Bright and Cheery

I don't think I've been keeping up my positive tone lately, so today I'm going to try to get back to it. In my "real life", I've been keeping it up pretty well, but here I've been complaining a lot. Maybe the next week (mostly) off work will help me get back on track. It isn't that I'm unhappy with my job. I do love it. But the grading is often overwhelming and I've dug myself in deep this term. Even after the Thanksgiving break, we'll have just a few weeks to go, which is both good and bad. I'll look at it as good, since I'm working on being positive. Even though I'll have to rush a bit to get the last papers graded (which I won't collect until the first week of December), at least there is just one more set of papers to grade.

Apart from work, things are going well. I'm addressing my health issues; I've lost weight, am getting more exercise, and have cut way back on smoking. It's so hard to quit! Those are a lot of changes to make at once, but eating healthy foods and walking have made it easier than I thought it would be to also cut back on smoking. Because I have associations between certain activities and smoking, I'm taking the smoking away from the activities one by one. I get that to people who don't smoke, it seems like an idiotic indulgence. It doesn't help when people tell me it isn't healthy. I am smart and I know that, even if I don't make smart choices all the time. Anyway, driving is a big smoking trigger for me, and I can't just stop driving, but finding ways not to smoke while driving is important. In fact, that's probably my biggest trigger, and until I find a way around that one, I won't be able to quit. I've stopped about 90% of my "car smoking", and that's a huge deal.

My house repairs are coming together nicely, and I should have a chance to get some more painting done during my time off. (I know I said I wasn't going to do anything, but that will be enjoyable.) I try always to be grateful for everything in my life, and sometimes I forget to express that "attitude of gratitude". It's good to be grateful, but it's also important to express it, and one of the best ways, I think, is by maintaining a positive -- bright and cheery -- disposition. So I'm going to remind myself more often to do exactly that.