Habit forming

I just found out about this book  while searching for "habit" images.
I was just talking about Tharp on Saturday night. This must be a sign.
 (I have a habit of interpreting random events as signs from the universe.)


By the way, as of yesterday this blog has a reanimated age of 3 months! That's almost like a habit.

I am not good about the 20-minute rule, though, and too often I blog in the morning, which is writing-writing time. The blog is supposed to be a brief nighttime thing. My habit has habits.

So what are other habits I have and are they good or bad or are they simply what they are?

The first ten habits I can think of:

  1. The first thing I do in the morning is pour a cup of coffee. The first sip is one of my favorite moments of the day. I then neglect to finish the cup before it gets cold.
  2. I chew on the cuticle on the left side of the nail on the second finger of my right hand, where the flesh is permanently dented and thickened from all the pencils I held as a child.  
  3. I say yes to too many things.
  4. Every time I do, I think about a quote from Sark, in which she recommends experimenting with yes-saying and I wonder about the wisdom of this. I want to write about the wisdom of no-saying.
  5. I make up funny nicknames for my children and my siblings and my parents and everyone else in my family. We all do this. Our nicknames have nicknames.
  6. I scratch my hairline while I read.
  7. I hang my keys on the key hook without thinking about it 87% of the time.
  8. When I go to the library I get lost browsing. This happens at the grocery store too. I am less inclined anymore to get lost at a bookstore, because I am on a book buying moratorium b/c I have so many already.
  9. One of the first things I look at when I meet a person, or even just ride public transportation with them, is their shoes.
  10. I sit on my foot until it falls asleep several times a day.
For a while, I had a habit of writing for an hour in the morning and then exercising for 20 - 30 minutes. This was a good habit, and one I would like to re-cultivate.


Reading: Started Carry the One by Carol Anshaw, who could have been a teacher of mine, if I had accepted the offer to go to grad school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago rather than Goddard.

Writing: I am half asleep and I imagined this said something else that had to do with children's games. Really. And I made this template. No writing today. I need to get back in the saddle.

Dinner: David made "simple seasoned black beans" from the Vegetarian Times cookbook. Z reminded me I forgot to make Monday pizza yesterday. Habit fail. Leftover beef hash demanded its time. Next week.

Soundtrack: No, what? Music? I must've heard some.

Random thing: When I was considering the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, we went and did a whole "maybe we're moving to Chicago" trip, looking at preschools and poking around different neighborhoods. Sometimes I imagine there is a ghostly version of us who made that move and is there now.

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