Thursday, March 22, 2012

How to Get Rid of the Jibbities

After a rough day, and when things like chocolate and whiskey aren't an option, ya gotta find another way to get over yourself. I can twist myself into a bag of pretzels with frustration.

Music is always good for winding down a bit, and I start with loud hard drums and wild vocals. That takes the edge off, and could take a couple of hours to get past. I wound down from Zep to the Four Tops in the end.

Laughing with someone who understands works. Of course, you start out grousing before getting to the laughter. If you're lucky enough to have somebody who gets it and can bitch at your pitch, everything lightens. (Thanks, Stevil!)

Take on a small project that involves nobody else, has no further strings attached and that you can finish in one go. It helps to have something accomplished, even if it's a little thing, on a day of bass-ackwardness. I straightened out part of the bookcases and hung the photo of Julia Child laughing like a loon.

And watch a movie that has charms to soothe the savage breast. Something familiar that you haven't seen in ages so things will strike and delight you. A 60's Rosalind Russell movie called "Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows" was on tonight. Silly, sweet, nostalgic and perfect for getting outta my own tense moodiness.


By gods I can get worked up. All these years in the sticks and I still have that Brooklyn temperament. All these years of dealing with disability and I still have that rage right under the surface. Do we ever stop learning who we are? Can we ever change? Or do we just have to find our own ways to deal with it when we lose it?

6 comments:

Geo. said...

As a student of my own diminished capacities I enjoy the surprises of accepting what I can do, how I can be. I think about Julia Child too, but mainly in an imaginary drunken argument with Eleanor Roosevelt. I'd go about anywhere to hear that. Sounds like you've got a solid anti-jibbity routine tho.

Austan said...

George- I'd do anything to see that drunken argument. You come up with the best scenarios! :D

Twisted Scottish Bastard said...

I get so fidgetty that I can't stay stilllong enough to see the end of a film.

This week alone, I'v etarted DOGMA 5 times, and never gotten past the bit when Bartelby and Loki buy guns.

Thank goodness, at the moment I can still use a litle whisky to calm things down.

Anonymous said...

No whisky or chocolate here either..rats.. sounds like you have a formula that works for you. I am constantly amazing myself with myself...I think it's called growing up. (I'm a late bloomer)

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

I don't think we ever really can change who we are, but we do grow and learn.

When things go bad, I tend to retreat to my room and get under the covers and hope that all the gremlins will go away. Eventually they usually do, if not, I learn to live with them, however hard that may be.

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

I love that line about someone who can "bitch at your pitch." It's a new one for me, but very appropriate. Sounds like you've pretty much figured out how to quiet your heebie-jeebies, and I think most of the things you mentioned would work for most people, but on the rare occasions I need settling down, critters always do the trick. Either watching their antics, roughhousing with a dog, or cuddling with a kitty and feeling her all-consuming purr never fails to make all right with my world again.