Lint 2016. A reporting.

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Easter is here which means my Lint project is over.  I did a fairly good job walking both ways across the bridge on my way to and from work.  It was interesting to note how often I didn’t have to walk across the bridge (designated by “NA”) due to appointments or meetings.  And then there were a few times where I just wasn’t in the mood.

I’ll keep up the bridge walking as best I can.

Lint 2016

Remember Lint?  Maybe not.  Lint is my project of general improvement I do some years during the season of Lent.  Lint started one year when I decided to improve my wardrobe during the days between Ash Wednesday and Easter.  One year I decided to meditate and eat mashed potatoes every day.

It’s time to pick a Lint project for 2016.  And that project is:  to walk across the Steel Bridge BOTH ways each workday between now and Easter.
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I’ve recently started a new job and decided to sneak some exercise into my day by getting off the train at Rose Quarter and walking the rest of the way to work.  It’s a nice 20 minute walk, which, in theory I walk the reverse on the way home.  In theory.  I often find reasons not to make the end-of-day walk.

So for the next 40 or so days, I will make sure I make both trips over the bridge.*

*There will be a slight exception this Friday because I already had plans to meet up with the boyfriend after work.  But every other work day** I have plans to walk.
**Actually, the first Wednesday of this project I had book group. In order to make it on time I couldn’t walk across the bridge.  So if there are reasons like that, those are okay.

Jockey’s Slip Shorts.

In the quest to live life without chafing thighs, I purchased Jockey’s Slip Shorts.  They are light and breathable and not at all restrictive like Spanx and other girdle-type shorts are.  I loved how they fit, they were very comfortable.
Unfortunately, the “slip” turned out to be a verb and not a noun.  Those shorts would not stay in place.  Wearing them under my uniform dress, I had to hike them up roughly every six steps.  And that’s too much adjusting of underwear in public.   I tested to see just how far they would slip down by walking to the store without hiking them up.  I hadn’t gone a block when they had crawled down to my knees and I resorted to holding them up at knee level to keep them from ending up around my ankles.
There was no clear sense of sizing either.  In the dressing room I tried on LG, XL, XXL, XXXL in different colors and lengths and all seemed to fit exactly the same.  I went with the smallest size I tried on.  Maybe I should have gone smaller?  Or maybe this product needs to go back to the drawing board.

I don’t disagree, but that doesn’t mean I have $1600.00

O, the Oprah Magazine has this feature every month.  It encourages you to purchase well-made, classic things because it pays off over time.  This month they have a Burberry trench coat.  I love it.  It’s beautiful, and in Portland, Oregon, would be my main coat for three of four seasons.  There’s only one problem.  The cost.

Lint results.

As you may recall, my Lint projects this year were to meditate daily and to eat mashed potatoes every day.  Here are my results:

As you can see, I was much better at eating mashed potatoes, only missing two times.  The first time (March 22) I completely forgot, remembering at 9:00pm that I had yet to eat potatoes. The second time I just didn’t prioritize eating mashed potatoes.  I must note that I still like mashed potatoes and I will eat them again, but I was quite happy on May 6 to not eat them.  It turns out that while I could eat them every day of my life, they are not quite as pleasurable as when I don’t eat them every day of my life.  It would be interesting to see if Andy Lee-Hillstrom (the person responsible for this particular  Lint Project) would have a similar experience.

The mediation was harder, mostly because once I make a batch of potatoes and portion them out, scheduling the eating of them is no problem.  Whereas I must find time every day to meditate.  Most days that’s just a thing that takes some effort and then there are days that even effort doesn’t get it done.  I missed two each of Sundays and Thursdays and Saturdays, one Friday and Three Mondays.  Mondays are my longest workday, and Saturdays and Sundays have less structure, so there’s no “automatic” meditation time.  On weekdays, my “automatic” meditation time is right after I get home from work.  Thursdays, however, are movie night and I usually plunge right into the movie, which causes me to skip the meditation.

I will keep up with the meditation because I feel much better when I do it on a regular basis, much less high strung.


Here’s my final mashed potatoes breakfast, hidden under the spinach and eggs.

Orthodox Lint Project

Hey!  Orthodox Lent is just beginning!  Just in time for my new idea for a Lint project:

Mashed Potatoes and Meditation!

Yes, that’s right.  From now until Orthodox Easter (known as Greek Easter to my family) on May 5, I will meditate every day and also eat mashed potatoes every day.

Why?

I have a sneaking suspicion that my insomnia might be tied to a lack of meditation and I want to test that theory.  Plus, meditation is good for me and I’ve fallen away from it.  As for the mashed potatoes, my favorite local actor, Andy Lee-Hillstrom (U of Idaho graduate!) ended his bio for the play The Velvet Sky with the following: Andy’s a sucker for a good montage, the sound of fingernails being clipped grosses him out, and he could eat mashed potatoes every day of his life.

When I related to Matt that I too could eat mashed potatoes every day of my life, he didn’t believe me.  So I’m eating them every day of Orthodox Lent.