Life hacks for the boy-do-I-wish-things-sucked-a-little-less crowd.

1.  Cut out those toxic people. You know who I’m talking about. The emotional vampires who drain every drop of your energy in a single conversation. The gimmes who take and take but never seem to have anything to give. The master manipulators who wreck your world repeatedly. Cut that shit out, people.

2.  Okay, fine, sometimes you can’t. And that sucks. So set some boundaries and read this. She’ll make you laugh through your tears while you get super smart about dealing with occasionally unavoidable drama.

3.  Look for the comical. That’s right – actually watch for opportunities to bust a gut laughing at yourself, your friends, your loved ones. Because nothing makes a day better like laughing ‘til you tinkle.

4.  Use words like shit and tinkle unapologetically.

5.  Visit the tropics. Got cash for a weekend on a beach? Cool. A little strapped this month/summer/year? Then set up a blanket and umbrella in your backyard, put some steel drum tunes on your playlist, and pull out that blender for cool beverage delightfulness. Either way, you gotta decompress.

6.  Don’t get lost in the hypothetical. “But what if” is a girl’s worst nightmare. Case in point: BrightSide and I had to drive separately to Meet The Teacher this week. We knew parking was gonna be beastly, and I was all in a swither the night before trying to figure out the hows and but what ifs. Thursday night comes and it’s so crazy I park before even pulling into the lot, but when I look up there’s BrightSide. Son of a bitch, there’s 30 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. Stressing out over what-if is a waste of time. Give it up for Lent. Then give it up permanently.

7.  Make it epic. Your night out with the girls/guys, your snowball fight with the kids, your date night with your honey. Go big or go home, man.

8.  Deny your inner critic. That voice that says you’re not good enough? The one that looks at the spilled juice and says you always screw up? Yeah, that critic. Tell him to eff off.

9.  Dare to be idealistic. It can be better, if we’re willing to make it so. Believe.

10.  Remember the Titanic. Sometimes life is hard. Sometimes we make mistakes, big ones. But did you steer into an iceberg? Did thousands of people die an icy death? I’ll take a side of perspective with my coffee, Alec.

Linda’s stream of consciousness prompt drives our Saturday fun. This week’s prompt is “-ic or -ical. Find a word that uses the suffix “-ic” or “-ical.” Bonus points if you use both.”