A Now a Good Mood

I'm enjoying the eclectic nature of my life right now. 

It feels fun and full and interesting (to me). 

(And, I know I also complain about "so much.")

I did the FS meditation (visualization) exercise a couple of weeks ago and one of the moments held an element of slowing down INSIDE. Enjoying what's happening now and not in my head 5 steps ahead -- wondering, planning, worrying. 

That's how it doesn't feel like too much. 

I'm practicing here and there. Yesterday was a good practice day and it made a difference. I don't often do it well -- and I forget all the time. Why?? It should be obvious, but it isn't.

Gardening.

Thrifting with my aunt.

Rock painting.

Porch time with hubby.

Author talk at the library with a friend.

Bookclub planning.

Movie night (Nuremberg).

Nothing felt overwhelming. I'll try the same today.

Another mashup day of all-the-things and I'm going to practice staying in each element and not working the day like JUST a to-do list. It has potential to feel like too much, but it won't be if I stay present. 

Can I? 

Will I? 

Maybe. 

Hopefully.

Painting a couple of mushroom fairy houses. Got these flat rocks at the thrift popup store for FREE.

Spring is springing. On the walk to the library in a vacant lot. How darling are these little flowers?

The thrift popup was spectacular. Organized, huge, nice things (all donated). My aunt and I went on the second day, but marking our calendars for next year to go day one. It's in March, but not the same weekend. Benefits a local town and they use donated space. We'll have to hunt down the date and location -- sort of thrifting to even find the popup.

The author talk was well worth the time -- very interesting. More on this as I read the book. I don't have it in front of me right now and I've chatted long enough this morning.

Okay, off to add some details to the fairy houses while I wait for the sun to come up. Hoping my aches and pains from the fall are okay enough to run outside this morning. 

Have a good Sunday. Later gators. 

Rocks and A Mood

Still on a rock painting streak.

Saw a few people taking pictures of the rock snake yesterday -- that makes me happy and hopefully gave them a little smile. 

(Is is a Rock Snake or a Snake Rock?)

Heads up ...

I'm a bit in a mood to ponder or complain or something this morning.

Had a bedtime drama again yesterday. It's not a big drama, but I'm trying to process how I feel about it. I had restless dreams over it.

The Tuesday hiking group mentioned the protest for the end of March. One of the woman's daughter helps organize the big Atlanta protest under the umbrella of an organization. It's fantastic that she's so involved. 

My town just got official permission (yesterday afternoon) to host a rally too and I know the woman who put it together. She organized a number of protests, a PRIDE walk, and other local events (all volunteer based). I want to support my town (and her) so I mentioned I was going to this protest instead -- gave my reason, kudos to the woman's daughter, etc. 

To me, this wasn't controversial. I waited until the protest got approved to mention it to our group. It's been back-and-forth and down to the wire to get an approval. The woman worked diligently (and she has a child, works full-time, etc) and our smaller protest needs people to attend. Without a lot of advanced notice, we need to spread the word.

I shared the link in case someone else wanted to go too or would pass the information along to friends and neighbors. A number of the protests have staggering times so people can attend more than one. Also, some people will absolutely not travel into downtown for a protest, but might be willing to go locally. 

It was not so subtly pointed out that the protest is not part of the original organization. I responded that ALL the protests have the same goal and it's great that there are many choices and opportunities. Crickets.

Now the group is divided. Some staying local (for convenience) and some going into Atlanta (defiantly because it's the official, official organization and that's where their loyalty lies).  I have no problem with any choice or any reason, but, what the hell is the snark about?!?

This kind of divide is a reason the left has trouble unifying. If you aren't EXACTLY doing left like I do left, then you aren't with me. Fractioned. Divided. Come on ladies -- do better than this! Haven't we learned this by now!?!?

Applaud everyone standing up. 

And, I'm going to bet money that the women who are up in arms about the local protest, don't do anything else. Don't make calls. Don't support local politics. Don't volunteer to help marginalized groups under attack. 

So shut up about "it's not official."

And, also, let's be clear -- these protests are about gathering to lift each other up. In and of themselves, they're not going to change the government. It's a networking opportunity, community building, momentum inducing. 

Probably the big Atlanta protest will be way more of this feeling and I'd actually love to go, BUT ... {all the reasons I said to support the local protest.} I was ready to go downtown. All set with MARTA. All set with a plan. And, I decided to pivot. 

It's disheartening to see this divide. 

I want to open up a conversation about it, but not on a text thread. I hope the people who are upset hike on Tuesday so I can talk to them. Let's work through this and be solidly together in our fight. 

Okay, that's enough of that. 

Today should be a good day. Big thrift pop-up market with my aunt this morning (last minute add-on) and a local author talk at the library this afternoon. 

Fun day. Need to move out of this mood though.

My plans for tomorrow and Monday are a bit messed up because of the volunteer crisis. I need to spend time up north both days. Trying to rearrange things. 

Have a good Saturday. Later gators. 

Released Into the Wild

Drumroll ... and TA-DA!

She outside, in all her glory -- only to get bigger and happier (fingers crossed).

I need to paint a few larger rocks and add a sign, but it's a great start. I hope people add to the snake -- I have a feeling they won't without invitation though because it's on our property. Maybe if I invite people with the sign. Hmmm ... have to give it some thought. 

Here's what I added to the other snake head/tail down by the water. If this one holds up, I'll add more. I hope people stop being a nuisance and throwing the rocks in the water. 

A little garden activity too ...

Kale salad with dinner.

Pinched some basil
from the grow room
because it was too tall.

Today is a relaxing and fun day. Lots of FS stuff to enjoy. Even the weather is showing up -- sunny, but cool.

Standing Friday action meeting.

Lunch with an old neighbor -- walking around our town.

Grow room adjustments -- pinching off the tomato plants.

Rock painting -- I'm on a streak. 

Postcard writing for the local campaign. 

A few fussy chores to get off my plate to end the week.

I like the plan for today. Full, but not busy. Comfortable day with time to enjoy all the little parts. 

I hope you have a good end of the week too. Later gators.

That Hurt

Duke and I went hiking. 

It was muddy,

There were squirrels.

He's attached to my waist.

Can you guess what happened? Yep, he chased and pulled, I slipped on the mud. We fell down an embankment. I'm bruised everywhere. Sore in lots of places. Lost my sunglasses. Broke my hiking pole in half.

Ended up on my back, head downhill, feet up the hill, Duke's leash caught in the underbrush. What a moment. 

Thank the lord above we weren't hurt more AND it's not spider season AND no one saw it hah!

The day went up from there ...

I hobbled off the trail and found this -- someone is trying to put back the snake rock AGAIN. I painted a rock to add to it tomorrow. I hope it takes. My snake rock will still be further up the trail so people don't toss the rocks in the stream, but I'm excited for this one too. Two snakes are even better!

Simple and effective.
I knew what it was immediately.

I had a volunteer training session that's relevant to what's happening with my case. Live zoom for 2 hours (while I worked on the rock). It was well worth my time.

Then I took my broken self for a test drive -- walked to return library books. One read, two unread. Grabbed lunch. My body is sore, cut, and bruised, but doesn't seem to be injured. 

Ended the day with another walk to a coffee shop that I thought was conservative because they're all Bible stuff -- nope, supporting the liberal, trans woman candidate for state house representative. I joined a campaign event with postcards I had written at home and got a yard sign. Met some good people supporting a good candidate. Wrote 50 cards -- took home another 75. Lots of writing ahead. I'm the first resident in district to put up a sign so it was a moment for the campaign -- very glad to be involved. 

As for today. It's another rainy morning -- not complaining (although we lost power for a few minutes and I DID complain lol). 

I have a hormone lab draw this afternoon and a stop to drop Monti's medications to a dog foster to give out. Boy, I miss that little guy. 

I need to figure out the grow room too. It's a wild jungle and I need a solution. I have zero ideas right now. I know I need more potting soil. Maybe it's a good problem to have or maybe it's the other side of a flop (too little vs too much). I hope not.  

Hope we all have a good, embankment-free day. Later gators. 

PRIDE at the Capital

What a day (!!)

It was incredible. Such community. Kindness. Inclusion for EVERYONE. The PRIDE community is so caring and loving. I can't even describe it. 

The event was well organized. The speakers were outstanding -- not one person read a speech. They spoke beautifully and passionately. 

People shared signs. 

I gave out PRIDE pins. 

People were so loving to each other. 

We learned which bills are currently up for voting and where to focus our attention.

We watched a couple of votes in the GA Senate. Eye opening. Nice to see a MAGA's amendment solidly voted down. It was interesting to see the process of talking to your representatives and you can see how important it is to call, email, go in person -- especially at the lower levels of government where numbers of constituents are smaller. It matters. 

MARTA couldn't have been easier. 

This was at the station.

A couple of pictures from the day.

Inside the House
(which wasn't in session)

Governor's Office

Capital with real gold

A Voting Truck

Signs for the rally

Spent the day with amazing people from our women's action group. Couldn't be more pleased to have gone. 9 hours went by in a flash. 

We had lunch at a Presbyterian church. They fed us as they were feeding the unhoused community too. THIS is what a church should do for people. We ate in the chapel that they opened so people had a chance to sit. A speaker from the event gave a moving talk about her faith -- where it helped, where the church fell short, where she found her path. In a church -- talking about prickly bits of religion. 

She talked about holding paradoxes -- as this moment was exactly a paradox. 

Rode MARTA home and sat near a woman traveling back from the airport. She clocked that I'd been to the event and she said she was queer and thankful people attended (she couldn't because of her work trip). She gave me a stack of vouchers for Waffle House (works in management). I'll give them to our unhoused population. 

See? Just a day of people being kind, being neighbors, acting in community.

And, sadly, I didn't go to the author talk. My back was tired and sore and I didn't want to push it. I'm disappointed and it was the right move. I suspected as much -- especially by lunchtime when everything already hurt.

P.S. Lunch was pizza. They offered GF and vegan too -- of course they did. Inclusion everywhere with this community. Be yourself echoed over and over. What a glorious message in a time when people want to stomp out anyone who isn't like them (cis, white, man, evil Christian).

Have a good day. Later gators.

Big Day

Good very early morning. 

Up at 4:30 which is fine, but it still feels like 3:30 AND I couldn't fall asleep on-time last night.

That ONE silly hour does such havoc (in this direction -- I LOVE fall back). 

The hike felt really good yesterday, but for some reason, I'm stiff this morning. It's not a hard hike. I guess it was just that little bit faster than I go with Duke. 

I ended up on the hike with a newly retired guy I was introduced to at a Christmas party. The party host is one of the Tuesday hiking friends and she knew of the hiking club because of me. Told him, and he loves it. I sent her a selfie of us and she reminded me of that story. You never know how connections form or how you affect people. I know I've had many experiences like that which have benefited me.

(Specifically an old neighbor I invited over once who told me why my ONE plant was dying -- I watered too frequently. Changed my ENTIRE plant life.)

I caught up on some social promises yesterday -- of course, I'm the driver on said plans/promises. It's the "after-the-holidays" stuff that's been REALLY after the holidays because I've been occupied and THEY haven't made any effort either.  

That sounded more bitter than I meant it. It's just funny that people love a backseat to actual plan execution. Most of this was initiated by them  -- "let's get together," but I have to be the one to execute. 

Nothing major, all fun. I guess being the driver is nice because I get to steer the plans. 

And, I made a couple of decisions to NOT reach out. They didn't follow up and I'm being more selective on who I spend time with -- letting some relationships fade. That doesn't feel easy, but it feels right. Nothing bad, just not worth my effort to keep things going. 

Today is a really, really big day.

City hall, Capitol, rally, legislative push. 

This is my first "protest" event in the city. 

I attended a zoom last night about what to expect, etc. It sounds like a great day.

MARTA is easy -- all set on that.

Don't know why that gave me worry.

Biggest issue? 

Carrying my crap.

Rain and drink ready.

I'll get wet (umbrella and/or jacket) and I'll need water (it's going to be in the 80s). 

I still need to figure out what bag to carry. 

I decided not to bring my sign because of the rain.

I don't expect to be home until early evening. Of course, I can leave at anytime so I really don't know. It's finished at 4 o'clock, but I don't expect to stay quite that late (I think the last part is a duplicate of the morning session). You can pick and choose which parts you attend. 

Then I have the author talk. 

I want to go. 

Will I go? 

That remains to be seen and depends on how tired I am. The talk is from 7-9 and that works in my favor with the time change so I might not have an issue being out. 

I hope I go -- which is strange to say because it's obviously my decision. I guess I should say, I hope I feel well enough to go. Standing all day, in the heat, might be too spent. The protest has "sag out" spots where you can go sit down because it's otherwise all standing. 

Standing is much harder than walking -- very hard on your lower back. Sitting on folding chairs for 2 hours is also hard on my back. Might not work out to do both. 

Okay, that's that for today. Wish me luck. Speaking of luck ... look what was in my grow room yesterday. She's the good kind.

Have a good one. Later gators.

Monnnday, Monnnday {*sung in my horrible singing voice*}

Here are some Monday rambling thoughts -- maybe a little rant, maybe a little mood. 

My cancel friend is at it again. Plans for Wednesday off the table, now she wants to move it to the following Tuesday -- St Patrick's Day. I think there's very little chance of those plans holding, but I said okay. It's really a last-strike kind of yes though (not so much a friendly, sure!!). This will be the 3rd scheduling of this particular plan. It involves her granddaughter too and I think the St. Patrick's Day date will be a conflict. Maybe, hopefully, I'm wrong. 

It's really going to rain tomorrow. Dang and double dang. I'm so disappointed that the day will probably be kind of miserable walking on the wet streets and it's going to be warm. Not a cool, wear-a-raincoat kind of day. The afternoon is sun and thunderstorms. Yuck. 

I have free tickets sponsored by my old library to see Liz Moore (of God of the Woods fame) speak tomorrow. It's not until 7 o'clock and it's about 45 minutes away. Should I cancel? I have 2 tickets, but no one to go with -- actually, my cancel friend was planning to come, but forgot she had company. I'll have had a long, wet day, but I bet it's interesting. I think this is a large venue though, so it won't be the same experience as the other author talks. Maybe I need to do a little research on the venue.

UPDATE: Looked it up -- bigger, not as nice, but okay. Plus it's a little closer than I thought. 

The week isn't particularly full -- yea me. Everyday is something, but not a crazy something (except Tuesday). That said, I need to be careful because I'm in a bit of a mood, a slump, a grump. I can't let my SPACE and free time be used for evil lol. 

Here are a couple of IG pulls -- both spoke to me.

The first one is interesting. Annoyances aside (like canceling), of course. Maybe it doesn't inform my relationships so much, but inform how I behave. Would I be okay showing up like them? Would I want to be more like them? Kind of a hero/anti-hero kind of evaluation. Easier to see and evaluate yourself in other people.

YES!!!

Garden drama -- I looked them up. Apparently FRIEND and not foe, but good lord, so many millipedes. They're often found in good soil because they digest dead matter and help the quality of the soil. Harmless to plants. 

The grow room is a drama too. The tomato plants are growing so fast and big that my grow space won't be able to accommodate soon. They don't get planted for another 5 weeks -- what am I going to do?? Garden google is probably the answer. Maybe a good problem to have??

So what's today?

First club hike in 3 months. 7 fast miles this afternoon. 18 creek crossings -- my feet will get wet after the rain. I'm happy to be back at it though.

The morning is thankfully homebound. I have a lot of office stuff to catch up on and with the dang hour lost, I can really use the extra long morning option. 

Hope your week is off to a good start. I'm going to try and rally this slump to get motivated and excited for a nicely balanced week ahead. 

Later gators.