A Bunch of Miscellaneous Stuff & A Question

Good morning, good morning! It's bright and sunny here but already windier than all get-out, which does not bode well for the rest of the day (it usually doesn't get windy until after noon, and if it's already windy, this afternoon could be a pile o' dusty misery, indeed).

I'm sitting here resolving, once again, to give up wine-with-dinner entirely. We had pizza last night (cheese + bread, pretty much, and, really, not even that, since they screwed up the order and put on tomato sauce, and I don't eat tomato stuff--nightshade family + arthritis, which is a whole nother thang), but we like wine with pizza, and so I thought, eh, what could it hurt?

The thing is, we're constantly changing. Once upon a time, I could drink two glasses of wine with dinner every night with no ill effects. But I couldn't have even one cup of caffeinated coffee without feeling like I was going to jump out of my skin. Now I can drink coffee again (only in the morning, mind you), but one glass of wine makes me feel blunted the next day--not hung over, but with a slight weird sinus pressure-thing and the lack of desire to do anything but sleep. I keep trying--once or twice a week--because The EGE's doctor said he'd like for him to drink red wine. And he doesn't really like wine and isn't going to drink it if I don't. So I've been making the valiant effort--plus I love wine. Or at least I used to. Someday, I'm guessing, I'll be able to drink it again. And once again not be able to drink coffee. It's all change, everything. Used to, I ate chocolate every day. At night I'd sit in bed and watch The Tonight Show, back when Johnny Carson still seemed funny, and eat a bag of chocolate-covered peanuts. I was running 4-6 miles a day, so I could do that. The idea makes me feel a little ill: I no longer eat peanuts, and I hardly ever eat chocolate. Maybe someday, though. Who knows? I just go along trying to do what my body tells me to do. Last year's blood work showed it's working fabulously, so that's what I do.

Anyway. So working on that. I've been blogging about "Flee The Hot Glue Gun!" over at CreateMixedMedia.com, so you might want to go over there and read those. Part II went up today. Part I is here.

Then just yesterday we launched a new Flickr group, The Open Page, so we can share our visual journals. Doesn't matter if it's drawing or collage or notes or whatever--if you've got visual pages you want to share, we'd love to see them. There are some up already here. A lot up, in fact. So cool--it hasn't even been 24 hours since launch! Please join us--there's no competition for fabulous pages or anything--just sharing. If you need something to spur you to make some drawings or paintings in your journal, this might be just the thing.

A reminder: if you come here and there's nothing new and you're bored or whatever, you can always check the Twitter feed up there in the right-hand column. While most of what I tweet is just stuff that entertains me, sometimes there are links that you might find interesting, like during a coffee break or something. I don't know if re-tweets show up there or not. I hope they do--one of my former editors tweeted a page of way-cool bookshelves (impractical but way-cool). Check them out here. Aren't those cool? My favorite is the spilling books, but I think it might drive my eyes crazy. The branch one is cool, too--I fell in love with the branch coathooks on the wall of the studio at Valley Ridge last summer, and I keep thinking I'll make some. We have the branches from the trees we've trimmed, and I could get The EGE to saw them, since someone--ahem--is leery of the saw. I wouldn't be if I had a big sturdy table for it--I used to use it. But now there's nowhere to set it up properly, and it looks like it wants to eat my fingers. Yeeeeee. I think it would be cool to spray paint them gold. I love gold spray paint!

And now the question--I know someone here knows how to do this. See the URL up there? In lots of blogs, like in Melanie Testa's blog, there's an avatar before the URL. See her cat? I love that! I want one! I googled to find out how to do it but can't find instructions that make any sense. Have I mentioned that I *loathe* forums? It's like the blind leading the blind. I just want instructions. Some things I can figure out myself, but this isn't one of them. I fear maybe it's not possible for blogger. Is that the case? Anyone have experience with this?

It seems there was something else I wanted to tell y'all, but dang if I can remember what it was. Oh! I know! I just finished reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and if you haven't read it, you should. It's about cells and medical research and a family, and Rebecca Skloot? That woman can write. Imagine: I went through the entire book and did not once--not once!--think, "She should have used another word," or "That would have made more sense if she'd said. . . ." The whole book! Plus you learn stuff, too. Excellent book--the best I've read lately, for sure.

Thanks to everyone who read yesterday's post and left comments. It's so good to feel useful--you know, like the things that make me nuts also make other people nuts, and maybe together we can figure out how to keep them from making us quite so nuts. I'm feeling a little hung over (not wine-hung-over) from the worry--you know, tight, sore neck, tired from the stress. I think it would be a great day to do yoga nidra--I downloaded an MP3 to use last New Year's Day (I usually go to yoga nidra on New Year's but didn't because someone new is doing it and didn't fill me with the least bit of confidence that she had a clue about, well, pretty much *anything* (she called me twice about it and didn't remember, the second time, that we'd already had the same conversation two days earlier. I was all like, "You know, you might want to see about cutting back on the meds, sweetie.") So I didn't go. I downloaded the audio but haven't ever used it. Today might be a good day to do that (it lasts an hour).

Oh! Another thing--I got another hole in my ear--the other ear--yesterday. I'd planned, in a vague sort of way, that I'd get it done 4 weeks after the last one, I hadn't made any concrete plans. Yesterday was the day, though, and it seemed like the thing to do. I think there's one more hole in my future, but it will be a while--I want these to not be sore any more before I get another one to deal with because, gee, guess what? The interviews and podcasts are all done with Skype, on the computer, with a--hello!--headset. As in, something that goes over my ears. And, man, does that hurt when you have a new piercing wadded up under the earpiece for over an hour. Duh. The holes through the cartilege take forever to heal--the girl who does them said 4-6 months--yes: MONTHS. Of course I didn't believe her (I never believe anything) and so came home and looked it up, and sure enough: 4-6 months. Amazing.

I'll try to get a better photo soon. The room was dark, and apparently that makes PhotoBooth a little wonky.

The coolest thing:  when we did the hole a month ago, it bled a lot. The EGE reminded me that I could meditate to control this, but I'd forgotten to do that. So this time I told her I'd see if I could keep it from bleeding. (I know this works because when I had Dr. Mendez cut on my scalp, and he didn't want to do it because scalps always bleed a lot, I told him I could keep it from bleeding much. And I did.) And so yesterday there wasn't even a drop of blood. She was surprised. Meditation is a powerful thing. I need to work on it a lot more.

Well, amn't I chatty today? I'll probably be back--it seems there was something else I wanted to tell you. Huh. A memory sounds like a nice thing to have.

XO

PS--If you know how to do that avatar thing, please let me know--thanks!