Friday, December 21, 2007

A Very Letterman Christmas!!!

In true David Letterman style, the Top Ten Reasons why Jim likes Christmas . . .

10. The one time of year where being bald, fat, and jolly is "in"!

9. Alcohol in the office is actually acceptable. (for once!)

8. Even people who hate me have to pretend to be nice.

7. I get to piss off all the PC morons by yelling "Merry Christmas!" every time I see them.

6. VACATION!!!! (woop-woop!)

5. People actually give me stuff. (No, they really do!)

4. Drunk women in short red skirts singing "Santa Baby" (Always fun!)

3. Bonuses!!!!!!!

2. Watching the neighbor fall off his roof stringing Christmas lights. (Oh, hush! You'd laugh too!)

And the #1 reason Jim likes Christmas . . . (drum roll, please!)

1. I get to spend uninterrupted time with The Wife and The Boy. (Don't bother callin', we ain't gonna pick up, folks!)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

My ass is out until 2008 . . .

Later!

Friday, December 07, 2007

Psychology On The Fly!!

Have I mentioned I'm taking an intro. Pysch course? (Final exam tomorrow . . .yuk!) Funny how life works sometimes. I took the course because it's a degree requirement and it happened along at a time in my life where I really needed some vocabulary and understanding to express what I've been doing inside my own little brain.

Seems I stumbled across the right combination of humanistic and cognitive theraputic approaches to address my own personal reinforcement contingencies. And I didn't even need to pay nobody for the help, how frikkin' cool is that, huh??? :-)

All it means is that I pulled away from the Freudian Psychodynamic model of my problems (Mommy and Daddy didn't love me enough!) and started looking at my own behaviors as reinforcing my problems in a never ending cycle. (I was bummed because I was fat/lazy/useless, so I sat on the couch eating cookies and moaning about how fat/lazy/useless I was.) That worked for me pretty damn well, since I always thought old Siggy was full of shit anyway. There are days when I don't know if I should laugh or cry over how simple it really was. I spent years hating myself, when all I had to do was work at doing the things I wanted to do . . . to BE the person I wanted to be, ya' know? Some days I'm furious that I wasted so much time before finding such a simple solution and other days I just want to laugh out loud because it all fell in place so simply once I accepted the answer. I always knew the answer, I think, but it seemed too damn simple for such big problems. Part of me worries some days that it really IS too easy; that I'm kidding myself and it will all come crashing down again any moment. That's when I have to take a breath and go out and do something physically positive (hence, why I get up and run every morning at 5:30 a.m. And DAMN, it's not fun when temps are in the low teens here in the NE of the USA!!!!) The simple act of moving forward with a positive act eliminates all the negative shit that tries to infect my brain. I have come to a single statement that I am living by and I didn't even need my Psych I class to get there:

"I am who I choose to be."

Simple, huh? Don't know if any of you can understand how hard that simple idea was for me to come by (Except you, Lynn. You know.) I came to a simple understanding that who I am right now doesn't have to be who I am tomorrow. I can become whatever I choose, just by doing the things that will get me there. The simple act of moving towards that person MAKES you that person. Is that some wildly simple shit, or what? I don't need anyone else's help, or any traumatic epiphany of my inner-child, I just need to do what makes me the guy I want to be.

Anyway, things are good. It's been ridiculously busy with the holidays and all but I'm loving it! I'm loving being with The Wife, Boy and Dog. Unexpected changes, being crazy busy, and stupid crap don't seem to freak me out any more . . . I iz one lo-stressin' dude!!!!

Later!