kristinsdóttir

(photo credit to wakalani)

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been depressed. All of the time, I’ve felt like either sleeping or crying or eating. I had a cold, but then I got over it and I still felt wretched. What was it?

Suddenly, it came to me. In the past, over a decade ago, I’d used a light box for Seasonal Affective Disorder. It actually helped, but I stopped using it when I started taking an anti-depressant.

Anyway, to make a long story shorter, I had gotten rid of my light box in our most recent move and I suspected that my depression was due to the dark season. With my Christmas money (thanks, Mom and Dad!) I bought another one this weekend from Winter Sun, the Portland company from whom I’d bought the first one … and I feel so much better! Amazing.

Also picked up a great book this weekend: When Your Body Gets the Blues, which was based on the Levity program developed by Marie-Annette Brown, Jamie Goldstein-Shirley, Jo Robinson, and Susan Casey (read the full study here). I’m going to follow their prescription for wellness:

1. Walking outdoors at a brisk pace for 20 minutes, 5 or more days a week.2. Getting more very bright light during the daytime but less light at night. (Is it necessary to use a light therapy device? Learn more about what kind of light is best.)

3. Taking the following six vitamins and minerals on a daily basis: 50 mgs. each of vitamins B-1, B-2, B-6; 400 mcg. folic acid; 400 IU of vitamin D; and 200 mcg. selenium.

Let’s call that my New Year’s resolution.

Make a cool ‘girdle’ to carry your journal, your Bible, your Joanne Harris novel, whatever.

I am reading a great thriller, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. I am listening to it on CD and it’s so good that when I thought I’d guessed the killer, I had to run to the bookstore and skim the rest of the book to confirm my suspicions. I was right.

When I figured it out (in a hazy half-dream state, in the middle of the night), I got a nasty visceral jolt. Yowza.

Sharp Objects is about the damage a dangerously narcissistic mother inflicts on her children. It’s not the kind of book just anybody might enjoy. Exercise caution. Read at your own risk.

I’m going to do it: I’m going to take the TBR Challenge.Here’s my list for 2007:

January — Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
February — The City is a Rising Tide by Rebecca Lee
March — Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos
April — Bigfoot Dreams by Francine Prose
May — Cellophane by Marie Arana
June — Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
July — Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
August — Dig by C. R. Corwin
September — Red Weather by Pauls Toutonghi
October — Eating Heaven by Jennie Shortridge
November — Minaret by Leila Aboulela
December — Hunting Unicorns by Bella Pollen

Szopki are elaborate Christmas cribs that are modeled on the old architecture of Cracow, Poland. Learn more here.

Are You an Apple or a Ruler?

Erin at A Dress a Day had some great input from LaBellaDonna on dressing for your body type … are you a ruler or an apple?