Whole foods

My haul at the Tuwmater Farmers' Market today: Local, raw honey, organic strawberries, oatmeal-molasses bread, organic carrots. A total meal in itself! I just got a new app for my iphone that lists for me the Clean 15 and the Dirty Dozen that I use at the grocery store, but buying local simplifies it.

cobblestones

Just finished reading Beatrice & Virgil by Yann Martel. Which led me to want to read Dante's Divine Comedy, which led me to recollect that I had seen all 3 parts in the library booksale this week....yes! still there! Interesting, also, that Dante was from Florence, and I will be in Florence in a few months. I hope I can get through all 3 parts of the Comedy before then! By the way, Beatrice and Virgil is a very disturbing book--(hmmm...also an allegory, as was the Comedy...) about the Holocaust.

When asked what book he wished he'd written, Martel said, "The Divine Comedy." Just as Beatrice & Virgil guided Dante through Hell and Purgatory, so Martel's Beatrice and Virgil guide the reader through the Horrors of the Holocaust.

Make Your Own

Read this article in Psychology Today that I found interesting. Want to increase the incidents of serendipity in your life? Try the following:

1. Change your routine. Be flexible.

2. Think of yourself as "lucky."

3. Be open to possibilities.

4. Enlarge your circle of friends and acquaintances.

5. Relax. Anxiety gives one tunnel vision.

6. Slack off (a bit!) If you are too conscientious, (see: tunnel vision) you may miss out on the unusual, and hidden opportunities. Think of it as fostering creativity.

7. Say, "Yes!" Follow the opportunities. Don't ignore the negative, but don't let it cripple you, either. When in doubt, ask yourself, "what's the worse that can happen?"

8. Embrace failure. Seizing the moment may not always work out, but it will at the least add variety, which will increase happiness and stimulate those little gray cells!

Fresh, Local, Organic

Wednesdays are Farmers' Market days in Tumwater. Today I went fully prepared, after reading an article on 10 Mistakes to Avoid at the Farmers' Market.

I had to watch for a break in the rain deluges, but managed to get there at a reasonable time before all was picked over.

I had my reusable market bag.

I made sure I had plenty of cash.

I looked through the whole market before purchasing, then bought something from 3 different vendors.

I had resolved to buy something I had never bought/cooked before. I saw some Bok Choy and asked the vendor how to prepare it. So...tonight I will have stir fry with Bok Choy, onions, garlic....mmmmm....

There wasn't any fruit, meat or dairy, and I don't have a pet, so I think all in all I successfully negotiated the market!

Speaking of negotiate...not only did I NOT try to negotiate prices, but I had my broccoli on the scale, prepared to pay $4 for the pound, but she "rounded" my bill to $10, which means I only paid $1 for the broccoli!! Whoohoo!

The opposite of synchronicity

Is missing two connection flights and having to fly into Portland instead of Seattle. My whirlwind visit to Upstate for mom's 80th was so worth the flight hassles, but it was a long, grueling ordeal getting home Sunday. Electrical storms in New York's JFK kept us grounded in Syracuse 4 and 1/2 hours past our original flight time. I definitely missed my connection, so asked Rich to get me on a later flight...it was close...I saw it leaving the gate as we pulled into our gate. Anti-synchronicity to the max! The next flight out to Seattle was not until 8:30 the next morning, so I got on a 9:30 pm flight to Portland instead, making Rich drive there to pick me up at 1:00 a.m. We finally got home and in bed at 3:00 a.m., only to have to get up at 6:15 for early morning meetings at work. What a guy!

2.47.47.8

My first (and NOT last!) 1/2 marathon in Ogden, UT this past weekend. I had been very anxious about the whole thing, such that I didn't sleep much the night before. When I did finally fall asleep sometime after midnight, I dreamed I was in the hotel room trying to fall asleep before the race and had insomnia, so it seemed like I was actually awake all night! Got up at 4:00 a.m. to get to the shuttle bus that took us to the starting line. My seat mate was a young woman from Park City, Utah, who told me her favorite 1/2 marathon (that's all she does) is in Park City, so I am already planning for that one in 2011.

One of my apprehensions was that I would experience altitude sickness, coming from sea-level to 5,000 ft at the start of the race, but I had no symptoms and was able to breathe fine the whole way.
At exacty the half-way point, these lyrics were playing on my iphone: "...girl you're in the middle of the ride, everything, everything will be just fine..." (The Middle by Jimmy Eat World), so I took that as an amusing synchronicity that I'd finish the race "just fine."

fly

I wasn't a "runner" back then, but the day I turned 51, I ran four miles just to prove I wasn't "old." Three and a half years later, I have to admit that I look pretty darn old in these photos Vanessa took at the Komen Race for the Cure in Boise last weekend, but I seem to have morphed into a "runner" in the interim. The Boise 5K was a warm-up prelude to the coming weekend's half marathon in Ogden--my first 13+ miler (I've only gone 10 miles so far in prep.)

My Mother's Day weekend flew by from the time I touched down at Boise Airport on Friday to coming home to dinner at Rachel's and wonderfully thoughtful gifts from the family here.

Revving up for a trip a week for the next four weeks!