Cure for the summertime blues

Given my natural tendency to dwell on the negative (and inspired by a friend's blog), I decided that it would be in my benefit to try to focus on something positive. Over brunch a while back, I had a reality check: during the course of the meal, my conversation had consisted of bitching about almost every single thing in my life at that given moment: acquaintances, students, relatives and so on. I'd contributed nothing to the conversation other than an unnecessary tirade and criticism.

It doesn't take a holy man to tell you that negativity only begets negativity. And, no matter how you wear it, self-pity doesn't suit anybody. So I've decided to conduct an experiment: making a list of "Good Things that Happened to Curtis this Week." Don't worry, folks I haven't gone all New Age-y on you just yet. But here goes:

1. Prague Provokator, a bilingual monthly magazine, will feature not one, not two, but three stories by Yours Truly in its July issue. I pitched a travel story their way, they liked the idea and I landed two additional assignments out of it. Honestly, I thought my journalism days were kaput. Believe it or not, the original story I pitched is actually based on one of my blogs from a while back. So these things do have value sometimes.

2. The gelato café in Staromestska Namesti hired a REALLY generous new scooper. It was practically the size of a sundae on a cone! Yum yum jahoda!

3. Two of my students decided to renew their contracts for the remainder of the summer and extending into the fall and told me they "only wanted to work with me, and not another teacher." Yikes.

4. I tried some impromptu yoga stetches with an instructor about 3 weeks ago and discovered I wasn't half bad. I even held a sort of lopsided handstand for about 1.5 seconds. So I took my first class on Wednesday. Only 200 crowns (under 10 bucks) to have my ass kicked for 2 solid hours.

5. I started a Czech course on Friday, so that I'll be able to say things other than ordering a beer and apologizing for bumping into someone on the Metro. Contrary to popular belief, there's more to the language than ordering beer (granted, it's important to know THAT command before stepping off the plane) The language won't get much use anywhere but here, of course, but it'll be nice to communicate a bit without breaking into English after three basic sentences.

6. Mom was (surprisingly) supportive of my new, albeit tentative, idea regarding January 2007. Just as long as there were no massive tropical storms involved.

7. Franz Ferdinand (!) and Pet Shop Boys (!) were announced as headliners for this year's Love Planet Music Festival in Prague! It's an entire weekend of live music in August for only 700 crowns (roughly 40 bucks).

8. Three friends from the U.S. have plans to visit this summer! Or maybe they're just taking advantage of a free place to stay. Not sure...

9. Attended Skrivanek BBQ on Thursday night, met a few new peeps and had a really great time.

10. I treated myself to the smoked lox at Bohemia Bagel after payday...lox being one of my favorite foods and notoriously hard-to-find here in Prague. I practically lived off the stuff during my weekend in Salzburg. Maybe I really was Jewish in a past life.

11. Currently looking forward to: BERLIN in August! AMSTERDAM in September! (granted, this is violating my earlier vow to save money by visiting only one Western European city every three months)

I think I feel better already!