Having fun … planning some fun
Yesterday, I buzzed through my client work in the morning so that I’d have a clean, clear eight hours to conceive and write an essay for the Sarasota Herald Tribune to consider. By 11:30 am, I started writing and really didn’t come up for air until after 6 p.m. Then, I had to run over to my Mom’s for awhile. By the time I made it back home, I realized I’d once again forgotten my “FANY” resolution. Where was the fun?
I ate dinner, finished up some client work and by the time I had time for fun it was already 10 p.m.! But in truth, writing like I did yesterday is actually fun. A perverse, brain-wracking, mentally exhausting, kind of fun … especially when on deadline .. but still, a definite kind of fun.
Still, writing is my work so it couldn’t be allowed to qualify as fun for yesterday and to keep my resolution I had to come up with some fun before midnight.
And I did the best I could — I had bought a new calendar for 2010 — and specifically selected one that would remind me to have fun and celebrate life and each month — 
and so last night I reviewed my 2009 calendar (which brought back more memories than I’d remembered of fun I actually DID have in 2009) and filled in my new calendar with dates to look forward to — birthdays, other special days that I like to celebrate for one reason or another, oh, and cat birthdays of course ;. Filling out my calendar also motivated me to think about the fun I want to create in 2010.
I created a large poster-size list of all the fun things I could think of — everything from kayaking to traveling to Paris to go-cart racing to having a night of Trivial Pursuit and Cocktails with as many smart, martini-loving friends as I can round up (um, all of my friends are smart and martini-loving, naturally!). The list has only 39 items on it right now — and that’s only like a month of FUN!
What I REALLY want to try is the Florida Zip Line Glide Eco Adventure.
Okay, well, my calendar is ready … guess I better start actually making dates to make these things happen.
Finally … some fun!
Holy cow. Yesterday (day four of FANY), I planned a “fun” event and boy, did it deliver! May not sound like fireworks to some of you globe-trotting, gala-going, grand-meisters of fun, but I had an actual blast … for about 20 minutes. And that felt great.
I went on a bike ride around 4:45 p.m. It was pretty cold but within seconds of being bike-born, I was grinning like a fool, spreading my arms out on either side and yelling “This is FUN!”
I rode to a nearby city park and grabbed the crackers I’d stuffed in the top of my three-layer get-up and meant to feed the ducks … 
… but instead was cornered within an inch of my life by a flock of ibis. 
They drove off the bigger ducks and started making something like a honking noise. They were adorable and snipey and made me smile. I felt genuinely happy to be surrounded by the little curved-beak hooligans. My favorites were the immature teenager ibis that weren’t white yet. 
I passed lots of cute dogs in sweaters and lots of dogs not in sweaters and commented on them all as I rode by. I saw a very cute dog ahead — a larger dog and I yelled out “There’s a cutie pie!” and only after I rode by did it occur to me to wonder if the man walking the dog might have thought I was referring to him instead of his dog! 😉
Then I continued on my way around the winding paved path, intermittently yelling at the ducks and ibis who got in my way “Faites attention mes precieux!” And then later, “Je vie!” “Je m’amuse!” at the top of my lungs, no less.
I’m sure the dog walkers and exercisers all thought I was nuts. But I was having a LOAD OF FUN.
Color me happy (and maybe a little crazy).
Feathers and fantasy … a bit o’ fun
Jiminy Cricket! Day four of my FANY (Fun Ambitions for New Year) resolution and I’m in loser-ville! Sheesh. I REALLY thought this thing was going to be a slam dunk. Much easier than losing the 20 pounds I think I should lose (which is more like 40 pounds if you put stock in the words of one of my conservative critics, read here if you want to know what I mean).
So, yesterday, I spent most of the day researching for a column I’m working on — and then suddenly around 6 pm realized “Hell, I haven’t had ANY fun today!” (more…)
Happy feet but unsettled everywhere else
Day three of my 365 days of fun … and yes, honestly, I’m surprised, embarrassed, and a bit saddened to report that it is evidently very hard work for me to have fun.
I spent most of yesterday organizing, prepping for the week ahead, taking time out only to admire the bluejays, tufted titmice, and cardinals outside the window at the feeder. But I did take the time to do what I thought would be fun: I went to Mandala Spa, with a gift certificate I’d been given for Christmas, and had a foot treatment.
It felt good, of course, and it was somewhat relaxing, I guess. But overall, I felt uncomfortable in my skin. (more…)
MC’s Fany — day two of New Year Ambition to Have Fun
I’m so dedicated to my New Year’s resolution that I’ve created a special category of blogs just so I can follow my progress throughout the year, try to keep myself on track, keep myself honest, motivated, and yup — bring any interested readers along for the ride.
At the right of the screen in the categories, I’ve added a new one called “A Year of Fun — MC’s 2010 Resolution”. If you ever want to see if I’m living up to my resolution, just check in there and you’ll find out how well I’m succeeding, or, um, how miserably I’m failing.
Which, brings me to yesterday …. supposedly my first day of a fun-filled year.
Okay, um, not so much. Fun, that is. Well, fun that you could write about and say wow, look how much fun I had. I worked pretty much all day on organizing, cleaning, trying to set things up in my house for a more productive year ahead. My goal was/is to start Monday, a scant two days away, with as clean a slate as possible.
But, at the same time as I was pretty diligently working, in the back of my mind, my Fun Ambitions for New Year, or "FANY" for short, was hammering away: "What are you going to do that's FUN today?" "When are you going to stop working and have that fun you wrote about?" "Hello!@!??"
In the end, as I climbed into bed, I did feel the day had been fun -- I'd laughed a lot, I felt positive, I'd accomplished so much, I felt really good. But did I have fun?
Well, not the kind of fun I'm envisioning, but I did have a bit of fun; I watched a goofy movie with Ashton and Cameron -- lame premise, even lamer acting, but you know what? It was light and I did laugh a bit. Not something I'd normally watch, but I'm trying to lighten myself up ... even if I stop short of going blonde.
And, honestly, the pseudo-comedy at least didn't make me feel cynical the way the last movie I watched in 2009 did -- Revolutionary Road.
I have mixed feelings about yesterday's fun factor. I thought it was actually a fun day -- my cats amused me, I felt the cold air on my skin when I went outside. But honestly, I think the past five years, in particular the last two years, of nonstop, long hours spent trying to launch a new business and make inroads as a writer and keep a roof over the head of my cats and me, have left me with a slightly distorted and diminished perception of what constitutes fun.
I'm looking for the kind of fun that exhilarates, that emboldens, that leaves your spirit somehow different than it was five minutes earlier. I've had that kind of fun in my life, even though it's been a long time, and I want it back.
The only bad thing about yesterday was that I really couldn't think of what would be fun -- I think I've lost sight and feel for what fun is. I found myself thinking, well, reading a magazine from start to finish would be fun. Or going on a walk. Or watching the birds outside. And, yes, all that is fun ... to a certain extent.
But I want to spend 2010 rewriting my definition of fun. I want a year that blows my socks off with laughter and thrills and surprise.
Wish me luck!
New Year … New Attitude!
The Sarasota Herald Tribune is running an essay of mine in today’s (New Year’s Day, 2010) paper — page 17A for the printaphiliacs among you. (Yes, I think I made that word up!). Or, online at This Year, Let’s Get Happy.
Here’s a snippet:
Do I really want another year of struggling to lose 20 pounds and scrambling to replenish my decimated savings? Isn’t re-caulking the bathtub, reading “Remembrance of Things Past” and clearing out that mess of who-knows-what from under the bed aiming awfully low?
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After 2009 … New Year Deserves Fun!
This article was printed in the Sarasota Herald Tribune on January 1, 2010, page A17.
Though 2009 started on a high note for me with the inauguration of Barack Obama, the rest of the year was full of lows. From nonstop revelations of infidelities among the Lettermans, Woods, et al., to the news about banks that continued to melt down, to the losses of community touchstones such as Sarasota News & Books and the many restaurants and shops that closed for lack of business — not to mention the jobs that kept disappearing and the mortgages that kept defaulting — it’s been a blistering year of heartache and worry.
The crazy-year-that-was has been grueling, with too many of us behaving like hamsters, practically tripping over our own feet, caught on the dizzying wheel of making ends meet.
Time for a little fun, don’t you think? (more…)
Christmas Chez Coolidge
Einstein thinks she's the best present under the tree!
Angels with scissors … MC in today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The Sarasota Herald Tribune is running an essay of mine in today’s paper —
“If I’d continued on the road I was on,” Hillis says, “I’d be living out on the street myself, or dead.” A tale of redemption.
— in the Op/Ed section, print page 9A, or if you want to read it online, you can do so by clicking these words: Angels with Scissors.
If you have any thoughts or comments about the column, you can comment here on my blog, or post a comment on the H-T website and/or you can send a letter to the editor of the Herald Tribune at editor.letters@heraldtribune.com (be sure to type the word “letter” in the subject line).
Naughty? Nice? Let MC be the judge … 2009 in Review
Was this a year, or what? I’m a huge fan of settling down on New Year’s Eve, putting on my retro shades, and looking back at the crazy, sweet, and just plain foolish shenanigans of the prior 12 months. And this December 31st will find me, a shot of Sambucca at my side, staring out the window forgiving my myriad faux pas of 2009 and plotting to do better in 2010. But in the meantime, I’m handing out my first annual “Naughty & Nice” awards for the game-changers, newsmakers, do-gooders, and the notorious, vainglorious, and utterly inglorious of our fair city and beyond. (more…)
