February - A Month of Balance

February is the month of balance according to my “Calendar of Tranquility”.

Balance by definition implies having a healthy mental equilibrium and enjoying equal amounts of work and play. It means having healthy relationships with family and friends, as well as balancing what you’re eating. Too much of anything is not a good thing. When balance is disrupted and tipped to either extreme it can be hard to correct.

This has become all too important for me. I know that I tend to do too much. I’m happiest when I’m busy and it’s hard for me to relax and take a day off. I’m up every morning at 6am, work my morning shift, come back home and watch whatever happens to be on A&E (usually CSI: Miami, or The First 48), I head back to work, and follow up with an evening of badminton, trivia practice, yoga or some combination of the above. I’m not home most nights until at least 9:30pm.

A couple of weeks ago, my body was clearly angry with me. I was fine in the morning, but as the day progressed, I started to get a fever and it was eventually too painful to even stand as all my joints and muscles ached. I managed to drag myself to yoga class, but had to opt out of going to badminton afterwards. I walked all the way home (about 30 min), made myself a cup of Neocitran, and passed out until I had to get up for work the following morning. The fever had broke thankfully, but it was kind of a wake-up call from my immune system.

Because I am currently not in school, my brain has this active desire to constantly take on new projects to fill that void. New things to try over the next couple months:

1) learn HMTL (I'm pretty horrible with technology and need to fix that)

2) write fan mail to a tennis player (I'm thinking Canadian Peter Polansky, his mailing address is on his facebook page)

3) start collecting French postcards (I have seen some gorgeous ones of Paris, and just in general I love anything French)

4) write reviews about Racquet Science (tennis/ badminton store) and Le Chien Noir (French restaurant)

5) Ask out the guy I have had a crush on since Grade 11

6) Work on my Renoir 1000 piece puzzle (I need something quiet to do that doesn't involve the television)

7) Start blogging en Français (since moving to Kingston I don't use my French enough, and writing is definitely my weakest area)

8) Read at least 3 novels (I have definitely put off reading to watch more TV)