Weird news last night- my mom called to let me know that my dad's friend Mike died. While I never grew up calling my parents' friends Auntie and Uncle, I guess Mike would fall into that category. I'd known him since I was 9. He and my dad were first co-workers and then fishing buddies. Mike never took care of me, so to speak, but he was often ( Read more... )

I started taking whitewater kayaking classes not long after I wrote my last post on revising my thinking on body and beauty. It's really hard (and we've only been on flat water so far), but I love it ( Read more... )

In Spring or Summer 2011, or maybe even before that, I slid into a bit of a funk. Depression? Maybe. It got worse when my dad died that November. My good cooking, eating, and exercise habits all went out the window. I've gained weight. In fact, I'm back at about where I was when I lived in Japan and decided I needed to lose it. But I've actually ( Read more... )

I've been reading a book called The Power of Habit. I'm not saying that it's changed my life yet, but I can definitely see how it could. How it will, I hope. It's basically about the science of creating and changing habits and routines, from the individual level all the way up to the societal level. There's a lot of practical information in it that ( Read more... )

I was supposed to go to Turkey by myself back in November. But then my dad died (it still feels weird to say that) three days before I was supposed to leave, so I didn't.

Matt (aka thereject) and I got tickets to Turkey today for April 18 through 28. We have direct flights from DC on Turkish Air, which were somehow both the cheapest and directest tickets ( Read more... )

And on my arms, and in my hair...

I'm always a little randomly itchy and tingley in places. It often feels a wee bit like bugs are crawling on me, and at any given time
(that I start paying attention to it), there are three or four spots on my body suggesting that they could use a scratch. Is this normal? I have no idea. But such is my fate. (If you ( Read more... )

Matt has a hammered dulcimer, and it needed some TLC from our local wacky-musical-instruments shop, so last weekend I figured I'd go to the spiffy Takoma Park farmers market, drop off the dulcimer, and ask about rental guitars ( Read more... )

I had this idea at some point (probably starting about a year ago) that I'd like to try again to learn to play the guitar. I think I've gotten more disciplined over the years, and could actually make myself drill on chords. I would need a guitar. I'm thinking a nylon stringed classical guitar, because steel strings always hurt my fingers and are a ( Read more... )

I went to the dentist today thinking i had 2 non-major problem. Turns out my mouth was secretly a cesspool. they did all the work on the right side, including a deep tartar cleaning, and dealing with, like, 5 cavities. I get to go back on Monday for the deep cleaning on that side, 2 more cavities, and an extraction (i knew the last was coming). I ( Read more... )

So I was supposed to be working from home/my apartment complex for most of today while I waited for the Verizon man to come, and then get back on after he left ( Read more... )