Notes...

I am going through my email and other "cyber-files," trying to get things cleared and cleaned for (gasp) tax time. It's not really that bad -- I keep my files on Quickbooks or Quicken, so really it's just a matter of going through and arranging and figuring out what credit card I'm going to pay my taxes on this time (joke! joke!)

In going through my email, however, one of the things that I really do try to do is keep my "inbox" for things that are actually "in process." Meaning -- things I am dealing with. If they are jokes that I haven't read in a month -- hey, they will come back around again. If they are articles or podcasts I want to "check out," I put a "flag" on them in Outlook, so it "reminds me" to go read them in a week -- and gets them out of my outbox.

Today, however, I found a note called "Note." I wrote it back when my James and I were at the Vintners' Holiday at the Ahwahnee -- that was a LONG TIME AGO! The notes were on little bits of subjects; things that came to my mind and that I wanted to "add to" other longer posts on that subject. So here they are -- just Notes (so I can get them out of my Inbox).

ANGER.

The first note had to do with anger. We saw someone get really irrational at the check-in desk...which was interesting, because we had come in and found out that our reservation was "mislaid" as well. These folks came in just as we were getting things all squared away.

My note says "unlike a martini, in anger, one should be stirred -- not shaken." What it came around to was this -- when something goes wrong, sure, it's going to stir you up -- but don't let it "shake you to your core." These folks were super upset and super "rattled" because of the mix-up. The woman was looking at the guy, and you could really see that she was getting more and more upset at how things were panning out. In my favorite book on this sort of subject -- "How To Live The James Bond Lifestyle" by Kyriazi, he talks a lot about thinking about how your reactions are going to effect the people you are with. This was a great example of this phrase in action.

My James was not happy that OUR reservation was lost, either -- but he basically "stirred" our reception guy into action -- slowly adding and mixing and getting what he wanted. The other guy just started shaking (metaphorically) his reception gal -- hard! -- as if that was going to help. Maybe this comes down to what my mom says -- "you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."

WALKING:
In my constant attempt to describe the "Bond grrl walk" (which I did in a previous post), I thought of something when I was at the Ahwahnee. They have a REALLY long hallway from reception to the elevators (plenty of room to "practice"). The note that I wrote to myself is to "keep your shoulders down, but elevation your ribs away from your hips." If you are hunched down (so the bottom of your ribs is "close to" the top of your hips) it's very hard to move your hips back and forth down the "line" as I described in the previous post. You don't want to lift your ~shoulders~ (hunching) -- what you want to concentrate on is holding your ribcage "up and away" from your hips. This gives you more "room" in your torso to turn your hips the way that you should, to get that awesome Bond grrl walk.

Also about walking -- one thing that I made a note about was whether or not anyone has ever seen a skeleton -- in an Anatomy class, or the like. The thing about skeletons is that their shoulder blades (in back) are FLAT on the skeleton's back. When you think about the way that you sit or the way you walk, is the bottom corner of your shoulder blade "poking out" backwards? You can test this this way:

1. Sit up, shoulders down, ribs "elevated," but relaxed.
2. Now reach back with your right hand, and put the back of your hand (not your palm) up and lie it on your shoulderblade of your left arm. (If you're not that flexible, you will just reach to the bottom of the blade -- if you're more flexible, you might be able to reach your whole back of your hand onto that shoulderblade.)
3. Where is the bottom "point" of the shoulderblade, in relation to your spine? It should only be an inch or two away. Try this -- roll your left shoulder forward -- see how that "point" moves away from your spine, and sort of "sticks up" and away from your backbone/spine? Now, concentrate NOT on "rolling your shoulders back" (it will do this anyway) but instead, concentrate on moving the two bottom "points" of your shoulderblades towards your spine. IF you roll your shoulders up, then down and back (so your chest goes out), this will bring the points even closer together.
4. This is how the points of a shoulderblade actually "hang" on a skeleton! So if yours are not in that position....it means that your muscles and your posture has made it so that you are not able to be in the right "neutral" position for your actual bone structure.

Wild, huh? Give it a try.

PLATE CLIPS: One thing I also noted from the Ahwahnee (at one of the receptions) was they had "plate clips" -- little clips that you put on the edge of your plate, that then "holds" your wine glass next to it. I thought this was amazingly slick.

LAUGHING: I wrote a BIG part of the note about having a laugh that's contageous, but not annoying...but I do know I wrote about that. (I made the "Mary Poppins" comment re the song "I Love To Laugh" in this note...and I actually remember posting something about this.)

That's it!

Have a great day!

S