Entries this day: seven_b_anthony

seven b anthony

10:15pm Monday 8 February 1999

(transcribed from my diary)

Today I felt pretty unproductive. I wrote the following in my diary during Project Heart:

I'm having a crappy day because I didn't go outside even one single time and just sat in front of the computer and did some email and scanned Houston Rally pictures but didn't really get important stuff done. I did my budget a bit and updated MR Labs website a bit but it doesn't work. I got $72 from Flashnet in the mail, but I didn't deposit it. I cleaned out my bag from the weekend, but didn't find my Project Heart book. I only did piddly stuff.

I'm only focusing on the negative and can't see the good in what I've done.

Every step forward is a step forward

The first portion above is what I wrote at first and the second to last line is my analysis, and the last line is my positive statement to help me reverse my negative thinking.

The items in bold are the positives that I highlighted in my diary to encourage myself to focus on them.

During the class I was offered the excellent idea that maybe I felt unproductive even while I put together Recycling Day, an accomplishment in my life that exemplifies great work that feels productive now that I look back on it. I'm going to go back through my diaries to that point in my life and see if I felt unproductive then. If I felt unproductive then, but look back on it now and believe I was productive, that will encourage me to change my thinking about the now.

3:24am Tuesday 9 February 1999

After class, I got a message from Brandie, who I met in Atlanta at the Flashnet meeting. She is currently in town and invited me to come say HI to her at her hotel. I called Manda to invite her, or to see if we could do something else, but got her voice mail, so I went to see Brandie.

I showed her a bunch of rally pictures and she talked a lot about her travels to Africa and Oregon and Germany, and I was totally enthralled. "Brandie, I am so inspired by you and your adventures!"

She was all, "you just gotta go do it!"

So very true. I just gotta go do it and believe (trust and believe) the youth will be okay without me for a week or a month or however long it is, and believe I can make the money to afford to go and just GO!

Being inspired, though it was midnight, I was all, "wanna go see some cool stuff in Houston?" and zip we were out the door and on the road.

I drove us to Hermann Park and we checked out the big granite ball at the Museum of Natural Science. It weighs five thousand pounds and is "floating" on a layer of water so people can spin it with relative ease. Amazing and I totally love it! We got it spinning super fast - fast enough to make the water splash out of the bottom, which is always a fun challenge I like to accept when I go play with this globe late at night.

On a side note, driving on the grass between the trees through the park looking for vagrants or something was a cop car across the street from us. He drove around shining his lights and stuff and then drove away.

We walked over to another fountain, the one near the large sundial. Brandie kicked off her shoes (one entertainingly fell into the water which she quickly retrieved, "thank goodness for Pay Less!") and we both stepped into the water. We splashed around a tiny bit and soon the cop car drove by, then slowed, then turned around and stopped near us.

I walked over and was all, "HI" and he was super nice and explained that the park was closed. "I've been looking for you for 15 minutes!" he then exclaimed. "Didn't you see me driving around in the grass?"

"Yeah, but I figured you were looking for vagrants or something! I was just showing my friend the park; she's from Atlanta."

He explained the park closes at 11pm except if the planetarium has a laser light show after that time, or if there is a show at Miller Outdoor Theater.

Fair enough, so we left. He waited until we got to the car and began to drive away before he left. I thought it would be funny in a not so funny way to turn back around after he drove off. Not funny enough to actually do it, but yeah.

To my house we went and Brandie looked through about 20 rolls of film that I've taken in the last couple years, mostly from rallies and Costa Rica trip. (Yes I still intend to finish writing about that trip!) At like 2:30am, I drove her back to the hotel and dropped her off.

Back to my house I went and stopped by the Post Office to see just how many pennies I could convert to Susan B Anthony dollars. Went in and there was a sticker sign thing over the coin accepting slot, "sorry for the inconvenience, we are working on the problem."

Hmmm.

I pulled the sticker off enough to put a penny in. It worked. I dropped in a nickel. It worked. I dropped in two hundred twenty one more pennies, and they all went in fine. I inserted a five dollar bill for a grand total of $7.27. Hmmm, need six more cents. I went to the car (leaving the $7+ credit on the machine) and found a dime. That'll work.

Put in the dime, punched the buttons to order a single 33 cent stamp, four pennies, seven beautiful Susan B Anthony dollars plus one receipt. I put the sticker back just like it had been.
Sweet.

It's now 3:50am Tuesday 9 February 1999.

Good night. permalink