LOL, all by myself

Got up at my usual time, 9 AM. Made breakfast and was not happy with the $2.97 coffee I bought yesterday at the C-town.
Like most every day, I sat in front of the TV to eat, even though I know that is a big NO-NO. Jon Stewart making fun of John Boehner and other Republicans and Tea party people during the President's speech was HILARIOUS and Oh-so-right-on!
Then I read two pages of a David Sedaris article in The New Yorker. My day was off to a good start!

Returning this book to the library today. It was a bit ridiculous. The tapping solution for weight loss and body confidence (book), by Jessica Ortner. There were some helpful suggestions in there but the idea of tapping various parts of your head and neck while you recite affirmations is just too dumb.

Today is my "self-indulgent" day. On Thursday, I come to Vineland and get a manicure and a massage and use the best library in Cumberland County. Heard a good story the other day. My doctor said that her father wanted her mother to move to the Friends Village in Woodstown. Her mother wouldn't go because the libraries over there are limited.

Do I have a "negative dispositional attitude"

Although I do see a lot of LIKES and DISLIKES in the world, I probably tend more to the DISLIKES.  Want to read the academic article which lies behind the popular press articles (one of which I posted) on this topic. 

Then again, I take pleasure in positive comments, even if made by an older, blacker, flirtacious man in McDonald's....."I keep track of everything around here, especially the young and pretty girls".  I didn't really respond but I think he meant ME!

Really need to do some stuff at home but it is grey and humid and too quiet.  So I came out to McDonald's to get some breakfast and some coffee and to use the Internet.
Summer's over...what is the plan for my life?

I miss bumper stickers

I saw two good bumper stickers today. There were quite a few on this car and you don't see THAT any more either! 

- "I listened to NPR before it was cool".
- "Are you hearing voices of crazy people?  Turn off FOX news".

Holiday weekend approaches.  I don't like holidays.  Nothing is ever happening due to the holiday.  I never have any plans.  I emailed my sisters and none of them have any plans either.

Torrential rains yesterday.  Ceiling leaking again.  I guess a leaking ceiling never gets any better, only worse.  (One can always HOPE, can't one?)  So here are my main problems today...

- a leaking ceiling (roof)
- a dead bat somewhere in my house
- a barking pit bull next door
- cell phone battery is inexplicably dying and I need to make some phone calls
- rash on my leg is starting to itch again

Other than that, life is just hunky dory.  I will try and think of some GOOD things now...

- the competition at the health club is almost over so I can stop feeling inadequate
- I am starting to walk better due to losing weight
- everybody is very well behaved over here at the Vineland Public Library
- I rebooted my laptop and overcame the nonfunctioning
- Serena Williams is one hunk of a woman (I just perused Tennis magazine)

French Quarter for your thoughts

Clever name of my weekly nail polish from O.P.I.  I usually explain the puns to my Vietnamese nail technician but this one made me tired just thinking about it.  "Why did you pick THAT nail polish"?, inquired a male friend of mine.  Because I saw a picture in the April edition of Ladies home journal of many earthy tones that were "in" this Spring.

Was reading a blog by a young person who had someone die...a twin? a sister?  who died.  She was all broken up about it and lamenting about the trivial things that people complain about on social media.  That's me.  Like talking about my NAIL POLISH.

Sitting with the father of a friend today who needs watching.  Since I am a doer and a thinker, I always want to ENGAGE the elderly.  They are very hard to engage!  Asking if he wants to watch TV, read, listen to music, go for a ride in the wheelchair to look at the flowers and trees.  Even as I am saying it, I am thinking how LAME I sound, if these are the only possible activities available.  Of course, he exhibits NO interest in any of these.  Perhaps one should just do stuff and not ask?  Or just let the aging "vege out" as my friend used to say.  I do not approve of aides who talk on the phone instead of paying attention to their clients, but here I sit on the laptop while two aides bathe my ward
I don't want to bother him but I don't want to ignore him either.

A little bit ADD

Went on a walk this AM with the mayor of Bridgeton and a bunch of other people I didn't know.  The annual health walk is a part of the "Let's move" campaign.  We signed a big poster which will be sent with our picture to Michelle Obama.  Our county of Cumberland comes in LAST in the entire state in terms of health statistics.  So the mayor had T-shirts made up that said, "From WORST to FIRST".  It was a beautiful day but I got hot and didn't have a hat or sunglasses.  Then I came in LAST.  Even though it was not a race, it was somewhat demoralizing.  And I was waiting for it to just be OVER.  I know I am slow and have no stamina, but really.  I DO work out but I realize I do a lot of different things during my one hour at the gym.  Doing ONE THING for 40 minutes is almost more than I can take physically OR psychologically (thus, the ADD worry).  Then I think, well, I can go ONLINE for hours.  But while online, I am jumping around from thing to thing.  Even when I read for an hour, I am reading a lot of different things, current newspaper, old newspaper, Nook, current book, overdue book, old magazine, current newspaper, open the mail, do the crossword puzzle and the sudoku, then read a current magazine.

Still have to come to the library for my entertainment.  This AM I had a snoring man to my left and to my right, a young black girl and an older white woman were attempting to order a magazine online (it did not work).  They were ordering a magazine called XXL which seems to be about rappers (?) and they were buying if for a GIFT for someone incarcerated in our local prison. 

So, I told a friend that I was losing weight without really trying.  That is not really true.  I AM trying, I just don't feel like I am being successful.  The exercising is going a lot better than previously, but the eating! About the only thing I have accomplished is to lessen the amount of snacking that I am doing.  If I DO snack, I try to eat something that is only 100 calories.  Nighttime is still the worst, though.

We had some wacky storms on Thursday.  Two storms, one in the morning and one in  the evening, each had about 10 minutes of really bad stuff.  Luckily, I wasn't on THIS street in Rosenhayn, New Jersey, during those minutes.....

Blogging humor

    
I should give credit to the New Yorker.  I have been carrying this page around since February 6, 2006.  I come from a family of New Yorker readers.  My father used to get all of us a subscription each Christmas, my mom, himself, and his four daughters.  Now that he is gone, we keep up the tradition, on a rotating basis.

Lovely morning listening to NPR and trying to get the humidity out of my house.  I even left the air conditioner on while I'm out.  Can't really justify that now that I don't have pets.  I love the sunshine but hate the humidity.

Yesterday I had a delightful birthday.  Breakfast at my sister's, gifts, flowers, dinner with my "girlfriends of the '70's" (aren't those the best kind?), phone calls, email messages, Facebook remembrances, singing.  Couldn't have asked for a better day except that the weather could have been better.  Torrential rain and drizzles with occasional brightening.