November 12 - Family Stories Month

November is Family Stories Month

I could not find an official site for this observance, nor could I find who had created it. Regardless, I still think it is a fantastic idea, and one that I can really get geeked about. Additionally, the holidays are the best time to try to collect family stories, as you often see them more this time of year.

I am a huge history buff and I love to hear stories about my family. My grandparents are all gone and most of their siblings as well. While I still have my parents, I want to know as much about my family as possible. Recently, I've been creating my family tree on Ancestry, but I don't really get any stories this way, mostly facts.

There are many ways to collect your family's stories, but you need to focus on the best way to get the stories from your family. Some people will find that story telling comes naturally, but others you will need to prompt. My mother always says that she doesn't have any stories, or that she can't think of any. All I need to do is simply ask her a question or two, then sit back and listen as she talks and talks. I tease her about it and say, "I thought you didn't have any stories!" She has them, she just needs a prompt or two.

Prompts can be as simple as, "What was your childhood like" or more specific, like "How old were you when you got your first job?" This site has some great questions to ask your relatives, or even to answer yourself! (November is also National Life Writing Month.)

One year, my family wrote down memories on little slips of paper. We put them in a jar, and pull them out at holidays, or when we are all at home. They don't have to be holiday specific, just funny or warm little things you don't want to forget!

Enjoy Family Stories Month, and let me know if you have any good ones! I love to hear family stories, even if they aren't about my family!

November 11 - Pursuit of Happiness Week

November 8-14 is Pursuit of Happiness Week

I'm not sure who created this observance, but (at the risk of sounding cheesy) I'm glad they did!

Lately I've been kind of down in the dumps, for several different reasons. When I started researching this observance for my blog, I wasn't originally planning on celebrating this very intensely. But as I started to plan what I wanted to write, I realized that I should definitely take the opportunity to actively pursue happiness. I mean, face it: happiness is not likely to come a-knocking on my door.

According to this site, there are 16 factors to happiness. It will likely take me longer than a week, but I plan on spending at least one day thinking about each factor and how I can pursue happiness in that area of my life.

Even if you are normally a fairly happy person, take some time out this week to pursue some happiness! We can all use a little extra happy stuff in our life.

May 22 - National Backyard Games Week

Official Site?

According to my (not scientific, nor very extensive) research, National Backyard Games Week is the week in May starting the Monday before through the Monday of Memorial Day.

As a child, I liked to ride my bike around the neighborhood. We also played catch, baseball, basketball, tag, hide and seek, hopscotch and more that I have probably forgotten. The most fun games were the ones we made up. Maybe these games weren't unique to the kids in my neighborhood, I just haven't heard of them anywhere else.

We played a game we called Statue. I forget all the rules, but this was a two-person game. One player was the statue, the other person was the statue-maker. The statue-maker would move the statue's arms, legs, head, etc. into position, usually some bizarre or hilarious pose.

Also we played a game called Ice-Cream Man. There wasn't much to it. Actually, one person would just turn their bicycle upside down so it was upright with the handle bars and the seat on the ground. That person would move the pedals with both hands in a sort of churning motion. The other players would line up and tell the ice cream "man" what flavor they wanted. The ice cream man would then mimic making an ice cream cone and handing it over.

A variation of this game was the Cookie Queen. Actually, I don't remember the rules (if there were any), just that I was always happy when I got to be the Cookie Queen.

We played a game we stole from the Baby-sitter's Club books. In those books, it was called Let's All Come In or something like that. We just called it Hotel. This wasn't so much an outdoor game, but one my siblings and I would play in the basement. This is another make-believe game; one person would run the hotel and the others were the guests. I remember my brother always wanted to be some famous wrestler.

Well, reliving these memories has put a smile on my face. What games did you play when you were young?

Today is also:
International Day for Biological Diversity (or World Biodiversity Day)
National Maritime Day

May 21 - I Need a Patch For That Day

I Need a Patch For That Day

There seems to be some confusion regarding this holiday (hereafter referred to as INAPFTD). Perhaps I can clear up a few things.

1. If you Google this holiday, some sites say this is celebrated in November, others, in May. According to my personal research, Wellcat is the originator of this holiday, and their website shows that INAPFTD should be celebrated on May 21.
I myself was confused by this, and celebrated INAPFTD last November. If I have helped to perpetuate the confusion, I am deeply sorry and now regret not researching this more thoroughly before posting about INAPFTD last year.

2. Some people think that INAPFTD is referring to patches on clothing. Again, according to the Wellcat website, this holiday is in reference to patches that are placed on the body, i.e. nicotine patches. This day is to consider what you personally need a patch for, such as bad hair days, lack of motivation or willpower, and so on.

After reading some other people’s opinions, the patch that is desired above all is a patch for dealing with idiots. As one person imagines it:

Friend: Hey, did you see what that idiot just did?
Me: Nope, sorry. I’ve got the patch.

Some other excellent patch ideas include:

• A willpower patch – for doing your housework or other boring chores, or to keep you from eating unhealthy food and exercising when you don’t feel like it (I REALLY NEED THIS ONE!).
• A stupid patch - to prevent you from doing or saying stupid things (I'll take the Sam's Club super jumbo family pack of these).

So, now that the air has been cleared, what patch do YOU need?

Today is also:
National Employee Health and Fitness Day
Turn Beauty Inside Out Day
World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development

May 7 - Great American Grump Out

May 7 - The Great American Grump Out
Official Site

Are you a Grumpy Gus? Today is your chance to try being a Sunny Sal. OK, enough with the cheesiness.

Personally, I'm usually pretty cranky. It doesn't help that I am not a morning person, and that I have to be at work by 7am. So for the Great American Grump Out (GAGO) I'll make an extra effort to be Miss Mary Sunshine. Which is usually who I'm telling people that I'm not.

Be sure to check out the GAGO website for tips on how to not be grumpy today. Oddly enough, a banana should help you through the day. Not to eat, mind you, but to remind you to smile.



Today is also:
National School Nurse Day

March 14 - Optimism Month

March is Optimism Month

Those who know me will tell you I'm no Pollyanna or Miss Mary Sunshine.

I think I've always fallen in the middle of the Optimism/Pessimism Scale. I feel that I do tend slightly to optimism and faith in the basic goodness of others. (Stop laughing. I said slightly.) While I tend to be a "glass is half-full" kind of gal, I do need help seeing the silver lining when things go sour. (How many mixed metaphors can I fit in to one sentence?) Prior to composing this post, I took a few (very un-scientific) personality tests, and the results seemed to bear this theory out.

My optimism can come and go, depending on who I'm with and how optimistic they are. My boyfriend can help me see the brighter side when things don't go my way. (Far more often than I would like.) Even though I love my job, I often fall into the rut of longing for Friday to come. Sometimes I feel like I am just wishing away my life by hoping Friday will come faster. When I’m with friends at work who are being negative about the work day (This day is too long! When will it be Friday? When do we get a day off?) I tend to fall in with them and it makes my day longer/worse than I was really experiencing. Lately, especially since planning this post, I've been trying to help them be more positive.

----------

Fake it till ya make it.

I have a friend who says that all the time. While it may not hold true (or advisable) for all situations, it does work for optimism. Often, I have to make myself see things positively, make myself smile, and make myself have a good attitude. And, more often than not, I end up actually feeling better.

Now, just because I am feeling particularly dorky, here are some optimism quotes I've handpicked for you.

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

-Winston Churchill

"Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!"

-Oscar Wilde

"An optimist will tell you the glass is half-full; the pessimist, half-empty; and the engineer will tell you the glass is twice the size it needs to be."

"It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right."

"In the long run, the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip."
-Daniel L. Reardon

March 11 - Organize Your Home Office Day Part 2

All done! Here is the "after" picture!

After work today I took about 3 hours to sort through my papers and re-work my file system. I still need a few filing supplies, but my project is essentially complete!

March 11 - Organize Your Home Office Day

March 11 - Organize Your Home Office Day

Five Tips to Organize Your Home Office (My favorite)
Organizing Your Home Office
Ten Tips to Organize Your Home Office

I took this opportunity to clean up my home office. I don't work out of the home, but I have a desk where I conduct the business of my life, my boyfriend's life, and our life together. As you can see from the "Before" picture, I have a bad habit of letting my crap pile up everywhere.

Laziness. I has it.

And, as you can probably guess, this organization project will likely take more than one day. So I got started on Sunday.

Step one: I admitted I am powerless over my clutter – my life has become unmanageable. Ahh. I feel better already.

Step two: Cleaning and pre-organization. (Yes, pre-organization. I have to organize before I can organize. )

I grabbed a kitchen timer, a garbage bag, and two boxes. The garbage bag is for garbage (duh), one box is for items that need to remain in the desk/office area, and the second box is for items that belong in other parts of my apartment. I set the timer for 30 minutes, and hit the start button. When I came across papers that need to stay in the desk area, but need to be filed OR acted on, I just added them to the KEEP pile, to be sorted through again. Yes, this sounds like extra work, but I will get too distracted if I try to micro-manage my papers at this juncture. I really need to see what the top of my desk looks like. I haven’t seen it in a while.

A half hour later – I feel better. Sweatier and dirtier, but better. I still have LOTS to do, but I have made a marked improvement. Here’s what I did:

I started by going through the stuff on the floor. Some things, like craft items and books, I set aside for later organization. I have to focus on organizing my home office. Hobbies and other cleaning tasks can be done later. I was able to weed out some garbage, including some old phone books. I collected the library books in one place, my personal books were stacked on the table (for later organization), and some items that I want to take to work with me are stacked near the front door for me to grab on my way out the door in the morning.

With a few minutes left on the timer, I put away some of the items on my desk that belonged in other rooms. I was able to pretty much clear my desk top. I still must go through everything on the desk shelves, in the desk drawer, and of course, I must go through my pile once again to sort through all the papers.

I found my calendars! (You'll notice from the "before" picture that a 2007 calendar is still up on my wall.) My new wall calendar was a Christmas present from my mother, and it features photographs of Chicago. I heart Chicago.

Christmas decorations are packed up but still out. These need to be stored in the bedroom closet. I can put them away later; they are not really in the way right now. (A few hours later I got around to putting away all the Christmas decorations.)

On Monday, for half an hour between work and dinner, I went in for another go-round of sorting through my crap. Here’s what I got done:

I collected all my current bills and set them aside to pay them tonight. Books that belonged at the desk stayed, books that did not belong were moved elsewhere. Everything in and on the desk was sorted through and garbage was thrown out. I was even able to start putting things back in place.

After dinner, I sat down to pay my current bills. Then, while watching The Godfather, I went through my papers more carefully and tried to sort them into rough piles. I was done by the time the guy finds his horse's head in his bed with him.

On Tuesday's agenda:
Step three: The actual organization begins!Plus, re-organizing the filing system and find homes for things that do not belong in the desk.

I'll be back later tonight or tomorrow to show you the "After" picture!

March 9 - Get Over It Day

March 9 - Get Over It Day
Official Site

One of my most-used phrases is, "You'll get over it." Today is dedicated to that concept. GET OVER IT! A sucky job, a bad relationship, lame friends, money trouble...everyone has something to get over. The official poem says it better...

We ALL have our issues; ALL lives contain stress,
At some point, we're ALL, an emotional mess.
Ex-boyfriends, ex-girlfriends, ex-husbands, ex-wives,
These are people to get over in EVERYONE'S lives.

But as much as things suck, as bad as they get,
If you got cheated on, if you're swimming in debt,
If you're aging or balding or get a cold sore,
Don't ever forget: It Could Always Suck More!

It's all part of life; it will help you grow stronger,
But this "pity party" of yours can't last any longer.
You can sit home alone, being sad and depressed,
Or you can choose to be strong, and do as we suggest:

March 9th is the day to finally say,
"Move on! It's done! It's GET OVER IT DAY!"

by Jeff G., "Get Over It Day" founder and creator

Oh...and check out my pick for official song of Get Over It Day:

December 12 - Gingerbread House Day

December 12 - Gingerbread House Day

This year I wanted to build a gingerbread house with my boyfriend. He agreed, but with one stipulation: that he be allowed to eat it as soon as we finished making it. Really.

So instead of going to all the trouble of constructing this thing only to have it immediately demolished, I made gingerbread cookies in the shape of a house, and we decorated those. Not only was he allowed to eat them right away, I made them softer, since usual "construction" gingerbread is, by necessity, very hard and not exactly toothsome. (Yes, I just said toothsome. It's a real word, look it up if you don't believe me.)

December 2 - International Day for Tolerance

December 2 - International Day for Tolerance

Tolerance and acceptance are ideas we should not still have to worry about. Yet our culture is to be insular and to shut out those that come from an unfamiliar background.
There are a number of sites with ideas and ways to help fight hate. Here are some ideas:

From Close the Book on Hate

• Begin at Home
• Share your heritage with others
• Invite friends from different backgrounds than yours to experience your traditions and customs
• In School
• Establish a diversity club
• Encourage representation of all students on every board and committee
• In the Workplace
• Utilize diversity training
• Learn about coworkers' backgrounds and share yours with them
• In Your House of Worship
• Urge leaders to condemn all forms of bigotry
• Invite clergy from other religions to take part in your services
• In the Community
• Establish a human rights group in your town
• Plan a community walk/run against hate to benefit anti-hate or other human rights groups

Tolerance.org shares 10 Ways to Fight Hate. Appropriately, the first step is to Act. Don't just stand there shaking your head in disgust when you see hate in action. Do something about it. Do something to prevent it.

Let's all try to be even a bit more tolerant toward others this week. Find a small way to start fighting hate in your world. Don't just stand idly by when others are using hateful epithets or sharing racist jokes.

November 24 - Better Conversation Week

November 19-25 - Better Conversation Week

I was so busy preparing for Thanksgiving, I almost let this week slip by without participating in Better Conversation Week. So yesterday and today I crammed. See, I would love to be a better conversation partner. I feel so awkward in social situations, especially in those situations in which I am faced with strangers or people I barely know. Here are some of the most common tips I ran across:

• BE PREPARED
• Several blogs and articles mentioned this tip. You may be wondering, how can I possibly prepare for a conversation with someone I don't know?
• Preparing for conversation could entail staying abreast of current events, reading magazines you wouldn't normally pick up, reading best-selling books, and maybe checking out a trivia site, such as Mental Floss. If you are aware of the news of the day, or the plot of the best-selling book of the year, you may find you have more to discuss with people you don't know.
• Another way to prepare is to explore the world. The next time you find yourself in unfamiliar territory, go exploring, even for 15 minutes. Someday you may run into someone from that place and you will have something in common, as small as it may be. Who knows where that conversation may lead?
• You could also prepare for future conversations with strangers by stepping out of your comfort zone. If you are a metal-head, try sitting through a classical concert. If your taste is more conservative, try hitting up a punk club. Tune out the tunes and people watch. See how the people you don't know behave in certain situations. You may be surprised by what you find out.
• ASK QUESTIONS
• Try to avoid yes/no questions. Nothing will stop an awkward conversation between strangers than an abrupt question or answer.
• See if you can ask a question related to the event you are both at. If you are at a wedding, ask if your conversation partner knows the bride or the groom.
• PAY ATTENTION
• Maintain eye contact. If you are not paying attention to the person you are speaking with, they will realize you aren't interested, and will not want to continue to speak with you. On the flip side, don't constantly stare at them. This is very disconcerting and may even scare them away.
  
• Actively listen. This means not only looking at them, but actually paying attention to what they are saying. Don't wait for them to pause just so you can jump in and say something.
• BE NICE
• When you do get a chance to speak, try to stay on topic.
  
• Don't dominate the conversation. Be sure to give your partner a chance to talk. You are trying to get to know them. You can't accomplish this if your mouth is running the whole time.
• Don't interrupt. This shows that you are not interested in what the other person has to say.

I hope this helps! I will be sure to apply these tips the next chance I get! Here are some links you may find helpful:

SoSuave.com
HELLO, my name is blog!
Five Ways to Become a Better Conversationalist

November 12 - I Need A Patch For That Day

I speak without thinking.

I hate waking up early for work.

Mondays stink.

I put off scrubbing the toilet as long as possible.

Sometimes I forget to brush my teeth.

My books are in alphabetical order but the clean laundry is in a tangled pile on the bedroom floor.

I need a patch for that.