The Best Kind of Tired

I am utterly wiped out tonight but it is the best kind of tired ever. Remember when you were a kid and spent the whole day at the beach, in the water almost all day and you came home feeling waterlogged by the water and toasted from being in the sun all day but you were blissfully happy and carefree?

I may not be carefree but I am happily waterlogged by the weather and life this this weekend. It was an amazingly summery weekend with temperatures in the high 80's all weekend. It isn't going to stay this warm, but it was a nice prelude to summer and a notification that we will definitely need the air conditioners as our new home gets all afternoon sun and holds heat like the sand on the beach making it warm well into the evenings.

Saturday was a full day of spending time with my niece. After getting up with her at 6:30 AM and doing all kinds of outside stuff - I was ready for a nap myself when she napped! All in all we made three trips to the playground, one trip to my parents' house, 2 walks in the neighborhood, a trip to Whole Foods (for breakfast yummies) and the nap. It was a great day ...and I was in bed sleeping by 9:30 PM!

Today was more of the same, but also some time with my husband pulling out and spraying down all of the yard furniture and lolling about the yard reading.

Tonight we are having a small birthday party - the dessert type - for my mom! Happy Birthday mom! This week is supposed to be cooler in the 60's except for Tuesday which is supposed to be 92-degrees! Can you say Global Warming causing all of these weird shifts in temperature?!?

Hope your weekend was a great one too!

Friday Fill-Ins

And...here we go - thanks to Janet!
1. Apparently there's some sort of economic downturn going on.
2. Nothing brightens my mood more than a sunny day.
3. 2009 has been pretty darn alright so far.
4. I made the decision to go on the trip and that was it!
5. For too long I've been being the person I think others want me to be.
6. I am not obsessed with having a plan; I am not! LOL!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to an overnight with my niece, tomorrow my plans include taking her to the park, going for a walk with her in the big red wagon, watching some Curious George, and reading some Cat in the Hat and Sunday, I want to get a few flowers to plant in my front garden area !

Six.

My friend SG works in the HR department at my organization. We used to work together back in 1999-2000 at a small management consulting firm and when I when I came in for my interview here was pleasantly surprised to see that she was working here too. Her focus is on career coaching and personal development. She does employee training programs within the organization.

I told her how I was taking a Myers Briggs Type Indicator workshop next Tuesday and she asked if I had ever heard of the Ennegram Type Test. Similar to the Myers Briggs test but more based in spirituality and ancient wisdom traditions than career or business.

I took the free test and sent my results off to her. I was scored closely between being a Two: Helper and a Six: Loyalist. Unlike the Myers Briggs Test, you are not a combination of types rather you are born one type. It does recognize that environment might influence you to tend closely to a second type – which is why I had close scores.

We met for about an hour and she talked me through a bunch of descriptions and questions to help me narrow down and understand the two and ultimately see that I was in fact a stronger Six than a Two. It helped that she and I have worked and socialized together.

I do think that the description is pretty much right on target to who I am. I have summarized it below. The main Ennagram Institute Site has a LOT of information and resources if you want to check it out. I found the largest benefit was being coached through it to really understand the why behind it all and what can learn from it.

Type Six in Brief

The committed, security-oriented type. Sixes are reliable, hard-working, responsible, and trustworthy. Excellent "troubleshooters," they foresee problems and foster cooperation, but can also become defensive, evasive, and anxious—running on stress while complaining about it. They can be cautious and indecisive, but also reactive, defiant and rebellious. They typically have problems with self-doubt and suspicion. At their Best: internally stable and self-reliant, courageously championing themselves and others.

• Basic Fear: Of being without support and guidance


• Basic Desire: To have security and support

Key Motivations: Want to have security, to feel supported by others, to have certitude and reassurance, to test the attitudes of others toward them, to fight against anxiety and insecurity.

Opposites

Sometimes opposites really do attract. Sometimes it is not just attraction; it is a deeper understanding. Sometimes it’s not understanding at all but just attraction and acceptance. People are complex. Luckily we are complex in good ways as often as we can be complex in bad ways.

Let's take attraction and acceptance first. My husband and I are opposites in as many ways as possible yet we are the same in the one way that matters most; we love each other and we are the best of friends. He is a relaxed laid back, happy go lucky, believe-in the-world person. I on the other hand, am a often (though not always) high-strung (working on this!), often moody, overly analyzing, often chaotic, question everything kind of person. He loves late nights and jam band music. I prefer to be home by 9:00, a country-music loving kind of gal. The ying and yang comparisons can be endless but yet we connect and it works.

I know he does not understand my often idiosyncratic necessity to fret over things, to worry, or to feel the need to (try to) manage everything to the most minute detail. I am sure many times it makes him batty. None the less he accepts it. He does not need to understand they why of it all – most times I don’t understand either – but he accepts me and loves me and that is wonderful.

Then there is understanding.My best friend and I are also opposites, but some how through blog on the internet, we connected. She has many similar characteristics to my husband in fact (only the good ones of course). As opposite as we are we often find ourselves agreeing on some of the deeper more philosophic things – like not feeling “connected” at times. Both of us have an understanding that not being “in” a group is OK but understanding the feeling of connectedness that comes from sharing similarities with others.

When I look at these relationships and other meaningful relationships I realize that most of the people I have connected well with are in fact those people who are not "like" me at all but who instead I have had shared experiences with.

Who do you connect best with?

Roar!

Today started out OK for a Monday, progressed to a nice lunch with a co-worker and ended with me feeling angry.

I am angry at the way things seem to be going at work; that I got yet another certain type of project at work. All I will say is that when I started this job the focus of our department was going in one direction and in the last six months it has gone a different way with different types of projects. Projects that don't hold interest for me. Projects that are different than what I thought I would be working on.

I know with the economy the way it is I am lucky to have a job; I really do feel I am lucky and I have no plans on going anywhere. The people are great and it is great company. I just am feeling frustrated that I am not working on something that is engaging to me.

Coming home I was ended up gnarley about some insurance rate increases that we have. I know it is a a rate hike just like happens to everything pretty much on an annual basis but it can feel like such a rip off at times. Especially when you pay into the insurance and then get seemingly so little back. Ack. Believe it or not I am talking about Pet Insurance for Marley! We paid out $608 for her surgery and we get only $222 back. It hardly makes the $45 a month premium worth it. I think I need to re-asses this one.

I know I don't have much to complain about; I am realizing as I write this out that angry might be too harsh but today I do feel like growling like an angry panda!

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