Slim Pickings

This head cold has really pushed any thoughts or productivity out of my week.  I did manage

to stir up a few bottles of fragrance-free lotion to take with me to The Clearing tomorrow because our instructor has a debilitating fragrance allergy.  I gotta confess that having to start using fragrance-free detergent and health & beauty aids for a couple weeks before going to TC has motivated me to stick with the non-smelly products as much as possible.  I don't understand the current mania for all things scented, especially those plug-in things and the ones that puff smelly stuff out every once in a while.  I like when a place smells like supper or brewing coffee or whatever is wafting through the windows, I don't feel compelled to mask any "body" odors (of course, I shower regularly and use unscented deodorant, I haven't gone round the bend) or other natural things with chemicals.  Most of them remind me of the nasty jasmine AirWick thing my country grandma had in her bathroom.  Okay, end of rant.

P.S. I'm feeling worlds better today.  I can mostly hear and sorta taste so I figure I'm on the road to recovery.

Seriously, people, this is all there is.  I added a few rows to Sudoku Long Strip #2 but nothing appreciable.  I felt so rotten that I haven't done yoga or taken a walk or done Wii Fit step aerobics since Monday.  I've barely managed to rub together a couple of brain cells to tackle the newspaper crossword, Jumble, and Sudoku.  I have done the Healing Meditation I found on the Insight Timer app every day.  I really think it helped (even though I usually don't have much patience for that kind of "woo woo" stuff).  I took a look at the guy leading it and he looks very much like a hippie draft dodger I went to college with but it probably isn't the same guy.  I don't think so, anyway.  The guy I went to school with was named Robbie Matthews and this guy's named David Ji but he could be meditating under an assumed name, don't you think?  I refuse to stress out about it but I seem to remember that Robbie still owes me $5 from a poker game...  Probably not the recommended mindset for meditation...

September 15--Robert Derlaunay, Landscape with Cows.  "This guy had incurable hiccups," said Rae, bringing her right hand up to cup her chin. "But if you squint at it, you can make sense of what he's getting at."  Sofia poked Rae in the ribs with her elbow.  "Don't say that kind of thing.  It isn't polite."  Rae waved off the remark.  "Polite schmo-lite.  The guy either had the hiccups or he painted with a stutter."  She pointed at the painting in front of them.  "Look at it, he used a flat brush and didn't blend it.  It looks like a bunch of pieces of colored tape."  Around them people were snickering and Sofia heard someone say, "she has a point."

Okey-dokey.  I'm sitting here writing this in the middle of the night because I procrastinated packing until after supper and then Durwood was watching old movies and I got sucked into watching the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3--a couple hours apart.  Both good movies with gripping finales.  Oh well, I can sleep in on Sunday because I leave tomorrow for a week at The Clearing.  Yippee!!!  Hooray!!!  I'll have to set an alarm so I'm up in time to do yoga before breakfast but this is that one precious week in a year that I don't have to think about anyone but myself.  Ahh.  What luxury.  Also there's no internet there unless you drive off to some wi-fi place and I probably won't do that so you'll hear from me next Saturday or Sunday.  Be good and don't talk to strangers.  I'll try to do the same.
--Barbara