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The Friday memes are sadly deficient this week. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
fannish5 didn't even post, thefridayfive was late, and I don't think I saw any memes floating around LJ land this week, unless I'm missing something. So the Friday Five will be all by its lonesome....
1. How do you deal with stress?
2. Do you have a favorite "comfort food" and what is it?
3. Do you have a "comfort activity" and what is it?
4. What days depress you and why?
5. What days excite you and why?
1. How do you deal with stress?
It depends on the stress. I find that writing about how annoyed I am with something makes me less teeth-grittingly annoyed with it. So a lot of times, I rant in Notepad at work and never post the results.
As far as longterm stress, as in having lots to do, I just...do it. I actually work very well this way, perhaps evidenced by the fact that last November-December, I participated in NaNoWriMo, made twenty pounds of homemade chocolates, and wrote twenty holiday gift stories. However, I will not be repeated that this year. ;)
In terms of immediate stress, as in anxiety, I resort to relaxation techniques, particularly progressive muscle relaxation. It's amazing how easily the body is conditioned to associate a stimulus and a response. I recently conditioned myself to relax upon beginning the breathing pattern that I use for using scuba without my mask underwater. I was start the pattern and literally could feel my heartrate drop 10 bpm (and those who were around LJ at that time know that I was on the verge of panic about using scuba without my mask).
2. Do you have a favorite "comfort food" and what is it?
Evil dairy foods! Cheese, sour cream, cream cheese...the other night, I asked Bobby what he thought happiness might taste like. (He answered "chocolate," by the way.) I said that if happiness had a smell, for me, it would be the smell of opening a fresh carton of heavy cream. Honestly, when I use heavy cream for my ice cream recipes, I always take a deep sniff of the carton before pouring it. I love that smell. Oddly, the strongest association I can find between the smell of heavy cream and an actual memory is the smell of the whipped cream at The Piece. I guess I was happier at The Piece than I knew at the time!
But a big plate of nachos or ooey-gooey cheese fries topped with sour cream...ai, now I'm hungry....
3. Do you have a "comfort activity" and what is it?
*ahem*
Well, keeping it R-rated, writing, of course, wipes away the reality for however brief a spell. "Dissociation"--or daydreaming--serves the same purpose.
But in terms of physically changing my mood in the long term, it would have to be strenuous exercise. Hiking, skating, swimming...gotta love endorphins. They have a nearly identical structure to heroin, did you know? So vigorous exercise is literally legal heroin. But aside from strong painkilling effects, the chemicals released during exercise have a powerful mood-altering effect for me as well. I have driven myself to hypomania by skating too hard!
4. What days depress you and why?
Mondays. And I feel bad for Monday because everyone hates him and he really doesn't deserve it. It's our wonky schedules that put school and work weeks as starting on Mondays. I am a natural nightowl, and I can revert to a late sleep schedule in literally one day. But to get myself back on track to waking up in the mornings for work...sometimes I can't manage it over the course of a whole week. But Mondays are always bad for me because I'm coming off of (usually) two days of staying up late, and the mind and the muses can't be convinced that going to bed early and waking up at seven is a good idea.
5. What days excite you and why?
Fridays, or the threshold of the weekend, as Bobby and I call them. We have our date on Fridays, usually just dinner and a movie, but sometimes something more involved. Saturdays are nice too because we're usually doing fun stuff then too. Sundays tend to make me drowsy, and I don't get much done--plus, I know that I have to go back to work the next day--so Sundays are nice but not quite as exciting as the first two.
fannish5 didn't even post, thefridayfive was late, and I don't think I saw any memes floating around LJ land this week, unless I'm missing something. So the Friday Five will be all by its lonesome....1. How do you deal with stress?
2. Do you have a favorite "comfort food" and what is it?
3. Do you have a "comfort activity" and what is it?
4. What days depress you and why?
5. What days excite you and why?
1. How do you deal with stress?
It depends on the stress. I find that writing about how annoyed I am with something makes me less teeth-grittingly annoyed with it. So a lot of times, I rant in Notepad at work and never post the results.
As far as longterm stress, as in having lots to do, I just...do it. I actually work very well this way, perhaps evidenced by the fact that last November-December, I participated in NaNoWriMo, made twenty pounds of homemade chocolates, and wrote twenty holiday gift stories. However, I will not be repeated that this year. ;)
In terms of immediate stress, as in anxiety, I resort to relaxation techniques, particularly progressive muscle relaxation. It's amazing how easily the body is conditioned to associate a stimulus and a response. I recently conditioned myself to relax upon beginning the breathing pattern that I use for using scuba without my mask underwater. I was start the pattern and literally could feel my heartrate drop 10 bpm (and those who were around LJ at that time know that I was on the verge of panic about using scuba without my mask).
2. Do you have a favorite "comfort food" and what is it?
Evil dairy foods! Cheese, sour cream, cream cheese...the other night, I asked Bobby what he thought happiness might taste like. (He answered "chocolate," by the way.) I said that if happiness had a smell, for me, it would be the smell of opening a fresh carton of heavy cream. Honestly, when I use heavy cream for my ice cream recipes, I always take a deep sniff of the carton before pouring it. I love that smell. Oddly, the strongest association I can find between the smell of heavy cream and an actual memory is the smell of the whipped cream at The Piece. I guess I was happier at The Piece than I knew at the time!
But a big plate of nachos or ooey-gooey cheese fries topped with sour cream...ai, now I'm hungry....
3. Do you have a "comfort activity" and what is it?
*ahem*
Well, keeping it R-rated, writing, of course, wipes away the reality for however brief a spell. "Dissociation"--or daydreaming--serves the same purpose.
But in terms of physically changing my mood in the long term, it would have to be strenuous exercise. Hiking, skating, swimming...gotta love endorphins. They have a nearly identical structure to heroin, did you know? So vigorous exercise is literally legal heroin. But aside from strong painkilling effects, the chemicals released during exercise have a powerful mood-altering effect for me as well. I have driven myself to hypomania by skating too hard!
4. What days depress you and why?
Mondays. And I feel bad for Monday because everyone hates him and he really doesn't deserve it. It's our wonky schedules that put school and work weeks as starting on Mondays. I am a natural nightowl, and I can revert to a late sleep schedule in literally one day. But to get myself back on track to waking up in the mornings for work...sometimes I can't manage it over the course of a whole week. But Mondays are always bad for me because I'm coming off of (usually) two days of staying up late, and the mind and the muses can't be convinced that going to bed early and waking up at seven is a good idea.
5. What days excite you and why?
Fridays, or the threshold of the weekend, as Bobby and I call them. We have our date on Fridays, usually just dinner and a movie, but sometimes something more involved. Saturdays are nice too because we're usually doing fun stuff then too. Sundays tend to make me drowsy, and I don't get much done--plus, I know that I have to go back to work the next day--so Sundays are nice but not quite as exciting as the first two.
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Date: 2006-10-24 01:03 am (UTC)Well, I actually lost the thinger last Wednesday, and hadn't wrapped it since until today. We'll see, because it's being infuriatingly painful (not very painful, just in a different spot and annoying as hell). I must add, that it's rather rich coming from you eh? With your hip and all. ;P