Red Shoe Ramblings

Dateline: Thursday, May 8, around 4:30 PM

The scene: An office, where, toward the end of a very long and uber-busy day, our heroine (that would be me, because it’s my blog and if I can’t be the heroine of my own blog, then what’s the point!) is whizzing between one desk and another on her speedy chair-on-wheels, as she does many, many times a day. Wheeeeeee!

Sceneus Interruptus: Our heroine, who sometimes gets a little carried away with the whole “wheeeeee” thing, somehow gets her center of gravity not-quite-right and tips the speedy roller-ball-ish chair right on over to the floor. Oopsie.

The Good Part: Her reflexes are pretty darn good and she catches herself before she goes crashing to the floor with the chair.

The Not-So-Good Part: She seems to have twisted funny when she caught herself because damn!…her…um, that is, my back freakin’ hurts today. Sigh… Just call me Grace.

Here’s today’s Daily Art Thang.

“Another Redbud” (Clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window.)

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I’m feeling meme-ish today, so I pulled out one I blatantly stole politely borrowed from Kim C ages and ages ago.

Three things that scare me:
~ Fanatics
~ Spiders
~ Bad drivers

Three people who make me laugh:
~ Pretty much anyone in my family (We’ll call that 1, 2, and 3 since there are several of them!)

Three things (not people) I love:
~ My camera
~ Books
~ My comfy Chucks

Three things (not people) I hate don’t love:
~ Meetings
~ Bills
~ Crocs (sorry all you Croc-lovers, you can tell me how comfortable they are ’til you’re blue in the face, but I cannot bring myself to love them…I just can’t)

Three things I don’t understand:
~ Sanskrit
~ Accounting (which might as well be Sanskrit, as far as I’m concerned)
~ Deliberate cruelty

Three things on my desk:
~ A photo of J and me taken on our most recent trip together
~ A bead necklace I need to repair
~ A piece of aqua-blue sea glass

Three things I’m doing right now:
~ Listening to it rain
~ Typing the answers to this meme (duh!)
~ Thinking about some things I probably should be getting accomplished rather than typing the answers to this meme

Three things I want to do before I die:
~ Travel
~ Travel
~ Travel

Three things I can do:
~ Take oddly disparate things and figure out ways to make them look good together…usually
~ Talk with just about anyone…at least for a little while
~ Rub my head while patting my tummy - or vice versa!

Three things I can’t do:
~ Balance my checkbook
~ Swim
~ Blow a bubble with bubblegum

Three things you should listen to:
~ Your heart
~ Your gut
~ Your soul

Three things you should never listen to:
~ Hate-filled ranting
~ Pessimists who want to bring you down to join them in the Half-Empty Toxic Glass of Doom
~ Neil Diamond (merciful Zeus, that AI episode was over a week ago and I still can’t get that freakin’ “I Am, I Said” song out of my head!!! I’m just about ready to jab a shish-kabob skewer into my brain to make it stop!!!! Gaaahhhhhh!!!!)

Three things I’d like to learn:
~ Spanish
~ To play acoustic guitar
~ Ballroom dancing

Three favorite foods (lately!):
~ Big, green olives stuffed with garlic and jalapenos - YUM!
~ Salsa - the fresh (uncooked) kind with lots of peppers  and cilantro (can you tell I’m on a spicy kick right now?)
~ Fresh asparagus

Three beverages I drink regularly:
~ Water
~ Hot, black coffee (no sugar or milk)
~ Southern-style sweet iced tea, with lots of ice (ever since McDonald’s starting selling big ol’ glasses of it for only a dollar, I’ve developed a bad sweet tea jones!!!)

Three TV shows I watched as a kid:
~ The Brady Bunch
~ The Partridge Family
~ Bewitched (I look at that list and am thankful I’m no more warped than I am. Ahem.)

Three books I read as a kid:
~ A Wrinkle in Time
~ Freaky Friday
~ Little Women

Three blogger friends that I am going to tag:
~You, you, and you! (Now leave me your name in comments, so I can come read your answers!)

Here’s today’s Daily Art Thang.

“Three Redbud Leaves” (Clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

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When you are out in your yard on a crisp, beautiful Spring evening, all set to enjoy tossing a frisbee with your sweet, frolicking puppy, here’s something you do not want to see. You do not want to see the sweet puppy happily trotting toward you, proudly carrying half a bunny in his mouth. Or at least I don’t. Just sayin’…

Here’s today’s Daily Art Thang, which is another look at some emerging hickory leaves. At this stage I always expect to hear a little voice coming from them saying “feeeeeeeed me.”

“Hickory Leaves: Take Two” (Clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window. But if they ask you for blood, don’t blame me.)

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The Self-Portrait Challenge theme for May is Fresh. Here’s what it says at the SPC site: “definitions of fresh: recently made, produced, or harvested | beginning | vitality and energy | original | not rotten | clean: free from impurities | lively, clean and fruity character | stimulating and refreshing | youthfulness and vibrancy”

This week I’m coming at the challenge from the angle of “beginning / vitality and energy.”

I’ve been walking nearly every day for years, but lately - specifically since I went back to work a few months ago - I’d been slacking off on it…not wanting to bother getting out there, and finding excuses to skip my walk a lot of days, especially on work days. It didn’t take long (a shockingly short time, in fact!) before I was feeling a big difference in my energy levels and in the fit of my clothes - and not in a good way. But still I was having trouble keeping myself motivated to stick with it every day, so I decided it was time for a change.

But what to do? I hate exercise! I’m such a sedentary person by nature that if I could spend most of my life curled up on a corner of my couch, with a book in one hand and a bag of cookies in the other, without ending up as the featured player in one of those news stories about people who have to be moved out of their homes with a crane, don’t think I wouldn’t do it! Sadly, Real Life and my metabolism don’t allow me to indulge in the Book-n-Cookie plan. I have to get out there and move to feel good.

I thought about alternatives and kept coming back to the fact that there’s a Curves fitness center just a few blocks from where I work. Proximity should make it easy to fit in, but come on…a fitness center? Bleah. I’ve tried that stuff in the past - weight training, various sorts of aerobics - and have pretty much hated all of it sooner rather than later. But still…still…I had to do something, so about a week ago I decided to go give it a try.  And I…um…I like it. How odd.

I’m sure most of you know the idea behind Curves - a circuit workout that you go around 2 or 3 times, alternating cardio and resistance training in short, timed bursts, so that you keep your heart rate up, but don’t spend too long at any one thing before moving on to the next station. It’s like the Short Attention Span workout, which is perfect for people like me who are easily distracted by shiny obj….oh, what’s that?!?

*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*

Where was I?

Oh yeah.

In the past, when I’d be doing an aerobics class, or a weight-training session, or even recently with my walking, sometimes I’d dread it so much that I just couldn’t stand the thought of doing even 20 or 30 minutes worth. But with this system, even on the machines I don’t like (and yes, of course there are some!!) I know that I won’t much more than get on them before it’ll be time to hop back off and move on to something else. Yay! I mean, come on, even an exercise-hater like me can stand almost anything for a minute or so!

(I have to say “almost” because there are a few things that I couldn’t stand for even 30 seconds - immersion in toxic waste, standing in front of automatic machine gun fire, red-hot pokers through the eyes, the sound of George W. Bush’s voice…you get the idea.)

I don’t know if this enthusiasm will last or not, but in just a week’s time I can already feel so much difference in my energy levels that I find myself making time to walk more again, in addition to the Curves workout.

This die-hard night-owl even set the alarm 40 minutes earlier than usual so I can go to Curves before work this morning, and I’m actually (dare I say it?) looking forward to it! How’s that for a fresh try at fitness?

“Fresh Start at Feeling Good” (Clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window.)

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…by the Letter “M.”

M-things have played a big part in the Good Parts of the last few days, so I thought I’d share them with you.

You might remember I mentioned Friday that I was going to an artists’ reception that evening. Well, check out what came home with me! 
This fab little (about 6 x 6″) Mosaic is by the same artist who did the red-haired mermaid I bought a while back and when I saw it, I just knew they were meant to be together.

This one is called “View from a Fishbowl” and the quote painted around the outside edge is, “Just think of something that everyone agrees would be ‘wonderful’ if it were only ‘possible.’ Then try to make it so.” - Armand Hammer

Saturday didn’t go quite as I planned, since that plan had included getting some yard work done and it ended up raining all day, but it was still a good day, due in no small part to a phone call from my favorite Kiwi. 

Every so often Morven has a weekend where their phone service lets them make unlimited phone calls for a fabo rate, and when that happens, we get to hear each other’s voices for a little while instead of just exchanging emails. Needless to say, I love those weekends!

And how great is it that we have technology that makes it sound like a call between New Zealand and the US is coming from practically right next door? We take it for granted, but it’s pretty Miraculous when you think about it. A hundred years ago we wouldn’t have been able to do more than exchange a letter every few months. Hell, a hundred years ago, we’d probably never have met, considering that we found each other through an email list!

Yesterday I finally got around to doing some Mowing. Later in the year, when both the temperature and the humidity go sky-high, and stepping outside feels like trying to breathe underwater, I freely admit that’ll be something I’d be more likely to gripe about than celebrate, but this time of year, when the air feels crisp and everything is green and smells good, I actually enjoy the job. 

Then later that evening, I finally got around to watching a Movie I’d been wanting to see for months - Juno.

I liked it! I was not super-crazy about the music featured throughout the film (although it’s a style that I think might grow on me if I heard it enough…you know, kinda like a fungus…heh), but I liked the movie.

Without wanting to give away any spoilers for those besides me who haven’t seen it, I was glad about the way something turned out, as at one point I thought the story was about to go an entirely different direction and if I’d been right, that wouldn’t have pleased me. I’m glad I watched it.

Here’s today’s Daily Art Thang, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the letter “M” because I didn’t plan ahead to make it so. Ahem.

“Hickory Leaves Unfolding” (I always think the early stages of hickory leaves look so bizarre, like little alien pods unfolding or something. This one and the fish mosaic are clickable if you want to see them larger in a new window. They other pics are not.)

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I always like to be helpful to people who find this blog through search phrases, so this is for the person who came here after searching for “Why did the chicken cross the road?”

You’re welcome, searcher of chicken stories.

Here’s today’s Daily Art Thang.

“Puff” (Clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window.)

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Here’s a huge upside to having a public blog - or to the internet in general, for that matter: You find people with whom you might otherwise never have connected and who turn out to be smart, funny, loving, thoughtful, kind, and (insert well-deserved superlative of choice here). They enrich your life with their presence and their insights, and some of them even become more than net-buddies…they become genuine friends.

Here’s a little downside to having a public blog: Trolls.

I’ve been (knock wood) pretty lucky in that I haven’t been toooo badly bothered by them over the years (one advantage of not being a Big Name in Bloglandia, no doubt), but now and then one of the little buggers jumps out at me and it always takes me by surprise.

Just how pathetic must a person’s life be to waste any of it by going out of their way to be unnecessarily mean to a complete stranger??? (At least I certainly hope this person is/was a complete stranger to me. I’d hate to think someone I know would behave that way!)

Y’all remember this post, where I told you about having been trapped on a runway in Atlanta in some pretty miserable conditions for several hours? Well just yesterday, more than three months after the fact, that post inspired someone to take time out of his or her life (such as it is) to send me a nasty email, calling me names and enumerating several character flaws they gleaned from that story. S/he sent it anonymously, of course, because Trolls never have the balls or backbone to claim ownership of their thoughts, feelings, or words.

So, here’s an open letter to “nonwhiner” in case s/he ever reads this:

Nonwhiner,
I have to assume your mama didn’t raise you right and you were never taught how to behave correctly, so I forgive you. I hope someday soon your self-esteem and manners both improve to the point where you can find a friend or two so you have someone to talk to, and maybe you’ll even feel inspired to get out there and do some good in the world instead of wasting your life spewing meanness on strangers. I hope someday you get to be a happier person.
Take care,
Deb

Here’s today’s Daily Art Thing.

“Lilacs: Take Two” (Clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window.)

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 (My answers are in bold)

1. Two of my favorite ingredients in a drink are rum (or tequila) and lime!
2. The unceasing absurdity of humanity often amazes me.
3. You can keep doing that forever, the dog is happy to keep chasing it. (a frisbee, that is)
4. Take some chopped up avocado, a little lime juice, some salt, and some good-quality salsa, mix it all together and voila! You have guacamolsa!
5. If I had a yard with a garden, I would love to grow um…whatever it is I’m growing, I guess, since I do have a yard with a garden.
6. Fresh fruit is best au naturel.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to going to the opening reception of an art exhibit, tomorrow my plans include mowing the grass (oh joy…sigh…) and Sunday, I want to relax and do something fun!!!

You can find more Filled-In Fridays here.

Here’s today’s Daily Art Thang.

“Lilacs” (Clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window.)

9 Comments »