Anything

[bunny]

I love edamame (soy) beans.

[mum]

Yes!  Edamame soy beans are the best.  My vegetarian-who-really-don't-like vegetables kids love them!  I throw them (shelled and cooked) on spaghetti and marinara sauce.

[Anonymous]

Wow!  edamame eh?  Learn something new every day!  Thanks bunny!

So, on my way out the door, since the topic seems healthy, here's something to enhance your health (by way of exposing your gums, teeth and belly to a bit of freshly sent organic stimiluli):

20 Ways to Maintain a Healthy Level of Sanity

 1. At lunchtime, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hairdryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.

2. Page yourself over the intercom. DON'T disguise your voice.

3. Everytime someone asks you to do something ask, "Do you want fries
 with that?"

4. Put your garbage can on your desk and label it "In".

5. Put Decaf in the coffee maker for 3weeks. Once everyone has gotten
 over their Caffeine addictions, switch to Espresso.

6. In the Memo field of all your checks write, "For Sexual Favours."

7. Finish all your sentences with, "In accordance with the Prophecy."

8. don't use any punctuation or capital letters

9. As often as possible, Skip rather than walk.

10. Ask people what sex they are. Laugh hysterically after they
answer.

11. Specify that your drive-through order is "To-Go".

12. Sing along at the opera.

13. Go to a poetry recital, and ask why the poems don't rhyme.

14. Put mosquito netting around your work area and play tropical
sounds all day.

15. Five days in advance, tell your friends you can't attend their
 party because "You're not in the mood."

16. Have your co-workers address you by your wrestling name, like,
 "Rock Hard".

17. When money comes out of the ATM scream, "I WON! I WON!"

18. When leaving the Zoo, start running for the parking lot yelling,
 "Run for your lives, THEY'RE LOOSE!"

19. Tell your children over dinner, "Due to the economy, We are going
 to have to let one of you go."

And, the final way to keep a healthy level of sanity.........

20. Copy, and send this to someone to make them smile.... It's called
 Therapy!!

GFN

[mum]

GFN: love your post of 20 great ideas.  It occured to me that I actually see almost all of those behaviors in my job in an elementary school.  It's just kids instead of adults doing them... those kids are onto something!

[Anonymous]

I think I see what you mean, mum.

A good old deep belly laugh is something many kids do frequently (and acting silly to get others to laugh is pretty typical, don't you think?).

Sometimes I wonder if that becomes a little more difficult for adults because we have so many more serious things to attend to?  Sometimes people get caught up in all work and no play?  People may forget the benefits of a good laugh or just kind of forget how, because it's been so long?  When one is suffering, not much seems funny, right?

It's harder to laugh when stuff isn't going well in our lives.  I know I have to try harder to get a good laugh, when I am feeling low.  I love a good book that gets me laughing out loud or a good comedy show or movie.  I love the funny stuff my friends send or that I find on the net.  I love it when people make me laugh.

I think laughing, once in awhile, is an important way to...take a break...from the stress of whatever I am dealing with (the serious stuff).  It helps me to relax, which is important physically (I tend to carry my stress in my kneck and I uncontiously make a tight fist with my right hand--very weird--and no, I don't punch anything or anybody, I just make this fist and I'm not even aware of it until I look down and there it is--does anyone else do weird stuff like that?) and mentally.

Anyhow...some of those ways to maintain a healthy level of sanity...gave me a good giggle, especially when I picture them for a little in my mind.  I do say:  "Would you like fries with that?" fairly often and it usually makes people smile.  I have joked around a lot with my children, over the years, especially when they were being stubborn or just feeling grouchy or when they were frustrated and it seemed like a good thing.   I think it's good to just act silly, like a child, with your kids, sometimes.  I think it helps to sort of get into their world.

In adult relationships, a good laugh can "break the ice", snap us out of a bad mood, and be great entertainment.  We need fun in our lives too.  All pain and no fun (sort of like all work and no play) probably won't make us very happy and I don't think it's very healthy either.

In accordance with the prophecy.

GFN

[Anonymous]

Hey Learning!

I bought the soy milk, made myself a smoothie and it was wonderful!!

It wasn't like the punishment I thought it might be!!

It was truly delicious and I am now HOOKED!!!

This is a great thing!  I bought low fat, vanilla.  9 gms of protein per cup and only 100 cal!!  Packed with vitamins and other good stuff too!

What a deal!  Love it. Love it.  Love it.!!!

GFN

[Anonymous]

GFN and All!

Glad we started this thread.  I must take exception to the health food though.........LOL.   Loved the 20 sanity remarks GFN.  Copied and printed for further distribution!

My fav foods.

Cheetos, chocolate, merlot wine, hamburgers, chili (making some for the Super Bowel)  now that's a group of N's LOL.  I probably will try to cut back and try the soy milk smoothies with fish oil.  Is it really good?  Do you put fruit or anything else in it? Patz

[mum]

Hi, GFN
I think you are right about getting just plain silly,  I tend to forget that...and my teenage children save the crazy stuff for their friends, mostly. I notice it is harder to crack me up when I'm going through a rough patch.  My daughter notices I am tense before I do (look how you are gripping the steering wheel!).  I used to bite the inside of my lip when I was tense or worried.  I try now to consiously let go of tension....although my neck would not always agree I am successful, either.

Before my son could drive himself, he and his friends would turn up classical music extremely loud and at a stop light, roll down the windows and start dancing and hopping up and down frenetically like it was serious head banging music just to get people in the nearby cars to laugh.  I could barely drive I would laugh so hard.  

Joni Mitchell once wrote (forget which song): "laughing and crying, it's all the same release".

[mum]

So this thread is rather stream of consiousness, or unconsiousness, right?
Cheetos got me thinking about  a guy I dated.....I thought once he was like eating cheetos for dinner.  Seems like a good idea at the time.....

[Learning]

Hi GFN,

I'm so glad you liked the smoothie.  It's one of those things in life that is good for you and yummy.  I'm always searching for treasures like that.

Thanks for posting the 20 sanity savers.  I LOL while I read them.  I agree with you...sometimes we just need to laugh.  Recently, it seemed that the s**t was piling so high that all I could do is laugh.  And so I have been, for weeks now!  It feels pretty good.

Mum,

I think Joni Mitchell was on to something.

I always twinge when I hear someone say they are dating a person just for the fun of it (kinda like your Cheetos thought)...I started a relationship that way once and 4 years later I had a restraining order against the guy.  How did yours work out?

Patz,

The smoothie is really good.  I like almost any kind of frozen fruit in it.  I'm kinda an 80/20 person.  I try to eat healthy 80% of the time and the rest...well, give me chocolate anything and I'm fine.

Learning

[Anonymous]

People's Parties, it is - from Court and Spark.

All the people at this party
they've got alot of style
they've got stamps of many countries
they've got passport smiles
some are friendly, some are cutting
some are watching it from the wings
some are standing in the center
givin' to get something

Photo-Beauty gets attention
and her eye-paint's runnin' down
she's got a rose in her teeth
and lampshade crown
one minute she's so happy
then she's cryin' on someone's knee
sayin' "laughin' and cryin',
you know it's the same release"

I told you when I met you
I was crazy
cry for us all, Beauty -
Cry for Eddie in the corner
thinkin' he's nobody
and Jack behind his joker
and stone-cold Grace behind her fan
and me in my frightened silence
thinkin'I don't understand

I feel like I'm sleepin
can you wake me
you seem to have a broader sensibility
I just livin' on nerves and feelings
with a weak and a lazy mind
and comin' to People's Parties
stumblin' deaf, dumb and blind

I wish I had more sense of humour
keeping the sadness at bay
throwin' the lightness on these things
laughin' it all away...

Laughin' it all way.

Followed by:

"Again and Again
tha same situation
for so many years
tethered to a ringing telephone
in a room full of mirrors

A pretty girl in your bathroom
checking out her sex apppeal...
I asked myself when you said you loved me:
"Do you think this can be real?"

So I sent up my prayer
wondering where it had to go
with heaven full of astronauts
and the Lord on death row
and the millions of the lost and lonely ones calling in clamor
to be found
caught in the struggle for higher achievement
and the search for love
that sticks around

You've had lots of lovely women
now you turn your gaze to me
weighing the beauty and the imperfection
to see if I'm worthy
Like the church, like a cop,
like a mother
you want me to be truthful
but sometimes you turn it on me like a weopon though
and I need your approval

So I send up my prayer
wondering who's there to hear
I said, "Send me somebody
who's strong, and somewhat sincere"
With the millions of the lost and lonely ones callin' out
to be released
Caught in my struggle for higher achievments
and my search for love
that don't seem to cease..."

[mum]

Learning:
that (cheetos) relationship did not work, thankfully.  It was right after my divorce, I was in the 'divorce crazies" and that guy was not someone I am proud to say I went out with.....I was not me then, not at all.
Someone told me relationships that only would happen on vacation are called "spam" (you'll only eat spam if you're camping).
Calling anyone food isn't too nice, though, although Sarah McLaughlin describing "love...... better than chocolate" would be an exception.

[Anonymous]

Hi all:

Yeppers, Learning, you doing the 80-20 thing is a darn good example to us all!!  I'd say I'm about 60-40 (healthy to non-healthy food choices) about now and trying to increase the 60.  I think I might die if I didn't eat SOME chocolate sometimes so I doubt I will ever never indulge!!!  I lovve it tooo much!!
But.....now I can make a chocolate banana smoothie (sometimes) and it will be good for me, as you say, a treasure!  I mushed up a banana and zipped it up with a cuppa soymilk and it's really good too!   Soon I'll be slipping in a bit of vodka and khalua and enjoying a healthy White Russian!!!

Yes....laughing is good.  Keep it up!  (not that I want the s**t in your life to keep piling up or anything).  Hopefully soon you can laugh at how the pile fell down and went splat eh?

So Mum!  Cheetos?  Spam??  Are you meeting these people in the grocery store??  Mine were more like Tide and Bounce, but not found anywhere near a laundry mat.

Hey Patz!  Let us know if you get hooked on smoothies!  Seems to me there must be zillions of combinations of stuff one could mix with soy milk to make yummy smoothies?  I'm thinking I could use it to replace milk in many recipes and I bet nobody will notice.  I'm gonna bake some healthy muffins and use it and see.  Haven't talked myself into putting it on my cereal though yet.

Hi ya Guest!  I really liked the poem you posted, "People's parties".  I've never thought about laughing and crying being similar releases before but that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?  I wonder if the person's prayer was answered?

I watched "Passion of the Christ" last night for the first (and probably the last) time.  Whew!  Pretty gory yucky stuff!  Even if you're not a particularly religious person, it sure shows what people were like back then.  It makes me smile to think our society has come a great distance and we now have humane ways of punishing (and determining guilt).   It's definately a movie that makes me crave something nice....like chocolate...or a smoothie afterward.  Induces emotional eating.

GFN

[Learning]

Thanks Guest for the lyrics...wow...I'm not familiar with JJ's music...she really has a way of saying things.  

Hi Mum-  

Good to hear that you were describing a vacation relationship.  Sometimes vacations are a great time to experiment with being someone else.  I'm glad you were able to find a way to distract yourself during a hard time.  Hopefully you had fun!

Hi GFN, Oh dear...I wasn't trying to be an example at all...just trying to say that I don't eat healthy all the time.  I think I'm a work in progress.  Maybe 80/20 isn't exact...in any case...I have great intentions!  

Yep GFN, the pile is getting smaller because I am walking away from it.  It is still there, but as I get farther away it seems smaller to me.  I think the laughter helps with that.  

I haven't been able to follow all the threads here...but I have read some of your story GFN...I really hope you find some relief from this person who is a problem for you.  You really seem like a kind, caring person who deserves the best.  Take Care...

Learning

[mum]

Learning: yeah, "cheetos" was a distraction all right, but self hatred dogged me the whole time ...Kind of like drinking to escape yourself...dating guys I am not really interested in to escape myself, same thing.
I got through it, thanks, that was a long time ago.  I am lucky to have been reunited with the man who was my love more than 2 decades ago.
I wish everyone could find this kind of love....in my case it was lost, then found....or I guess never really lost at all.
Sticking with the food analogies:
"Ice Cream" by Sarah Mc Laughlin does a pretty good job describing it
(of course, her voice singing it is most profound):

Your love is better than ice cream.
better than anything else that I've tried
and your love is better than ice cream
everyone here knows how to fight
and it's a long way down
it's a long way down
it's a long way down
to the place where we started from.

Your love is better than chocolate
better than anything else that I've tried
and your love is better than chocolate
everyone here knows how to cry
and it's a long way down.....
to the place where we started from.