Sporked!

Friday, September 27, 2024

The header captures my friend and co-worker Adrain tackling his crispy chicken bowl. I’m sitting opposite him and will do the same after my camera action. That was yesterday evening, at a restaurant called Spork, where we met for dinner.

My drive there and my search for Spork illustrated how much his city has grown, and our dining experience updated my restaurant behavior. I was a fish dipping into deeper waters.

About Adrain: This year, he’s been a good friend to me and my coworkers at the department store where we work. He had a previous career, and that path was recently relaunched. He’s excited—with good reason—for he’s bright and capable. We enjoy swapping perspectives and encouraging one another.

Everything I do is typically on this city’s east side. I rarely travel to the busy and touristy west side–where I became lost yesterday evening. Fortunately, I was near Spork, and Adrain found me, guided me into the restaurant, and introduced its–what? Tai/Chinese?–menu while explaining the ordering/seating processes. I found myself in good hands.

Brand new to me was the camera action in that busy restaurant. Almost everybody was taking pictures—selfies and groups—similar to lunchrooms in my part-time jobs. Adrain always uses his camera like a pro, and this dinner wasn’t any exception; he comfortably photographed and texted. So did everybody else, and soon, me, too, a little.

The upshot is that the evening might have relaunched Miss Eastsider. She ventured out, explored new venues, appreciated her kind friend, and had mucho fun.

Dear Friends: Plus, I found that another special buddy is my phone’s camera! Diana

Word World

Thursday, June 06, 2024

An article entitled “What’s your nudge word for 2024? Let us help you discover it” caught my attention in today’s Washington Post. I was attracted to the idea of a nudge word after earlier exploring something similar and selecting a word.

The Post set up the discovering process as a game. I studied it and decided to play.

Everything starts by identifying an overarching word. The lead question is: What single word describes your hopes and dreams for 2024? The game then offers many categorical choices: active, optimistic, mindful, relationships, strength, growth, and personal relationships. I chose “mindful.”

Next, another game step was to “Focus on words that will nudge you toward positive change.” Many words related to mindfulness were offered, and I selected such as observe, awe, gratitude, notice, thankful, breathe, awareness, anticipate, and balance. Finally, I found one that summarized it all, and already that word was a favorite: appreciate.

I’ll take it. So, “appreciate” will be my nudge word for 2024.

Last month, I was thinking about “appreciate” in relation to my upcoming birthday. I wished to actively and often feel more appreciative as a change and birthday gift to myself. For several weeks, I paused and focused on appreciating but eventually got too busy and preoccupied with unrelated thoughts.

I appreciate the Post article’s cool word game which helped me renew a pleasing frame of mind. To me, appreciating touches a deep sense of gratitude and recognition, and taps into wishes to feel seen, valued, and understood. I am recommitting to actively being mindful and appreciative and staying on track this time.

Dear Friends: Words, tiny little abstracts that trigger big feelings and thoughts. Diana

Surprise

Friday, May 03, 2024

This is my birthday month, and typically, I ignore my birthdays. However, this year, I feel different. I want to give myself a gift—something special, like a fancy saddle, a new dress, or an Uber laptop. My changed attitude this time around surprises me, but I’m not obsessing about it; I’m simply enjoying the possible fun of self-surprising.

Planning for a self-surprise has me preparing an unexpected and exciting experience–a surprise to inject novelty and wonder into my birthday. It’s a fun way of feeling joy and breaking up routines. Besides, the process will keep me curious for weeks about what will become that special delight.

The gift could be more broad. I could arrange to take a special trip or sign up for a class or workshop to learn something new and wonderful. It could also be a scavenger hunt: I could wrap something that I want or is a special treat and hide it somewhere. I could create a series of clues leading to the hidden gift’s location, stash them, and enjoy my gift later.

In this little mini-adventure, I am blindfolded and exploring. It’s a roll of the dice and requires the element of surprise. Any outcome must be tailored to my interests and above all, very manageable.

Dear Friends: Who knows what’s coming! Diana