different hour, different mood

[asakiyume]

I just was enjoying a gift that someone gave me. It was wonderful, I was smiling; it brightened my morning.

But yesterday, when the gift was delivered, I had a totally different reaction, more along the lines of OMG, what?! Someone is giving me artisanal ice cream in a flavor I love, that they made themselves? Ahhhhhh, I don't have TIME for this! I can't eat ice cream now! I'm stressed out and not-hungry and anyway someone my age develops a heart condition or diabetes or at the very least puts on unwanted weight just by looking at ice cream, Aahhhhhhhhh!

--Not the way you should greet handmade ice cream in your favorite flavor. But yesterday, I was preparing to accompany Wakanomori to Logan Airport, a journey I profoundly hate (though I don't mind the actual airport part of it). The only thing worse than driving to Logan in January is driving to Logan in January in the snow--I was very grateful the trip was yesterday and not tomorrow, when snow is expected.

All this set-up is to make the breathtakingly obvious statement that your mood colors how you view things. This is more a note to self: hey Asakiyume! Your mood affects things! Yes, even you, you special snowflake! And if you find yourself stressed out by things that are actually perfectly delightful, maybe it doesn't mean suddenly you don't like ice cream anymore or are the world's most ungrateful friend. Maybe it just means that's a particularly bad moment, and you should WAIT before trying to have a reaction.

... Because I did wait (not graciously! More along the lines of I can't DEAL with this damn ice cream right now!!), and just now I really did enjoy it, completely happily, no friction.

Speaking of gifts, you know what gift some stressed-out parent would be very glad to receive right now? This tiny abandoned jacket.

Comments

[mallorys_camera]

Where is Wakanomori off to?

[asakiyume]

The UK--his mother is ailing and he and his siblings are trying to sort things out for her.

[amaebi]

I'm hoping things will be okay there.

[asakiyume]

Thank you 🙏🏻

[sartorias]

Homemade ice cream, yummy!

[asakiyume]

When you're in the right mindset, absolutely!

[minoanmiss]

This is an excellent post on perspective.

[asakiyume]

Thank you! (Thank you for reading my big old note-to-self)

[amaebi]

I’m sorry you had a stressful drive, still more that you had a stressful drive before you. You are generous to provide it.

I hope that coat got back to its family.

[asakiyume]

Fingers crossed for the coat!

The thing about that kind of stress is that when it's gone, it's blessedly gone. Very grateful that the stresses in my life tend to be that sort and not the grinding, semi-perpetual ones that so many people have to deal with.

[amaebi]

I'm glad that stress leaves you! It is not so for everyone. :/

One of the many good things about our being car-free currently and for some time to come is that no one is currently expecting me to drive in English towns. :D

I'm fine on highways-- who isn't? and if I have a co-pilot to keep an eye on the nav and its correspondence to streets made of solid(ish) molecules I'm okay driving into a town and getting parked. :D But on my own? *shudder*

[asakiyume]

I enjoy some driving! The dislike of that drive is irrational. My other driving fears, by contrast, are very rational: I hate any kind of snow driving because I don't trust my control of the car, let alone everyone else's control of theirs. My most terrifying moments in cars all involve snow.

I never drove in England: I got as far as a driving lesson but backed the instructor's car into a pole, whereupon we both of us decided to call it quits.

[amaebi]

Well, your end of Massachusetts is really full of curly-whirly roads to an unseemly extent. And likewise deer.

Sheeyun and I both passed the written test that permits us simply to use our US driving licenses plus a magic card, instead of passing the full UK test whew.

The degree of attention required to driving a car in streets laid out for carts is a bit much for me, courteous though drivers are.

[osprey_archer]

Ah this is such a mood. "How DARE this nice thing happen, I don't have BANDWIDTH to DEAL WITH IT right now!" A book coming in at the library, a TV show I love starting a new season... sometimes life is just overwhelming.

[asakiyume]

Ahaha, you understand perfectly 😘

[queenoftheskies]

Mood definitely affects a lot of things.

I'm thankful you got to the airport and back safely and that you were able to enjoy your ice cream later.

[asakiyume]

Thank you, my dear!