A Cat Fell Out of My Bra

Know how when you first get up in the morning and it's dark and you're eyes are half-open and your melatonin levels haven't dropped yet, so you may tend to not see things as they really are? I think that happened this morning.

I suddenly awoke a little too early, realized I had to go to the bathroom, rolled up on my bed and began stumbling across the room. As I got up I noticed my sportbra (I usually wear to bed because I'm too lazy to pull it off over my head by that time) was sort of twisted on my body, and began adjusting it on the way. Then it seemed as if something penny-sized and black dropped from somewhere in the vicinity of my head down into the bra. I reacted by stretching the bra out from the bottom away from my body and twisting rapidly to cause whatever that was to fall through, and the next thing I SAW was a black cat running out from under my feet. So my BRAIN read that as, a cat fell out of my bra. And this perception was reinforced by the fact that no small black items were subsequently discovered by quick glances, in the bra or on the floor.

Which brings me to the point of how adept our brains are at distorting the truth, or taking several streams of input, and delivering erroneous conclusions. It goes hand in hand with our cunning ability to deceive ourselves. I tackled my advent list with great fervor, but never really read the whole thing and applied analytical thinking skills to it. MY GOODNESS... have you really read or thought about that onerous taskmaster? Well, no doubt you haven't, because, after all, it WAS my own assignment for myself. And in my usual inimitable fashion, I fell back into old ways of setting nearly impossible assignments and simply expecting that I would sail through and if I didn't I would label myself a schlub.

Here are the assignments I missed the past five days:
Day 15. Spend Less Time on E-mail. Remove yourself from mailing lists that bring you nothing. Check e-mails only once or twice a day.
Day 16. Simplify your life. Go through everything you own. Eliminate anything that no longer serves you. Give it away to people who may need it, and be grateful for what you have and what you are able to share.
Day 17. Give More. Find a way to contribute your resources, time, energy and talents to a noble cause.
Day 18. Be Flexible. If things don't turn out the way you wanted, just readjust your approach. Day 19. Watch Less TV and Rent Less DVDs. Consider getting rid of your TV entirely, but try going on a TV fast at least one day per week.
Day 20.Take a 60 minute walk every morning. Don't Go Anywhere By Car You Could Walk or Ride a Bicycle.

Wonder what ever led me to believe I could accomplish all that, one a day, in the heighth of the holiday rush, while starting a new work project, and running a business? I still think they are really good goals...the 60-minute walk thing, that is what I usually do, but let slide since Wednesday (of COURSE I have (a) perfectly MARvelous excuse(s)!!! Dare you ask?) The be-flexible thing, I am always working on that. The give-more, I started about a month ago with a little book called Every Monday Matters, but my community charity needs a bit of stepping up. I am trying to do the spend less time on email...less dawdling time...get through it in one sitting and check personal only one time more. I have actually been practicing the pare-down-everything-I-own one. I started going through my closet when I went on the Initial Weight-Release Push last October, and have eliminated copious amounts of clothing.

On the 22 of December, my husband and I were slated to tackle a storeroom for which we have been paying for NINE YEARS. Talk about a decadent waste of resources! It is going to be tough because there are a bunch of things from my late parents' home and from his parents...he says he's ready. However he did not push to start on that day. I have simply been dragging my emotional feet. Maybe I can find a book on how to let go of the "things" of dead loved ones. Just thinking about facing it makes me tear up.

And maybe I'll find when I finish, it will have some heavy emotional benefit that removes some invisible barrier in my weightloss journey. We'll see.... meanwhile, if the cats are going to be crawling into my undergarments while I am wearing them, in my sleep, I'm going to have to go invest in larger sportsbras.