Monday, May 31, 2010

It's time to begin again

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!

I plan to celebrate today by revealing the June challenge to you. Yeah, I know it doesn't have much to do with our soldiers, but that's what I'm doing.

The June challenge is to try one scary thing everyday. My idea of scary food and your idea of scary food are probably pretty different, so don't be surprised if you see me trying cinnamon raisin bagels or something like that. I am one of the pickiest eaters I know. Amazingly, I am not THE pickiest eater I know, but that's not important. My menus usually consist of foods 5-year-olds would find appealing. For example, ice cream sandwiches, Jello, macaroni and cheese, pizza, spaghetti, etc. So the rule is that I have to try one thing everyday that I would not eat if I were not doing this challenge.

I'm hoping that I actually find some foods I like that are not what I would usually eat. My sister and brother-in-law have invited me for sushi this month, so this challenge will also provide me with the opportunity to spend more time with my family. Perhaps it will even give my family a break from always going to restaurants I want to go to.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Ending early

I think it is time to bury my poor dead May challenge. My father's eye surgery makes seeing anything too difficult right now and asking him to read notes from me instead of listening to me when I am capable of talking just seems too cruel. I am not forgetting my plans though! I already have next month's challenge ready to go and it will be MUCH easier to stick to all month.

Because this month's challenge was so important to me, I may have to resurrect it later on. Perhaps later on in this series or just sometime over my life. It was really nice having my father avoid fighting with me since he knew I wouldn't say anything back to him. Oh well.

Friday, May 14, 2010

So far away...

In case you have missed my posts over the past few days, I apologize for my absence. I went out of town on Saturday to visit a friend in another state and, while I took my computer with me, I was a bit busy so I didn't use it much.

As you may logically have guessed, I did not hold my silence while I was gone. If I'm going to drive forever to go see my long lost friend, I'm going to talk to her. Makes sense, right? But, now that I am home and desperately trying to reestablish order in my life, I intend to pick up where I left off. The only complication is that my father just had eye surgery and my not have any patience with my attempts at silent communication. We'll see how it goes.

I missed you and my challenge this week, but I had a super time away, so I'm not sorry. Mea culpa.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

PS

The hardest one for me to avoid talking to is my cat. Explain that. She never talks back, so maybe I just don't notice that I'm talking to her? Before you worry too much, I say things like, "Hey baby!" or "No, don't chew on my computer charger cord". I don't have long conversations with her.

Observations Post #1

I have several observations to share with my reading public about my current experiment.

First, contrary to what I believed, silence is an easy mode to get into. It's kind of annoying to have to write everything down, but the instinct to speak immediately disappeared surprisingly quickly. Actually, I'm finding that I just open my mouth a lot less since nothing can come out of it except carbon dioxide. Of course, because I'm writing stuff down, I say less. I was talking to my dad about the top 5 American entrepreneurs earlier. I had opinions, but we were sitting on opposite sides of the room, my notepad was on the kitchen counter, and I didn't feel like altering either of those things. So I just didn't contribute to the conversation.

We went out to dinner tonight. I anticipated that I would have to write out my meal orders since we eat out a lot (my dad doesn't cook and I don't turn down free food). My dad did not seem to anticipate this experience. He anticipated a meal of him talking to himself and planned on bringing a book. I probably shouldn't have minded, but I was a little bothered. Just because I'm not speaking doesn't mean I'm not talking, you know? I showed him my notebook and he left The Case for Faith at home.

Dinner was entertaining, both for the company and the experiment. I was surprised by the waitress. Because I wasn't speaking to her, she didn't speak to me. It was strange, but I probably should have expected it. Instead of asking me if my food was alright, she pointed to it and performed the "thumbs up" gesture. When she approached the table, she touched my shoulder to get my attention. We informed her that I had laryngitis, so she knew I wasn't deaf. It was just surprising and entertaining to observe.

I still haven't been able to maintain a COMPLETE day of silence and it's a bit irritating. My dad kept asking me questions about the plot of an NCIS episode he walked in in the middle of, so I finally gave up trying to gesture the answers. It's complicated, okay? Also, more phone calls regarding my speeding ticket. On the plus side, that's almost completely taken care of. I'm waiting on one more piece of paper and roughly $200 and that sucker will be washed right out of my hair. I did have one fabulous distraction from my silence though. My girl in NC and I only text. She hates talking on the phone, so she calls me about... once every two months or so. She called today to let me listen to her two-year-old say my name. TOTALLY worth it.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Consistency

I'm two days into my first challenge and failing miserably. I've worked both days and been silent before and after work, but I really wish I was able to be consistent all day. I'm missing out on the full experience by allowing myself to talk so much. I'm not working again for a while, so I have plenty of time to work on that.

One of my other problems has been the "legal exceptions" part. I got a speeding ticket this past week and making all the arrangements to fulfill the requirements of my ticket has been annoying and verbal. It's amazing to me that there are government agencies that have barely functioning websites.

In short, I'm looking forward to tomorrow, my very first complete silent day. Thus far, I think the only real result is annoying the crap out of my father. Sorry, dad!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Challenge #1

Well, it's finally here. May 2, the day before I start my first month long challenge and the day that you, my darling reader, get to know what my challenge is. So..... *drumroll please*

I will NOT be talking for a month.

Of course, like everything, there are exceptions. I will talk if medically or legally necessary (oh my goodness, can you imagine trying to mime your way out of a speeding ticket?). I will also talk when my infrequent job requires it. I'm going to be working TWO days this week, so that's two days I'm breaking the rules. Outside of work on those days, I will be silent. Other than those exceptions, it's going to be a quiet month for me.

I will still type, text, write, and gesture, so I won't be totally non-communicative (in case that would be a sad thing to you). I will probably be playing Ursula's "Poor Unfortunate Souls" a lot this month.

I'm interested to see how other people will be around me if I'm not really contributing to the conversation. Will they talk to me? Will they ignore me? Will they forget I'm there and say things they don't want me to hear?

It will also be interesting to see how this challenges the people who serve me. I'm probably just going to have to have a card I keep on me at all times that says, "Water, no ice, no lemon".

So here's my first observation: I dye my hair red. I have The Little Mermaid paraphanalia everywhere. Now, I'm not speaking. It's possible that I'm taking my Ariel obsession to an unhealthy level. On that note, if you're hot, single, play the flute, and are named Eric, call me. In June.