief for the powerful menstrual cramps I've had since last night. Therefore, for those reasons I'm thankful we played tennis this morning.

Urban Stroll (18/100)

We are very lucky to live in a city with excellent city parks. This morning my husband and I went for a beautiful walk in an urban park. We were in dappled sun most of the time and couldn't see the city skyline. I'm grateful for the rain we've had that's made the vegetation green and the river nicely filled. As my husband said, 'Now we've had our exercise, we can be lazy by the fire for the rest of the day.' That's what we've done so I'm also grateful for our gas fire and cozy house.

Fresh pasta - ahhhh! (17/100)

Tonight I am thankful for the little Italian take away place around the corner from work. I picked up some fresh gluten free pasta and amatriciana sauce. It's the first time in years I've had fresh pasta. Also, it made a quick, easy, delicious and inexpensive Friday night dinner. The only mild downside is that I ate too much of it and now I have heavy pasta belly. Time to be lazy on the couch until bed.

Can't think of anything to write (16/100)

I wonder how many times this will happen in the next 84 days. I know I should write something because I said I would blog everyday and I've already missed one day, which will have to be made up at the end. The problem is I can't think of anything worth 200 or so words. I'm grateful for the positive conversations with colleagues I had at work today. I'm looking forward to climbing into bed in a few minutes. I'm relieved and thankful for the friend of a friend who has agreed to house- and pet-sit for us while we're away in a few weeks. None of that inspires me to write a great epistle. Maybe I'm too tired; maybe I wrote myself out this morning; maybe I should be writing this by hand if the NY Times article I read today is true. All in all, I'm sorry for this boring, rambly, more pointless than normal post.

Gorilla in a person suit (15/100)

This morning on my walk to work I saw a person in a gorilla suit standing on the corner of a busy road waving a sign for drive-thru coffee. While I stood there waiting for the light to change, he or she in the gorilla suit pulled out their mobile phone and proceeded to read then write a text. It was a funny image and it reminded me of daydreams I had as a kid about what animals, pets in particular, did while people weren't around. I imagined my cats running around upside down on the ceiling, friends' dogs sleeping in all the places they weren't normally allowed or giraffes in the zoo sitting back for a bit of a chat, idly munching on grass stalks like we snack on chips. This reminiscence got me to work in a good mood.

This evening I went for dinner with some friends who I haven't seen in several weeks. At one point we started recalling funny moments from our last get-together. I apologised to my good friend for something I had said last time that was meant as a joke, but didn't come out right and ended up being a weird, offensive comment. I've felt terrible about it for weeks, like a bumbling, insensitive oaf. It was good to be able to apologise and explain myself. Overall dinner was fun and delicious and we all agreed we should do it more often.

Winter comforts (14/100)

I am grateful tonight for the heated blanket on our bed, as is the cat. The last few nights have been chilly and it's lovely to lie in bed feeling cozy. It does take extra effort to get out of the warm bed into the cool morning, but for the eight or so hours I'm there it's bliss.

Sleeping tucked up in a warm bed and waking up with cold ears and nose reminds me of growing up. My father was too cheap to heat the house to 'room temperature' (by definition above 20℃) so I would wake up some mornings able to see my breath while still in bed! I didn't enjoy it at the time, but the taste of nostalgia this week has been nice, although now that I'm in control of the heat and the bill (and live in a warmer climate) the room doesn't get to frigid, breathing-seeing temperatures.

Here's an interesting little article about bedroom temperature and its effect on sleep.

Finally, I'm also very grateful to whoever is reading this blog since today it passed 1500 pageviews. Thank you. If you want to see more of my writing you can look at my website.

The famous want to be normal and the normal want to be famous (13/100)

I realised something strange after reading two articles about celebrity women in the magazine sections of this weekend's paper. In both articles the journalist strove to make it clear how 'normal' and down-to-earth the women were: they both adapt their career to their children, they don't want their kids to become famous actors, they were heading off after the interview for quality family time and so on and so on. One of the articles was written around the premise that we mere mortals have certain diva expectations of famous women and cannot truly understand their life and position in the media. The implication was that these were positive aspects of their lives and were rightly to be yearned for. I think it's bizarre that 'normal' people supposedly want to be celebrities, but most celebrities endeavour to come across as 'normal', average human beings. I guess today's gratitude is for the interesting strangeness of people (or at least media's perception of people).

12/100 was a post on The Migraine Game.