SoCS: Note to Self – Don’t Call That Number!

Today‘s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “dict.” Find a word that contains “dict” and use it in your post. Have fun!

Dictionary… Dictation…Dictator…vindictive… Going in a negative direction here. I try not to be vindictive or to write too much political stuff here. It’s obvious to me that a recent former president desperately wanted (wants?) to be a dictator. Yuck. I don’t want to write about that. What are some other words… Sigh.

Dictionary. Who still has one on a shelf? I do! Diction. I took a class in college called, Voice and Diction. That class, along with acting class, helped me get over some natural shyness and allowed me to speak clearly in front of people. Not that I want to do that now, but if there’s a good reason, it comes in handy. I’ve always had pretty good diction, but the college class gave me the ability to speak “Standard American English” if it was appropriate. Of course, it’s also good to have something relevant and true to say. Speaking from the heart is more important that diction.

It’s a good skill, speaking clearly, but not that necessary, like speaking to scammers is not necessary. It’s best not to speak to scammers at all. I made the stupid mistake of calling a number in an email that said it was from Paypal. As soon as the speaker mentioned that I had invested in bitcoin, I knew it was a mistake. I said the words “No” and “Never” very clearly. I’m not entirely sure what bitcoin is and, no, I don’t want to know.

Now I feel a bit paranoid. Sigh.

Getting back to topic of college, the first years at the community college were fun – being a big fish in a little pond and all that. Then I transferred to the university and got serious about finishing. I’ve never taken dictation, but I was good at taking notes. That was so long ago. Now, I’m retired. Yay!!! I only take notes if I feel like it or really want to remember something. If I start asking the same questions over and over again, say like 10 or 20 years from now, I’ve asked my husband to encourage me to write stuff in a notebook and carry it with me. But we’re not there yet.

Exercise is good for the brain as well as the body. After the scammer incident, I went to the Y where I recently started back with a personal trainer on Fridays, just for 30 minutes. It felt good and helped with the paranoia. Maybe exercise will help my memory and save on notebooks.

Note to self: DON’T CALL THAT NUMBER!

Sometimes we get to learn the same lessons over and over again. I will forgive myself for the mistakes and remember the lessons:

DONT CALL THAT NUMBER!

Now, move on! Find a pretty picture.

Here’s just one of my favorite Christmas ornaments from a musical friend:

David made the smaller one on the lower right from wood

~~~

For details on Stream of Consciousness Saturday,

and more streams, visit out host, Linda G Hill

by clicking HERE.

Good News Tuesday for March 29, 2022: Humanity and Hope for Ukraine, Philanthropist Giving Away Half her Fortune, Music & Mental Health, and Finally a Gold Medal for Black Women who Served in WW2

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

Stories of Humanity and Hope for Ukraine

The Good News Network has collected 8 of many good news stories coming out of Ukraine. One of my favorites is #3 “Ukraine Joins European Power Grid, Ending Its Dependence on Russia.” Other stories include helping a perinatal center in Kharkiv, World Central Kitchen, a Russian and Ukrainian chef cooking to raise money for UNICEF, animals, and the Italian Government plans to rebuild the Mariupol Theater. For details, visit The Good News Network.

…

Habitat for Humanity gets $436 million from Mackenzie Scott, and that’s not all.

Mackenzie Scott donated $436 million to Habitat for Humanity. The third wealthiest woman in the US was previously married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. She is now married to a high school science teacher, Dan Jewett. The Habitat donation was part of Dan and Mackenzie’s pledge to give away most of their wealth. For details, see this article from AP. The day after I read about the Habitat donation, I saw this NBC article reporting another round of donations. So far, Ms. Scott has given away more than $12 billion in four rounds of funding.

…’

Music is Just as Powerful as Exercise in Improving Mental Health

It might not come as a surprise, but it’s still good to find out that music is just as good for mental health as exercise. Makes me want to put on some dancing music! Here’s the evidence gathered by Science Alert.

…

Congressional Gold Medal Awarded to Black Women’s Unit Who Served in WW2

On March 14, US President Biden signed a law awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion who served in WW2. “The unit traveled to Great Britain in 1945, surviving encounters with Nazi U-boats and a German rocket explosion along the way, before spending months sorting through mail and packages stacked to the ceiling in unheated warehouses…” Here’s more from CNN plus a video below.

Got Good News?

Please share your good news or GNT link in the comments!

SoCS: Time Out, Petting the Cat, ASMR, and Shoe Size

The prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “in the corner.” Write about whatever the image or thought of “in the corner” brings to mind. Have fun!

Interesting prompt. I might just try #JusJoJan this year, too. No promises. If I miss a day, I won’t put myself in the corner. I don’t recall being sent to the corner as a child. There was usually furniture in the corner. But I was sent to “sit in the chair” for a time out. It was not a bad chair, just a normal chair. Now, I wouldn’t mind that at all – taking a time out in the chair.

There’s a comfortable chair in Mama Cat’s room which is a smallish room with a cubby and a window seat made from a pillow and blankets. She has a lot of blankets. A couple of days ago, I sat in the chair in Mama Cat’s room and she hopped up on my lap as she has started to do over the past month. I sat there in the late afternoon, or maybe it was evening, I don’t recall, stroking her soft fur as she fell asleep, and I almost fell asleep. Petting Mama Cat put me in a sort of trance. I can feel the brain waves changing if someone rubs my head or an ASMR thing – the tingle, which I find fascinating and easier to get to the more it happens. You can read more about ASMR here. I can imagine how it could be addicting. But on a brighter note, I’ve read that cat purrs can be healing like meditation.

“Stop playing with that thing and pet me.”

But I can’t spend too much time there in the chair petting the cat. I need to get some energy. There’s that thing about inertia.

My main goal for 2021 is to improve my health. It’s not bad, but I fear I’ve gained some weight and feel tired more than I want to, so I’m going to be exploring joining a gym or/and other ways to increase my exercise, like walking and hiking more regularly. That will involve getting some better shoes.

Here’s a question for my older followers. No, more mature followers might sound better. Wise and experienced readers…. or anyone who might know. Has your shoe size gone up over the years? I think my feet might be feeling uncomfortable because I need to go up to a 8 and a half. Maybe even a 9? I haven’t changed shoe size in a lot of years, so maybe that’s it. Seems like I wore a seven in my 20s. That would be better than going to a foot doctor. Anything to keep me from getting totally hooked on sitting in the chair and petting the cat… or TV, but let’s not go there. I can always do some yoga stretches while watching TV.

SoCS and Just Jot January are hosted by Linda G. Hill. You can read all about it at:

Stream of Consciousness Saturday | (lindaghill.com)

Happy New Year!

Is This Normal?

So far, all my bloodwork is normal. My doctor says that’s rare for his patients. Does that mean he sees a lot of old people? There are a lot of old people in the waiting room. Older than me. Mostly. So I should feel good, right? that my bloodwork is normal. So why do I have some days when I feel like sh* – ? Well, it’s really a few hours, like twice a week or so, in the afternoon usually, I feel like I’m coming down with the flu. Body aches, inflammation. Then the next day, I’m fine. Or even later that night, I’m okay.

I have lots of days when I feel good. So I am thankful for that. I wrote a gratitude list this morning and there was plenty on that list to be very grateful for. I’m not so much whining as wondering. (No, I’m whining, but I don’t whine much.) I would just like to know why over the past few weeks, I’ve felt achy.  Could it be osteoporosis? I have been diagnosed with that, but that was a few years ago, and this achyness is sort of new. Except that I felt the same thing during my second pregnancy 25 years ago.

Okay, I’m almost ready to get off this pity potty. But the other weird thing is that moderate exercise seems to help ease the achy feeling. I got my doctor to do some additional testing and most of that is back. Negative for RA and negative for one of the inflammation factors. I need to call back to check on the others. I bet it will be normal, and this will still be a mystery. But since exercise seems to help, and I’ve already cut WAY back on sugar since lent started, maybe I will stop talking about going to the Y to get back into swimming and do it.

Or maybe I’ll start jogging again. This lady will inspire me:

Anything is possible!

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt was, “so far.”

Visit Linda Hill’s blog for details. It’s not so far away, just click below:

https://lindaghill.com/2018/03/09/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-10-18/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

 

Resolutions: Exercise, Love, and My Parents’ Stuff

Thank you, Linda Hill, for today’s Stream of Consciousness post: “resolution.” I do need to write down my goals for the new year, so this is convenient. Playing around with the word, resolution, and resisting the urge to look it up, cause who cares, I had not noticed before that it is made up of re and solution. Like I’m going to solve this problem one more time. Again.  I did it before.  I lost weight before, and I’ve been healthier before. Of course, I’ve also been less healthy than I am now. But I do know how to get these extra pounds off. I worked a program many years ago and got thin. Running was like floating then, not sloshing. But getting back to the positive, my primary resolution/goal this year is to be healthy.  Since I got married five years ago, the pounds have crept up on me. Hubby, too.

So, here’s the plan: I’m resolving to exercise 30 minutes a day. I might not do it every day. But if I shoot for every day, I figure I’ll get five days a week. But what if I really did exercise 30 minutes every day? Wouldn’t that be cool? Maybe there will be a week when that happens. I’m going to put a smiley face on my calendar for each day I meet the goal. That worked for me in the past. My exercise can be walking, swimming, or yoga, or anything else, but those are the most likely ones. I also want to work on decreasing sugar, but I’m not going to resolve to do that. Gonna focus on the exercise. I’ve noticed I have a harder time singing while walking at church where I sing in the choir and we process down the aisle. I get out of breath. Scary. That’s my motivation along with clothes fitting better.

Resolution number 2 is to nurture my relationship with my husband. Do fun stuff. Don’t take him for granted, which I don’t when I stop and think how thankful I am for him. Look into his eyes more often. Let myself be silly and playful, even when he is serious. Except when there’s a good reason for him to be serious. I want to go hiking with him and go see the new Star Wars movie.

Resolution number 3. Dang. I forgot it. What was it? I had it a few minutes ago before I started thinking about hiking and Star Wars. Oh, yeah. I am going to get serious about going through my parent’s stuff at their old house. I need to go there about once a week. It would be easier if it wasn’t an hour away, but I can do this by not getting on the computer (except while eating breakfast) on the days I plan to go there. If I get into the computer/internet world, too much time is lost. I have specific tasks and rooms to work on, and I’m starting to feel less overwhelmed and more satisfied when I accomplish a task. Like yesterday, I went through some old vinyl records and decided which to keep and which to give away. I listened to old Henry Mancini songs and Captain and Tennille on the old turntable. It was weird but in a nice nostalgic way.

Okay, that’s it. There are other things I want to work on with writing and art, but I’m not writing them down, and this post is long enough. Thanks for reading!

Happy New Year!

For more info on the Saturday Stream of Consciousness, visit Linda at

https://lindaghill.com/2017/12/29/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-30-17/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!