That’s what Dave Ramsey calls each and every one of his financial coaching tips –– Baby Steps — which is both deliberately non-intimidating and disturbing.
On the way home from teaching my private client today, Belle and I found this solo baby sneaker on the street, complete with a Nike “JUST DO IT” swoosh. [“Just do it” seems a bit too much inspirational, tough love for an infant, don’t you think?]
I found myself with an interesting Bashar-ian echo today when I went to the UPS store to drop off the batch of DVDs and found a threatening letter from a collection agency about an unpaid ticket for $790. This was my first notification about the ticket, and came from a period where I was in fact in Florida, so the “it wasn’t me” defense would be easy enough to prove. However, after calling the number, I got temporarily swallowed up in bureaucratic madness and corruption. Apparently on 7/31 of last year, red-light camera tickets were abandoned (here’s an LA Times article about it) and this ticket was issued on 8/1; here’s another LA Times piece about how these aren’t being pursued in court and should just be ignored.
Beyond the fact that this ticket is therefore a complete waste of time –– although I suppose worth getting cleared up since “it wasn’t me” is true –– it was interesting so see how quickly it affected my mood (for obvious reasons). It was very visceral. Just imagine opening a letter about full of threats of liens and garnished wages for an infraction that you had no idea about (and had nothing to do with.)
It was a great chance to to practice coming back into Alignment during a financial crisis. I tried a little EFT tapping and that really helped –– and I did have a reality check throughout the experience because I always knew I’d ultimately be off the hook since I was across the country –– but I was able to observe the mental and emotional place I go to when presented with these kind of stresses.
Anyway, once we returned home from my great yoga client (BIG breakthrough in crow today), Belle and I prepped for a FANTASTIC dinner with Susan, and Val and Valerie (or Valerie 2 as I like to call her), and Valerie 2’s incredible visiting Mom, Jill, at Greens.
I liked that we were starting early-bird special style at 5:45 –– and the food at Greens is great, by the way –– but in fact, had so much fun that we left the restaurant shortly after 9 pm.
It was a super-magical night, particularly since we were all meeting Valerie 2’s mom for the first time, and her life story was like a much better, more interesting off-shoot of Mad Men (things like leaving Westport, CT for Hartford meetings of NOW in the 70s). And, in case you are wondering, in the all-important personality indicator of the DOWNTON ABBEY online QUIZ, she — like Susan — is Lady Sybil. [Or as the SNL parody of SPIKE TV’s recap of the show summarized, “the one who’s WAY hot.”]
Home to the Vampire Diaries –– those crazy kids in Mystic Falls seem to need me more and more, no matter what I do –– and tomorrow, back to another intense round of script edits.
In fact, I am thoroughly ready for bed except I have a Words With Friends person named “My5grandkids” who seems committed to playing although they seem to have drifted off in the last few minutes, probably looking for the Nike Baby Sneaker we saw on Broadway.
Don’t worry –– we left it where we found it.
Baby Steps.
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