Be Funky & Stay!

This is not about whether you should, or shouldn't, wear a mask when out in public.  It's about two other things - how you treat other people and my different personas with my different masks. 

The first few times I went to the store since we've had our stay at home order, I was nervous about being around people in public.  I've gotten a little more used to going out, wearing a mask and dousing myself with hand sanitizer multiple times throughout my trips.  I've also determined which stores are worth waiting in line to get in, Trader Joe's is one.

We needed milk on Monday so I ventured out to Trader Joe's.  While waiting in line, with my mask on, I noticed a couple in front of me who were not wearing masks.  I noticed this and then minded my own business while waiting to get into the store.  All of a sudden, the lady in front of the couple decided she needed to loudly comment "Shut your trap. You don't even have masks on!"   I didn’t hear anything before this so I don't have a clue what prompted her to say this but she was all I heard and I just thought "Wow.  Ok. That doesn't seem necessary."  

After the lady went in the store, an employee thanked the couple for remaining calm.  This employee had a mask on yet she thanked the mask-less couple rather than congratulating the mask-wearing-and-comment-making lady.  Once inside the store, I noticed the masked lady staring back and glaring at the couple.  Did she forget that all we can see our each others eyes?  And hers were not smiling.  

Who made this lady the authoritative figure of Trader Joe's?  She certainly did not "prove" herself to anyone.  I am guessing she doesn't own the store since she also had to wait in line to get in.  What stuck out to me, more than a couple of people without masks  is how rude and self righteous this lady appeared by how she was acting.  She made herself look worse than the couple without masks on.  

I have three masks that I choose between that were all given to me by Bobby (thanks!).  The first mask  is a P95 Respirator mask.  The second is a surgical mask.  And the third mask I received is a fire department mask. When I wear the P95 mask, I feel like I'm a scientist.  When I wear the surgical mask I become a surgeon.  Side note:  The first time I wore the surgical mask, I had to google how to wear it to make sure I didn't look like a fraudulent surgeon who doesn't know how to wear a mask!  When I wear the fire department mask I represent the firefighters and become Bad to the Bone.

As I thought of the title for this post, immediately I thought of "Be Nice or Leave" but that's not very nice!  Instead, in the words of Dr Bob I say, "Be Funky and Stay!"  Whether you become a surgeon, first responder, scientist or a wanna be, what you should NOT be is rude to others who are different from you.  

So you think you can dance

Three flowers!

I remember, very well, being on a happy hour zoom call with 2 friends back at the beginning of the pandemic.  I held up a nearly dead plant and said I had started watering it and was going to save it.  We all laughed.  And today, roughly 60 days later, I have a healthy plant with beautiful green leaves and 3 (THREE) flowers!  

You know what else I've done?  I'm so excited about this!  A few months ago I was writing "I took a creative arts class" as one of my goals.  Then I changed it to "I took a hip hop dance class."  As I researched this, and by researching I mean I asked my friend Joyce where I could talk a hip hip dance class, I came to the conclusion I might never reach this goal.  Joyce has choreographed some dances for You Night and also taught us a dance at our Leadership retreat.  She recommended a few resources and the more I looked, the more I decided I probably wouldn’t actually  go to a hip hop dance class, mostly because of time but also because of my insecurities.    I definitely had a limiting belief that this white girl can't dance.  This was all in January.

On Saturday, April 4th I hosted my first Saturday Morning Dance Party on Zoom.  We find dances online and learn them, or do our best.  We get our 30+ minutes of exercise, we laugh at each other and ourselves and we're learning dances.  We started with RIGHT FOOT NOW LEFT FOOT TIK TOK  and have since attempted The Electric Slide, The Chicken Dance, The Git Up by Blanco Brown and any other wedding reception dance song we can think of.  Last Saturday we stepped it up and started learning a Janet Jackson dance.  I'm so excited and proud of myself.  I realized I'm not only learning hip hop dances but I'm hosting my own class!  I knocked that limiting belief out of the park!

From <https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_f0PSDFVsF/>

In the beginning.  I think it'd already been watered a bit

First flower!

Two Flowers!

Challenges

During this quarantine time where we can't really do much outside the home, I've been taking on challenges.  I am trying to plan how I will continue challenging myself once the world reopens.  I know I can do it but it might take time to figure out when.  After all, we're 51 days into quarantine and I still haven't figured out what time I should get up when I don't have to be anywhere.

  

I'm doing the Next 90 Days Challenge which is free.  We're 44 days into this one but you can still start. https://thehollisco.com/pages/next90 Practice Gratitude, move 30 mins a day, drink the water, give up one food item/group for 30 days and get up 1 hour earlier (this was so much easier when I had to go into the office!) to help us live intentionally and with joy.

I'm starting the Start Over Challenge with Dean Graziosi and Tonny Robbins.  This starts today so I don't know yet what I've gotten myself into! www.startoverchallenge.com

My friend Rikki has shared a few of the workout challenges.  Check her out on Facebook   https://www.facebook.com/groups/girlonfirecoach/   and her website:   https://www.girlonfirecoach.com/   The first challenge I participated in was a push up, squat, jumping jack and burpee challenge.  Ugh I made it through to the end.  Right now I'm doing a lunge, Russian twist, squat jump and push up challenge.  I decided I'd do the lunges, squat jumps and push ups in the church parking lot that I walk by. 

There are two parking lots.  One for lunges...

  

I've made up a story about what people must think when they see me doing squat jumps and lunges by myself.  People must think "wow she must be an athlete doing her drills."  You guys, they probably don't even notice me.  Right?  I'm trying to think where this mindset came from and I've decided it stems from the non-cancer related surgeries I've had.  Right shoulder surgery, right wrist surgery, left wrist surgery and two surgeries on my right hip.  If you read that and didn't know me, wouldn't you think to yourself, "she must be a football player!"  Again, probably not but let me tell you, making up these stories helps me get through these crazy challenges that I've decided I should do.   

The second parking lot is for squat jumps and push ups.  I've finished!

What do you think about when you do workouts you don't want to do?  How do you get through tough workouts?  I've been learning that you don't necessarily have to be motivated, you have to create habits that propel you to do certain things.   So I've created habits that work for quarantine and I will have to create new habits for when we can go places again.  All of the habits are works in progress because our lives our constantly changing and I think they will for awhile.  I believe that all of these challenges I'm doing are helping me create habits that will help me grow, whether we're in quarantine or not.

I looked down and found blood on my arm! This picture is after I wiped some off.  Only a true athlete would randomly find blood on their arm, right?

Boxes

Speaking of boxes, outside and inside, we just Jazz Fested in Place with the boom box I did my best to replicate with the paints I bought for Micah.  I wanted to paint something and decided to see how I'd do.  I am proud of my work!  It's no masterpiece but it looks pretty good and it added to the Jazz Fest ambience in our yard.  I moved from the front yard, to the drive way to the back patio.  I listened on the radio because the radio didn't have to buffer. I moved my chair, boom box painting, and portable karaoke speaker with me for 8 days. 

At first I thought it was going to suck and I'll admit I really wished I was at the fair grounds but I do believe that the ending was less difficult.  As the music ended I realized I wouldn't have to take the long walk out of the fair grounds and away from the festival.  I'd still prefer that!  But I found a positive.  And I can look forward to Jazz Fest 2021, which I will do for about 320 more days. 

It's also Thursday, not Wednesday.  Let's think outside about that too,