If you suffer for temporary melancholy - do not put your iPod on shuffle

Usually I like the Seattle commute time. I listen to my iPod and think about different writing pieces I'm working on. However, I've been really melancholy of late and we're talking the absolute definition of the word. And when you're melancholy you don't want to have large amounts of time to reflect on the state of your life. You don't want time to contemplate on how you're such an idiot for even letting yourself slip back into this place again. You see, when you have a brain, and I do, you really beat yourself up when you do things that are STUPID!

So here are some tips on what not to do when melancholy:

Tip One: Do not put your iPod on shuffle because you will land on every "Oh my heart is so broken – I can’t live without you– why is the world so tough" song. I promise you, you will land on EVERY DAMN ONE of those songs. It's as if your iPod is a small torture device created to mock you. The radio will be no better.

Tip Two: If you can't live without your iPod may I suggest at least removing all traces of such songs by The Wreakers, Oasis, Tim McGraw, Everclear, and most of Jets first album.

Tip Three: This is not the time to start contemplating on how short life is. Because what will happen is that you'll start obsessing on the logging truck directly in front of you. You'll start to think about how at any moment one of those logs could fly out and kill you. Then you start to wonder what your funeral will be like and if people will come. Because melancholy breeds self-doubt and self-doubt makes you think that nobody loves you.

Tip Four: Do not turn your sadness into anger and lash out at your boss. Yes they are an idiot, yes they don't know what they're doing, yes you want to choke them - but this is not the time to let them know that.

Tip Five: And this is the most important one for us girls – DO NOT under any circumstance do anything radical to your hair. Don't even get a trim. Because when you are melancholy you tend to not pay attention to what the hairdresser is doing and you end up with a funky, unflattering hair cut that makes you feel ugly. And feeling ugly and sad is a terrible mixture.

Just trying to help ...

~Christy