All photos and content © Tanya Anguita.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

4/28/09 – Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive #6 – The better late than never edition!

2/1/09 -- Outside Jodie's


This positive thinking thing really does breed more positive thinking. I’m really enjoying it. It is kind of great so:

1) Positive thinking breeds more positive thinking! Look at all those little positive thoughts running amok. Aren’t they cute? (Amokamokamokamok!) Seriously though, I’m finding that this exercise in positive thought is keeping my negative thoughts a little further at bay. I start to hear them creeping in around the edges now and am able to ferret them out and tell them to calm down some of the time. SUCH a lovely relief.

2) Yep, Sara was right. Honey from a co-worker’s hive + warm oatmeal = one of the most fabulous breakfasts ever. So lucky!

3) The hilarity that comes from years of working/singing/performing with people is so fabulous when it clicks. Had the first rehearsal of the year with Blame It On Eve (Deb, Robin & Myself) last night. There were good conversations, lots of sorting and firming of ideas, some fabulously inspired moments, AND some truly hilarious moments that resulted in side-splitting laughter. Thanks you, Lovelies, I needed that.

4) The remarkable sense of play that all of you share with me! Play is such a vitally important part of life and so many people forget how to do it. Thank you all for remembering how!

5) The digital clock game and the intelligent humorousness that sprung from it yesterday. I love your brilliance. Truly! I’m entertained, awed, and humbled. Such a lovely combination!

6) Going to the post office in the late afternoon at work. It gives me a little head clearing time at the end of long day and allows me to stretch my legs. I love being sent on walking errands by my work. Which leads to:

7) Walking. Love it. So thankful that I can. Don’t take it for granted. It is one of my favorite forms of exercise. It gets me outside, gets my blood pumping, slows my thoughts enough that I can focus, and allows me to see things that I wouldn’t if I were in a car or bus.

8) Burrito-ey goodness. I think burritos are one of the most fabulous foods out there. They are simple, come in their own carrier that you can EAT, and are tasty. If you do them right, they’re also pretty good for you. My current fave is rice, black bean and avocado burritos. So yummy. In fact, I may have one for dinner again tonight because at $4.40 cents…how can I go wrong?

9) The fact that I get to do this exercise twice today. Double the positive thoughts.

10) Knowing last night that going to bed was the right thing to do instead of writing this. That being said, the irony of not being able to sleep until 1 a.m. is something I’m choosing to find funny today.

Wheee! Here I am. Round 1 is done today. Round two to come!

Hugs to all!
T

Monday, April 27, 2009

4/27/09 -- Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive #5

Today has had some bumpy moments for me which makes this exercise perfect as a final thing to do before sleep. So…in no particular order the things I’m appreciating today include:

1) Days with ups and downs in them. The downs teach me to appreciate the ups and the ups are made more magical by the downs.
2) Friends one can just “be however” with. You know who you are and I thank you. This evening, in particular, I thank Amy & Bill for letting me share a lovely evening with them in Fremont and just letting me “be however” I needed to be with them.
3) Thanks too to for their cute kitty-ness. Cute kitties are often very useful™. *grin*
4) The ability to see someone’s invitation to a flame war and not accept it. I love being able to shake my head, laugh, and walk away from those.
5) Fairytale re-tellings. I’ve been reading them almost exclusively for about the past month or two and have been truly enjoying immersing myself in the mental escape, the remarkable creativity of the writers and the generally happy endings. I love reading headier stuff too, but right now escapism is kind of nice.
6) Rob decided to go up to his family’s property for a couple of days to visit and I’m finding the idea of going to sleep alone both a little bit sad and lonely, and kind of nice as I’ll be able to take the whole bed. Sometimes, appreciating having the whole bed is the way to go, so tonight, I’m choosing that route! Yay to sprawling all night long.
7) Broccoli is a perfect vegetable.



8) Coming home to loving pajamas. Rob has a fabulously whimsical habit of laying out our pajamas on the bed as though they’re snuggling or holding hands. I got home to an empty house but a bed dressed with loving pajamas tonight. Makes me smile every time. Thank you, Rob. (See bad photo above for example of loving pajamas....)
9) I’m thankful for Frankie Manning. He was and is such an inspiring man. And a true gentleman too. Thank you Frankie for sharing your passion with all of us. Truly. Thank you.
10) Being stumped for what else to write because that means I get to go to sleep now. *grin* So many things flitted through my mind that I couldn’t capture any of them and now #10 is an ode to being stumped. *grin*

Good night all and sweet dreams!
T

4/26/09 -- Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive #4

Today was one of those days that make being thankful and positive easy. I spent a wonderful day with Carma, celebrating her birthday. She is, and has been,one of my very best friends now for 28 years this Fall. She was, is, and continues to be one of my sanity keepers, and there is nothing like celebrating a birthday with one of your best friends, surrounded by people that you love, and who love her, to make you want to give thanks so…without further ado:



1) I’m thankful to and for Carma. She has talked me out of my tree, talked me into new forests, made me laugh until I couldn’t breath, taught me so many things, helped me to be a better person, shown and continues to show me what kindness and generosity are, made me laugh uncontrollably, created friend languages with me that only the two of us can really understand, called me on my bullshit when I most needed it and told me that me feelings were not bullshit when I most needed that. She’s also traveled with me, worked with me, lived with me and still likes me. If that ain’t a feat, I don’t know what is. *grin* She is lovely, ridiculously intelligent, talented, loyal, beautiful inside and out and I love her more than words. She is soul family to me and I adore her. Thank you Carma. Just….Thank you.

2) I’m thankful to and for Carma’s family – Bud, Cathleen and Eben. They’ve always making me feel loved and welcome, have shown me untold kindnesses over the years and have been staunch and loving supporters through thick and thin. I thank them so much for being a second family to me for all these years and for fabulous conversations and lessons learned along the way. It was such a treat to see them all today.

3) Hooray for perfect San Francisco weather. We went to Sutro Park today for a picnic and it was sunny and clear with a slight cool breeze to keep it perfectly comfortable. We lazed and laughed and ate and watched Olive the Weiner Dog run around in the grass. It was glorious.

4) Public parks are made of awesome! I took a walk on Ocean Beach in the wind today and then meandered through Golden Gate Park for a little while and realized that I’d spent the day in 3 public parks. Thank goodness for those people who fought for these places to be open to all of us! Thank goodness for their forethought and for the clear insight that humans need beautiful places to spend time in the middle of busy cities. What a gift public parks are. Hooray!

5) Picnics make my heart happy in strange and wonderful ways. I love them. Packing up random yummies, knowing that you’ve brought “just the right thing ™”, silly picnic blankets, lazing about slowly munching on the treats you or your kind host(ess) packed, the kind of relaxation that only happens on picnics, the sound of people around you chattering or of the wind in the grass or on the beach or or or…. Which brings me to:

6) I love the sound of the wind. Whistling around my house on a stormy night, rustling through the leaves, pushing the tall trees around in the High Sierras while it makes the trees talk, whooshing through the sand on the beach, making hushed whispers in dried grass in the summer time, gusting down the chimney on a winter’s night. I love the sounds it makes. Maybe it comes of being an air sign but I’ve always enjoyed the many voices of the wind and the varied and incredible songs it is capable of singing.

7) Weiner dogs named Olive are great additions to any gathering.

8) Walks on windy beaches with Rob are fun even when the wind is so cold that it feels like your skin might try to turn inside out.

9) Fitting comfortably into a pair of jeans I haven’t been comfortable in for a while is good for my motivation. Hooray for walking home from work and portion control.

10) Seeing the bottom of the laundry hamper rocks. So satisfying.


And now bed at a reasonable hour. YAY!

Hugs and good night!
Tanya

Saturday, April 25, 2009

4/25/09 -- Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive #3

Ok...so ....I'm having a little bit of a tough time at this particular instant, because I just wrote this out to #6, and it was in depth and made me happy....and then I somehow lost everything I'd written. So the new #1 is....


1) I'm thankful for lessons like this. I now know that I need to compose in Word and then copy to Facebook. I’m frustrated, but I’m also thankful for the lesson. Hooray for lessons. They help one to grow. Ouch, and YAY. LOL.

2) I spent the better part of the day with Rob, Eli and Eli’s wonderful five year old Kayla. Kayla is magic to me. Has been since birth. I spent a lot of time with her for the first several years of her life and I love her more than I have words to express. She is funny, smart, opinionated, deeply intelligent and incredibly imaginative. She helped me to tap into my rusty imagination today and it was so much fun. I’d forgotten the magic of pure play and the willing suspension of your own logic. I got to be both Fred and Frella – Peregrine Falcon Cooks in service of Queen Paragra (Kayla), the Peregrine Falcon Queen today. We “cooked” magical salmon in “tomato sauce and juice” today, and “caught and cooked” purple trout and green trout and “cooked” them in strawberry sugar bread. I taught her how to make daisy chains after we’d wandered around the Berkeley Farmers’ Market for a while and then went back to playing some more. The truly hilarious moment was when I was told that I was a peregrine fairy with a walking stick. I asked if I needed the walking stick because we were going on a hike. And she said no…it was because I was 20 which is “quite old for a fairy…it is almost like being 40 for a human…” and that I needed the walking stick because I was “wobbly on my legs from being so old.” *giggle* Colour me entertained.

3) I love naps. I thought I’d be taking a 30 minute one today and woke up 3 hours later. I think I really needed the sleep.

4) Along those lines…. Good earplugs rock. Thank goodness for them.

5) I love warm coats on a chilly day. Rob and I tried to go for a romantic sunset picnic in the Berkeley Hills tonight. We put on our coats and hats, stopped at the local market on the corner of Ashby and MLK for deli sandwiches and intrepidly set out up the 13 and then the winding backroads of the Oakland Hills to find a great view and a nice place to picnic. Only to get to the top of the mountain and find that the view was so hazy that we couldn’t see much of the view and that it was SO cold that any exposed skin got chilled almost instantly in the brisk wind. We ended up driving back down to the Lawrence Hall of Science and eating our “picnic” in the car and laughing at our almost Murphy-esque abilities where picnics are concerned.

6) Laughter. I’m so incredibly thankful for laughter. It is the river that my sanity returns to after too long on a dry uncomfortable shore. It is a balm for my soul, it keeps my heart pumping and it is that thing that keeps my perspective healthy. Hooray for laughter.



7) Springtime. It is all about re-birth and growth and blossoming. It not only is one of the most beautiful times of the year, but it also reminds me that life is also about those things. Not to mention that spring flowers are so breathtakingly lovely. YAY Spring!

8) I’m glad my mother made me take typing in high school. I’m realizing that I’m actually thankful for that fact. I’ve often resented it because I feel that I have allowed it to force me down the administrative assisting path out of fear and because it has been “all I know how to do” but I’m thankful for that skill on nights like this when I finally have a tool that allows me to keep up with my thoughts in a way that longhand simply doesn’t.

9) Organic strawberries from the Farmers’ Market taste like Springtime and Magic and All-that-is-good-in-the-World wrapped up in succulent, juicy, red goodness.

10) A tidy home is such a blessing. So glad I had the motivation to tidy this a.m. It is so nice to look around my living room right now.

Good night, Wonderful People.

Hugs,
Tanya

Friday, April 24, 2009

4/24/09 --Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive #2

I've been thinking a lot about this exercise of remembering the good, the positive, and the things I'm thankful for on a daily basis. One of the things I've come to recognize is that I'm not used to doing it. I am out of practice. I realize that once I was an upbeat optimist...when I was much younger...and now I find that I'm not in the habit of celebrating what is good in my life. I've been wanting to get back to that positive me, and I believe that this is a really good place to start! I like myself better when I can see the glass as half full. :)

So today's musings are as follows:

1) I'm thankful for this exercise in rediscovering my inner optimist/the ability to see the plentiful good in my life.

2) I was made very happy last night by a silly little film called "Penelope" which charmingly reminded me that the best way to be happy is to love one's self. That is a lesson I need to remember every day and it was a really delightful movie. :)

3) Sleep, when one can get enough of it, is a true blessing. I got a little more last night than I have for the past week and while I'm still groggy, I'm feeling MUCH better than I did yesterday. I am very thankful for this fact!

4) I'm grateful for telephones. They allow me to keep in touch with friends and family in a much more personal way than email does.

5) I had a great conversation with my beloved mom last night and it was wonderful! So I guess I'm grateful for telephones and for that conversation also. :)

2/14/09 -- Wistful version 2


6) Special thanks go to Michelle, Anni, Maurice and Teri in these past few weeks. They've helped me by having fun, interesting, enthusiastic discussions about photography at a time when I've felt a little lost about that topic. They've offered loving encouragement at a time when I feel like I'm getting back on the excitement wagon after a year or so of feeling like I shouldn't even be bothering/having deep guilt over taking too long to get photos to people I owed them to. It is a very nice feeling to have that focus and enthusiasm again and to share it with like-minded people. So thank you!! Truly...having a group of people to "camera geek" with is really fabulous. :)

7) I'm very thankful for my fabulous manager at work. He is kind, conscientious, genuinely concerned for my well-being, has a great sense of humor and is someone that I appreciate and respect both as a manager and as a person. I do not take this for granted.

8) I like hats. :)

9) I'm incredibly grateful that Rob cooks, and that he does it so graciously and well...and that he's willing to do it for me. I'm not a fan of cooking, nor am I particularly good at it and I'm incredibly thankful to and for him for unfailingly making healthy, yummy food and being so wonderfully generous and kind about it. I do not take it for granted and I want to make sure that he knows that. :)

10) I know this is silly but truly, Thank God It's Friday! This week has dragged by and I'm so ready for a weekend of downtime and rest. SO ready. :)

Happy Friday All! Thanks for being in my life!
:)
Tanya

Thursday, April 23, 2009

4/23/09 -- Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive #1

Inspired by Rico, Laura and a few others, I'm reminded that spending a little time every day remembering what is good in one's life /things that made me happy on any given day can be a good personal and spiritual exercise.

So today, in no particular order, I am thankful for the following:

1) I have the best mom ever. I love and like her and cherish her so very much. I feel so lucky about this and am so humbled by it at the same time.

2) I'm blessed with an embarrassment of riches where friends are concerned and I'm thankful to and for every single one of you. ( I'll get more specific with this over time I'm sure. :))

3) I have a really awesome family that I not only love, but actively like. I would like to see more of them, but I'm thankful just knowing they're out there. Particularly those in Italy and the UK. Thank you! All of you!

4) I have a kind, loving, gentle, handsome, funny partner who is patient, supportive, generous of spirit and genuinely good. I am blessed to have him in my life and to call him friend as well. Thank you, Rob.

5) I have a stable, if somewhat boring, job working with truly nice people and the latter bit makes the boring bits very do-able.

6) I have a roof over my head that is wee but charming and I do not take having a home for granted.

7) I'm in relatively good health.

8) Oranges exist.

9) Laughter is a soothing balm for my soul.

10) I'm successfully, if slowly, working my way out of debt even on a small budget. It makes me proud of myself.

I think 10 will do for today.

:)
Tanya



2/17/09 -- After the Rain