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 |  Day to day stuff....a memoir without order. |
 Imagination is described by Webster as...The act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses in reality. Albert Einstein said "Logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere."  I never realized it until I read it somewhere but there are ways to boost one's imagination: Create a visual journal Draw whatever you see for 15 minutes a day. You don't need to be an artist. Think like an artist Cut out pictures from magazines & piece them together to create an original image. Listen to Bach Close your eyes while playing your favorite music. Or listen to the sounds of nature on a CD or in the great outdoors. Play word games Try thinking of as many words as you can that begin with MAR...or you pick. Daydream Let your mind wander, or focus on a single object & study its characteristics.     Everyone has a story....here's mine.....c   |
| My daughter visited last Saturday and accompanied me to my local writing group's Sunshine State Book Festival and it was awesome! 150 authors from all over the place but many from right here in Gainesville, Florida! I did a stint at the information table in the morning and met many interesting people. We had a huge crowd. Check it out here, https://www.facebook.com/WritersAllianceofGainesville, and scroll down a little. After, we went to a popular local pizza joint (Satchel's), and then we visited a Thrift store (Outreach)...which is one of my fav places to go. Found a great jacket vest that fit perfectly. Can't wait to go back again. I'm so happy the Eagles won and are on their way to the Super Bowl! Go Philadelphia! The book (Horse by Geraldine Brooks) that I'm reading for my book club is fantastic, and I highly recommend it, well-written, informative, great plot, and if you like horses, you can't go wrong. My Zoom critique group met last Wednesday and with Ann out, we were only three, but we took up all our time getting caught up on each other's life journeys, a wedding and a surgery just two of the things in the works. Hope Ann is well enough to join us next time. This Wednesday I have a Life Story Group Meeting that I am looking forward to. And thank heavens for warm weather....80 degrees today!! |
| I just heard from a good friend this morning that she had fallen and was in the hospital for a few days. She is a very private person and never asks for help. Thankfully, she had her phone and called her neighbor who immediately came to her rescue. She is in a critique group with me and feels like she won't be able to attend this time even though it is on Zoom. Her speech was slower and I felt like she was really concentrating on her words. She will be 85 in April. She cracked some bones in her sacrum but is getting around with a walker, very painful. Although the doctor did not seem to be worried about it (her words), she has a crack in her skull with a small amount of blood showing up behind one eye (nothing to do about that, he says, except allow time for it to reabsorb. I am very worried about her. |
| It's been very cold the last few days, cold enough that I had to bring in my outside potted plants. Good for me but not too good for them. The air inside is very dry from the heat being on. I should be able to put them back out tomorrow as the "warm-up" nears. Even though it's to be in the 60s F today, tonight will continue in the 30s. I noticed a large frost on my lawn yesterday morning. My Christmas (actually Thanksgiving) cactus had only one little bloom this year but my hoya plant now has 3 heart-shaped leaves! I have an aloe planted in the ground outside so out it must stay and so far it is doing well without covering, fingers crossed. While I was trying to figure out what to paint next, yesterday I cleaned up my emails...over 500 of them. I made some new labels for those I felt I needed to keep and deleted all the rest. When I see a FB photo I like, I save the image and then put it into an email to myself so now I have an email label of "photos to paint", easy to look at and decide...maybe. On Thursday I have my wellness visit scheduled with my primary care doctor, and thankfully, it is supposed to be warm in the 70sF that day. And since I now have the key to the WAG P O Box, I will check their mail while I am out. I've had a meltdown on my Kindle Vella story, can't seem to get going on another episode...will try again today. I have 28 chapters posted. And I need to write something for my next critique group meeting on the 25th. Cold weather puts me in hibernation mood! |
| Not a lot going on this quiet week after the holidays. I purposely ventured out a few times to keep the battery charged in my truck, needed gas and a quick trip to Wallyworld for a few things. My daughter has been sick with a sinus infection/cold but is beginning to feel better. Although my grass has turned brown from the "cold" weather a week ago, my lawn guy came on Thursday and did a beautiful job of sprucing things up. I so appreciate him. My local writing group met yesterday with a program on writing children's books, well-attended and interesting. We always have a board meeting just before the program and since I couldn't help myself from volunteering, I am back to picking up the group's (WAG) mail and depositing any checks received. I was their treasurer for five years (2014-2019) and had promised myself never again but...that's me. I think it will be okay, not that much to do and maybe it will lighten the new treasurer's load. And I finished a watercolor painting for a friend of a relative down south, putting it in the mail tomorrow. You can see Chappie here  . And that's all I have for this week. Have a good one, and stay safe and healthy. |
| I think my daughter and I have started a new tradition. Chinese on Christmas Day at Mr. Han's was great! We had salt and pepper shrimp and crispy orange eggplant and gobs of tea! Lots of people there but the noise was not a problem, no wait since we had a reservation, and the decor and atmosphere was lovely. It was so nice to be waited on for Christmas dinner. My daughter stayed the night and we "tried" to work a puzzle, only got the outside edges finished, a thousand pieces! What were we thinking? The week between Christmas and New Year's vanished without being memorable as usual. Since it was extraordinarily cold here, the only trip out I made was to the library to return a book and renew my library card. They make you come to the library for that...had to "show" my driver's license. It warmed up near the end of 2022 and I watched and listened as neighbors shot off fireworks on New Year's Eve. It made me think of Mopsy (my loved kitty who died on January 24, 2020). She always hid somewhere at the first boom never getting used to the loud noise. Fireworks are for kids. I made a very tasty soup of veggies, black-eyed peas and collards on New Year's Day but never got around to taking down my Christmas tree. I looked at it a few times with intent but have enjoyed the twinkly lights so much this year, it has warranted a reprieve...soon though. I will not be one of those people who keep up their Christmas decorations. Some soup is left over for today, it was so good. January 1st is the only day I cook black-eyed peas and collards, not usually my favorite veggies. I ordered a calendar from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Defend the Flock) way back in October and since it never came, I emailed them last week. Apparently, I checked the 2022 box (ugh). Happily it was been amended and they say it is "on the way". I'm keeping track with a little pocket calendar to be transcribed as soon as the real one comes. |
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