Keep up

Keep up. This was the admonition from my tea bag the other day. What does that mean exactly? Especially hanging between those two princesses...Snow White and Cinderalla (on my favorite cup even though it's missing the handle after one of my "bulls in the china shop" dropped it). How could I possibly keep up with them (and would I even want to)?

I certainly can't keep up with fashion. Once in a nail salon I want to, the woman doing my nails was making small talk and she pointed out that she could tell I have sons because I dress like a boy. That was enlightening. I guess hoodies, t-shirts, and jean cut-offs are boy clothes (though my sons would not be caught dead in cut-offs).

I am not all that into name-brand accessories, either. I don't know why someone would pay hundreds of dollars for purses and shoes. I currently have Nike slides on (but they're white and purple so I *know* they are intended for women) and if I were going anywhere I would grab my salmon-colored faux-leather bag from Tarjay. (Faux leather is way easier to get ball-point pen off than real leather.)

I have trouble keeping up with everything I want to do in life and sometimes I wonder what it would be like to not have anything I feel compelled to do like write, take a class, research, volunteer or do hobbies after work in the evenings. What would it be like to finish dinner, clean up the kitchen, and have free time? (Well, sometimes on weekends we have leisure time so it's not a complete mystery.)

I decided I'd look at it another way. "Keep up" could mean "keep your spirits up." It made me think of a high school cheer, "When you're up you're up; when you're down, you're down. When you're up against _____________, you're up - side - down." And I think there were some sort of upside down stunt happening during that last part, but I really do not remember.

No matter what ever happens and how long my to-do list gets, I can always keep my spirits up. Life is not a race...I am in no hurry to get to the end.