It's the little things

As anyone who reads my blog knows, Litegeist is all about celebrating the little things. As anyone who reads my blog also knows, I am devoting this year to new creative endeavors outside the "creative writing" box. As such, today I completed my very first photoshop effect: Dreamy Photo Editing. Here is the result! Yay!

Something New

As I lay on the floor, breathing hard, in the fetal position, I watched Jillian Michael's cocky smile as my mind stuttered to a stop. Indeed, the 30 Shred Level 2 has been an initiation unlike any other for this knee-raise neophyte-well, an initiation unlike any other except one.

As I lay there, dazed, curled, exhilarated yet limp, crowing yet comatose, intensely introspective yet completely blank, it must be said: It felt like the exercise equivalent of losing your virginity.

Even now, as I drag my hollow body to the favorite easy chair with the childhood blanket to curl up and process what's just happened, I fight those warring sensations to tell all my friends or avoid everyone until my mind composes itself, until I get my dignity back, until I feel like my buoyant, chattery self again. I suppose in the same way, the 30 day shred will get easier and easier and then second nature and then something I don't even mention, or even register. I'll probably long for this level of stunned newness again. But right now, I just want some toast.

A Hidden Way to Tell if A Job is Right for You

Job shadowing and parachute colors are great, but I have a theory on another way to tell if a job is right for you. A good indicator of your future job satisfaction is how much you enjoy applying for it. After all, the application is pretty much a petri dish for the future job, so it's a good indicator of if you will enjoy the job itself.

First off, do you like the writing in the ad? Do the core values speak to you? When you are completing the application, is it fun and challenging? If so, the job will probably be fun and challenging. When you complete the job application, is it boring and stressful? Then the job will probably be boring and stressful. Tempted to stretch the truth on the app? Get ready to bring your inner Pinnochio on full-time. Find yourself trying to talk yourself into why the job is good for you? Prepare to do the same pep talk every morning and evening on your commute for the rest of the time you work at this job.

It's not rocket science. But the citizens of the floating world of Unemployment can use all the signposts they can get, and I think this is an apt one. Consider the application, your "first date" with a new job. Pay attention to how you feel throughout it, and you'll have a good indicator of whether it's time to fish or cut bait!

See-One Person/Sasquatch Hippie Can Make A Difference

I know this little gem has been making the rounds on the Internet, but as a Seattleite I think I have more claim than most to this dancing hippie video. The chain reaction of joy created on this sloping hill is amazing, so enjoy, and watch the whole thing. This guy is an Honorary Litegeister!

EMBED-Weirdo Kid Starts Huge Dance Party - Watch more free videos

Recreation versus Perspiration: An Epiphany

For years now, I have been hearing rumors about this suspicious E-word. How it makes you all tingly and relaxed. How it's the perfect stress-reliever after an intense work week. How it makes you feel happy and healthy and sexy. But I'd never actually experienced endorphins for myself until I became unemployed. I guess you could say I've always been an endorphins orphan.

I'm well-acquainted with natural highs, including those associated with shopping, chocolate, or a great conversation with a girlfriend. But I have always been nothing but suspicious of those glowing gym girls who would stroll out all gazelle-like with their yoga mats and their tube tops, raving about how "invigorated" they felt. Exercise either made me grumpy, gaspy and red-faced, or simply nonplussed.

Then I started doing the Jillian Michaels "Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism" workout on OnDemand, and lo and behold my E-phinany came. The age-old adage "no pain, no gain" was exactly applicable to my situation. I never experienced the swooping zen sensation of endorphins because I never sweat hard enough to warrant the payoff. And I didn't realize how much I was shortchanging myself, not just physically, but mentally as well.

Once you really start to push yourself in your workout, all the stress of the day finally, blessedly recedes to the back of your mind. I really genuinely did not know this, and I am 27 years old. I've been contenting myself with latte-slurping Greenlake power walks in the name of "exercise," not realizing sweet blessed mental obliteration could be mine with just a good solid kickboxing combo. And as all unemployed people know, any relief from the endless hamster wheel of anxiety and doubt and "what-ifs" is purely incredible, a drink of sweet nirvana water.

Unlike with Greenlake power walking or my other token forms of exercise, the Jillian Michaels workout pushes me into a sweat that is pure sanctuary, a hollowed out place where this is no craigslist ads or mounting bills or endless hours staring in the dark. I am not thinking about anything, or anyone but the sound and movement of my own body, of my pumping heart and gasping breath, working against my own best time. And when I go into that cobra pose at the end of that killer workout, I am calm, cool, and chalkfull of endorphins. At this point in my life, there is no better gift. Thanks, sweat.

Sunday for the Senses

Revel in the last rays of Sunday with this passage about roses, courtesy of Diane Ackerman's "Natural History of the Senses. Perfect summer reading!

"Cleopatra knew her guest [Mark Antony].   Few people have been as obsessed with roses as the ancient Romans.  Roses were strewn at public ceremonies and banquets; rose water bubbled through the emperor's fountains and the public bths surged with it; in the public amphitheaters, crowds sat under sun awnings steeped in rose perfume; rose petals were used as pillow stuffings; people wore garlands of roses in their hair; they ate rose pudding; their medicines, love potions, and aphrodisiacs all contained roses.  No bacchanalia, the Romans' official orgy, was complete without an excess of roses.  They created a holiday, Rosalia, to formally consummate their passions for the flower.  At one banquet, Nero had silver pipes installed under each plate, so that guests could be spritzed with scent between courses.  They could admire a ceiling painted to resemble the celestial heavens, which would open up and shower them in a continuous rain of perfume and flowers.  At another, he spent the equivalent of $160,000 just on roses - and one of his guests smothered to death under a shower of rose petals." 

Lite Find: Amazing $8 Ice Bucket

How neat is this inflatable ice bucket from Porta Cool? Elegant and portable, this is a Litegeist-worthy steal at a cool (pun intended) $7.95. Since it's inflatable, you can bring it camping, hiking, to the pool, and be ready for an instant summer party! Cheers to that.