Day 457: The small stuff.

Someone recently told me I don't update my blog, they didn't know what I was up to.

I can see that, I mean I wait until I really really need to get something out or until I just can't wait to share something or whatever, I don't share the small stuff.

And not even a good deal of the big stuff either!

So, here's a little mix:

Last month I started painting (like on canvas) I always wanted to, and I always thought I had decent ideas - or at least ideas I wanted to express anyway. So, I finally dug out the brushes and canvas boards, gesso, paints and pencils and got on with it. I'm pleased with what I've accomplished: I've painted both my logos, and completed two others. I'm currently working on two pieces and have concepts for three more. It makes me very happy and I am hopefully adding to my inventory to give Mamo's a delightful reopening in February.

Mira and I went to Gilbert Lake today to swim, play in the sand and meet up with Mira's Grandma Margie. On the walkway down to the beach area, I hit the one small place in the whole entire walkway where there is the potential for a topple over situation. And I toppled. Oh, man, did I ever topple. I was walking along, holding Mira's hand and I tried to shake her loose on my way down, but because she's such a good girl, she was squeezing nice and tight, so I just knocked her down with me. She cried, I laughed, we both have skinned knees. But we're both totally fine, really.

I'm trying, really trying to get some kind of a summer glow happening. Haven't had much of one of those in oh, probably close to two decades. Especially not on my legs - two years ago, during pregnancy I managed a little brown glow on my nose and shoulders, but not my legs. So, yeah, I'm doing everything I can to get a bit of that going on on the lower limbs. So far it's not working: I don't even get a burn, just stay pale and ghostly white.

I have a jalapeno growing, two tomatoes, and two clusters of grape (black grape) tomatoes. I am very very excited about my small but promising bounty.

I'm thinking about trying to do a food diary and a time study for one month. Being that I'm fairly forgetful until I've created a habit, I think it will probably take me one month of practice before I actually start the real month. During the practice month, I want to do another juice cleanse of at least 4 days. It changed my life the first time and I'm aching for the feelings of cleansed release from food. I realize that food is nothing for most people to fear, but I am terrified of food - I am powerless over food. Sounds ridiculous, I'm sure, but I'm just being truthful.

And now, I sign off for the day.



Link of the Day:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/health/elderly-experts-share-life-advice-in-cornell-project.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

Day 447: It was a bright and shiny afternoon.

So the other day, I left work after a full day of slinging cardboard boxes in my then dirty grey tanktop, got in my old, rusty, filthy Subaru, put on WTF with Marc Maron (podcast) and started my hour long drive for home.
I saw a hitch hiker a few miles from work.
I waved, shrugged, as if to say "Sorry, Dude! I'm a woman in her car by herself, very tired after a long day of work and I gotta get home to my family!"
I looked in my rear view mirror, saw him sweatily raise his thumb at the next car behind me and thought "Bahhh, he'll be alright. Surely someone will stop and take pity on a middle aged dude with a bald head, full beard and tie-dyed t-shirt on a super hot day"
And I kept driving.
Then the guilt set in. I thought "He kind of looked like my good friend, So N So. I bet he's an alright dude if he looks like my friend So N So. I wonder what he's doing hitching a ride like that. Probably just trying to get to the middle of nowhere from the airport in Albany."
And I kept driving.
Then more guilt set in "Why didn't I stop and pick that guy up, anyway? Because I'm afraid. I'm afraid I won't get home fast enough and my family will say FUCK IT and leave me. I'm afraid this random guy who I don't know will harm me in some way. I'm afraid of this guy. I'm afraid of some guy who is just a fellow human being as far as I'm concerned: a guy who's never done anything to harm me in any way."
And that got me wondering about my faith in humanity. I mean I try to have it, I express that I think other people should have it. Is there some reason I don't.
Uh yeah. There are plenty of reasons I shouldn't have it, but I'm still hanging in there. I'm still hanging on to the faith that humanity is wholesome and good.
So I turned around.
I drove the several miles back to the turnaround where I could get back on the other side of the highway and pick that sweaty hitch hiker up.
I pulled over, I said "Sorry I didn't pick you up before, but then I thought about how you look like my friend So N So and I thought it's so fucking hot today, and I had to turn around and come pick you up"
He was glad I did, said Sunday's not a good day for hitch hikin', everybody's out travelin' with their families. His brother never picked him up from Albany, he's going to Richfield, his dog just ran away, he used to drive some equipment, blah blah blah and stranger silence all the way to the Stewarts in Richfield where he was hoping to charge his phone and get ahold of his asshole brother who left him stranded before.

I took a leap of faith in humanity. And it worked out.

I'm not condoning hitch hiking or picking up hitch hikers.

I'm just telling about a time I actively participated in my faith in humanity. A positive experience where everything worked out.



Link of the Day:
http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast