For all intents and purposes for the life of this blog, my pen name is J. Lynne. I shall be your hostess at Alternative Me.
What exactly is Alternative Me?
I’m glad you asked. O.K. You didn’t but I’m going to tell you anyway because I have space to fill and I like to ramble. You’ve been warned.
This former Southern city girl has discovered that Spring does funny things to these Mainers as the snow starts to melt away and the flowers start sprouting up here and there. No matter what age they seem to be — from playschool child to ancient cubicle worker –everyone takes curious delight in the strange, slow, mysterious metamorphosis of a catapillar to a butterfly.
Alternative Me is going to be the window to my metamorphosis. I’m ready for a make-over — body, mind and soul.
- Body – As an overweight, out-of-shape, sufferer of multiple chronic illnesses, including migraines and IgA Nephropathy, an autoimmune kidney disease, I have a theory that I can improve my health and lose weight by improving the quality of my diet; I’ve already given up red meat and poultry due to my kidneys, now I’m ready to commit to 365 days of eating vegan — no dairy, no eggs, nothing made with animal by-products. The fun for you will be in reading about my adventures in adjusting — shopping for ingredients I’ve never heard of, eating out in restraunts and trying to order something other than salad, finding soymilk chocolate, vegan cooking without butter spray, etc.
- Mind – Recently, one of my co-workers mentioned the 10,000 Hour Rule — the idea that if you spend 10,000 hours (or 10 years) doing one thing (like a skill), you will become an expert. A week or so later, as I was flipping through the t.v. channels, I realized I was barely spending more than 2 or 3 seconds on any one channel. In fact, I realized, I could name any movie or t.v. show not on the pay channels within 15 – 30 seconds even if I had never watched it before. All of that time I put in as a latch-key kid, as a movie theater concessions worker, as a video store clerk, and as a loner, gamer geek girl, home-body had paid off. I am an expert…at cable t.v.That’s when I realized that I really need to spend more time reading, going to museums or cultural festivals, expanding my mind, enlightening myself. My mother believes I am really knowledgable on a broad range of subjects, but, honestly, I think I know enough to B.S. my way through an evening in society or on the Glenn Beck show. I want to spend more time reading classics and books about other cultures and religions. I’m sure some station will still be airing Legally Blonde or The Breakfast Club when I finish reading a few hundred pages or I get back from the Middle Eastern Art Festival.
- Soul – I suffer from clinical anxiety and depression. It’s inherited. I just recently realized, however, that I can’t use that as an excuse to wallow in it and do nothing about it. In fact, I realized I can change the whole atmosphere around me by simply deciding to be happy that one day. Just for that day. I’m still working on it some days.I also have some other areas I’d like to improve on. I want to veer away from negativity. I’ve been told I tend to be very negative. It’s hard to be sarcastic and not negative, I guess. It’s just part of my sense of humor. However, I don’t want to be smothered in the negativity. I don’t want to draw it to me and thus draw other negative people to me, because negative people just feed off of each other’s negative energy and that’s just a trap that drains you, but it’s so easy to fall into. I’m ready to learn to find productive ways to deal with conflict and difficult people — those people who just need to make drama. I want to spend this next year learning to be a calmer, happier, more easy-going person.
I’m sure there will be plenty of other things I’ll be writing about here. I have lots of discombobulated thoughts that need a home from time to time. 
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