Coping

A friend of mine wrote a blog post a couple days ago in which she asked the question, "How do you cope with strong negative emotions?" She listed her tried-and-trues and asked us to comment with our own effective-healthy ways of coping. Here's my list. (I divided it into two because I realized most of them had one of two functions for me.)

When I need to process or vent:
• journaling
• cleaning my room
• talking honestly to my mom or sometimes my dad
• Skyping/texting/phoning with a close friend or sister
• screaming
• writing a letter
• going for a drive
• drinking a mug of tea someplace quiet
• taking a bath

When I just need to distract myself or cheer myself up:
• turning off my laptop and getting absorbed in a book
• making a care package
• Skyping/texting/phoning with a close friend or sister
• taking a shower
• listening to oldies
• watching an episode of Xena
• cleaning my room
• going for a bike ride
• working on my to-read list of bookmarked classic feminist writings available online
• being helpful
• taking a nap
• drinking a mug of tea someplace quiet

Make your own list in the comments and then we can steal from one another. Yes, I like that idea.

April, 84 degrees

Diana's take on Wisconsin

Happiness and gratitudes

• Days when we can see the sun.

• Free group videochatting on Google+. Finally FINALLY a haven for my scattered dorm friends.

• Farmer's markets with my mama.

• Where Were U In '92? Pseudo-nineties, as through a noughties lens. (The answer for me, by the way: too young to be anywhere but at home, let alone enjoying the golden days of rave...)

• Falling asleep quickly every night.

• Possibly having found work. (Hired for a trial period. It's an...okay job.)

• Roasted salted lentils. So nice a snack. Salt salt salt.

• Trust and honesty from friends.

• Radical feminism, and feminist networking online.

• Suzi and Erin.

• Stubbornness, experience, and faith. (Tangent: Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace...I love that title. An album I don't know well.)

• Reviewing German.

• Writing letters, and that I always have letters in my desk drawer to reply to.

Week, ish, in photos (180-188)

These are quite late because my compact (my only digital camera) kind of broke, so there weren't going to be any more pictures in the point-and-shoot 365 for a while. (It fell out of my bag when I fell off my bike, and took three pictures [see 188] before succumbing to coma. No money at present to get it diagnosed or fixed.) But I may be able to borrow a point-and-shoot for the summer. Anyhow.


180/365. Couchsurfing morning.


181/365. Illinois summer.


182/365. Japantown.


183/365. These for Father's Day. Nice and dense; proper muffins, not breakfast cupcakes.


184/365. Golden Gate Park Stables, now closed and minus a riding ring. A childhood haunt.


185/365. New top in the bathroom at my new summer college.


186/365. Because I wanted to make these.


187/365. My neighborhood. High summer fog.


188/365. Walked straight into the ocean to rinse them out. Then pictures. Ha, ha.