Be present. Stop worrying. And play.

Ride the Waves

My family fell back in love with the beach this summer.  The first time we went out, it took a bit of time to acclimate.  The sand is hot.  It gets everywhere.  And I mean, everywhere.  Keeping the sand out of our toddler’s mouth was a challenge.  

In an effort to encourage my son to get out into the water and boogie board, I jumped in myself.  The pacific ocean is strikingly cold.  I waded out into the water and thought, this used to be fun.  I was hesitant and didn’t want to get my hair and face wet.  But, of course, I kept misjudging the waves and they would crash right on me, splashing salty water in my eyes and carrying me back towards shore.  Maybe my son is right to hang back, I thought.  But, I pressed on.  

The next time I went out about 45 minutes later, I was a little better at judging the waves.  I got out further and deeper into the water.  My body adjusted and didn’t feel as cold.  It actually felt nice.  I felt the sun shining above me.  A bigger wave came crashing over me and when it splashed my hair and face, I laughed.  I ran to shore to get the boogie board.  I caught a little wave into the shore, and my sons happily clapped.  My oldest felt braver and tried himself.  I couldn’t get him out of the ocean after that.  Meanwhile, my other two were blissfully playing in the sand, building towers, digging holes and making seaweed soup in buckets.

The waves never changed.  They kept coming and coming, relentlessly.  When we were hesitant or resisted them, we felt cold and got splashed or knocked down.  When we let go and relaxed into waves, everything changed.  The water felt warmer.  We moved with the rhythm of the ocean and began to enjoy ourselves immensely.  Instead of thinking, this isn’t as fun as I remember, I thought…I’m playing with my kids in the massive Pacific Ocean on the edge of a continent.  How amazing.

Life keeps coming.  Day in and day out.  Are you going to resist it?  Wish that it would stop and give you a break?  Worry what the next wave will bring?  Conversely, are you going to embrace and adapt to what comes your way?  Will you change your behavior and mindset so that instead of trying not to get splashed, you ride the waves all the way to shore and then do it all over again?  Playfull Humans pick option 2.  Be a Playfull Human.  Your life will never be the same.

 

Switch it up for Family Fun

We’ve always been a big gaming family, and video games were always part of the fun. I remember the night we brought home Atari, our first gaming system. (I know, I’m dating myself.). I used to watch my mom play Space Invaders, and I remember trying desperately to hit that square “ball” with the rectangle in Breakout. Don’t even get me started about Adventure.

But, we were all amazed by Nintendo when it came out and fell in love with Mario. There might have been an iteration that I did not own (Super Nintendo, I think?) But, I’m pretty sure my brother had it. I bought the Game Cube when I lived on my own. Later, my husband and I bought a Wii; we also both had a DS. I even worked at a Game Stop while I was in law school. But, after awhile, life got busy and I stopped playing Nintendo for a number of years. Until the Switch came around.

I don’t remember why, maybe I saw the Switch while wandering around Target, but I asked my brother if the system was worth buying. (It’s not cheap.) A die hard, he said a resounding yes. By then, I had kids that were 5 and 8. And although video games are more dreaded screen time, I had such fond memories of playing Nintendo as a family, I couldn’t help myself. For Christmas 2017, mom bought the family a Nintendo Switch.

It has been a blast. Racing in Mario Kart throwing turtles at each other was the first addiction. Then came the ultimate addiction, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It may seem daunting as an adult novice. But, trust me. Go there. Let your kids go there. The game is beautiful and multi-dimensional. There is fighting, of course. But, there are puzzles. There are things to collect, horses to tame, people to meet, and recipes to cook. It’s fun to watch and play along. We texted Uncle Brian to get tips. A historical Mario fan, we even inspired grandma (my mom) to get a Switch and start playing Zelda. We texted each other when we finished a particularly hard shrine, climbed a tower or conquered a divine beast. There was all kinds of inter-generational goodness happening.

We’ve transitioned to a few other games now, Nintendo classics that have made their way onto the Switch. Last year, my husband got me Mario Party, the ultimate in video game accessibility. Made up primarily of mini-games, you need very little skill to keep up with the pack. And even if you don’t keep up, the game is so random and laden with chance, that you may find yourself back in the game because you were given a special item or were able to steal a star from someone else.

Then there is the ultimate button masher, Super Smash Bros. My family and I played that for over an hour last night, and we were giggling like fools. My six-year old was kicking our butts somehow, using his character to suck us up and spit us out, saying he was having us all for a snack. (Respectful trash talk during gaming is an important skill in our house.) The games are short so we were trying out different characters and smacking each other all over the screen in that fun, non-violent Nintendo way. There is something about playing full out with your kids, especially when they are little, and all being on a level playing field. It’s so fun for them to feel like equals (or superiors!) for a few moments.

And let’s be honest, sometimes you play with your kids to be a good parent, but it isn’t exactly play for you. You’re happy to be spending time with them, but it’s not what you would choose to do if you were trying to really and truly enjoy yourself. But, last night, I lost myself in the game. Amid all my responsibilities and adultness, I became a kid chillin’ on the couch. I ran around trying to smash everyone else, stomp on their heads, bonk them with a mallet, while trying not fall off the edge. I stopped trying to teach, to guide and to discipline my kids. We just played. It was joyful and magical.

Jigsaw Puzzles: Not Just For Grandma

I have a hell of a lot of fun doing jigsaw puzzles, although I’m not exactly sure why. I love the idea of building the puzzle.  Finding where everything goes.  However, I don’t really like building other things and I don’t love to organize or clean.  (I do it, but I don’t love it.).

I do love that there is an achievable end; although I’m not attached to it.  My husband always thinks it’s funny that I typically take the puzzle apart almost as soon as I’ve put the last piece in…no matter how many days or weeks it took me to put it together.  I take a picture and text it to my mom (another avid puzzler), and then it’s back in the box.

I love when people help me with puzzles.  I grew up putting puzzles together with my mom and grandma. (Me and mom below!)  Maybe I have positive associations with that.  One of my favorite things is having a group of people working on a puzzle together with a few bottles of wine.  Like my obsession with cooperative games (see post here), when you’re puzzling with people, you’re working together towards a common goal.  Teamwork feels good to me.

Also, while puzzling takes some attention, it doesn’t take a ton.  Plenty of time to sip your wine, eat homemade cookies, look up and check the score of the football game.  And, it’s not word-associated attention. Therefore, it’s easy to put together a puzzle while chatting about last Thanksgiving, your upcoming vacation, your job, your life.  And it’s mellow conversation.  Everyone is occupied, so there is no pressure to talk and fill the silence or move on.  Everyone is searching for pieces.  It’s casual and lovely.  And it could go on for a few hours.  Together.  If there’s a lot of wine, things can get down right silly.

But, if I’m alone.  Puzzling is fun too.  I can keep my often racing mind occupied looking for pieces while I listen to music or let my mind wander to other things with ease.  Hrmm.  Maybe I do know why I like it.

Save the World… Eradicating One Fake Disease at a Time

IT’S NOT NEW…BUT PANDEMIC LEGACY IS WAY FUN.

I haven’t had an uninterrupted night’s sleep in at least eight months and two weeks (the age of my third son).  I often look forward to hanging out with my hubby after we put the kids to bed.  But, by 8:30pm, I’m nearly drooling on myself.  Exhaustion takes over and the sandman calls.  (Queue Metallica. Or is it “cue”?  Too tired to look it up.  Anywho…).  Notwithstanding the current state of affairs, when we pulled out our game of Pandemic (at 9pm armed with wine and snacks) a few weeks ago, I was reminded of how time stops and the adrenaline flows when I’m in the throes of saving the planet.  Two hours went by without a single yawn or slow blink.  Good times.

Technically, what we are playing is Pandemic Legacy (Season One), Blue Edition.  It’s a collaborative game, which means all players are working together to win.  This my favorite type of game hands down!  In the game, your characters are fighting to contain four diseases creating chaos in the world.  Sounds like a downer, but it more strategy than gruesome sci-fi.  Before I explain how the game works, here is an example of Sean and me in full disease-fighting mania to pique your interest.

Ok, I won’t go into too much detail…don’t want to ruin any surprises.  But, here are the basics.   You play a series of Pandemic Legacy games across a fictional year.  The first game you play starts in January.  If you meet the required objectives to win, you move to February.  If you don’t, you play the month again.  Each month is only played twice.  (So I suppose if you really suck at the game, you can play it 24 times.  Otherwise, it will be less than that.)  As you progress through the year, the game play evolves because you are drawing cards, opening new parts of the game and making choices that affect how the rest of your games will be played.  You’re also tearing up things along the way.  It’s pretty amazing for a board game.

At the start of each game, you set up the board per the instructions, which are somewhat elaborate, and each player picks a character with special attributes.  You spend the game traveling around the world together curing and eradicating diseases.  However, at the conclusion of each turn, you draw cards to determine which cities will be infected with more disease.  If you draw an Epidemic card during your turn, you have to shuffle the discard pile of cities (already infected with disease) and put it back on the top of the deck.  This is how things get worse and worse for this sad fictional version of our planet.  On your next turns you’ll be turning over the same cards yet again and infecting cities with more disease, causing potential outbreaks.  It’s all very stressful in that fun, gaming sort of way!

Pro tip: Start Pandemic Legacy with enough time to play through the whole game (two hours?) unless you can leave the game out until you can resume.  You’re keeping track of wins and losses, so you don’t really want to stop a game unfinished.  It once took Sean and me thirty minutes to set up a game…debating which two characters would work best together, what special cards to put in the deck, etc.  We’ve had a streak of wins; so maybe that planning has paid off.  Or maybe we are big nerds that are too competitive.  In any event, as a warning, an hour may not do it.  Unless you’re really bad at the game.

There are a lot of rules in the game and the planning and strategy can get kind of elaborate.  Do not let this deter you.  Sean and I hadn’t played the game for almost a year when we picked it up again at the beginning of October.   You might forget some of strategy, but who cares.  Just play and do the best you can.  If Atlanta and Hong Kong start rioting…so be it.

Now, if the concept of Pandemic Legacy is appealing but the commitment-level is not quite your speed, let me suggest
Forbidden Island to start you off.  In this cooperative game, the players are on an island and must get four treasures and fly off the island as a group before it sinks.  Sounds nothing like Pandemic Legacy, but (trust me) at a very high level it is totally the same game without as many intricate rules.   In fact, this one is simple enough to play with my 9 and 5 year olds, especially since everyone strategizes to beat the game together.

I’m such a fan of cooperative games.  The teamwork adds to the fun.  If you have kids or super competitive friends, it’s great because everyone wins or everyone loses.  Either way, you just have a lot of fun playing together.  At least until someone spills their juice all over the cards and hides one of the treasures because they wanted the blue one, and someone else is upset that he didn’t get to be the pilot and also somehow his turn got skipped.  But, I’m sure that won’t happen at your house.

Just Wear Glitter

When I say glitter, what do you think of?  Fairies?  Crafts?  Mariah Carey?  Honestly, my face starts to smile, but then I almost immediately think of messes.  I know, I know.  Not playful, right?  (The parent in me has all but taken over.) But, I do love glittery things…that others have made…not in my house.  If you think of messes too, let’s change our collective mind about glitter.  But first, a story.

I found out a few weeks ago that Carrie Fisher wore glitter in her hair.  Not kidding.  Anna Kendrick tweeted it, so it must be true.  Anna noticed glitter in Ms. Fisher’s hair, and when Anna said she liked it, Carrie took some glitter from her hair and tossed it at Anna.  Intrigued, I googled it.  Sure enough, Ms. Carrie Fisher was a fan of glitter, and even painted it on fans’ faces unapologetically and without asking.  Reportedly, she thought that glitter made the world shine and sparkle even when the days were darkened by her mental illness.  Ms. Fisher, may you rest in peace.  We will follow your lead and allow glitter to bring play and lightness to the world.

How?  Glad you asked.  With a tube of glitter from Michaels and a bottle of glue.  (Gasp.)  Just kidding.  I mean, knock yourself out, but, I’m going down a different path after the Christmas ornament debacle of 2016.  Let’s don it like Ms. Fisher!  Here are some ideas.

1.  Glittery shoes or accessories.  Here are my pink glittery Topshop shoes…gorgeous with a sensible heel (ha ha).  Sure to brighten up any pair of jeans.

2.  Body glitter.  Go for some place subtle like behind the ears or at your ankles.  Or go full glam and Ziggy Stardust yourself.  Technically, I don’t think Bowie was wearing glitter, but you get the point.

3. Body shimmer.  A whole different thing and not nearly so in your face.  Radiate luminescence, my child.

4. Glittery makeup.  Audrey Hepburn in How to Steal a Million.  She pulls off silver-glittered lids with a black lace face mask.  It is unbelievable.  Google it.

5.  Glitter nail polish.  Simple, yet effective.  I can even get away with it at my conservative job in certain colors. Or you can pick a more traditional color and then layer on a clear coat with glitter for even more subtlety.  But, during the holidays, glitter polish is completely fair game.

6. Blingy cell phone case.  Too chicken to don any glitter on your body?  Fine then.  Go to that stand in the middle of the mall that sells $12 cell phone cases.  Get the one with glitter or rhinestones on the back. Use it on the weekend and stuff it in a drawer during the work week.  Voila!  You’re a Playfull Human.

Now…may the glitter be with you.

Wall Decals Add Easy (and Temporary) Playfulness to Your Life

ADD SPUNK TO YOUR HOME THAT YOU CAN PEEL OFF WHEN YOU GET BORED WITH IT.

When my husband and I were expecting our first child, we were anxious to come up with a fun design for the nursery.  After scouring Houzz and other sites for pictures, we came up with a non-pastel color scheme that we liked: mint green, red, brown and white.  (Trust me, it works.)  Then the question was, what do we put on the wall to add some fun and whimsy that doesn’t cost a fortune?  Somehow we came upon the idea of wall decals.  No need to purchase expensively-framed pictures or to drill holes into our crumbly plaster walls.  Awesome.

We bought a few different little scenes that tied into the nursery’s color scheme and we were hooked.  Unfortunately, we took the old ones down thinking we were having no more children.  Then along came number three!  Time to shop for decals again.  The one above, which I affectionately call the Cow/Chicken Conundrum, is the newest one we got  from Blik, our favorite decal store.  When my oldest son moved out of the nursery, we got decals for his new room, including this one of the Peanuts gang.

 

Then we got some for the main hall in our house, etc.  It’s somewhat of an addiction at this point.

Plan B

Your boys can’t seem to get all their pee in the toilet?  There’s a decal for that.  I had to keep the picture small because…yep, this is our toilet seat.

Now, you need somewhat of a steady hand to get these suckers on the wall without bubbles.  But, there are no nails to hammer or screws to drill into the wall, and when you remove the decal, there is no hole.  It’s a win all around.

If your house is super polished and classy, maybe you think you can’t pull this off.  (I mean, decals  where someone could actually see them?)  I feel you.  But, think of how surprising a touch of playfulness would be in your bathroom, guest room or inside the door of your hall closet.  Just think about it, playa.

 

 

Adults Can Play Legos Too

My kids adore legos.  Unfortunately, they have about a ten-minute attention span for them.  So, sometimes it takes a week or so for them to finish a set.  Occasionally, to keep the process moving, I’ll sneak snapping a piece together myself.  But, this weekend, it was all me!  The fam gave me the Women of Nasa Lego Set for Mother’s Day, and I put it together on Saturday.  (As my oldest son notes, I waited a LONG time to put it together.)

    

First, it’s rad that there is a Women of Nasa Play Set.  Second, talk about a Playfull Human, the idea for this set came from a fan of Legos, not a Lego Engineer.  Sweet!  I have to say, I had a great time doing on my own Lego Set.  I’m a jigsaw puzzler by nature (that’s a whole other post), and this felt very similarly satisfying.  In a world of chaos, putting a small project in order piece by piece can be very psychologically satisfying.

If this idea even remotely appeals to you, you are in luck.  Lego has a lot of adult options!  On Sunday, we were at a toy store (yep, an actual, physical, toy store), and I saw some great option in the Architecture series.  My husband has put together the Eiffel Tower.  This series isn’t cheap though.  So, if you’re on a budget, you may want to stick with the Friends juice stand.

              

Visualize it: Flexing your musical imagination

IMAGINE THE MUSIC VIDEO, OR EVEN BETTER…MAKE IT!

My commute to work is about 30 minutes. During that time, I do various things, depending on my mood.  If I’m feeling productive, I may listen to podcasts or audiobooks.  Other times, I listen to music and get my groove on, much to the entertainment of people commuting alongside me.  Occasionally, if a song is really hitting the spot, my mind wanders to one of two places.  I either start choreographing a dance to the song in my head like I’m Mia Michaels or Debbie Allen, or I envision the music video I would make if I were… a music video producer person.

The land of imagination is playful on its own.  So, the Playfull Humans lite challenge in this post is to pick a song and let your mind wander.  Imagine yourself singing the song at a concert at Madison Square Garden or being the drummer in the band playing at the Hollywood Bowl.  Live the fantasy.  Sing into the hairbrush.  Drum on the desk.   Or…imagine the video you would create for the song.  But, if you want the win, don’t just imagine your music video.  Make it.

While trolling Spotify to find some good songs for the gym (Why is it so hard to find good workout songs?), I came across Peanut Butter Jelly by Galantis in a workout playlist.  Say huh?  Never heard of the band, but intriguing song name.  So, I played it, and could not get it out of my head.  I listened again on my way to work.  Then I started choreographing the dance.  Then I started imagining the video.  The next morning I played it again and the video starting becoming clearer.  Then I started unintentionally scouting out locations to shoot the video on my mornings to work.  (That beautiful graffiti mural in Echo Park…our neighborhood…)

One night, my TV writer neighbor, Rishika, and her kids were over, and my kids started playing “Peanut Butter Jelly” because now they were addicted to the song too.  I told her about my music video idea, which, in summary, was about two moms getting their kids off to school and then playing around town in various vignettes before the kids get home.  (Are you seeing a theme in my life yet?)  She said, you should make it!  So, I thought, yeah, why shouldn’t I make it?

Actually, I could think of many reasons…lack of time and the learning curve of iMovie or Final Cut editing software being paramount.  But, screw it, that’s not the spirit of a Playfull Human!  Ok then, I said, you make TV shows, tell me, what do I do next?  She said, storyboard it, and later sent me a template she found on the internet.  (Google “storyboard template”, you’ll find a ton.)  So we’re clear that I am not setting the bar very high for you, my friends, this is part of my “Peanut Butter Jelly” storyboard.  Hey, it gets the job done.

Music video storyboard

Time to pitch the idea.  As a testament to my awesome village, my friend Julie immediately said, I’m in!  She even had a friend from college who was a videographer and agreed to shoot the video for us.  What?!  Amazing.  But…unfortunately, we had to part ways for irreconcilable differences.  To his credit he wanted to participate creatively as well; but I had a vision.  I just needed someone to hold the camera.

No matter…with the power of iPhones on our side, we were off to the video races.  Julie’s husband, Jordan, shot video of Julie and their kids per my direction.  Nice.  My husband, Sean, took video of me and my kids at our house.  One night, Julie and I coordinated basic costumes for the vignettes. We shot a few scenes in our front yards.  Then, one weekend morning, Sean, Julie and I packed up our costumes and my kids, and we hit the LA locations I scouted: my favorite Echo Park graffiti mural and the Echo Park lake.  My kids sat in beach chairs playing on iPads while Sean shot video of Julie and I cavorting around town.  I’m sure we looked hilarious; but then again, we are in LA.  So maybe not.

For the final video footage, one night, Julie and I donned matching wigs, shirts and sunglasses in front of some green fabric (our make-shift green screen) while my husband shot scenes for the other-worldly, dance-techno part of the video.  The plan was to replace the green with some outer space or futuristic background I could dig up on the internet.  Ok!  Raw material complete.

After a few tutorials were in the bag, I started cutting footage and piecing together my video in iMovie on our Apple desktop; but I ran into problems about 1/4 of the way in.  Although iMovie is great and easy to use, I was pushing it to its limit with my video, according to my hubby.  Too many cuts.  He said…you’re going to have to use Final Cut.  (Dum. Dum. Dum.).   Then I stalled.   For months.  What a setback.  How could I learn a new program and start all over on the video?  Long story short, my husband helped me import the footage, gave me some tips, and I was off and running again.  Nearly a year after the idea, the video was complete!  So, without further ado, I present my version of “Peanut Butter Jelly”:

Side note: After hearing the song initially, it never even dawned on me to look for the song’s official video on You Tube.   (Julie’s friend actually found it.)  I conceived of and storyboarded my video assuming, for some odd reason, that I was creating the one and only video for this magical song.  I’m glad I didn’t see the official video until after my idea was already baked because…my goodness…it is life-affirmingly fabulous.  But, clearly Galantis has conveyed a message through this song because both of our videos scream the same theme.  Break out of your daily persona for a moment and play!

On that note, if this post does not inspire you to create a video or otherwise flex your musical your imagination, do me one favor.  Watch the real “Peanut Butter Jelly” video from Galantis (below).   If it does not make you smile, you are not human.

Now, go forth and spread some Peanut Butter Jelly, kids.  Do it like you owe me some money.

Having Dessert Before Dinner is Playful and Science Supports It

As part of your quest to become a more Playfull Human, have your sweet treat before dinner once in a while.  Yes, you heard me.  Eat dessert before dinner.  Why?

Well, dessert is delicious and not a crime in moderation.  So eat it first!  After all, how many times have you looked at the menu and seen the chocolate lava cake with ice cream (my personal fave) or creme brûlée and thought…I am having that after dinner!  Or after dinner at home, you plan to have a scoop of ice cream from the quart of Baskin Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream that your spouse lovingly purchased and put in the freezer.  (Yes, he’s a sweetheart.)

But, then you eat dinner.  Perhaps too much dinner, and oops!  No room left for dessert.  So you skip it.  Sob. Sob. Sob.  Or for you indulgent types, you eat the dessert even though you are completely full and now you have to unbutton your pants because your belly is expanding like you’re Violet Beauregard.  No bueno, friends.

If you need a better reason, here’s one.  Sugar can actually make you hungry.  So, it’s better to eat it first because it makes you hungry for dinner.  Who knew?  Actually, my kids’ pediatrician knew and told me.  In. Front. Of. My. Kids.  (Sigh.)  So, to the contrary, if you eat dessert after dinner, you may actually stir up your appetite and get snacky before bed.  Then you end up diving into that bag of chips that you didn’t intend to purchase in the first place or digging into your stash of Girl Scout cookies at 9pm.  Again, no bueno.  So screw it.  Open that quart of ice cream and dish out small scoops all around!  Order that Bourbon Bread Pudding as an appetizer. Then sit down and eat your chicken and asparagus.  We all know you’re not going to overeat that.

If you’re with other adults, help them be Playfull Humans.  Give them permission to order a dessert appetizer too.  Share one if you feel like you are breaking a cardinal rule.  Here I must give a shout out to my friend Brian who partially inspired this post.  He does this on a regular basis when going out to dinner.  Kudos, Brian!

If you do this with kids, you will blow their mind.  No joke.  Here is my son the other night when we told him we were ordering churros before dinner.

And here is my other son when the churros came.  It’s as if you’re cheating at the game of life.  It’s awesome.

All hail dessert!  Now, go forth and be Playfull.