Mid-January Sorting

I've been on this binge lately of trying not to waste food. I'm sure that it's an influence from my boyfriend, who has to be convinced that any food, ever goes bad. (He was sure that the peppers in salsa acted as a preservative).

I think I'm gaining weight, though. Pesto is quite fattening. I put it on some thin spaghetti, then had too much spaghetti left over, then bought another small jar of pesto .... I'm doomed.

I've also been going through a new stage in my life of a little less teaching and a little more writing. The change seems to have made my well-masked disorganization worse. It's not really that well-masked, it's just all on the second floor, with the exception of the messy bookcase of cookbooks, etc.

I have piles of things, but the problem is, they don't even move. They pretty much stay where they are and get bigger. I do have one clothes pile that goes from the made !! (I want some credit here) bed to the floor. I'm still debating on whether to keep that GAP shirt.

It's as if the writing has given me an excuse to not do the other-brained things (I get mixed up whether organization / logic is right or left-brained). I'm not even spending that much more time on writing!

So if you think your house is a mess, don't feel bad. Hopefully mine will all get sorted -- I've always liked that British term. I guess that I'm the kind of person who can function some in chaos.

Must go. My day job pile is calling me.

Girl Power

I'm not sure if I told you, but I took a trip to the Maldives at the end of August. It was amazing!  We stayed at a resort called The Lux -- more on that later.

Like everyone else on the twelve-hour flight from Boston to Dubai, I was movie-binging. Once we landed I realized that I had seen three girl-power movies.

First was the 2018 version of Tomb Raider with Alicia Vikander. Although greatly entertaining, I don't think that anything stood our for me, except that now I'd seen one of the Tomb Raider series (I am movie deprived and not proud of it), and it was part one of my girl-power trifecta.

The second movie, Adrift, was riveting. If you haven't seen it, Shailene Woodley (of Big Little Lies) stars in the true story of Tami Oldham and her fiancé who sail partway from Tahiti to San Diego and encounter a horrific storm (Hurricane Raymond, 1983). Tami survives and, for a short period, hallucinates retrieving her mate from the water and taking care of him on the damaged boat. When she accepts that she has to abandon the scenario in order to try and survive, she says that she'll love him always, but, "I'm going to have to let you go." With that she's able to regain strength (the spear fishing would have done me in) and focus on her own survival.

Sam Claflin and Shailene Woodley
Adrift 

I've held on to situations, still trying to compensate for or fix them. I've probably let that mindset be a drain on my potential, with guilt mixing in there too. Who needs that?

My therapist explained: With guilt often comes resentment. Uh boy.

Then I heard my boyfriend's mom mention someone who "couldn't let go" of a situation. I certainly don't want to be like that.

So much good can come from letting go. However, Now I'm a little afraid of sailing.

Kevin Costner and Jessica Chastain
Molly's Game

I think that I watched Molly's Game two and half times during the flight from Dubai to Boston. Molly faced disasters in her life: complete wipe-outs in pre-Olympic free form ski events, and nearly being put in jail for running her signature, high-stakes poker game).

I loved her determination, as she said after her first game was co-opted by a former boss: "The best remedy for losing is winning."

The amazing part, for me at least, came at the end when her father (a psychology professor) revealed an event from Molly's childhood that she didn't remember. Molly had seen her father cheating. Because of that single event (and other family dynamics that it triggered), he said that Molly was motivated to derail powerful men.

It's  fascinating to think about experiences when we were young, some we may not even remember, that have become undercurrents in our lives.

Despite the difficult relationship with her dad (not to mention his cheating), it seems that Molly at least got some discipline and resilience from him.

Letting go of situations might save your life. Be a power house in your own life (what Molly did, though she failed) and try to be aware of what's driving you.

Girl power.

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