Les Pensées.

Thoughts.

Sometimes I try and have a few.

And because I know that you're all extraordinarily interested in the inner workings of my little grey cells, I have decided to share a few of my thoughts from les derniers mois, or past few months.

Upon moving to live on my own in a small apartment hundreds of miles away from my family and friends, and because I am sort of a strong personality, I was aware that this living on my own would present the challenge of learning how to not become completely self-absorbed, when the only person I have to worry about is, in fact, myself. I do a decent job of cleaning up after myself, doing my homework on time, keeping myself healthy, and generally living a neat and orderly life.

So now that I'm home for the holiday break, the temptation is strong for me to just deal with my own self, and not want to think about dealing with everyone else's stuff:

"No, I don't want to clean up that person's junk."

"No, I really, really don't want to wash dishes."

"Please don't make me wipe the counters.... again...."

"No, I'd rather not be helpful. I'm the visitor. Do it for me."

Oh self-betterment, how bad I am at capturing you...

But the other day, I came upon these little beaded bracelets that I made y e a r s ago. The elastic bands are almost to their end, I wore them so much. They've got a few words on them to help me remember traits I struggle to have, and remind me of the gal I'd like to be. And it's funny to me that they act as little reprimands if I'm wearing them. I'm a visual person- If I don't write it down, I'll forget, but if I see it, I'm constantly reminded. So I've been wearing these little bracelets and they talk to me:

"Oh Annie. You shouldn't have said that."

"Oh you... can't you see that that person needs help?!"

"Oh you hopeless mess of a girl, just be a nice person."

"Please, for the love of all things good, be kind."

Oh yes. I'm keenly aware of my flaws when I wear them. But they are helping me. Especially with the males in my family, 'cause sheesh-a-loo, someday I'll probably be married to someone like them, and then I'll be forced into liking him while having to pick up after him, and trying to feel sorry for him when he's sick and blowing his nose in front of me like an old man, and standing in front of the medicine cabinet saying "do we have any mediciiiiiiiine?" when he hasn't even opened the cabinet door yet................................ Be kind. Be kind. Remember the bracelets.

And the moral of this story is:

"A good piece of jewelry goes a loooooooooong way."

;)

(P.S. I hope the tounge-in-cheek quality has come out in the writing of this post. Heaven knows that I'm sure smiling while writing it.)