Day 2521: Double takes

I did a double take, just now, when I realized this is my first post about double takes, defined as ….

noun
a rapid or surprised second look, either literal or figurative, at a person or situation whose significance had not been completely grasped at first:
His friends did a double take when they saw how much weight he had lost.

I’m doing a double take at that definition because

1. I don’t know what a figurative double take would look like, literally or figuratively.
2. I don’t know how much weight I’ve lost recently because, as I discovered yesterday, our scale in the bathroom presents two very different weights, depending on where you move it on the floor.

In case you haven’t completely grasped the weight or significance of today’s title, here are some visual double takes:

 

Did you do any double takes at any of those photos, literally or figuratively?

Yesterday, Michael & I were trying to remember supermarkets that were around when we were young.  We remembered Stop & Shop (still around today) and A & P (no longer with us).  I asked Michael, “Do you remember the old joke that Stop & Shop and A & P are merging and the new name is “Stop & P”?  I did a double take when Michael said he’d never heard that.

I also did a double take when I saw how few views “Double Take” by Blondie has on YouTube:

Here’s  double take of gratitude for (1) all those who helped me create today’s blog and (2) YOU.

 

Day 2449: This & That

I’m on vacation this week & next!

During my vacation I’ll be

• staying at home & traveling overseas,
• taking Oscar & Harley to the vet,
• seeing a lawyer & changing my will,
• attending the Edinburgh Fringe Festival & performing there,
• doing this & doing that.

I noticed this & that yesterday:

 

 

The Stop & Shop and this & that appear in this song by Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers:

 

When I feel great, I fear that something bad will follow. Good things & bad things happen, but not necessarily in that order.

 

Last night, when I was feeling great about this week & next, that crown fell off.  My dentist — who is wonderful & enjoying a much earned vacation in Florida — reassured me & texted another dentist at Beacon Hill Dental Associates.  On Tuesday, I’ll take the cats to the vet & see that dentist.

Are you reading & commenting today?

Thanks & more thanks to all who helped me create today’s post & to you (including my wonderful dentist!) for reading, here & now.

Day 2416: Evolving

To help with my personal evolving, I’ve been reading articles like How to Stop Feeling Overly Responsible, How to Stop Being Petty: 7 Sure Fire Tips to Calm Your Inner Rage,  and Change your relationship with food — and stop eating your feelings, and also reading books like My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies and Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.

Yesterday, I saw this at the home of my evolving friend Jenn, her evolving husband Joe, and their three evolving pugs:

As usual, this post is evolving into a place to share all my photos from yesterday.

 

Did you see any evidence of evolving there? And BTW, any of those photos will be evolving into a larger one if you click on it.

Here’s the result of a search for “Evolving” on YouTube:

And here’s a comment from an evolving YouTube visitor:

Kameron Kargel
3 years ago
That moment you realize that it says envolving and not evolving

Evolving thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 2366: Visitors may catch a glance

Yesterday, when I was catching a glance of millions of things, I noticed this sign:

It was not a summer’s day, but I’m always looking to catch a glance of snowy egrets, as you shall see at a glance.

I also caught a glance of this t-shirt but not the glance of the owner.

That t-shirt says  “Lonely Forever Club,” which caused me to catch a glance of other people on their own, at least for the moment.

While I was taking those photos alone, I caught a glance of an inadvertent change of filter, which I changed back.

Sometimes I feel like a visitor and sometimes I feel like I belong. The difference often depends on how I’m filtering what I’m glancing.

Visitors may catch a glance of ellipses, memorials, flowering trees, numbers, waves, stones, pets, weirdness, whimsey, money, health, kindness, a kite, a robot, resting places, the past, sweets, gardens, groups, a pug imitating Napoleon, connections, and different perspectives.

 

Did you catch that glance of Oscar almost making a break for it, last night? Here’s another glance of that.

I’m curious what my visitors are catching a glance of, here and now.

Today I’m going to catch a glance of a fund-raiser for group psychotherapy, spanakopita (which Michael is making for the fund-raiser), and the ending of Game of Thrones (even though I’ve just recently started catching glances of that series).

Here‘s what comes up on YouTube for “Game of Thrones at a glance.”

I then caught a glance of Emilia Clarke on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert show, describing catching a glance of death in real life and also the end of Game of Thrones.

Now I’m ready to catch all the glances of this new day.  And I look forward to catching a glance of comments, below.

Finally, here’s a glance of gratitude for all, including YOU.

 

Day 2360: Internal ____________

On this day in which I will be calling the Internal Revenue Service regarding an internally complex  tax issue, I am noticing internal dread, trepidation, and other discomfort.

As I’ve blogged about many times (including here, here, here, here, here,  here, here, here, here, here, here,  here, here, and here), I have internal fears about dealing with the Internal Revenue Service, perhaps resulting from my early internalization of this message:

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

I’m having an internal response to that internalized message (which internally and eternally links taxes and DEATH, for cripe’s sake), which I will now externalize:

OTHER THINGS IN THIS WORLD ARE CERTAIN BESIDES DEATH AND TAXES, PEOPLE!

For example, it’s certain that this post will include photos.

I had many positive internal and external reactions to that incredibly delicious pasta concoction Michael made last night.

When I do a search for songs with “internal” in the lyrics, I find “Diet of Strange Places” by k.d. lang:

My internal clock tells me it’s time to prepare for my phone call to the Internal Revenue Service.

But first, allow me to externalize my internal gratitude for all those who help me express my internal thoughts in this daily blog, including YOU!

Day 2328: A Year of No Worry

Yesterday, when I was at Home Depot with Michael, we had a conversation about worry. Don’t worry, I’m going to share it.

Michael:You know,  I’m always happy when I’m at Home Depot. So I’ve decided to not worry about anything for a year. I’m not going to worry about the repair to the plumbing  I’ll be doing with these supplies and all the other home projects I’m planning.  And no matter what’s going on in the news, I’m just not going to worry. I’ll worry about everything a year from now.

Me:  That’s great! I’m going to join you in that pledge.  So no more worrying until a year from today.  That will be easy to remember, too, because it’s National Sibling Day.

When we were at the cash register buying the plumbing supplies, I told a a helpful employee about our year of no worry and invited her to join us.  She said, “Gee. I don’t know. It’s my job to worry.”  I invited her to realize that there’s a difference between worry and planning ( as well as a difference between worry and helping).  She said, “You’ve given me a lot to think about.”

I’m not going to worry about that interaction or any other personal interaction for a year.  Yay!

Does anybody reading this want to join Michael and me in A Year of No Worry? I unworriedly recommend it. For example, I have no worries about the photos I have to share with you today.

 

I’m not going to worry about anything in those photos including that black hole, especially since worry can be a black hole.

Here’s a song about not worrying:

I’m not gonna let anything bother or worry me until April 10, 2020. And don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated on my and Michael’s progress in this blog.

Thanks to all who helped me create this “A Year of No Worry”  post and — of course! — YOU.

 

Day 2318: Your favorites here!

When I was grocery shopping yesterday with one of my favorites (my boyfriend Michael from Boston), I saw this sign:

My favorites are here, there, and everywhere.   Where are your favorites?

Some favorite thoughts about favorites are here!

• It’s helpful to write a list of favorites — also called “a gratitude list.”  It’s one of my favorite ways to improve somebody’s mood.
• It’s NOT helpful for parents to play favorites among their children.
• Favorites is spelled “Favourites” in the United Kingdom.
• Yesterday, one of my favorite people, who has the same kind of unusual heart as one of your favorite bloggers, asked me to be on one of his favorite podcasts about congenital heart conditions.
• Last week, I started writing another original song about a favorite subject  (“Comfort”)  which I hope will be one of your favorites.
• This past weekend, my favorite Michael and I watched the latest film by our favorites the Coen brothers and now The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is one of my favorites.
• April is one of my favorite months, even though  one of my favorite poets — T. S. Eliot — said it was the cruelest one.
• I encourage people not to play favorites with their feelings, but to accept all of them.
• I try to capture favorite images every day with my camera and my latest ones are here!

One of m favorites, these days, is dancing to favorite songs with my favorite Michael.  One of my favorite songs for dancing is here!

It’s not peculiar that I’m ending this post with thanks to all who helped me create it and (of course!) to you, because that’s one of my favorite things to do!

 

Day 2317: Signs of spring

I’m often looking for signs, including signs of the advent of spring (my favorite season).

The “sign” post I  just linked to in that signature opening paragraph — Day 1319: Subtle signs — has subtle signs that I wrote that blog post shortly before two major life signposts: my open heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic and the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.

Since the 2016 election, I’ve noticed signs that I — and the United States — have somehow changed.  I see signs of that in every blog post I’ve written since then.  Of course, everything changes and everything changes us, although this saying

The more things change, the more they stay the same

is a sign that perhaps I should change my mind about that, also.

Here are some other signs on my mind:

• The tears in my eyes, as I write this, are signs of some unresolved grief about past events.
• Older people often look for the signs of dementia in themselves and others.
• When I procrastinate doing something — like writing a Letter from the President for a newsletter — that’s a sign that I need more information or need to resolve some fear about the outcome.
• We tend to look for signs, in the present, that replicate our experiences as children, sometimes ignoring richer, more diverse signs of a wider range of possibilities.
• I am making a concerted effort to be open to signs that conflict with my expectations.
• I’ve dealt with signs that I’m catastrophizing more than most people by writing a song about that (included in yesterday’s blog post, here).
• I went looking for actual signs of spring, yesterday.

Signs of spring remind me that I’ll be seeing Pat Metheny in concert this spring. Here‘s “Spring Ain’t Here” by the Pat Metheny Group.

 

I’ll be looking for signs of your reactions to this post in the comments section, below.

No matter what the season, you’ll always find signs of my gratitude — for those who help me write this daily blog and for readers like YOU — at the end of every post.

Day 2277: Probable

Yesterday, I shared with my boyfriend Michael the latest catastrophizing fear in my brain.  Michael listened and then responded:

That sounds probable.

It’s probable that Michael was being sarcastic and it’s probable that I will continue to seek out Michael when I’m catastrophizing because it’s probable he will say something helpful.

It’s probable that I will continue to blog daily because that helps me, too.

It’s probable that I will snap photos and share them with you.

It’s probable that Michael is going to make something delicious for dinner, like those burritos.

I don’t know how probable it is that we’ll get a dog some day because of, you know, the cats.

It’s probable that comedian Pete Holmes is visiting Lexington High School in that scene from his excellent show Crashing (even though I initially thought it was probable that was my son’s high school, instead).

According to my news feed, it’s probable that  many people will be running for U.S. President in 2020.

It seems probable, to me, that unless we human beings drastically change our behaviors, the future might look like the movie WALL-E.

It’s probable that my day at work today will be different from WALL-E’s.

It’s probable that some of my readers will comment and it’s more than probable that I’ll express gratitude to all who helped me create this “probable” post and — of course! — to YOU.

 

Day 2276: Take time to reflect

In the midst of all the action in yesterday’s petty post, there was this invitation to take time to reflect:

You may not have noticed that good advice from this good book:

because I was guilty of reflecting it on its side, like this:

I didn’t take time to reflect those two page  in their correct orientation yesterday, because there was so much petty information I wanted to share.

Like Wilma, I believe it is important to take time to reflect, even in the midst of emergencies and adventures.   Today, I have a day off from work because of Presidents Day, so I can take time to reflect.  My boyfriend Michael, who definitely takes time to reflect, asked me to reflect on who were my most favorite and least favorite U.S. Presidents.

If you take time to reflect, how would you answer Michael’s question?

I’m  going to take time to share something else Michael reflected: “These days everything seems sinister to me.”  I took time to reflect Michael’s feelings and then to ask him if I seemed sinister to him.  When he said no, I took time to reflect  that I AM sinister, because “sinister” means “left-handed” in Latin.

I take time to reflect my gratitude that there is less bias against left-handed people than there used to be.

Please take time to reflect on these recent, previously unreflected photos:

 

 

 

 

I take time to reflect when I drive and when I ride, especially when there’s snow on the ground.

I take time to reflect that a week from now I will be in Los Angeles, taking time to reflect with many other group therapists about the work we do.

Last night, I took time to reflect to Michael  how much I love this performance of “In France They Kiss on Main Street” with my favorites Joni Mitchell, Pat Metheny,  Lyle Mays, and Jaco Pastorius.

I’m taking time to reflect that Pat and Lyle looked like that when I first saw them at the Paradise in Boston, decades ago.

Please take time to reflect your thoughts and feelings in a comment, below.

As usual, I take time at the end of each post to reflect gratitude towards all who help me create this reflective blog and — of course! — YOU.