Day 2420: Considerate constructors

Yesterday, when I was in the considerate city of Edinburgh, continuing to construct my August 19th Free Fringe show “Group ‘Therapy’ with Ann,” I noticed this sign:

After many years of attending the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, I agree that the people who live in and visit Edinburgh are consider constructors. Thanks to all of them for their consideration!

Also, consider this poster for an especially considerate constructor of brilliant Fringe shows: Joshua Ladgrove a/k/a Dr. Neal Portenza:

My considerate son and I will definitely attend that show, probably today.

I love being at the heart of Edinburgh …

… which I experience as a calmed area …

… particularly in contrast with my home country of the USA, here and now.

Here are some considerate constructors in an interview with Josh Ladgrove from the Edinburgh Fringe last year:

Before listening to that interview, I didn’t know that “Neal Portenza” was considerately constructed from an anagram of “Not a Real Perzon.”

I look forward to fetching comments …

 

… from the considerate readers of this blog.

Considerate thanks from the constructor of this post to all who are reading it, including YOU.

 

 

Day 2062: Performing Together

Yesterday, inside the Music Museum at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (where people from all over the world are performing together), I saw this:

In these days of divisiveness, performing together seems more vital than I can ever remember before.

Can you see the theme of performing together in my other photos from yesterday?

People in Edinburgh are so into performing together that when we asked our adorable server to take our picture last night at the Cellar Door Restaurant, she had to get into the act.

I look forward to seeing how my readers will be performing together in the comment section, below.

As always, I appreciate all those performing together in this blog, including YOU!

Day 2061: What are the themes?

What are the themes in yesterday’s photos from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe?

The themes I notice there include music, performers, location, help, animals, food, love, family, friendship, honesty, and humor, all important themes in my life.

When I do therapy groups, I always ask people, “What are the themes?” If I do a Fringe show in Edinburgh next year, I’ll ask that question too.

One constant theme in this daily blog is gratitude. Thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 2058: The Right Way

When I was walking the right way down an Edinburgh street yesterday, I observed this:

What IS the right way, dear readers, in these times of right OR left, us OR them, my way OR the highway?

For me, the right way includes loving yourself and others …

… being responsible for your tasks …

… thoughtful consumption of food and other resources …

… finding the wisdom in books and other people …

… being surprised by joy …

… communicating with others the best you can …

… finding the humor wherever you can …

… singing along, realizing that beauty is everywhere…

… even in your own body and soul, and recognizing that change is scary.

Also, the right way includes looking out for each other, especially when people fear change.

The right way to end this post is with gratitude for all who help me find the right way, every day, to create this blog and for YOU, who found your way here.

Day 2056: Into the Unknown

As we enter into the unknown of another day and another blog post, I will tell you that the theme of the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe is “Into the Unknown.”

I especially like that cover photo for “Into the Unknown” because many of my known photographs include my feet, like this one:

That reminds me that I went into the unknown yesterday with my son Aaron and his friends to try a highly recommended macaroni and cheese sandwich in Edinburgh, wearing my macaroni and cheese socks. Photos of that sandwich and other Edinburgh meals will remain unknown to my readers because my son extracted a known promise from me that I do NOT take pictures of food when I’m with him and his friends.

Before this visit, my son Aaron’s Edinburgh friends were unknown to me. They are unknown no longer.

That drawing of Aaron’s friend Jago was done by his known and long-time friend Cameron, who is known to my readers.

The known Cameron is on the right and the previously unknown Jago and Michael are on the left. When we went into that unknown grocery store to get spinach, which I’m known to need because of my known heart condition and medication, it was unknown to us that no photos were allowed there. The security guard told us that unknown rule so we would know not to take more photos there.

I hope it’s known to you that I’m known for taking photos everywhere I go as I venture into the unknown.

Those last few previously unknown photos show us going into the unknown of the amazing Neal Portenza’s latest and (I hope!) NOT final Edinburgh show, despite his poster.

I plan to be going into the unknown of more Fringe shows today.

Do you know what helps you find the courage to go into the unknown? For me, it’s known that blogging helps a lot.

Now let’s go into the unknown of today’s blog post ending.

Day 1700: What are the odds?

What are the odds that

• somebody obsessed with odds and odd things  has never published a post with this title before?
• The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally would reach its 1700th consecutive day of blogging?
• three women with the extraordinarily rare heart condition of Congenitally Corrected Transposition of the Great Arteries (cctga) would all be in Edinburgh at the same time, to meet for breakfast later today?
• those same three women met for the first time at the same exact place two years ago?
• this blogger, who likes to refer to her old posts, would include a link to that prior meeting here?
• my son, after attending several Fringe Festivals in Edinburgh with his mother, would apply to the University of Edinburgh and get admitted to a 5-year program in Mathematics where they probably discuss probability and odds?
• I actually had no worries yesterday after publishing a post with that name?
• we would return to Forsyth’s Tea Room yesterday to revisit with the lovely Christina, who figured prominently in this post from two years ago?
• if you visit that post from two years ago you’ll see other people we encountered again yesterday at the 2017 Festival Fringe, including the very talented Durham Revue?
• Scottish coins looks so odd to us that we might confuse it with chocolate coins, which Christina gave to us yesterday?
• there would be so many beautiful days in Edinburgh during this time of the year?
• somebody taking  Coumadin/Warfarin would be able to control her Vitamin K consumption while she’s traveling by eating the exact right amount of spinach every day?
• people would be able to keep track of time well enough to make it to all their scheduled shows at a festival like the Fringe?
• a comic genius like Neal Portenza (a/k/a Joshua Ladgrove) would have dinner with two of his biggest fans from the USA?
• readers will actually respond to any of these questions in the comment section below?
• this exact series of photos would make it to this post today?

 

What are the odds that I would include this odd video here?

What are the odds that I would end this post with thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and YOU, for reading?  Pretty good.

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 1697: Merrily we roll along

Merrily we roll along to yet another blog post from the Merry Festival Fringe in Merry Olde Edinburgh, Scotland.

Merrily We Roll Along is a Stephen Sondheim musical I’ve been wanting to see for along, long time.  Every time we roll merrily along to Edinburgh for our yearly visit, I become less merry, momentarily, when I discover that Merrily We Roll Along has been at the Fringe but has rolled along out of there before we arrive. This year, I rolled along to a different strategy and booked tickets to see Merrily We Roll Along  in Boston when I merrily roll along home in September.

Yesterday, as I was merrily rolling along the Royal Mile, I saw this:

I was so merry to see this that it took Paul …

…   several tries to merrily roll me along to an understanding that this was NOT the Sondheim musical but rather the play that musical was based on.  Paul, who is the director of the first revival of  Kaufman and Hart’s Merrily We Roll Along  to roll along in many decades, merrily urged me to roll along to see the play.  I merrily agreed, since I’ve been a merry fan of  George Kaufman and Moss Hart as the years have rolled along. Indeed, one of my favorite books when I was merrily young was the biography of George S. Kaufman by Howard Teichmann.  (If you wish, you can merrily roll along to this description of that book.) Kaufman was not exactly merry but some of the wittiest words I’ve ever merrily read rolled off his tongue.  When I was at my first job, I merrily used his line “Forgotten but not gone” about somebody who had quit but hadn’t yet rolled along out of there.  That line was merrily received by some.

Shall we merrily roll along to my other photos from yesterday?

 

Before I merrily roll along to breakfast and then to Merrily We Roll Along, I merrily recommend N.E.A.L. P.O.R.T.E.N.Z.A., LAID, JAYDED, The Durham Revue, and Manual Cinema’s Lula Del Ray. Later this week, we’ll merrily be rolling along to dinner with Neal Portenza (a/k/a Joshua Ladgrove),  who is merrily doing a card trick above.

But first, let’s merrily roll along to this YouTube video.

Comments from you help me merrily roll along, so please roll along to the comment section, below.

Merrily, I thank all who helped me roll along to the end of another daily post and — of course! — YOU.

 

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 1329: Edinburgh dreams

When one is at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, it’s dreamily natural to dream, to think about dreams, and to wonder if you’re dreaming.

Yesterday, I almost missed this dreamy sign because I was daydreaming in the Edinburgh mist and rain:

The people who dreamed up that sign didn’t dream of letting us know who they are, what their dream is and why we’re not in it. What do you suppose is the dream behind that Edinburgh sign?

Personally, I have a dream of peace, love, growth, laughter, music, health, and mutual respect, and you’re all in it.

Here are other dreamy Edinburgh sights I didn’t dream up, from yesterday:

 

I had a  dreamy reason for taking this particular photo …

… of Sara Hirsch and Ben Fagan, who shared their dreams of childhood, adulthood, and success with us. I took that dreamy photo because of the dreamy song that was playing, which is a dreamy memory for one of my readers, Derrick J. Knight, who probably never dreamed I’d be mentioning him today.

This is for you, Derrick.

 

What do you find dreamiest about this post?  I can only dream that Jane Austen would find it too short.

Dreamy thanks to Edinburgh, to the St Andrews Revue for the great sketch comedy show Loop, to Sara Hirsch and Ben Fagan, to everyone else who helped me create this post, and to you — of course! — no matter what your dreams, here and now.