The Braywood Bookends

She lives at the top of Braywood Drive, I live at the bottom. We walk together nearly every day, something we started at least a year ago. Maybe two  years, I don't know. We never run out of things to talk about. My friend, mi amiga, Nilsa. She wants to move because her house is on the corner and she thinks the neighborhood is going downhill. On Mother's Day, around 6 a.m., a neighbor kid drove his car across her lawn and into the cars parked in the driveway, totaling her husband's car and smashing it into hers. That was the final straw. The house went on the market. I was sad and not -so-secretly hoped that it would take a while for the house to sell. They got a contract right away, but it fell through, and they wound up taking the house off the market for most of the summer. Now it is on the market again...  All I can do is enjoy our times together while we have them.

Not done thinking yet...

Well, another day of thinking finished. Today was pretty active mentally and physically, as I kept writing things down as they occurred to me and felt pretty wriggly in the chair. At one point I stood up as though I had finished and realized the timer had not gone off. "Not done thinking yet." Sat back down and spent the last bit of time trying to stay put. It was a struggle. Another thought came, I wrote it down. Hope it's a great idea worth hanging in for the last few minutes of thinking time.

Thinking

I have recently been inspired by listening to Terri Savelle Foy. She is a motivational speaker with a biblical perspective. She talked about taking 20 minutes every day to think.
OK, I thought, I will do that. The first thing that came into my head was the scarecrow song from Wizard of Oz, which at this point seems permanently planted there....
Day 1 of thinking--- set the timer, sit down, think. Hearing the song in my head, trying not to be distracted by the usual thoughts of what I need to do, who needs me, etc.  Thinking... thinking... geez this seems to be taking a long time... did I actually press Start on the timer??? Checking that out I find that I have 3:30 left to go with the task of thinking.  Return to sofa... thinking in my case really seems to be more of an exercise in trying to NOT think... clear the mind so the universe (God?) can speak to me.  Oh, there's the bell. Thinking time over.
Day 2- well that was supposed to be day 2... no time to think. By the time the family was gone, I needed to get to work. I was up before them, but it was 24 hour crafting day at HSN...
Day 3- family finally gone, timer set... "With the thoughts you'd be thinkin' you could be another Lincoln..."  Anxiety setting in about the job opening at NCS..sure it's great money but could I do it and do I want to??  What do I love to do? How can I turn my love for teaching yoga and encouraging people to empower themselves into a money maker so that I can retire comfortably? Timer goes off, this time it didn't feel interminable, but maybe I did it wrong today...

Chantilly 18

OK let's go with that. 18" of snow. I don't know if more is to come. I do know that we have snow drifts much higher. Powdery snow blowing around everywhere. It's pretty. It's definitely cold.
Everything is shut down. That's the good thing. So much less to worry about, especially not having Uncle Phil driving to and from work.
Oh boy. Weather report says more snow is coming- could be a foot more. It's funny to see the split screen. Male meteorologist indoors in a shirt and tie. Female reporter outdoors in the elements all bundled up.
High winds but perhaps not enough to qualify as a blizzard after all, We will see.

It's 7:44 Somewhere

Like in California, where John and the kids are visiting Alice. Things here in Virginia are pretty calm. I have been spending a lot more time downstairs in the craft room, trying out some things. Although I am overwhelmed with stuff, I couldn't resist an offer from Fun Stampers Journey to sign up and get a pile of products for $99.... I keep telling myself it's time to stop buying and start using, stop watching videos and start doing...
In some ways it's harder when I am by myself because I have way fewer external time pressures, fewer excuses to not get things done.
10:49 a.m. here, 7:49 a.m. in California.