Time spent this month:46 hours, 10 minutes
Dollars spent this month:$321.77
Advice bound to fail: “I think everybody should have a little garden, no matter where you live.” My thumb is so black, I could kill silk flowers. I’m a danger to flora. The florist even delivered dead bouquets for my wedding. They looked like props for a Tim Burton movie. I think flowers wilt at the mere mention of my name. Maybe I’ll have better luck with an herb garden.
Words that stuck:“Maybe we’re giving her an impossible role to fill. Can any woman really be an idol AND a relatable peer?” — Comment made by Lawren Ashley Smith on Living Oprah blog
JIM AND I are searching for a new apartment this month. Our current building was bought by a new landlord and our $1,000-a-month rent, which is already as high as we’re able to pay, is going up several hundred dollars. We’ve spoken at length about what to do, what sacrifices we might be able to make to avoid the dreaded task of moving. The reality is, we don’t want to give up our dinners out or movie dates just to remain in a home we don’t even own. Also, although relocating is at the bottom of our list of preferred summer activities, we want to make certain we live in a place we can afford no matter what this year brings. This project is being funded by our own bank account, after all. What if Oprah tells us we have to fly first class to Tahiti and spend a week lolling on the beach? That could get very expensive. And frankly, the idea of living in fresh new surroundings makes us happy to think about.
After weeks of searching, the only place we find that meets our specifications and falls within our price range is much smaller than our present treasured apartment. It’s a bright space, just a few blocks away from our old address, but it’s itty-bitty. And you know what that means — more decluttering! Less space means less stuff. This is major growth. Before this project began, less space meant it was harder for me to close my closet doors.
In order to reduce the possibility of conflict, Jim and I have been using the Peter Walsh book Oprah suggested back in March to help us organize and pack for our move. It’s less likely to cause an argument if I point to a passage in Walsh’s book than if I nag my husband to throw or give any of his neglected belongings away. But let’s get real. How many Dungeons and Dragons manuals does one grown man need? It’s been going very well. We have a shared tendency to get sentimental and hold on to lots of things, but we’re learning this year, through lessons gleaned from the show, how to honor what truly means a lot to us and release the detritus that clutters our home. I’ve even tossed away all the matchless socks in my drawer. Oprah says she thinks our homes should “rise up to meet us.” I don’t know exactly what that means, but I do know that our apartment wasn’t going to do any rising when it was so heavily bogged down with stuff.
As I tape up my umpteenth box of the day, it dawns on me that at some point this afternoon I accidentally packed the Walsh book. I wish I were going for a laugh here, but I’m not. It’s nowhere to be seen. I’m annoyed with myself, but I’m not willing to cut open boxes to find it. My fingers are crossed that we learned enough to get us through the remainder of the packing work. Although, between you and me, I’m pretty sure that when my back was turned, Jim packed his dusty LPs, thinking I didn’t notice. And while I am in no way anti-vinyl, we haven’t owned a record player for the past five years.
The most difficult part of the packing for me is getting rid of books I no longer read or need. We’ve got several cases full and I’m poring lovingly over each one, a bit melancholy, knowing that Oprah wouldn’t give me the thumbs-up on keeping and cramming every book into our small new living room. I place them in piles, according to which friend or family member will be receiving each title, which books we’ll donate, and which we’ll keep. As much as I’ll miss the bulk and comfort of having so many of them, I do get excited, knowing I still have unread books awaiting me once I catch up on my Living Oprah assignments. It’s my reward.
The books that have sat dormant on my shelves since the inception of this project are more a tool for me to practice my dusting skills than anything else. Still, as we pack to move to our new apartment, I get a little thrill each time I place one in its appropriate box, imagining myself kicking off my leopard-print flats, sitting on Chicago’s lakefront, sipping a cool drink and losing myself in the story of fabulous characters.
My fantasy is cut short when an e-mail arrives in my in-box from Oprah’s Book Club that lists “The Five Books Everyone Needs to Read Once.” I click open the e-mail with the same anticipation and trepidation a prospective student would have upon receiving an envelope from her dream university. I suppose my reaction could be compared to seeing I’ve been wait-listed, and I sadly pack away the remainder of the books I had chosen to read this summer. The good news is, there are three books on Oprah’s inventory that I’ve already read: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Since the e-mail clearly uses the word “once,” revisiting them isn’t necessary. The other two are not books I’d ever place on my own “must” list, but they get placed at the bottom of my ever-growing catalog of to-do’s, regardless. One is Four Quartets by T S. Eliot and the other is The Wisdom of the Desert: Sayings from the Desert Fathers of the Fourth Century, translated by Thomas Merton.
When I place my order for these books, I wonder what qualities they have that inspired Oprah to sign off on them as the “must reads” for our lifetime. There isn’t an explanation of the selection process, only an indication that these readings “will blow open your understanding of the world.”
That’s heavy.
I am knee-deep in Oprah reruns. It’s depressing. When I wake up in the morning, I feel ho-hum knowing I’ll be turning on a repeat of a past show. I’m amazed, but in all honesty, as this project has drawn on, I’ve come to feel a little zip of excitement when I think I might see something new. I watch promos for future episodes with anticipation; will I be surprised with a fresh Oprah? Nope-rah. Sadly, we’ve just entered the warm months and I know the drill: It’s going to be a stultifying summer of reruns for me. There’s so much languorous sighing as I sink into my couch at 9 AM every morning, my neighbor probably thinks I’m rehearsing for a Tennessee Williams play.
I blame my discomfort on side effects of the television habit that I suffer bravely, alongside others who share my chronic disease. TV creates in us an addiction for fresh, original entertainment every time we pick up the remote. We, in turn, demand to be continually surprised and excited. If a network doesn’t step up to the plate and fulfill our craving by serving us something new, we turn the channel. As much as I might want to flip to something else during Oprah’s rerun season or, dare I say it, turn off the TV, I can’t. I’m still following her advice, even if it did have a previous airing.
So far this year, I’ve watched 114 episodes of Oprah, and even the new episodes are starting to feel like reruns. Without intending to sound cynical, I have to say I don’t think there’s much brand-new information for women out here in the land of TV watching, magazine reading, Web surfing, and radio listening. I’m not opposed to any of these mediums. In fact, short of getting down on one knee and proposing to it, I can honestly say I love television. But while it might be sexier and hipper than me, it’s not smarter (or so I like to think). I understand that in order to create magnetic entertainment, half the battle is creating a great show and the other half is effectively advertising it. Not necessarily in those proportions.
If there is a finite viewer pool to draw from, what’s a show to do? Well, in the case of Oprah’s program, the star herself is the best advertising spokeswoman anyone could wish for. She is convincing and trustworthy. When she does her own show promotions, many of us are quite likely to listen to what she’s saying. Still, there are lots of other talk shows bombarding us with their marketing. What’s to stop me from straying from my relationship with Oprah to fool around with Maury? The easy answer is every time I see even a couple minutes of Maury’s show, I feel like I’ve contracted an STD.
It’s the words that are written for Oprah to say during her promos that really seal the deal and suck us in. “Exclusive!” “Original!” “Never before seen!” As I’ve said, I think we are convinced by a number of sources that we are in a constant state of disrepair. Because of this, many of us are entirely willing to watch something packaged as new, even if we suspect we’ve heard the information before.
This year, many of the shows touted as pristine feel secondhand. Even Oprah show exclusives, like her conversation with a pregnant man and the first time cameras were allowed into a polygamist sect’s compound, are old hat. I’ve seen sensational stories on television before. I know when to gasp and when to cry and when to talk back to the TV in anger. I’ve become a bit jaded by the hours of TV drama I’ve seen, I suppose, and very little comes as a surprise anymore. But I keep tuning in to get that “high.” Before the project began, I was still able to find delight when I hit the power button on the old Samsung, but in these short months, my capacity to enjoy repetitive infotainment has dwindled. While boredom settles over me as I watch, I am reminded of the summer of 1994.
After graduating from college, I worked a couple jobs so I could afford to move from New Hampshire to Chicago. For a short time, I babysat two young sisters who demanded to watch a video about a purple dinosaur so often I almost lost my mind. I’d annoy my friends by unconsciously singing its cloying theme song everywhere we went. I used to marvel that kids could watch the same thing so often and still remain entertained by it. However, I mirrored their behavior by spacing out in front of my own formulaic soap operas, followed by an hour of Oprah. Winfrey’s theme song at the time, “I’m Every Woman,” ran in a constant loop in my brain for about two years straight. Cut to me, 14 years later, zoning out in front of a franchised prime-time cop show. Its comfortable, well-worn formula is so familiar and unwavering that it teeters on meditation for me. Later that night, I find myself humming its theme music as I brush my teeth. And that’s just on Wednesdays.
We stay safe by watching the same shows every week, and television producers stay safe by churning them out. You know how some fish will swim around and around and around in their fishbowls without ever stopping, and they don’t seem to know they keep passing the same little scuba diver figurine over and over and over again? It’s easier to swim with the current rather than against it, and I suppose eventually one even forgets that there are other directions in which to swim. Those little fish are an apt metaphor for how I watch television. I just hope that before her tenure as a talk show host comes to an end, Winfrey will transfer me to a more interesting fish tank.
In the five months of doing this project, I have come to realize I owe it to myself to turn off the white noise that these repetitive shows create and enjoy some silence or, dare I say it, my own thoughts. Becoming willing to kick my TV habit in the middle of a project that requires me to watch TV every day is not the best timing, I realize. I’m worried that feeding my addiction this year might make it more difficult to let it go when the clock strikes midnight on December 31. Will I be conditioned to click on Oprah even when the project is complete? People ask me this all the time, and I don’t know what to tell them. In the meantime, I’ll try not to vilify television, or, in the words of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, “my Precious.”
“Make your own vision board. I’m going to make one.”
Woohoo! Something to break up the summer monotony — a new assignment during rerun season. Oprah has made it our mission to create this visual interpretation and reminder of our goals. I’ve heard of this exercise before and know it’s used as a tool to keep one’s eyes on one’s prize. When the wildly successful self-help book and subsequent movie The Secret were released, I knew several women who bought into the idea of the law of attraction and made their own boards, filling them with pictures of dream homes, dream men, and dream vacations. They’d hang this physical representation of their objectives in a location where they’d be certain to see it every day. I lazily considered making one but, in my limited understanding of the device, thought it was just a variation on a Christmas list and felt a little uninspired to spend so much time focused on material items.
When I was in junior high school, however, I made collages from photos, words, and other objects I considered profound and inspiring. I cut them out from sources like National Geographic, Seventeen, and TV Guide and taped them to a large piece of poster board. I vaguely remember images of Prince, Kirk Cameron, a Tony Award, the Milky Way (galaxy, not candy bar), and the lyrics to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” filling every inch of space. I hung the board in my room, on the back of the door so I could stare at it as I lay in bed. During my early weeks as a freshman in high school, it was driven home to me that I was not cool. Chances were pretty good that everything I owned was not cool, and I tore down the display before it could embarrass me in front of potential cool friends. I would give anything to have it back. It’d be like a time capsule of myself, and I’d be proud to hang it on the bedroom door now.
This is my chance to make up for the mistake I made back in 1986 when I tried to project a concocted image of myself to others rather than stick to my own collage-making guns. I put the word out to some friends and to my husband’s coworkers that I’d love their unwanted magazines. And even as I send out the e-mail, I imagine Oprah and Peter Walsh shaking their heads at me in disappointment. I promise I won’t let periodicals pile up and will recycle them as soon as I create my vision board in my new home.
It just dawned on me that I should do my best to explain the law of attraction. Oprah has done several shows about this topic, and I recently viewed an episode called “The Secret Behind The Secret.” The Secret is the aforementioned self-help book and DVD that became a household word in 2006. And by household, I’m referring to my own. So for those of you who do not live in my apartment, who might not peruse the personal growth section of the bookstore, who do not watch Oprah, or perhaps lived aboard the International Space Station in 2006 and are missing a year of your pop culture knowledge, allow me to supply a rough and dirty definition of this phenomenon.
The idea is that our thoughts manifest themselves as things. Every time we think something, we’re sending energy out into the universe, and similar energy returns to us. So if we’re projecting positive thoughts, we attract positivity into our lives. The movie suggests that this might take the form of a new bike, a better job, a new home, scads of money, better health, a relationship, or even respect from those around us.
On the flip side of The Secret, our negative thinking has an equal response from the universe. Negativity begets negativity: Getting stuck in traffic, trudging through unfulfilling jobs, being dragged down by disease, and other nastiness are all caused by our pessimistic energy. While I believe we make our own luck, I am convinced there are outside influences at play. If I’m wrong, then every tragedy that has befallen mankind occurred because of our own stinkin’ thinkin’. Perhaps I’m not open-minded or evolved enough, but I just can’t get my mind around this.
Maybe I’m taking this all a bit personally. I saw the video of The Secret for the first time after Oprah promoted it early in 2007. My friend Grace lent me her copy, and while I dug much of it, when it came to the topic of health and disease, my feathers became ruffled. I felt I was being blamed for my own genetics, as if twisted thinking brought on my scoliosis. I became offended and felt the movie implied that if I had a more positive outlook on life, my spine would straighten and I’d live forever pain-free riding my pet unicorn through a field of rainbows.
Lucky for me, Oprah succeeds in delving deeper into the law of attraction, where The Secret fell short. As she is a huge proponent of the principle of attraction in all aspects of our lives, she does several shows on the topic with multiple experts to help explain the philosophy. While The Secret focused so much on the acquisition of material wealth, I’m relieved that Oprah’s emphasis isn’t entirely on that component. She’s not advising us all to make a wish list of things we dream of owning.
Everyone brought on the show to discuss the law of attraction is a cheerleader for the cause. I’d love to hear more than one perspective on this issue but have learned not to expect one. Debate isn’t a feature frequently seen on Oprah’s show.
According to my blog readers, many people feel excluded or turned off by Oprah’s focus on this philosophy. I hear from people who say they stopped watching the show, after years of dedication to it, because of the spiritual path Oprah has promoted. Speaking as someone who, in early childhood, felt excluded by my peers due to my own religion, I can empathize with their feelings. It really stinks to have the most influential woman on television (or the most popular kid in school, in my case) omit you from her circle because your beliefs do not correspond with her own. Still, we all have the power to physically turn off the television if we’re spiritually turned off by Oprah.
I do worry about the possibility that some viewers’ health could be compromised by the areas in which they are applying the law of attraction as seen on Oprah. In a recent rerun, even Winfrey seemed concerned by the effect her powerful message had on her audience. She spoke with a woman who was so gung ho since learning about The Secret from watching an episode of Oprah that she was forgoing conventional medical advice about her cancer treatment. She’d decided to heal herself using the law of attraction. Oprah wanted us to make certain we were receiving good medical care in addition to using the law of attraction to heal ourselves. It was the first and, I believe, only time this year I heard her suggest there are other laws in the universe, and that attraction is just one tool we might utilize. I find myself more amenable to her suggestions when they are flexible, inclusive, and open to debate than when they are delivered as edicts. Unless of course she proclaims I should go to Tahiti. I have no moral qualms on this subject whatsoever.
My goodness, it’s been such a busy month, I never told you that Jim and I are currently living with less. That’s right, I’ve bitten Oprah’s hook and decided to try an optional program she’s offered. It’s called the “Your Family’s ‘Live With Less’ Challenge.” Oprah is on a crusade to get us to stop being so wasteful. I initially blanched at the thought of a woman who owns a private jet, several homes, and gazillion-dollar shoes (that are so painful, she admits, “I have to tell you, no exaggeration, I complain about it every day”) telling me that I’m part of the consumption problem. But you know what? I don’t necessarily think she’s wrong. At the beginning of the year, as a result of a show about recycling and being kind to the earth, I bought aluminum reusable bottles and added to our collection of reusable shopping bags so we wouldn’t be adding to landfills with plastic bags and bottles. Luckily, we already had a jump on this project. Here’s Oprah’s letter, laying out the program to her audience:
Dear Family,
Thanks for agreeing to live with less for a week. Your challenge starts now!
This week, you will be eating at home every meal. No more eating out, no more takeout. And you have to eat your leftovers. If you throw food in the trash, you’ve got to ’fess up.
For one week, you’re going to give up the bottled water habit. Get a water filter — time to get to know your tap.
No more disposable plates, cups, napkins or paper towels. Try cloth — you might like it!-
For entertainment, you’ll have to rely on each other. For one week, I’m asking you to give up your iPods and video games, and your computers only get turned on for homework. TV is limited to one hour per night — one TV only.
That thermostat is going way down… to 69 degrees. If you get cold, put on a sweater.
Give your washing machine a break — try to wash only clothes that are TRULY dirty.
When you leave a room, lights out. Ditto for fans. When you’re done using an appliance, unplug it. Don’t forget your computer and cell phone chargers too.
Showers are going to be shorter — eight minutes max. Use a kitchen timer to help you keep track.
Want to go shopping? Head to your closets. That’s your wardrobe for the week. The mall is off-limits.
Your final challenge — no buying anything other than food for seven days.
Good luck,
Oprah
There’s no indication that Oprah’s tried her own suggestions, so I can’t be certain if she completed the weeklong program, but I’ve found it enlightening so far. Jim and I definitely have more time together, unencumbered by noise. And even though we’re supposed to do the wash only if things are TRULY dirty, we’re creating more laundry by using many more towels and rags, since we can’t use paper products. It makes me wonder what has more impact on the planet: using recycled paper towels and napkins or using water, biodegradable soap, and electricity to do laundry. It’s confusing. I want to be a good earthling, but it’s hard to do everything right without wondering if I’m going about it the wrong way. Normally, I’d research the topic and make an informed decision on how to proceed, but this year I’m so busy it’s all I can do to follow the leader without stopping to dig deeper into the truth. It makes me reflect upon how many times, before the project, I might have reflexively followed advice seen on TV without stopping to ask for a second opinion.
I like to have my iPod on at the gym, and I miss it. It lessens the pain of my Best Life Challenge exercise to have “Eye of the Tiger” blasting in my ears as I near the end of my workout. I can’t even watch the television hanging on the wall in front of my treadmill because I am allowed only an hour of it each night. Instead, I find myself staring at the timer, which makes my exercise interminable.
As the weeklong challenge draws to an end, I feel similar to the way I did when my 21-day cleanse ended. Voracious. I definitely learned good lessons from deprivation, but it’s these crash courses that make my behavior even more extreme when they’re over. No wonder so many of us are doomed to fail at these projects, whether they are centered on health, weight loss, or lifestyle changes, when there is no follow-up information on how to transition from the extreme back to “normal.” Most self-help is focused on the radical change part of the plan rather than on the maintenance of it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get off my high horse. They don’t allow animals into the restaurant where I’m about to dine, and this wasteful consumer is eating out tonight.
One of Oprah’s greatest skills is that of a motivator. Sometimes she does this with her own oration, but more frequently she inspires her audience by acting as a catalyst for her guests’ inspirational stories. Oprah is able to draw to her show a wide array of guests we might not see gathered by any other single outlet. From entrepreneurs to criminals behind bars to movie stars, she books them all. Sitting on Oprah’s couch garners a guest insta-respect, insta-profits, or an insta-platform upon which to share one’s brand with millions of eager viewers. And yet it’s the guests who have little to gain who interest me the most this year. It is while viewing one of these episodes that I become more inspired than I’ve ever been by a talk show.
That’s right, I can absolutely say without irony that an Oprah episode changed my life. Was I expecting any of the shows this season to hit me in such a profound way? Not really. Could I have learned about the people I saw on today’s show through sources other than Oprah? Certainly. But I didn’t. I saw them on Winfrey’s stage.
All my judgment over repetitive shows and reruns drains out of my body and I’m actually feeling a little naked. I find myself reconsidering if it really matters how much crap we need to wade through in order to hear one bit of inspiration we’ve never before received. Could it be that all my wasted time in front of the television set is worth it, hearing one thing that changes my life for the better? Maybe forever?
I’m speaking, of course, about Oprah’s episode focused on the Sex and the City movie.
No, I’m totally joking. I just needed to lighten up for a moment.
I’m actually referring to a show about two people with incurable cancer, Dr. Randy Pausch and Kris Carr. It is their concentrated energy and their ability to live each and every day with the fullest expression of themselves that is so impressive. I am deeply touched by their stories. They seem more vital and excited by life than most people with healthy bodies I know. Carr says her cancer has been her “teacher,” and I well up with tears.
As someone with a painful, chronic physical problem and as a human being who can be knocked to the ground by life’s hard times, that message shakes me to my core. It is as if suddenly a weight that I didn’t even know I was lugging around is removed from my shoulders (and, people with spinal problems, you know what a relief that is). I start to think about how my pain can be my guide, rather than an enemy. Instead of feeling like my health is presenting me with one obstacle after the next and that I might not have the strength to persevere, my mind floods with the possibilities of how I can adapt my thinking. I’m so overwhelmed with emotion that I can’t write about the show on my blog right away, and instead need to get some fresh air.
Oprah is the curator of her “Best Life” gallery, and I have finally stumbled upon a piece that makes me understand why she has so many devout followers. In hearing a message that changes my life for the better, I’m more excited about the prospect of turning on the show the next day and possibly getting another nugget.
Photo © Jim Stevens
Here they are: all my hopes and dreams pinned to cork board.
June 2008 Accounting
| Date | Assignment | Cost | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/1 | Read O from cover to cover. (LO) | 4h 0m | ||
| 6/1 | “Stop defining yourself by what you see or think you see when you look in the mirror.” (MAG) | 0h 0m | Goal stated by Oprah in her “Here We Go!” letter (p. 35). (0) | |
| 6/2 | “Join us for our all-new Soul Series.” (SHOW) | 1h 30m | More Tolle. Downloaded on iTunes. | |
| 6/11 | “I think everybody should have a little garden, no matter where you live.” (SHOW) | 37.50 | 1h 0m | Gotta turn my black thumbs green ($28.95 for herb starter kit, $8.55 for SH, no tax). I had to do this twice since the first time was a flop. Second time is sad, but I see sprouting…. |
| 6/11 | “You need a garden tote.” (SHOW) | 0h 0m | Although she was indicating a specific one, she didn’t specifically tell us to get a brand/model, so I’m recycling an old tote I have for the purpose of this assignment. | |
| 6/11 | “You need an ergonomic tool set.” (SHOW) | 50.40 | 0h 15m | Purchased set online. ($39.99 for tools, SH $6.57, tax $3.84) |
| 6/11 | “You need a BloemBox tiny little tin.” (SHOW) | 10.90 | 0h 5m | Purchased online. ($5.95 for tiny tin, SH $4.95) |
| 6/11 | “You need the Inspired book from Jamie Durie.” (SHOW) | 20.30 | 0h 20m | Looked for lower price, couldn’t find one. Pretty book. |
| 6/11 | “And you also need a $150 gift card from Lowe’s…” (this was to go into the Summer in a Box garden basket she gave out to her audience). (SHOW) | 150.00 | 0h 5m | Ordered online. I’m sure this will come in handy at some point, or I’ll give it as a gift or donation. |
| 6/11 | “By the end of this hour… I hope you will agree: It’s high time to reach out, extend yourself, and meet your neighbors. Do something nice for them.” (SHOW) | 14.68 | 1h 0m | We were moving out of our old place so were able to write a card to our old neighbor. Still need to do something for our new ones. Stopped by new neighbor’s apartment… met some of his family. Update: We did create Halloween bags for our neighbors with little greetings in them. (old neighbor: card and candy $6.68; new neighbors: $8) |
| 6/12 | “Everybody think about this: On the way to work or on the way to do whatever you do during the day… how many negative things.… the negative tape that’s playing in your head all day long about yourself. I can’t do that, I shouldn’t do that, I’m too fat, oh, look at my thighs.…” (SHOW) | 0h 45m | Did this on walk to work. (O) | |
| 6/16 | “So if you have a brother or sister, call them or send an e-mail just to let them know you’re thinking about them today.” (SHOW) | 0h 5m | I zapped Elisabeth an e-mail. This show was on National Sibling Day. Love you, sistah! | |
| 6/25 | “I think we should be open like Horton.” (SHOW) | 0h 0m | I commit to remain as open to all possibilities as possible even without concrete proof (at least for this year!). (O) | |
| 6/26 | Read “the five books everyone needs to read once.” (BC) | 25.51 | 2h 15m | Lolita (READ IT ALREADY!) by Vladimir Nabokov |
| Waiting for Godot (READ IT!) by Samuel Beckett | ||||
| Things Fall Apart (READ IT!) by Chinua Achebe | ||||
| Four Quartets (GOING ON THE LIST) by T. S. Eliot | ||||
| The Wisdom of the Desert: Sayings from the Desert Fathers of the Fourth Century (ALSO GOING ON THE LIST) translated by Thomas Merton | ||||
| Two books: $20.53; SH $4.98 (75 minutes Four Quartets; 60 minutes so far on The Wisdom of the Desert) | ||||
| 6/27 | “Make your own Vision Board.” (SHOW) | 12.48 | 1h 0m | I was surprised at how much I enjoyed creating it. But even though I placed in it my living room I forget to look at it. (Corkboard $10.49, pins $1.99. Friends gave me magazines.) I will update this board as needed! (O) |
| Date | Assignment | Cost | Time | Notes |
| Throughout Month | Watch every episode of Oprah. (LO) | 21h 0m | 21 shows | |
| Throughout Month | Do Best Life Challenge exercise. (BLC) | 5h 20m | 80 minutes a week for 4 weeks | |
| Throughout Month | Take A Course in Miracles. (WEB/SHOW) | 7h 30m | approx. 15 min/30 days | |
| MONTHLY TOTAL | 321.77 | 46h 10m | ||
| YEAR-TO-DATE TOTAL | 2,655.19 | 814h 51m | ||
ONGOING PROJECTS
|
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| Accounting Abbreviations: LO = Living Oprah Project Task, SHOW = The Oprah Winfrey Show, WEB = Oprah.com, MAG = O, The Oprah Magazine, BC = Oprah’s Book Club, BLC = Best Life Challenge, (O) = ongoing project | ||||
Blog: Regarding Oprah’s favorite turkey burgers: http://www.livingoprah.com/2008/06/oprah-cornucopia-opracopia.html
Blog: Regarding Oprah’s influence: http://www.livingoprah.com/2008/06/im-boss-of-oprahand-so-are-you.html