Strange Day

Okay, got up this morning, it was actually cold, so I had hot chocolate rather than walking to a park to practice taiji. I went over to my parent's house to hunt for yard sales (they get the newspaper; I don't), nada. Apparently everyone waits until the weekend. My shoe receptacle is about to die and I would like to get a nicer replacement without spending an arm and a leg. Or even a toenail. Well, no go on yardsales, so I wandered over to TJ Maxx. There's a pretty purple sweater that's 90% cotton that I may look for later on, but I wasn't in a clothes-buying mood. I wandered to the back, to the furniture, on the off-chance that they might have something I could use as a shoe receptacle. There was nothing I wanted.

Then I headed into Pier 1 Imports. I didn't even try to look for a shoe receptacle there; everything's expensive. Then I found a comfy wicker chair. Reasonable price (as much as the ugly folding chair that Shopko has; comfy, but ugly). However, it was white. I'm not into white furniture. Saleswoman wandered over, showed me a chair in natural color (deep brown) that was on clearance. Some of the wicker was slightly damaged, so it was half-price. It was larger and comfier than the other one, and I'd been wanting a comfy chair for my bedroom, so I got it and a denim cushion (stuffed with polyester :P). Then it occurred to me that it probably wouldn't fit in my car. Called my dad. The pickup still has the camper on it, so it was no better. Mom was in the shower. So we bungeed and tied it into my trunk and I drove home very carefully and deposited the chair in my room.

I chatted with Jeremiah for a while. Then I was restless and walked over to Alameda Park. I'd made it through my basic taiji warmups when I remembered it was Monday, and that we try to meet at Reed Gym for taiji on Mondays. So I walked back, got in the car and took off. It was 16:00. We generally start at 16:00. Construction detour on 15th didn't help any...but I got there, and Melissa and I practiced. I haven't heard from Richard. I hope Laura (his daughter) did well in her fencing tournament. I got home, did a bit of reading, a small amount of cleaning, then mom called and we went over to my grandma's house. I cooked myself some eggs (realizing that I hadn't actually had a real meal all day), and we played pinochle.

First game ended. My mom announced that Grandma had 1000 points. I said, "So Grandma won?" and was immediately set upon with "Gee, she sounds disappointed." I wasn't. I was asking for information. "You're projecting," I told them, somewhere between confused and annoyed. They insisted that, no, they weren't projecting: I'd really sounded disappointed. It was my turn to shuffle. Several semi-nasty comments were directed my way, so I decided to shuffle until someone had something positive to say. I shuffled. And shuffled. And shuffled. And shuffled. Eventually my mom made an incredibly snide remark, so I explained to her that a positive comment would end the shuffling. And continued to shuffle. This seemed to mystify her. Grandma finally managed, "Boy, she sure does shuffle the cards well!" It wasn't what I'd had in mind (I'd have settled for a pleasant comment about the weather; anything that wasn't rude, sarcastic, or snide), but it was enough. I stopped shuffling, let Mom cut, and dealt the cards.

I was starting to get upset, and wasn't really sure why. Annoyed made sense, upset didn't. At some point during the second game, I tried an exercise that's in the book Don loaned me: projecting an energy field out from the solar plexus that surrounds and protects you. Suddenly the upset was gone and I could think clearly. They had been projecting. Too bloody literally. Without me echoing it back at them, the mood lightened considerably and I actually enjoyed what was left of the game. And won. And made bloody sure not to sound like I gave a damn.

I've always had a tendency to 'echo' people's emotions. When they're positive emotions, this is good. Not when they're negative. I need to remember to thank Don for that book.