overwhelmed |

Thanksgiving is nearly here. And even though I haven’t eaten my Thanksgiving dinner or begun to cook the cranberries or season the bird, I’m already feeling “stuffed”. What is it about the holidays that makes us want to jam and cram every minute and every corner and every bit of our stomach with, well, stuff? Frantic to relive every holiday tradition, and sample every holiday food and participate in every holiday rehearsal, gathering, performance and event I find myself over-full and completely overwhelmed. And there comes a moment, when my husband is watching me run around the tenth time, like a chicken with my head cut off, when he just asks me, “Will you please stop? Just for a minute? Will you please just stop?”

You think I’d learn. I mean it happens to me every dang year. The temptation is sooooo strong. I can have one more rehearsal. It’s only one more bite of pie. I can add just one more person to my list. But I ultimately find, that when I’m completely stuffed. If I don’t have room for one more bite in my tummy, if I don’t have time for one more second in my day, I don’t enjoy any of it. And for me, that’s a real shame.

Look, if you are one of those rare birds who enjoys being stuffed, if it fills you with a holiday glow and makes you feel happy, who am I to judge? As my dear friend Ragen Chastain always says, “You get to be the boss of your own underpants.” But since I don’t enjoy it, and I really don’t like being stuffed, I’m exploring alternatives. Frankly, I’ve only come up with one. I’m going to have to give up a few things so that I have the time, energy, bandwidth and space to enjoy the others. I’m going to have to face my fears that the world will end if I don’t do everything, so that I can still enjoy some things. I’m going to have to live with not trying Aunt Sue’s Pecan Pie, making the shortbread cookies, caroling at the mall and doing the fifteenth office/club/team holiday party.

So my dear chicklettes. I hope the upcoming holiday is full (but not too full) of everything that you love, that you hold dear and that makes you feel inordinately happy.

Love,

The Fat Chick

With the extremely hot (well at least for LA) weather we’ve been having I can tell you that our house is dirty. Not a little bit, needs some tidying kind of straightening. Not a little Mary Poppins “spoonful of sugar” kind of cleaning. Oh no. This place is a dump. In the heat we haven’t had the energy to keep up with stuff like we normally do.

So since installing a new room air conditioner which allows us to stay sane in 2 rooms of our house we’ve started to think about cleaning up. But we quickly ran into a problem. Everywhere you look is a mess. And every time we start cleaning one thing, we run into 10 other things that need to be cleaned. And after a very short time, we throw our hands up, grab the dog, jump in the car, crank up the AC and head to Sonic again. (Who by the way, has the best ice for crunching in the EN-tire world).

I know that we’ll eventually get this mess cleaned up. We’ve done it before. And when we do get it done, it will be in one specific way–one step at a time. Outside of wrinkling my nose like Samantha on Bewitched (I am SOOOOOO old) and cuing a tinkling bell sound effect, one step at a time is the only way I know to get the job done. And the same is true for any sort of health or fitness goals I have for myself as well. As much as sometimes I want to add more exercise and overhaul my eating and change my sleeping patterns and add stress management tools all at once, I know how that will end. I’ll end up grabbing my dog and my husband, hopping in the car, cranking up the AC and going to sonic again.

So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to wash the sheets. It ain’t much. But it’s a start.

Love,

The Fat Chick