Countdown, Day 5: Ice Cream and Face Punching

Half-way there!  Woo hoo!  

Instead of a long introduction, I'll just show you my hideous page for today:

"If someone breaks your heart, punch them in the face.  Seriously.  Punch them in the face, then go get ice cream."  -Frank Ocean

I saw this quote on Pinterest and thought it was a good one...deserving of a page in one of the journals for sure.  I REALLY dislike how this page looks...I feel like I ruined ice cream, which should be impossible, due to the greatness of ice cream, but clearly isn't impossible, because I did.  I don't think it's the ice cream itself, it's the rest of it...it's just blah.  I can do better than this!  There will probably be some version of a re-do on this one...  So, I don't like how the page turned out at all...but I do still like the quote!

This silly page is to remind me to let go of the stinky things that other people say.  

I have the fantastic ability to remember every single negative thing that was ever said to me over the course of my life so far.  Ok, maybe not every single thing, but A LOT of them.  I'm like a savant when it comes to remembering mean, hurtful, spiteful, angry words...usually in vivid detail.  Which is odd, because otherwise I have a terrible memory...so bad I sometimes think I've got early onset Alzheimer's.  (Mental disorders are the one thing I get a little hypochondriac-ish about.)  All these negative words stick to my brain and float around in there.  

When I saw this quote, it made me think about my collection of little nasty words.  Despite the silliness of the image this quote called to mind (stick figure with bloody knuckles eating an ice cream cone, with another stick figure knocked out in the background...yes, that's really how I think...I know, I'm a weirdo...), these words are actually pretty wise.  In my case, they seemed to tell me that people can be jerks.  Punch them in the face by ignoring their ridiculousness.  Go get ice cream means don't let it bother you, just let it go and move on.  And the reason you can let it go and move on, is because IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER!!!

I don't know why, at some earlier point in my life, I have not realized it, but so what?  So what if someone says something mean spirited to me?  Sure, it's bound to hurt, especially if it comes from someone you love.  But why hold onto it?  What use is it to hang onto those things?

I saw another quote that says "What other people think of you is NOT your business."  In other words, all those dumb things that I think about so much...they just don't really matter.  It's not on me, it's on them.  

I guess this kind of goes along with my rambling post about my opinion being the one that should be the most important.  I just didn't connect the two things the other day.  If I like who I am or the way I do things, and it's not hurting anyone, then it doesn't matter two flips what someone else has to say about it.  

It's even more silly to keep someone else's opinion on repeat for all your life, especially when the situations those mean words applied to have been over and done with for years!  How in the world has it taken me so long to recognize this fact, when it's so obvious now?  

So, here's the deal: I'm hitting the delete button on all the negative stuff and I'm not going to let my brain record it anymore.  Starting today, I'm punching those heartbreaking words in the face!  And right now...I'm off to get some celebratory ice cream...

The Extreme Brightness

Here's a page for one of the Facebook groups I'm in...the prompts were neon, stickers, money.  In an odd turn of events, I have very few stickers...  This realization was very disturbing to me!  When did I become the kind of adult that can buy stickers at will and yet has NO STICKERS???  I am going to have to work on that...an adult with no stickers...I feel like a monster!!!  My nine year old self is shaking her head in disgust at me!

This picture does not accurately portray the EXTREME brightness of this page...

Aside from my limited sticker collection, I had a hard time with this page...the neon is NOT a comfortable color choice for me.  I like color...but oh...oh, so very bright!  I have to admit that as I flip past this page in my journal in search of a blank one, I stop and admire the background quite a bit...  It turns out I must like those frighteningly bright colors after all.  It makes me wonder why I don't use them a little more often...and it makes me afraid that I'm becoming a boring adult!  No stickers, no crazy colors...WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!?  

In searching out something to use for the money part of the prompt, I kept coming across these insightful quotes about money...but I couldn't do it!  My funky stickers were mocking me and my grown-up quotes...so then I had to search jokes about money instead...and I think I agree with the raccoon in the apron... "Ugh...that's so corny."  but it works well for my animal related stickers and the brightness of the neons...so STOP JUDGING ME RACCOON!!!  

I had a stroke of brilliance and a stop at the local dollar store (to get stickers) so that I can do another page for this theme.  I don't care for this page very much, and I want another shot at doing these prompts.  Where were you over the weekend inspiration?  Taking a vacation or something?  Get back to work!

Sometimes I think it's kind of refreshing to do a page that you just don't like...it's visual motivation for me... I feel like I can do better, and I know it can't be worse than that hideousness!  This is not the first bad page I've made, nor will it be the last sadly...but it feels freeing to get the ugly out of the way and move on to making better pages.

I wonder if the other ladies in my group had as hard of a time on this week's prompts as I did...probably not, they are creative and amazing and resourceful...and they probably had better stickers...