Confucius say what?

Monday, May 24, 2010
7:40 PM  How fortunate.

Now that I'm nearing the end of my first assignment, I'm noticing a pattern of things I do that help me get through the 12-hour days.  I didn't become aware of these habits until recently, but now that I've noticed a few of my survival techniques, I can't stop!  It's kind of funny how we learn to cope with the challenges life throws at us without fully being aware we're doing it. 

The first thing I do when I arrive at 30 Rock around 6 in the morning is glance over at the ice skating rink, which has now transformed into the rink bar.  There usually aren't many people around that early in the morning, and it's kind of peaceful knowing I have the plaza all to myself.  Across the street I can see the bright windows of 'The Today Show,' where PAs are setting up.  I take many long, deep breaths trying to capture the calm of that moment.

When I open the door leading to the floor of my office, everything is dark, but all the lights are motion-sensitive, so they begin the click on one-by-one as I walk down the hall.  My new favorite thing to do is to raise my arms as if I'm making the lights come on by magic.  It's silly, but I crack myself up every single time.

Usually nobody else gets to the office until close to 7, so I have almost an hour all by myself.  For that hour, I usually listen to KISS 95.7, my hometown radio station, online.  The voices of the hosts of the morning talk show are familiar to me, and it reminds me of driving around Glastonbury.  The background on my computer at work is one of the buildings surrounding the Boston Harbor.  I like the familiar.

The days themselves are often relatively stressful, and just a few weeks into my assignment I realized I was never smiling.  In fact, I was often kind of frowning.  I read in a magazine once that even if you're not happy, if you make the motion of smiling, the muscle movement releases some kind of happy-hormone.  I don't know if it's true, but if you ever walk quietly around the corner to my desk, you'll catch me smiling eerily at my computer screen over and over again.

My sister Kaitlyn told me about this great website 1000awesomethings.com and it truly is, well, awesome.  If I ever have a spare moment, I'll click through some of the postings.  I always find something that makes me smile (real smile, not fake smile.).

And finally, this isn't so much a pattern as it is a constant reminder, but I have a fortune taped to the top of my computer.  I've been collecting the little papers that come inside fortune cookies for years now, but I found this one in my pocket one day and decided to keep it at work.  It says "The one who would be constant in happiness must frequently change."  At first, I liked it but didn't think it was especially applicable to my current situation, given that I would be at the assignment for three months.  But I've come to realize it does apply: as much as I think I would have been content to stay on the tour route with my friends, the simple fact is I probably would have gotten bored and become unhappy.  This assignment was a necessary change that has taught me a lot, and in two weeks everything will change again, and I'll start on the next phase.  We can't stay forever as we are.  But when we're presented with a challenging change, it's the little things we do that get us through.

Love,
Tara