The Visible Woman...March 14, 2004

Sunday, March 14, 2004

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A Journal from Austin, Texas.
A Project of LBFFP Stealth Publishing.

health and mood

doing what you please

Yeah, I have a badge for the film festival. Doesn't mean I have to go.

I really wanted to see the ballet again, see the other cast. And I didn't want to rush around before we went. I wanted to sit with my coffee then go to the gym, have time to clean up and go to the ballet. And I did just that. I told myself I'd see a movie in the evening. I even picked one out, poring over the guide while waiting for the ballet to start.

Stephen Mills' Hamlet is transcendental. It makes you want to go read the Shakespeare because, now, you think you will understand it better. Even if the story were a modern movie ("an unlikely and melodramatic plot," the critic asserted) in plain language, this wordless music and dance would enhance your understanding. It makes your heart leap for joy with dance. I'm not a big Phillip Glass fan but the music selected does the trick. I loved seeing it the second time, seeing the other cast.

We came home and FFP did things like planting some things in the outside pots to spruce them up after winter. I decided that I should try to control the explosion of newspapers around my chair. I did succeed in tossing a bunch of them. I'm ashamed to admit that some were from January! I got stuck into watching a monologue on some cable channel. I love monologists. I read, in fact, a fragment from the last show Spaulding Gray did before he disappeared and turned up in the East River. (The Tuesday copy The New York Times front page is here in my office with his obituary.) I would like to be a monologist. I've written two pieces, each a few minutes long and performed them. Like everything else...I'm a dabbler. But, you could call this journal a monologue, couldn't you?

Anyway, while we were watching The Sopranos, I decided to skip the movie I'd thought of seeing in the festival although it was an interesting one, a documentatry about Craig's List. I didn't feel like getting out. We could stay home and watch The L Word.

It's all about doing what you want to do. Today I did it. Retirement has made me cranky about schedules and appointments.

We keep playing around with the things on the shelf in the new room.

JUST TYPING

Doing what you feel like can be complex.
You have tickets, have signed up for things.
You see your spouse being useful.
Not so easy to just do what pleases.
But possible.

Food Diary.

breakfast

nothing

lunch

four slices turkey bacon
a slice of hard salami
a banana
a couple of ounces of cheddar
a little bit of vegetarian barbeque

snacks

a package of wasabi chips (180 calories), 3/4 ounce cheese, a few tortilla chips, some hot tofu dip

very late night: some cheddar cheese, Fritos and green onions...I was unaccountably hungry and just couldn't go to sleep

dinner

some smoked salmon and cream cheese and crackers

Today I
- seemed to be on the all snack diet;
- but I didn't drink alcohol or anything with calories for that matter.

Time flies....

We got up around 7:30 or 8. But I drank coffee, messed with the computer and didn't get to the gym until a little before 11. I decided to just ride the bike. I worked up quite a sweat going for over a hour.

At home, I ate quickly and then showered and dressed more or less leisurely for the ballet. We enjoyed the performance.

At home, I watched this monologue by this actress (the one who did Pat on SNL?) who talks about her brother and then her getting cancer. I got into it after it started. I sorted papers while it went on. I finished watching it while FFP watched Sixty Minutes in the kitchen. We snacked and then watched Cold Case and The Sopranos and The L Word. I didn't really groove on any of them, really.

Got in bed to read but got back up and had a snack before bed.

Reading.

Newspapers. Boy the world is screwed up, isn't it? We've been in Iraq about a year now. Wow. The terror attack in Spain was scary. Where next? The thing is: might as well travel because it could be anywhere.

The Life of Ernie Pyle by Lee G. Miller. This very old biography is really very good with lots of quotes from letters. Makes me want to read or reread all the Ernie Pyle stuff. I hadn't realized that he drove all around the states before the war even started.

nothing

Thinking about things.

Books.
We have boxes and shelves and piles of them.
Once I started a database.
Occasionally I update it even.
It lists 2912 books.
There are books on obsolete computer topics, old textbooks, great novels, bad novels, conspiracy books, biographies, short stories, on and on.
Even books in other languages and antique travel books.
I'm sure there are more than 2912 although some in the database are probably lost...loaned and gone missing.
There are others that aren't in the database. Like the two we bought yesterday.
Best guess? 3100. Or so.

(3118)

Exercise

recumbent bike	62 min
treadmill
ergonomic rower
water aerobics
chest, shoulder, triceps
leg, back, bicep
lower back
ab exercises
stretches
walking
tennis

Should have done some situps at least.

My mood continues to be pretty good although I have a little nagging worry about this and that.

It's a Tangled
Web we weave...these
days of our lives.

One year ago
"We stop and visit my mother's grave. We don't stay long. It's quiet there in the corner of the vast cemetery. It's not boring, though. My mother never was boring. The grass is starting to grow around the marker."

Two years ago
"And what, may I ask am I accomplishing with my life? I eat, I stay alive. I read fewer books than my dad does, I don't inspire anyone, I drive those close to me slightly crazy in spite of their undying love. I create some digital pictures and, um, type. I type my meals and I type my trips here and there. My mind is full of ideas, but I don't execute them very well at all. "

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