Day 1705: Meanwhile

Meanwhile, from Edinburgh, there’s this.

Meanwhile, on my last full day before returning home tomorrow, I’m sharing my photos from yesterday.

Meanwhile, as my son and I have been whiling away the time with comedy, food, walks, talks, music, and good company  before he starts his second year at University of Edinburgh, there have been lots of meaningful things going on in the world.  I’m not sure what these will all mean, but let’s not be mean to each other in the meanwhile. Do you know what I mean while I’m writing this?

Meanwhile, here’s a video featuring Peter Brush and other U.K. comedians:

Meanwhile, thank you for visiting  and please come back soon!

Day 1702: Inevitable quiet

On the last day of the 70th annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe, as things were quieting down, I noticed the words “Inevitable Quiet” on a poster.

I suppose it’s inevitable that I would point out the very unusual heart on that poster.

I took that photo quietly last night as workers ripped down weeks and weeks of thousands of posters quietly and noisily. Some used chain saws and other unquiet tools to remove the evidence of the month-long festival.  Soon after we witnessed the beginning of that inevitable process,  my son Aaron and I saw and heard noisy events like fireworks over Edinburgh Castle and a talented Shakespearean troupe performing an unquiet version of Romeo and Juliet in which Juliet was sh*t-faced.

Do you  see inevitable quiet in my other photos from yesterday?

As Shakespeare wrote at the inevitable quiet of another play’s ending,  “The rest is silence …..”

…. except for the inevitable noise of today’s YouTube video:

 

I don’t know if this was inevitable for the entire run of Sh*t-Faced Romeo and Juliet at the Edinburgh Fringe, but on the last night both Romeo and Juliet also lived, to my quiet satisfaction. Those two young deaths are inevitably depressing.

I hope there’s not too much inevitable quiet in the comments section for this post. That would also be depressing.

Inevitable thanks to all who helped me create today’s quiet and unquiet post and — OF COURSE! — to you, for visiting.   Make some noise, people!

 

 

Day 1701: Very unusual hearts

My very unusual heart was happy to connect, yesterday, with two people who also have very unusual hearts.

Andrena, Vicki, and I have congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (cctga). That’s a very unusual heart condition and it’s very unusual when three of us can share a heart-to–heart-to-heart talk.

My very unusual heart overflowed with gratitude  as we shared what was in our hearts.  Then, my very unusual heart spent another unusual day in the heart of their very unusually beautiful and busy city of Edinburgh.

 

For Andrena, Vicki, and me, living with very unusual hearts is business as usual. Because we’re in this together, we are not afraid.

This very unusual heart loves jazz, so last night I  attended ” Jazz at the Movies” …

… at the Edinburgh Jazz Bar …

… and heard this very unusual song.

 

Do you think that everybody wants to be a cat?  I hope you express what’s in your very unusual heart in a comment, below.

Thanks,  from the bottom of this very unusual heart, to all the very unusual hearts and very unusual cats that helped me create this very unusual post and — as usual! — to you, for reading it.

 

Day 1699: No worries

“No worries” is a phrase that originated in Australia. I have no worries, this morning, about …

• writing my third blog post titled “no worries” in four and a half years of blogging,
• linking to those previous blog posts here and here,
• people with great expectations perhaps preferring my earlier posts to this one,
• taking my time responding to others,
• remembering to take my medication,
• losing things,
• being on vacation, and
• snapping photos wherever and whenever I can.

 

 

 

 

 

I have no worries that one of the excellent comedians shown above has a congenital heart condition and that we showed each other our open-heart surgery scars in public.  I also have no worries that two of the lovely people portrayed in the photos above are from Australia and say “no worries” instead of “you’re welcome.”

I have no worries about giving you more details in this blog post because

the end of this post is nigh.

No worries about including this music today.

Thanks to all who help me create this daily blog and — of course! — to you, whether or not you respond “no worries” in a comment today.

 

Day 1698: Whose Blog is it Anyway?

Whose blog is it anyway?

It’s the blog of somebody who

• is seeing “Whose Line is it Anyway?” today at the Edinburgh Fringe

• makes mistakes, like double booking

• sometimes runs late

• loves macaroni and cheese

• enjoys being surprised by chocolate and by bliss

• needs to monitor and control her Vitamin K consumption because she’s on Warfarin

• doesn’t get shit-faced but loves Shakespeare

• is still merrily rolling along

• loves Scotland and misses her cats.

Whose blog is it anyway? It’s my blog, so I’m going to post a video.

Whose comment is it anyway? I hope it’s yours.

Whose gratitude is it, anyway, for all who helped me create this post and all who are reading it? Guess!

Day 1696: The key to happiness

One of my keys to happiness is learning about the experience of others. So I am happy to ask you, here and now, about your keys to happiness.

Another key to happiness, for me, is sharing my thoughts and photos in this daily blog.

That’s the key to our hotel in Edinburgh, lying on a table at Petit Paris, a French restaurant we always visit here. Travel and great food are other keys to happiness, I think.

Do you see more keys to happiness in my other photos from yesterday?

 

It’s not imaginary that another key to happiness is associating with good humans, like my ex-sister-in-law’s husband Joe …

… and comedian Ron Lynch (who was playing in several unrecognizable keys on stage yesterday).

Here’s another Key to Happiness in recognizable keys, on YouTube.

Thanks to all who gave me every key to happiness I needed to create today’s post and to my readers (including you!)  who are more keys to my happiness.

 

 

Day 1694: Enjoy

Here are my latest photos from Edinburgh, which I hope you enjoy.

 

 

 

For two weeks,  my son Aaron and I will stay in the happy place of Edinburgh. Then, Aaron will stay here to enjoy his second year at University and I’ll fly home to enjoy my new happy place by the sea with my boyfriend Michael.  By the way,  today is Michael’s birthday.  Enjoy!

I enjoy thanking all who help me create this daily blog and all who enjoy reading it.  Enjoy this enjoyable day, wherever you are.

 

Day 1335: Haste ye back

As my son Aaron and I were leaving Scotland yesterday, I saw this sign:

Aaron will be hasting himself back to Scotland in two weeks to attend the University of Edinburgh for a five-year bachelors/masters program in mathematics, assuming his student visa is hasted back to him soon enough.

We hasted ourselves back to Boston, Massachusetts, USA last night, after a hasty stop-over at the Dublin airport.

Haste ye back to looking at my other hastily snapped photos from yesterday:

I shall now haste me back to YouTube, to find some music for this post.

 

Next month, I’ll be hasting me back to a hospital for some open heart surgery on September 21.  I’ll be hasting me back to this daily blog after that, as soon as I can.

Haste ye back to this conversation I had recently with an EMDR therapist named George:

Me:  After my valve-replacement surgery, I’ll  have to keep avoiding sodium AND I’ll need to closely monitor the greens I eat. I wonder what my diet will be?

George:  Donuts.

Haste ye back to the comments sections of this post and I’ll haste me back to respond in kind.

Hasty thanks to all who helped me create today’s haste-ye-back post and to you — of course!  — no matter how quickly and where you are going today.

Day 1333: Exposed

How do you feel when you’re exposed?

When I’m exposed, sometimes I feel proud.  Sometimes I feel shame.

I want to expose these things, here and now:

• the internet connection in the hotel  room where my son Aaron and I are staying for our final day at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is TERRIBLE,
• I am still anxious about the pin-point timing needed for Aaron to get his student visa in time to begin Edinburgh University on time, next month,
• this morning we are seeing Marc Mackinnon — a ginger/redhead,  like my son, whom we met at last year’s Fringe — in a play called Mermalade,
• I won’t have time to include as much in today’s post as I would like,
• last night we saw an incredible show called Exposé, where Colin Cloud exposed unbelievable and sometimes embarrassing things about many audience members,
• earlier in the day we saw a fabulous improvised musical — thanks to Greg and the other members of  Impromptunes — with the title “Zeus Takes a Holiday,” which was suggested by an audience member,
• on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, we ran into James Wilson-Taylor, whose Fringe show Ginger is the New Black we had seen earlier in the week, and
• we  also saw a hilarious sketch comedy show Beasts Present Mr. Edinburgh, where one of the comedians/contestants  exposed his bum. 

Have I exposed too much?

I shall now expose some photos I took yesterday, to further expose the wonderfulness of Edinburgh and the Festival Fringe.

 

If you want to expose those photos further (including the one we think looks like a George Seurat painting), click on any of them to enlarge.

Feel free to expose yourself in a comment below.

I shall now expose my thanks to all who helped me create this exposed post and to you — of course! — for whatever you choose to expose, today.

 

Day 1332: No judgement here!

With a blog named The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally,  I tend to notice signs of non-judgment.

No judgement here about the spelling of “judgment”; dictionaries judge that either spelling  is okay.

I’ve been working on “no judgement” here in the beautiful city of Edinburgh, Scotland.  I judge that “no judgment”  is very difficult, especially regarding myself. Judging myself (and expecting others to judge me) is second nature and very difficult to give up.  No judgement here about that;  I, a psychotherapist,  see excessive self-judgement in others all the time.

In my judgement, we self-judging people would feel much better if we practiced “no judgement” here, there, and everywhere.

Any judgement about this post so far? If  there is, no judgement here about that.  Human beings are natural judgers.  We just need to judge ourselves and others more kindly.

Any judgement here regarding my other photos from yesterday?

 

 

 

No judgement here about cat cafés:

 

Thinking of leaving judgement in a comment?  No judgement here!

Thanks to all who helped me create this no-judgement-here post and to you — of course! — for being here, now.