"I always have to be doin' a little somethin'."

According to my Dad, my great-grandmother used to always say that she "had to be doin' a little somethin' all the time.  She liked to stay busy gardening, cooking and taking care of her rug rat great-grandchildren :).  Like my great-grandmother (& my dad) I'm a list-maker and like to stay busy - except for a completely lazy weekend here and there.

My dad sent me this post from another blogger: Country Consultant.  Within the post, there is a list of helpful habits.  Being the list-enthusiast I am, Dad knew that I would enjoy this.

Helpful Habits – by Carla Emery

1. Don’t discuss the obvious
2. Don’t own a television
3. Quit a job when you’re losing efficiency
4. Go to bed when you’re tired
5. Eat less salt and sugar and use less heat
6. Keep lists of things to do and things to buy
7. Then get somebody else to do as many of those as possible
8. Don’t drink coffee, tea, cola, or alcohol; smoke cigarettes; chew snooze; or use illegal drugs
9. Sing a lot
10. Pray a lot

While I can't adopt all of these habits - see number 8 sans the illegal drugs/snooze(?)/cigarettes part.  I really appreciate many of these suggestions and can see why these are "helpful" habits.  

To me, number one is number one for a reason - it is one of the best (ironically, the most obvious) suggestions I've heard in awhile.  This is what that says to me: skip the obvious complaint, the cheesy unproductive small-talk, Monday-bashing, weather-chatting, traffic, etc.  All of this is generally information of which we are keenly aware.  I'm not saying that I'm going to start deep conversations in the office kitchen rather than talking about traffic or the weather when I'm pouring my a.m. coffee, but to me, it means taking advantage of having meaningful conversations with the people we care about when given the opportunity to do so.  I already think that my future children are going to have such a different social experience than I ever did - I just hope that they pry themselves away from television and technology enough to develop basic social skills, a since of humor, the ability to make interesting small talk and the ability to navigate themselves out of awkward conversations.  Aside from learning how to read, write and spell in elementary school and how to type properly in middle school, I think that college and sorority gave me a crash course in effective communication, organization and millions of other things - I can plan a party and rush a freshman like it's my business ;).

The rest of the list, which I may blog about in later posts, seems to be a primer on how to make your life simpler and uncomplicated.  I like it.  I feel like while I love Chicago, everything is a little more complicated - mostly because there are more people to navigate around than in most places. Though, I guess every city has its pros and cons.