Shamelessly affirm myself for a month

not ready to let it go yet. I really enjoyed looking at StarStuff’s posts on this goal and the pictures she posted. I like reading an affirmation especially if it’s got a beautiful visual to go with it. Not sure if I’ll make my own affirmation book? Or take an existing affirmation book/feed and alter it?

Hash browns, scrambled eggs with steak and cheese, english muffins with strawberry freezer jam, french toast, orange juice and tea. I make good pancakes, scones and good huevos rancheros too. Room service breakfast feels so indulgent; I actually prefer fancy breakfast to eating dinner out :) Ha ha! I just remembered once when a room-mate offered to make breakfast and he served “Golden Grahams”!!

I started working with a Life Coach a couple weeks ago. It’s been really wonderful, she is a really good fit for me and working with her is creating tangible, lasting results in my daily life. Last week I was really in the flow; it was like Harry Potter and the Felix Felicis. I just knew when it was good to make a particular choice or do something and everything just kept falling into place, really magical!

I care about doing a good job, being kind, helping out, standing firm, investigating and understanding, doing the “right” thing, making things better where possible, learning more, fairness, reaching out, having fun, spreading the love.

I was really lucky to work for several wonderful managers at Nordstrom. They were great at recognition and rewards; sometimes I’d get a Nordstrom gift-card for completing a particularly tough project. Other times I’d get an Espresso card, flowers or treats with a really nice note thanking me for always doing a great job. They were never, cheesy, hollow “attagirl” type things. Those gestures of recognition and thanks always made me feel really good. From those good examples I learned how to recognize and thank co-workers, actually anyone I get good customer service from with treats, gift-cards or a note of commendation depending on what’s most appropriate.

I am one of those annoying people who can recite entire Monty Python sketches from memory. I also have a really good memory for faces even if they’ve changed over time; Paco will ask me “where have we seen this guy before” and I’ll answer “oh, he was the snooty prince in ‘Hidalgo’” or “Oh, he was the genius kid in ‘Real Genius’ but he was probably 15 in that movie”. I can remember every phone number we ever had, dialog from French class in junior high, I can find wherever we’ve parked and I can remember weird lists of things. I once watched a 60 minutes report where they were discussing the top fifteen candy bars. The next day at work (this was in college when I worked at a movie theater) somehow the 60 minutes show came up and someone challenged me to remember all the items in the candy-bar list—which I did :) [PS I’m a little demoralized to notice that it’s taken me over six months to list 30 affirmative things about myself. I thought I’d zip through this goal]

I have always loved tea. I don’t remember who introduced me to tea but I remember Earl Grey was my first favorite. I’ve gone to high tea a few times, once at the Empress in Victoria which was wonderful! I buy loose teas now mostly from Upton tea importers in Massachusettes. I have a few black tea blends I love – but I’ve been drinking single estate teas for long enough now that I can actually recognize several tea types by smelling the loose tea and certainly by drinking the brewed tea: Ceylon, Assam, Darjeeling and Yunnan.

... I love decorations and decorating! Disneyland at Christmas was like catnip for me! The hotel we stayed at last week had a huge Christmas tree in the lobby, there is a giant Christmas tree on Disney Main Street and there are garlands, wreaths, sparklies, lights, glass ornaments, trumpets, candy-canes etc simply everywhere! The Haunted Mansion had both Halloween and Christmas-y decorations!! We put up our Christmas tree (Max hung all the ornaments again this year!) the day after Thanksgiving. I like making decorations, hanging lights – for any holiday or reason.

I love baking cookies, cakes and pies—and I’m really good at it. I use high-quality ingredients (good butter, real vanilla), I like mixing stuff by hand (maybe someday I’ll get a nice mixer like my grandma used!), I have a lot of great cookie-cutter shapes, I’m careful to bake everything until it’s perfectly golden-brown and done! I just learned a new pie-crust method and can’t wait to try it out! And I can’t wait to do some Christmas baking!

Autumn is my favorite time of the year and October is my favorite part of autumn! I love Halloween and everything about the run-up to the night itself! I love carving pumpkins: how they smell when they’re freshly carved, the newspaper to catch all the goo, roasting the seeds, lighting the candle inside and turning off all the lights to see how it came out! I love decorating: I love going to Costume & Display when their Halloween stuff is in full-swing, I love putting up spiderwebs, I love adding new things to the “pirates” Halloween stuff I put up at work! I love Halloween specials: Charlie Brown (of course), Frankenstein with Boris Karloff, Elsa Lancaster as Bride of Frankenstein – and “Curse of the Were-Rabbit” with Wallace & Gromit :) I just love Halloween! Squee!