Heather Christena Schmidt

There are few things that make me feel better when I’m feeling like crap. A drink is one, although that can only go as far as my buzz does. A good book will sometimes make me feel better; although, lately I have been in a bit of a reading funk. As I moped around the house the last few days, missing the Pookies, I realized that there are still a few things I could do to make myself feel a little better than a drink or my book funk ever could.

Comfort Food

Everyone loves comfort food, right? Well, my comfort food is a little different from what I’m sure most of yours is. It isn’t fatty french fries and apple pie (for the most part) – it’s weird food that I don’t get to eat that often, for various reasons.

Green beans and low fat, stove top green bean casserole is by far my favorite food, and a comfort food to boot. With less than 3% daily allowance of fat and low in calorie, this is totally okay for me to eat by the bucketful, with mushroom sauce dripping all over my pathetic and puffy face. I don’t get to eat it often because Pookie is allergic to green beans.

Another of my favorite comfort foods is cantaloupe. Cantaloupe and I met when I was little and my mom always used to have some in the refrigerator for me. When my parents got divorced, cantaloupe was like crack in a city with no dealers for me. It was just that hard to find. Then in adulthood, I started making up for all the time lost. Until that whole Listeria thing last year, and cantaloupe was temporarily robbed from me yet again. Now that the whole Listeria outbreak is long gone, I am back on my crackaloupe train.

Another comfort food is anything with fat free feta cheese. It’s hard to find the fat free feta, but (to me at least) it tastes considerably different, which means saltier. I love salt. Sometimes I think I need a salt lick, like a horse, because I just love it that much. I don’t want to hear any kind of malarkey about high blood pressure, either, because mine is low which is a part of why I crave salt so much.

Lists

Lists always make me feel better. Why you ask? Because usually when I feel poorly it’s because I feel there is disorder; and lists always help me feel that order has been restored.

Yesterday I decided to make a list of things I wanted to get done before next Monday. I thought I would take advantage of the kid-free time and get some things done, which the list helped me hone down. Instantly upon completing the list, I did feel better. Of course, today I felt like crap again because I couldn’t get much of my list done on account of the excessive heat, but that’s another story.

Arts and Crafts

I think I mentioned that I was an art major when I first started college, having graduated from high school with studio AP credit. I gave that all up for something my parents felt was more “practical” (yeah … how’d that pan out …), but that didn’t change the fact that the artsie-craftsie side of me still exists.

Arts and crafts always make me feel better. So I’ve indulged in craft overload these last few days. I am making a sign that says “Homeschooling is AWESOME” out of felt. I made a Reading Incentive poster. I created this adorable cups-on-a-pinboard thing to hold pens, pencils, markers, etc. I started knitting the Halloween costumes for this year as well – and, yes, I am knitting Halloween costumes. I also registered to take a painting class at the community college in the fall, which starts next week. This will last beyond my 12 Pookie-free days, but I think we all know I’ve got more issues that make me feel like garbage in the long term anyway, so painting class can only be a good thing.

Crying Like a B(itch)

Not everyone cries. I know people that haven’t cried for years. And I know people that cry at sad times and not much more than that. On average, I cry at least once a day.

This is when you all start learning about all the reasons I probably am a candidate for clinical depression. I don’t want to hear about that about as much as I don’t want to hear about how bad my excessive salt intake is.

So I cry. A lot. Like a b(itch). I actually don’t really cry every day, normally. I cry a lot though; so much so that I can’t remember the last time I haven’t cried or started to tear up at some point each day. This last couple weeks has been pretty rough. The Pookies going on this trip really was a mistake to allow, which I realized only much too late. To make matters worse, for almost three days now the cell phone has been turned off – something that is stressing me out to no end. So how did I cope, besides eating my green beans, making my list, and indulging in arts and crafts?

I cried motherfuckers. Cried like a b(itch).

In the end, it’s never about the problems you have to face, but how you deal with them. Do you sit around and let them get worse? Do you let them define who you are? Or do you cope, however you cope best?

What do you do when you feel like crap, faithful blog followers?