What a perfect time of year to be outside! I have been busy gardening until my energy gives out, every day. I've been on a mission to get healthier, lose weight and lessen the infection (from my teeth) that has been hard to shake off, which makes me tired a lot. Taking naps, eating more fruits (blueberries from my bushes, especially) and vegetables and drinking lots of water have helped. I'm not hungry most of the time, just lose interest in eating for long periods of time, which is good. Maybe it's s menopause issue, (which for me has been a cake walk). I've known people my age who have had their hormones go haywire, mine are pretty stable and have been for a long time. I used to get cold really easily when young, not anymore. Just want to keep my health going well, and am more mindful of keeping healthy, after seeing how much mom and dad have had to go through in the last year. They are doing ok, thanks to being good to their bodies for the most part, all of their lives.
As for me, I've spent my life eating whatever I want, whenever I want. The thrill of that has lessened as the years went by as weight creeped up, was lost then creeped up again. What? I can't eat a bunch of donuts at one sitting anymore? Ok, well, a donut or two once in awhile is ok. On my birthday, the sheet cake (yellow cake/white buttercream icing/loaded with frosting flowers)..and a fork tradition continues but is tempered quite a bit. One formerly once a year pig out that now ends up with me putting most of it into the freezer for later. That tradition started when I was a pre-teen and mom wouldn't get me a cake/told me I didn't need a birthday cake since she thought I didn't need the calories. So I bought my own..from Hough Bakeries..quarter sheet cake covered with flowers. And that tradition lives on, and will, forever (unlike wonderful Hough, which unfortunately closed years ago). I miss those days when metabolism ran like a furnace, being able to chow down on these things with little worry. Good times! Time to be more mindful of my eating habits, don't want to get diabetes..or anything else from poor eating choices.
Being a night owl by nature, nighttime is perfect for reading books, researching things on the internet and working on my websites/draw pictures. I'm less into the social life in the city now that I live further out in the country and my friends have mostly moved far away or are online. It's ok, just keeping busy with my business, garden and projects is very satisfying. Independence is great. I've shied away from boyfriends ever since the last one turned out to be abusive and pretty much insane. I left him and moved to Florida, kicking myself for letting that clown into my life, never looking back. Felon in a three-piece suit. That was ten years ago, since then I don't trust easily and don't want to make more mistakes. Better to be safe than sorry. Nobody needs to feel sorry for me at all, as my life is fine! Maybe I'll let someone in, sometime..maybe. I actually tremble and sweat when flirted with at times. Other times I like it. There are few people I trust in this world..it's kind of strange but that's what happens after being with someone who turned out to be dangerous. Trust is the basis of any relationship..when I do trust, that's the biggest compliment of all.
Mom and dad's former neighbor in Beachwood has sold her home after the death of her husband and is moving far away. They lived there for many, many years. It's so sad to see her go, my parents used to go to their parties every year and they were good friends. Her husband, a doctor who is responsible partly for finding a cure for Polio, lived until nearly 100 years old. I was fortunate to visit them with my parents last year and see him before he died. She is doing ok now, but is moving to be closer to her family in New England. I won't use her name here for the family's privacy but wish her all the best. And thank you for the lovely present you sent me. Keep in touch with our family!
Next week I go to the dermatologist out at the Clinic in Chagrin, yearly check for skin cancer. Get my hair done later that week at a hair salon. After weeks of living in a big pile of hair frizz, I'm getting off my lazy derriere and getting it cut. Ugh. It scares small children and makes people run in horror (kidding), well, sort of. Short hair makes me look silly so the length stays, just needs shaping. I used to get my hair cut every eight weeks, but since working on my own, away from corporate/office settings, and living away from the hairdresser I always went to, the habit ceased years ago. Two hundred dollars to get highlights, cut with extra hair (more money) charge gets really old after awhile. This time I'm just getting the cut, no highlights. I no longer pluck silver hairs on my head. If I did, I'd be bald. Let the middle aged freak flag fly..it's ok. My dad has pure white, gorgeous hair, Scots/Irish coloration all the way. When I'm his age, that would be nice..for now, it's salt and pepper dishwater blondish whatever. I embrace my age the best I can (nearly fifty)..but won't ever fully act it (that's no fun).
.JPG)
