This Imperfect Life

I have been tired and stressed and really hard on myself this week. I was crying to Flavio last night about feeling overwhelmed and spread thin, drowning in prep and grading, making mistakes, even missing a meeting, because I'm tired and overcommitted. I was feeling sad that I don't really have the time to do the non-work activities that make me happy and when I do fun things, I feel anxious because I know I have a mountain of work waiting for me. So Flavio, as he always does, talked me off a ledge, and encouraged me to schedule in at least a little bit of time for fun and relaxation, because work will always be there, and I'll be less burned out if I take a little time to do the things that bring me joy. Plus, he reminded me, this feeling of being overwhelmed is temporary, which is true, and really helpful to keep in mind. (Dear god, I will never take on 7 classes again. What was I thinking?!) Anyway, one of my favorite relaxation activities is reading before bed so I decided to pop on Amazon and see what looks good. I think knowing I'll have a fun book to read at the end of my long days will be one little way to keep my spirits up. To my delight, Amazon recommended a new anthology dedicated to one of my favorites, Nora Ephron, expected to come out next week. In it, Ephron was quoted as saying:

"When you slip on a banana peel, people laugh at you;

but when you tell people you slipped on a banana peel,

it's your laugh."

How true are these words? I'm in love with all things Nora Ephron because her legacy reminds us to lighten up, to laugh at ourselves, to embrace our insecurities, frustrations, and mistakes, and to find humor in the difficult. Not in a self-loathing way, but in a way that helps us see we're all in this same crazy boat, we all face the absurdities of life, so we might as well laugh at them, and tell about them. Maybe it's these imperfections that make for a life worth sharing with others.  I wondered if I should write about my gloominess in my blog, but decided to go for it because your banana peels are my banana peels - we all go through difficult times, so I'm going to embrace my hardships, and tell about them here when I'm feeling them, because that's what's going on with me right now, and writing about it helps me see it's not the end of the world anyway. After all, Ephron credits her success to "a sense of the absurd that makes it difficult to take many things terribly seriously."

Speaking of absurd, here are our pumpkins from last year. One by our friend, one by Flav, and one by me. Any guesses on which one of these is my handiwork? Clue: it's the frilly one. :)

{Pumpkina}

Wishing you a silly weekend.