progress not perfection

That's one of the little slogans of Al-Anon (& other 12-step groups)... you know, like "Easy does it" and "One day at a time." (I've been going to Al-Anon mtgs occasionally and reading some of the lit).

I'm tempted to focus on what I screwed up today: to avoid doing some work for a committee I'm on, I ended up playing with iTunes for, uh, four hours. I imported a couple of CDs, made an "I love Loopy" playlist, and modified some of my other playlists I haven't been happy with.

Now I feel like shit.

OK, "progress not perfection." Right. How can I reframe this in those terms?

So, yesterday Loopy left for Chicago... so I'm home alone again, after having gone to Chicago with her the last two weeks.

Those who have been following my adventures closely will remember that I have struggled to stay "on track" while she's out of town. I tend to stay up til 4 am and not eat much...or get out of my chair.

So last night went to sleep at 1:30. That was actually a pretty big deal.

This morning I got up, had a good breakfast, didn't get on the computer during breakfast, stretched, walked on the treadmill, and had a good lunch (both breakfast and lunch were leftovers, extra bonus points there!).

After lunch I thought I would just do my committee work quickly and then get on with schoolwork... but after a phone convo about the committee work, I gradually veered off the path more and more...with a stopover on this blog earlier in the afternoon... until I ended up in the monomaniacal iTunes fog.

So, okay. Let's look at it like this. Fourteen hours is a new record for staying on track while Loopy's gone. Fourteen... doesn't sound like much but it's more than, uh, let's see, what's my prior record?

Zero? One or two at most...

Huh. That does make me feel better.

Until I start to think about how crazy this whole problem is in the first place... (see how I just drag myself back down as soon as I perk up? Stop that!!!) <-- attempting to use my new alpha-dog voice...

OK. I put some rice on for dinner and am gonna have a bath while it cooks. Hoping that restores me to sanity (yup, a hot bath is my higher power, at least for tonight).

Hoping you're all feeling pretty sane... have a good night & thanks for reading.