Kate's Blog

The Core

2012-01-28T12:00:00.000-08:00

Wasn't there a cheesy movie named The Core? (A quick jaunt over to IMDB says yes there is, but it apparently wasn't very good. [Also, going to IMDB crashed my browser, so I can't link to it.])

As I mentioned earlier, I've been getting stitches in my side when I run. I not only learned that breathing more deeply and more regularly can make it better, but that stronger abdominal muscles can prevent them in the first place.

I dug out my copy of Run Like A Mother, because I have distinct memories of them talking about strength building and what's known as your core (your abdominal and lower back muscles). Sure enough, they said the same thing: stronger tummy muscles will make you a faster, better runner. They didn't mention stitches in your side, though. I can only assume that's part of what they meant. So I got out of bed yesterday morning, a non-running day, a did some sit-ups and other exercises that will give me a stronger core.

I threw in some push-ups too, for other reasons. And why not?

Vegetables are Good for You

2012-01-27T12:00:00.000-08:00

I've been eating more fruit and vegetables as I've been running more. I find that I have more energy and feel better when I eat them, but sometimes I have problems figuring out how to incorporate them into my everyday routine. Luckily the kitchn had a timely 10 Easy Ways to Eat More Vegetables post yesterday!

I've definitely been doing #9 - substitute raw vegetables for breads in your snacks (hello, carrots and hummus). But I'd never even thought about #2 - putting your vegetables on the top shelf of your fridge - or #8 - eating a salad at every meal. I've even got some homemade vinaigrette hanging out, waiting to be used.

Flowers!

2012-01-26T17:32:00.001-08:00

Because they look like spring.

A Stitch in Time

2012-01-25T13:59:00.001-08:00

I've been getting stitches in my side more and more when I run. It's really annoying; I'm going along, think everything is fine, and all of a sudden I hurt.

I find stitches really hard to recover from. I'll walk for awhile, and it'll get better. But as soon as I start running the pain'll come back.

I finally searched for what causes a stitch in your side and how to prevent it. I learned that they come from breathing too shallowly, too quickly. You need to slow your breath down and take deeper breaths. Slowing down can help, particularly if you're pushing yourself too hard.

So this morning, I felt one threatening to start. I slowed down my breathing, making it deeper, as much as I could while still running. Lo and behold, the stitch never fully developed and I was able to keep going. Yay!

It turned out to be a particularly good run, too. I was high for hours afterward.

Small Giants by Bo Burlingham

2012-01-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

Small Giants really helped Susan and I form our thoughts about what we wanted This Charming Candy to be, back when we first started it. For whatever reason, I'd never read the last 60 or so pages, so I polished those off recently. It's a book very much in the form of Good to Great or Built to Last. If you liked those, you'll like Small Giants.

Citizens by Simon Schama

2012-01-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

I finished it! I finished it! Citizens by Simon Schama is a long, epic, detail-filled, 900-page overview of the first half of the French Revolution. That's right, 900 pages, and it ends with Robbespierre's execution. Napoleon is name-checked exactly once.

Don't get me wrong, it was well done, very thorough and I learned a TON about the forces and the people behind the revolution and why it happened. Its consequences, particularly the economic ones, were far reaching - at one point he says that the French GDP didn't hit pre-revolution levels until the mid-1800s.

The politics is fascinating, at a high level. While my eyes may have glazed over at some of the detail, the macro level of how the different groups worked together and turned on each other was both enlightening and scary (particularly at some of the sentences that could also apply to current US politics).

I'd recommend it, but it is a big thick history book. Be forewarned.

Calla Lilly

2012-01-22T15:16:00.001-08:00

Someone planted a calla lilly plant on the north side of our garage, where there is very little sunshine. I've been watering it in an attempt to make it grow and perhaps bloom this March.

Bleargh

2012-01-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

I had a really bad run a couple of days ago. I stopped 10 minutes into a 25 minute run because I just didn't have the energy to keep going. Later that afternoon, I almost fell asleep at my desk, and that evening a sore throat and stuffy nose appeared.

This isn't the first time that a bad run has portended a cold either. My only hope is that it's an early warning system, not the cause.

Los Altos History Museum

2012-01-21T13:44:00.001-08:00

We spent part of the day with my daughter's girl scout troop learning about Silicon Valley's ranching history. Everyone always treats the Valley like it spring fully formed, it's weird to think of the people who were here before Intel and Lockheed-Martin and Google.

Running Check-In

2012-01-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've done a running check-in, mostly because things had been going pretty smoothly. But I've hit another plateau, this one more interesting to me than the last.

The last time I hit a plateau, it was definitely a wind problem - I needed to make sure I could get enough air to run for the amount of time I needed to. That hit just at the same time as my December schedule got crazy; the result being that I was stuck on one particular cycle for a lot longer than I should have been.

This time, my leg muscles are tired. Today, it's specifically my hip muscles. Which is weird, my hip muscles have never bothered me before. And while I was running this morning, my muscles just sort of.... stopped running. I made it about 10 minutes into a 25 minute run. Sigh. So it's repeating this morning's run again in a couple of days. During a break in the rain. I hope.

I hope this doesn't last too long. I don't want to be stuck for another month. Maybe I need to eat more protein so those muscles can develop faster? I don't know.

My husband pointed out, though, that even this bad run was better than I could have done when I started. Which is true. I'm trying to focus on that.

Experimenting, or Tea Photo

2012-01-20T12:10:00.001-08:00

I'm experimenting with the blogger iPhone app. Here's a post-lunch cup of tea!

Tea!

2012-01-20T12:00:00.000-08:00

I, uh, drink a lot of tea. A LOT. Saying that I drink a lot of tea is maybe the understatement of the year. I typically drink 4 pots per day. Not cups, pots.

(I use a Bodum Assam tea press, for those of you who are curious.)

And while I generally drink green tea, noted for its health benefits and less caffeine than coffee or black tea, I drink enough of it that it matters. I have definitely noticed that if I drink tea after about 2:30, I have problems getting to sleep. Maybe cutting back on the sheer amount would help too.

So, to improve my sleeping habits, no more tea after 2:30! We'll talk later about drinking less of it.

Reading: Snuff

2012-01-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

Snuff is a Discworld book, specifically one about the night watch. I liked it - I laughed out loud and stayed up too late reading it. But it wasn't as stellar as the earlier Discworld books.

Snuff on Amazon

Reading: Something Blue

2012-01-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

I almost didn't start Something Blue (the follow-up to Something Borrowed) because it's told from Darcy's point of view, a character it's almost impossible to end up not hating at the end of Something Borrowed. But it turned out to be a pretty good redemption story. I quite liked it.

Something Blue on Amazon

Reading: The Nerdist Way

2012-01-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

I basically decided to buy The Nerdist Way because I am in LOVE with The Nerdist podcast. (I'd recommend starting with the David Tennant, Neil Gaiman, and/or the Aisha Tyler episodes. They're all phenomenal.) Also, I am a sucker for "how to better manage your life" books. My two favorite bits were: 1) to create a character sketch of yourself as you want to be, and 2) the encouragement to find 30 minutes to exercise even when you're super-busy. Given that I read this during my super-busy December, I needed to hear that.

The Nerdist Way on Amazon

Reading: Roma

2012-01-16T12:00:00.000-08:00

Roma is perfect for anyone who, like me, is a sucker for all things Ancient Rome. It's a fiction story that takes place over 800 years of history - and it's hard to make it a cohesive story when you have to cover that much ground. Its merits on a storytelling scale maybe aren't very high, but it hits the major highlights of the Roman Republic, and its meditations on how history turns into myth made me think a bit. It's also pretty good at conveying how alien (to us in 2012) and warlike the Ancient Romans were, and how their empire wouldn't have been as great without their war-mongering. And was it even war-mongering? Or was it survival? Life was so much more brutal then. It's hard to tell from 3000 years later.

Roma on Amazon

Sleeeeeeeeeeep

2012-01-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

I may have done a lot of reading over the last couple of days. Which means I haven't been sleeping as much as I should, and it really amazes me how much missing an hour of sleep at night affects me. So, while I've been working on being happier through reading and running more, I'm also going to work on getting enough sleep at night.

The first way I'm going to do that is by going to bed at 9:30pm every night. And then not read until 11. That's bad. That leads to not enough sleep. I'll turn off the light at 10pm.

Eventually, I want to get blackout curtains, but that'll take a little more work.

Foggy Glasses

2012-01-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

I've worn glasses since the 7th grade. I've never had a pair of contacts, though there were a few weeks in the summer of 1997 when I considered it. Now, the idea of regularly sticking my finger in my eye to put a piece of plastic on it kind of freaks me out.

What does any of this have to do with running? Well, I run at 6:15am. It's cold and dark. (Well, relatively cold. I do live in Silicon Valley, it's not like there's snow on the ground.) And it turns out that running in the cool mornings means that when I stop running, my glasses fog up.

It took me a ridiculously long time to figure out that they fogged up when I stopped running, by the way. The nature of the c25k program means that you run for a bit and then walk for a bit, and my glasses always fogged up about a quarter of the way into the run. For awhile I just thought it was the exercise that was doing it, though they did clear up when I was in the running part of the program. Sometimes, I'm slow.

It turns out that there's not much you can do about foggy glasses. You can a) run when it's warmer, b) get fit enough to run more and walk less, or c) wipe them on your shirt a lot. I ended up doing c, while working on b. I'm at the run-all-the-time part of the program now, so they only fog up during my cool-down walk back home. Since I'm not totally blind without them, I'll often just take them off and carry them home. That works pretty good too.

Reading: Although Of Course You End up Becoming Yourself

2012-01-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

David Foster Wallace is an amazing writer and was a pretty interesting human being. But he also lived with a level of introspection that goes along with depression (which makes sense, since he was, you know, clinically depressed), and at the end of the day, no matter how much I enjoy his work, I end up more depressed than when I started. That includes this really long interview with him, though I appreciate the interviewer's insights into DFW. It made me miss him, even though I never met him. I'm glad I read Although of Course You End up Becoming Yourself.

Although of Course You End up Becoming Yourself on Amazon

Reading: Something Borrowed

2012-01-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

Cute book. Read Something Borrowed while I was sick and stressed and needed something light. It fit the bill perfectly, while also making me think about the nature of friendships.

Something Borrowed on Amazon

Reading: Nation

2012-01-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

I bought Terry Pratchett's Nation because a) it was on sale and b) it's Terry Pratchett. I love his Discworld books, particularly the Night Watch books. Nation isn't a Discworld book (which I knew), and I was curious how his non-Discworld books would be. Or rather, this particular book. It wasn't as funny as I expected - I often laugh out loud at his writing - but it was still enjoyable.

Nation on Amazon

Reading: Love in a Cold Climate

2012-01-10T12:00:00.000-08:00

Largely regarded as the second best Nancy Mitford novel, I'll have to agree: Love in a Cold Climate wasn't as good as The Pursuit of Love, but I still enjoyed it. Plus, I may have read it in one sitting.

Love in a Cold Climate on Amazon

Reading: The Pursuit of Love

2012-01-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to read The Pursuit of Love ever since I read The Sisters (HIGHLY recommended) a few years back. It largely lived up to my expectations - a fun read about upper-crust life in England between WWI and WWII. It wasn't great literature, but I was glad I'd bought it.

The Pursuit of Love on Amazon

There's No I in Team, but There is a Me

2012-01-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

I've been talking about the c25k program, but I didn't sign up for anything official. I mean, I'm sure you can - a lot of people do better when they exercise as part of a group, and there's nothing like having paid for a workout to make you go and do it.

But I've been sporadically running on my own for awhile and I knew that my schedule can be weird. I didn't want to be signed up for something when I wasn't going to be around to do it. Not to mention, my body can be weird. I knew I was going to plateau somewhere along the way, and I also knew that the best way for me to get through it wasn't to push through it, it was to stay at that plateau until I was ready to move on.

Not to mention that I've got basic problems with driving somewhere to exercise. Running should be as simple as putting on a pair of shoes and going out the front door. It doesn't need to be more complicated than that.

Sure enough, my schedule has been weird. And there was a run that I was supposed to do for one day, and I did that run for 3 or 4 weeks because I couldn't get past it. And then I twisted my ankle. Not having the pressure of missing something or falling behind somehow has been fabulous. I'm moving ahead at my pace, and I'm not feeling like I'm holding someone else back.

Making the decision to run on my own has definitely been the right one for me. It's not like that for everyone, and I get that too. But I'd've fallen off the wagon a long time ago if I'd had to run with other people.

Sometimes Sweat is the Best Therapy

2012-01-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

The title of this post is a quote that was on the bag from the store where I bought some new sports bras yesterday. I thought long and hard about whether or not it should be "Sweat is always the best therapy" instead - but getting that math degree made me suspicious about words like "always" and "never". Because if you have something deeply, chemically wrong with your brain? Chances are pretty good that you need a more intense therapy than a good run. Still, a good run works wonders for me.

ANYWAY. So, as I've mentioned, December was super-busy. We had 3 shows in 3 weeks, 2 of which I had to travel for. My husband was super-awesome about all of it. Two days before the 1st show, I twisted my ankle. Badly. The kind of thing where you sit with it elevated and put ice on it to reduce the swelling. And then I had to stand on it for 8 hours, both weekend days, for 3 weekends in a row. Suffice it to say, not much running happened in December.

I put in a few runs at the end of the month, thinking that I'd pick up the c25k program at the beginning of January. Not all of those runs were good. Most of them were pretty bad, in fact. The first one, I started retching because my body just wasn't used to the exertion. On another run, I got a stitch in my side so bad I had to stop halfway through and walk the rest of the way home.

But last Saturday, a miracle occurred, and I had a pretty good run. And all this week, despite increasing the length of time running, my runs have all been awesome. I don't know if it's the endorphins or just getting out there regularly or what, but I feel great and more confident. It's becoming less "I have to get through this" and more "I get to run today!"

I've got 4 more weeks of the c25k program, before I'm officially done. I'm looking forward to them!

Reading: The Inheritance of Rome

2012-01-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

Wow, is The Inheritance of Rome a big thick history book. Full of good information about Medieval Europe and the Middle East (and I learned a bunch about early Islamic history), but I was hoping for more about the downfall of the Western Empire and how the Eastern Empire managed to hold on for longer. Also: it's a big thick history book. Only get it if you're into that sort of thing.

The Inheritance of Rome on Amazon

I'm Back!

2012-01-05T08:12:00.000-08:00

Sorry about that delay in posting. When you run your own retail business, life gets a little busy in November & December.

A quick check-in: I also fell behind in my running program, but have managed to pick it back up quite nicely. My last two runs in particular have been fabulous. I'm a little worried about tomorrow's run, but not overly so. I'll be doing the first solid 20 minute running block, and I've made it through 8 minutes, which is less than half that. But the last two runs have been great, so this should be a good challenge.

I've been reading, just not posting about it. I'll write up a bunch of short reviews of the books I've finished for y'all.

Reading: Scoop

2011-11-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

Scoop: didn't like it, couldn't finish it. Why did Waugh write a book full of characters he so obviously hated?

Scoop on Amazon

7 of 16 done

Reading: My Man Jeeves

2011-10-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

My big problem with My Man Jeeves is that it wasn't all Jeeves & Wooster. It's short stories, but there's something better about Wodehouse when he's writing about Jeeves & Wooster. I like them better. It's almost certainly a problem with me rather than a problem with his writing. The Jeeves stories are typically good.

My Man Jeeves on Amazon

6 of 16 done

Weekly check-in

2011-10-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

Weekly check-in time!

I'm still doing pretty good on the running front. I've made it through the second week of the c25k program by running Wed, Fri, and this morning. Keeping up an every-other-day running schedule is pretty good. It's giving me a higher level of energy and more peace in my head. My anxieties aren't running amok. I like that.

I've learned that I prefer running at 6:15am when I'm not really fully conscious of what's going on. I run faster when I run mid-morning, but I don't enjoy it as much.

Reading is harder. My book, The Inheritance of Rome, is good but DENSE. I'm still not making 50 pages per day, but there are always pages. As long as I'm moving forward, I'm happy.

Reading: Right Ho, Jeeves

2011-10-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Right Ho, Jeeves is a pretty typical Wodehouse novel. Funny in all the right places, not taking anything seriously. Lighthearted and well done.

Right Ho, Jeeves on Amazon

5 of 16 done

Reading: Hadrian & the Triumph of Rome

2011-10-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

Oh man, am I a sucker for Roman history. I love it! I don't know why, the bug bit me during high school and I've always enjoyed it. Hadrian is one of the emperors - the emperor who set the furthest boundaries, and ruled at the top of what has traditionally been thought of as the best years of the empire. Alas, the book is not all that. Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome is the third of three biographies by Anthony Everitt, the previous two being Cicero and Augustus. Both of them were much better. This one suffered from wanting to be more of a fleshed out profile of Rome than a biography. Which isn't to say it was bad, just not as good as the previous two.

Hadrian on Amazon

4 of 16 done

Setbacks!

2011-10-25T15:59:00.000-07:00

Hey look at that. Not only have I not posted for 2 weeks, I also haven't exercised for 2 weeks. This is what's known as falling off the horse. So, I'm going to get back on the horse tomorrow morning and run.

I've made it through one week of the c25k program. I feel like I'm in good enough shape to start with the second week, despite it being 2 weeks since the last time I ran. We'll see how it goes. I'll update the blog if I fail miserably.

I *have* managed to keep up with my reading - at least to a degree. I haven't always hit my 50 pages a day goal, but there have always been pages. I've always been more of a natural reader than a natural exerciser. The problem? I found another book hiding in my to read pile - so the denominator will go up from 15 to 16. Sigh.

I'll post/schedule the short reviews for the books I've been reading here. They'll trickle out over the next couple of weeks.

Reading: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

2011-10-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is an incredibly inspiring tale about an African boy who built a windmill out of spare parts, bringing electricity to his small village. If you like stories about what engineering and science can do, this is a good one.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind at Amazon

3 of 15 done.

Reading: Sarah's Key

2011-10-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

Sarah's Key was classic holocaust literature. I stopped reading around page 80 when all the children were in their own concentration camp in the scenes that took place in the past, and I couldn't find a redeeming characteristic in the characters in the scenes set in the present. There was a lot of crying and disgust and life is too short to deal with it. OTOH, I know people - whose opinions I quite respect - who enjoyed this book, so it may be that it gets better later. I chose not to go on.

Sarah's Key on Amazon

2 of 15 down.

Reading: 1493

2011-10-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

1493 by Charles Mann was a quite excellent follow-up to 1491. On reflection, I don't think you should read 1493 (how the discovery of the New World [and slavery] affected Europe and Asia) without having read 1491 (what the New World was like before Columbus/major European explorers showed up). But I'd recommend both of them, particularly if you've read and liked Guns, Germs & Steel and Collapse.

1493 on Amazon

1491 on Amazon

1 of 15 done (see my current to-read list at Good Reads)

How'd I Do Last Week: Exercising

2011-10-02T19:52:00.000-07:00

I managed to get up at the respectable hour of 6:30 to run and/or do yoga 6 out of 7 days last week (I'm counting a Sunday-to-Saturday week, for those of you keeping score at home). Yay!!

However, it's going to be worse this week, I can already confirm that. I skipped this morning because I just couldn't get out of bed, and I've got a business trip next weekend. We'll see how things shake out - if I can manage to get to the hotel fitness center (if they even have one) to keep the exercise up.

Piles of Books

2011-10-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

I like to read. I've always liked to read. Many, many people are confused about why I didn't major in English in college (my answer never changed: the job market for English majors isn't very good).

At the moment, I've got at least 10 books in my to-read pile. There's a cycle of stuff in and off the top, but the meat of the pile never really changes. I always feel bad about this. I hate that I have books in my to read pile that I really want to read that have been there for more than a year. (The question I ask myself, a lot: if it's been in my to-read pile for over a year, do I really want to read it? Sometimes the answer is no, and those books find their way out of the pile - they get put on the shelf, or donated to my local library.)

One of the items on my happiness list is "read a book in my to-read pile." I'm really consistent at doing this, as I really like reading. But I'm not getting happier because I'm not making a dent in the size of my to-read pile. I'm always getting more books from the library, and Borders' going out of business sale didn't help matters any.

So I've got a new rule for myself: no more books out of the library or from bookstores until there are no books in my to-read pile. After that, I'll allow a max of 3 books in my to-read pile. I know that's my limit before I start to get overwhelmed.

Do you have problems controlling your to-read pile? Or your to-watch tv shows & movies lists? What are your strategies to manage it?

I keep track of what I read over on Good Reads. If you want more timely info on what I'm reading, you can follow me over there. Otherwise, I'll post on my reading pile progress here once a week or so.

First Things First: Exercising

2011-09-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Exercise is good for you. You know that, I know that. Doctors are studying to figure out if adding regular exercise to depressives' routines helps more or less than drugs.

Since I've started trying to track the things I can do to make myself happier, I've noticed that regular exercise is one of the things that makes me the happiest. I get more done, I'm in a better mood, I have more energy, I meet more of my goals.

It's also one of the things I'm the least consistent about.

My days are full, and I've pretty much got 2 times of day I can regularly exercise: 6am and late afternoon. I'm not a morning person - 6am is hard. But late afternoon is a total crapshoot. Often, I'm so tired from all the things I do during the day that I can't find the energy. Or I'm home with my daughter, who has homework to do or is tired from her day or just doesn't want to exercise because she gets to run around at recess twice a day. (Note that my husband - who is really good with our kid - doesn't get home from work until 6 or 6:30.)

So 6am it is! Which brings me to challenge #2: doing it every day. Most exercise regimens suggest an every-other-day schedule. But getting up every other day at 6am is harder than getting up every day at 6am. It's a problem I haven't figured out how to solve just yet. I think I will probably start on the c25k program this week (I'm in good enough shape that I don't need the whole 10 weeks, but the challenge for the first couple of weeks will be getting the routine down.), and on the off-days I'll do yoga, which is easier on my muscles.

When do you exercise? What do you like to do to exercise?

Next week, I'll update the world on how many days I managed to exercise this week.

Why Am I Doing This?

2011-09-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

Why do I want to be a happier person? The bullet point list (in addition to excel, I'm also a fan of bullet point lists - they're easy to understand):

happier people live longer

I've got some good genes on my side too - I have a great-aunt on my dad's side who just celebrated her 97th birthday, and my maternal great-grandmother died when I was in college. I'd like to continue the family tradition.
If I'm going to be around that long, I'd like to enjoy it.

happier people get more done

I pretty much constantly feel guilty about what I'm not doing, emails lingering in my inbox, things that people are counting on me to not getting done... I like it when things work smoothly and if I can get more done - and more of the right things done - then things will flow.

to have time to relax and enjoy life

Even when I'm not doing anything I should be doing - when I'm watching tv or decompressing - I feel guilty that there are still things left undone.

so the people around me are happier

I'm married and a mother. I want my husband and kid to not ever feel like they need to tiptoe around my moods or like I'm stopping them from having fun

That's the short list. I'm sure I'll add to it as time goes on - that there will be other posts about why - but that, I think, is a decent start.

Have you ever done a happiness project? Why?

What I'm Doing

2011-09-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

Hello, world.

I'm starting a blog. Why am I starting a blog? To tell the world about my happiness project. Last summer, in the throes of a bad couple of weeks, I read a book called The Happiness Project. It's a bestseller, there's a website, head over there to learn more about it.

I started trying to practice all of its ideas right away. I tracked them in an excel spreadsheet - I totally heart excel. That's one thing you'll learn about me along the way, if you keep reading. It turns out that I could only ever accomplish about 70% of them in one day. That makes me barely a C-student when it comes to how to make myself happier. Not to mention that which 70% (at best) of the items I actually got done was kind of a crapshoot. There was little consistency.

So my goal in starting this blog is to tell the world about what the hell is on that spreadsheet, and to set public goals for myself around the consistency of doing each of the things on that spreadsheet.

I expect to post a couple of times a week, I'd be surprised if it was every day. Here's to being a happier person!