I was a teenager, living with my parents way out in the country, where I had no friends and no-one understood me. I had a brother about 5 years younger than me. We had to share a bedroom but we didn't get along very well, and it drove me completely insane!
I was completely obsessed with Japanese Hime fashion and lifestyle. Here's a photo to illustrate:
In real life, this is a fashion style that I think is lovely, but I'm not interested at all in emulating. It's too girly and fussy for me. It requires grace and poise which I don't have! But I admire girls who wear it. To me, I think it symbolises confidence and not being afraid to go all-out for what you believe in, no matter what other people think. It's non-conforming without needing to be sexy or emo.
Anyway, I wasn't happy living with my family, and as I mentioned before I had to share a bedroom with my brother which was especially upsetting. Now that I picture it, it's quite funny though. Half of the room was decorated in pink and florals with a pretty dresser and kawaii details, the other was brown, with the walls covered in car posters and smelly car parts scattered around. I enjoyed listening to Dream Pop on my pink stereo, and he listened to heavy metal or had the TV on in the lounge so loud that it drowned out my music in the bedroom! The worst part was that one of my favourite pasttimes was to experiment with dressing up in my Hime princess wardrobe, but it was practically impossible to do that with him there all the time.
One day I got so fed up that I had a screaming argument with my parents, and I decided to leave home. (I suppose technically it was running away from home as I didn't tell them.) One night as they were all watching Wheel of Fortune - extremely loudly! - I packed up all my Hime clothes into my pink floral suitcase, leaving all my 'normal' clothes behind. Later that night when they were all asleep, I snuck out of the house and walked to the nearest town. It took me all night but I finally made it.
To cut a long story short, after a few naive misadventures, I finally made it to the big city, where I found people I could relate to, moved into a cool hostel, and found a job as a shop assistant in an alternative clothing store.
What I found most interesting about this dream is: if you take away the whole Japanese fashion part and some of the other fine detail, it's extremely similar to the dreams I used to have when I was a teenager. I used to dream that one day I would just get up and leave. I'd walk and walk walk, for days or even weeks. I didn't know where I was going or what I was going to do when I got there. I just had to leave.
I'm sure a psychiatrist would have a field day with this stuff!
Back to reality.
Back To Reality ...
I've started brainstorming ideas for putting the Ralph Plan in place. I was feeling really motivated yesterday and made a list of things I have trouble doing, and solutions I could try. At lunchtime I consolidated all of my half-finished to-do lists into one master list. When I got home, despite being tired, I even cleaned the toilet! Not just the bowl but the whole whammy! So now the littlest room in the house is also the cleanest! =)
After dinner I got online and researched time management and efficient cleaning methods. Here are some links:
* 20-Minute Mom's 5-Minute Tasks
* 20-Minute Mom's 10-Minute Tasks
* 20-Minute Mom's Tasks you can do while asleep
* Chris Brogan's The Pomodoro Method of Productivity
* My own personal tip: if a cleaning tool breaks, make sure to buy a new one straight away. This should prevent you from forgetting it broke, looking all over the house trying to find it and having a near-mental breakdown. Good tip.
I also downloaded an interval timer app from iTunes. (It's just called Repeat Timer Free). You can name the activity whatever you want, so I called it 'Ralph'. =) I figure this will be good for weekends when I can alternate chores with relaxing activities. Though I might need a program that actually locks me out of my laptop for a certain period if it's really going to work!! Or enlist Husband's help.
Aside from that everything is going OK. Husband and I have been eating quite healthy and have been having smaller desserts (you don't really want much anyway when it's so hot!). I've been doing my lunch time walks again when it's not too hot or wet. My energy levels are starting to rise again. Yay! I'm starting to feel like I want to ramp it up again and do an Epic Walk. I'm thinking of trying that next week if everything goes well this week and the weather's good. Hope so!