It's the little things

So it's definitely a stressful time for all.

I had a whole paragraph here outlining the stresses impacting my life personally, but, well, you don't need to know.  So deleted and summarized in 3 words:  $, people, work.

*exhale*

Now, the positives.  Despite what the deleted paragraphs would suggest, I am working *really* hard to stay focused on the positives and keep my mental health in check. (hence deleted ;)

So - I now get to work 100% from home.  I *love* working from home.  I get more sleep; I'm a more functional human; I save money; I have a lot more patience and productivity for work.   All wins.

When I'm stressed on a call,
I just have to look over and see this and my blood pressure drops :)

I'm exercising every day and Sasha is often getting two walks a day now that I don't have to commute and I'm home at lunch time.   Tucker often snuggles next to me while I'm working -- a constant hug :)

Sasha also is a lot easier to live with when she's getting all the walks :).  And, better yet, sometimes Chris comes too :). And I never feel guilty leaving Sasha alone to go to work cause, well, she comes with me.

I've found a fitness program that I admittedly don't love, but it's only 30 mins a day and is getting results, so win.

I'm being very careful what I view on social media and how much news I consume.  I try to share primarily positive and light items for those who need a break from the constant negativity (lots of critters!).  It's the little I can contribute from my place on the couch ;)

The weather's decent and I can step outside at lunch or on breaks, and when I'm done work I'm home immediately and can go soak up sunshine before it goes away (hence the multiple Sasha walks :)

Almost everybody is having similar financial challenges.  *Hopefully* this will be short term and we will all get through it.  But if not, we'll be going through it together.  Government measures are getting closer and closer to helpful, so maybe...   5-year rule:  5 years from now, will this matter?   Hopefully not.

But most importantly, at this point, everybody I love is still healthy.   Here's hoping by following the isolation rules, all will remain that way.

For the win :)

So I did a thing :).  This is the second time I've won the CHOW (challenge of the week) -- note, as the name might imply, there is one every week.  Twice is good, but certainly far from superstardom ;)

What amuses me is that it's in the same round as last time.  Which is *not* a round that involves punching anything *sigh*.  It would seem I'm reasonably good at lifting weights quickly ;).  This time around 1 rep included -- squat, bicep curl, press -- all holding dumbbells.  As many as possible in 3 minutes.

The CHOW moves from round to round each week and the different rounds have different challenges -- but 6 of them involve punching things.   I'll be very happy the day I get one for punching something lol.  I think I'm currently in second for this week -- but it completely toasted me so no chance of a redo being of any use.  I did it on Monday and today is the first day I haven't felt it.

Wrecked my hand punching something this week though.  Scrunched it from the side.  Less fun. Although tbh, I'm somewhat surprised I haven't done it before now...

A sport I will not be taking up ;)

So a couple weeks ago we had a team event at work that I'm finally writing about ;)

The first thing was to *get* to the event, in our team-for-the-day.   Our team had two incredibly competitive people (to put this in perspective: I am *not* one of them...) so of course we had to get there first.  Note, this was not a race, but that apparently is irrelevant *g*

The weather was horrid so we took the PATH.  One of our teammates was doing the tour guide thing on the way, which was surprisingly entertaining.  Also -- we found a keyboard staircase?!?!  SO much fun.  I managed to convince a couple people to pause and play with me ;).  Then we raced to catch up to the competitive ones *g*

Eventually we got to the event. First.  By a long time.   But the event was ping-pong, so at least we could amuse ourselves while we were there.  Two of our team started playing and were *good*.  Lol so random - I somehow wasn't expecting that.   The only other woman on my team asked if I would practice with her.  We were HORRIBLY bad.  Lol I haven't laughed that hard in ages.  For one thing, ping pong balls are remarkably light...   We had them in the ceiling, off the back wall (3 tables away), in the bar -- and bystanders were definitely not safe anywhere near us.   We'd be gentle a time or two but then it would go slightly the wrong direction and we'd attempt to salvage it -- with too much strength.   We also bent ALL the rules -- if the ball went back to the other person is all that mattered.  It could bounce off the floor, the ceiling, another person...  Catch it in one hand and throw it.  All good.  So. Much. Fun.

I suspect ping-pong doesn't generally involve quite so much exercise ;)

But other people showed up and we'd been at it for a while so we handed over our paddles for a bit.   A while later I was watching two women I work with quite a bit playing -- and one in particular was *really* good.  Well apparently she was on her school team?!?!  Lol who knew.  Apparently ping pong (I'm sorry "Table Tennis") is a big thing in India.  And most of the teammates who grew up there had moderate to good skills.  And at least awareness of the rules ;)

So after watching for a bit a fourth person joins us and suggests pairs.  Sure, why not.  Well.  Apparently there are even *more* rules when there are pairs.  Lol -- and while I got the ones about serving, I could not get my head around 'hit the ball once, step back let other person hit the ball, step up and hit the ball again'.   This did not go well.  And my poor, exceptionally competent partner was getting very frustrated.  I think she gave up about when I hit the ball that had bounced off the floor back into play. So she decided this would be a good time to get another drink ;).  One player on the other side also wanted a break (this I claim is not my fault!) and I ended up playing with a very good player on the other side, but one who was highly amused by my take on the rules.   We definitely invented a new game -- I would hit it wildly, it would bounce off the floor somewhere, and he would hit it back so it would land exactly where it was supposed to on the table ;).  Lol -- he was playing real tennis (and getting the workout that goes with it!) and I was playing table tennis.  It was awesome, and highly entertaining.

The expression on her face pretty much sums it up ;). Also, this picture was the perfect top to the day

When it came time to officially play I lost every game.  Alas, I do not see a potential ping pong career in my future.  But the pre-game practice was more entertaining than anything I've done in a while.

Also -- this week, when one teammate threatened we should form a softball team, I reminded them of my pingpong skills and respectfully suggested that handing me a bat or ball would probably not be good for anybody's health ;).  Win.