I'm addicted to hot-fudge sundaes....there I said it. Every night I have this overwhemling desire for a scoop of ice cream, a heavy drizzle of microwavable hot-fudge, and if I'm feeling indulgent: whipped cream. I've had this the past 3 nights and am fighting the feeling right now.
Today's Top Ten is close to my heart because it's been *such* a rewarding year already. I can honestly say that 2007 is the best year of my life. That's right. Better than the year I got engaged and graduated from college and got a great job at once.
TOP TEN VERY REWARDING EXPERIENCES
1. Lying on the floor after a long and hard gym workout. After I finish a 5 mile run, or an hour-long weight-lifting session, there is nothing better than lying on the floor, feeling every muscle in my body twitching with exhaustion.
2. Eating healthy for a whole week. Weeks where I have a wholesome breakfast, a mid-sized lunch, lots of fruit and a tiny dinner are the weeks I feel great, have tons of energy and even lose a few pounds. I feel so good if come Friday night I realize I've been so good the whole week, I can afford to go out for Italian :)
3. Watching someone I've mentored fly on their own. I think anyone who is a parent, boss, or mentor feels this way sometime. Along that with twinge, "they don't need me anymore...." there is that incredible feeling that their success is partly because you have done your job well.
4. Finishing a long book. I know that when I get immersed in a 500+ page book and reach the end to a satisfying conclusion that makes me look back and miss the characters, I feel incredibly satisfied.
5. When my critique group says, "That's a great chapter. Leave it alone." What say, writers? Is there any better feeling? Those are the days when I feel like, yeah, maybe I do know what I'm doing.
6. Turning off the lights in a clean kitchen. Let me interject by saying that I HATE cleaning and never do it. We have someone come in a few times a month to handle all the cleaning and organizing. What I love is putting away all the groceries, putting all dishes in the dishwashers and lighting some incense in my nice clean kitchen. Superficial, but soothing. :)
7. Finishing a crazy project at work. I have to say that I reall, really love my day-job at MS. When people hear I'm a writer, they always ask, "Will you stop working now?" And I always say, "Never." I love writing, I really do, but I honestly believe that I think working my day job equally as much. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones to have TWO jobs that I love to do.
Back to the point, I love the feeling of completing a customer-facing project and writing up a report, knowing I've done a good job and everyone is happy with the results. I love knowing that the work I do every day actually makes a difference in the world. That the software that is being created in my hallway is going to be used by everyone I know next year.
8. Along the same lines, seeing someone running Windows Vista on a laptop in a coffee shop. I always want to go over and say, "That's my baby"!!! This same thing goes when I see a stranger reading the book of someone I know well. That's when that huge epiphany happens to me and I realize, "WOW, this writing thing is HUGE!"
9. When I wake up in the middle of the night and see my cat curled up on my side of my, my husband on the other and realizing that I still have 4 more hours to sleep. Maybe not long-term rewarding, but realizing that I have 4 hours to spend with these creatures who mean the world to me means everything at that moment....
10. Finishing everything on a TODO list. I love lists. I am completely obsessed with them. I make lists for everything: groceries, party planning, what movies to see, things I want to get doen by end of day, end of week, and end of month...you get the idea. Cross off the last item in a TODO list is one of my favorite feelings, SO rewarding!
So I'm curious...what are some of your most rewarding moments? Those moments that make you forget about worries, or ambitions, or stress. Those moments that make every day great.
Right now I'm reading THE WARRIOR TRAINER by Gerri Russell and DAUGHTERS OF FORTUNE by Isabelle Allende. Both are addictive and fantastic which is why I keep reading a chapter of each alternating.
4 comments:
Dona, this is a great list! I think I agree with all of them...well, except the running five miles thing. Ouch! I admire your stamina!
The one I can most identify with is crossing off everything on a to do list. I love lists, too! Sometimes I make a list just so I can have the satisfaction of crossing off each item.
One item I'd add to my own list of rewarding experiences is one that I was lucky enough to experience yesterday: When I hear my kids tell each other, "I love you." It does my heart good.
Great post!
Hey there chica,
Just checking in case you thought I'd dropped off the face of the planet, which I haven't... not yet anyway!
That's a great list. I can totally hear you on the clean kitchen thing. Like you, I absolutely DESPISE cleaning, and yes, I don't think I could live without my bi-monthly helper, but when I actually manage to get off my behind because I can't think straight from all the clutter, I feel so good afterwards that I just walk around the house, admiring my handiwork and basking in the soft glow of neatness... how's that for dorky??
Isabel Allende is fabulous. I finished Ines of my Soul in just one weekend and that wasn't even the best of her books. And notice how she always starts her books with lots and lots of detailed backstory, which we're taught is a no-no, but she really makes it work.
N
Okay, Dona, this is a meme tag I could do much easier than the last. Check out my blog for my list. :-)
Christina
Alright Oh Non-Month-End-Comprehending One (I believe IT people may just be the arch-nemeses of accounting people... or is it marketing people?). Your Top Ten Tuesday turned into a Top Ten Thursday. What can you do? It was fun though!
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