The Visible Woman...March 28, 2004

Sunday, March 28, 2004

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

health and mood

why does a lot add up to so little?

I'm busy, my mind races. Then it seems I've done nothing.

Isn't it amazing how you can feel so busy and yet not have anything to show for it? I think it is like playing a soccer game where a team goes all out but never kicks the ball in the net. They don't get credit for the effort they expend, running up and down the field, passing and kicking. They get a big zero.

Anyway, that was today. I made the bed, I changed laundry loads, I folded clothes, I washed dishes. I entertained my dad with a cup of coffee and conversation and a walk through the garden. I dumped a bunch of dead flowers and washed the vase. I gathered up the cardboard and Styrofoam trash from the purchases we made yesteday. I cleaned out my car, throwing away stuff, organizing the sports gear and extra clothes and umbrellas and tapes and books and CDs and maps I keep in there. I unpacked a suitcase full of clothes I'd left in there while we remodeled and put them away in the closet. I culled the ads and trash out of the newspaper. I read some articles in the papers. I wrote in here, of course. I spent a couple of hours at the gym. That doesn't count either...as a friend says it is just like brushing your teeth. It's just something you do every day. Hey, yeah, I showered and groomed and brushed my teeth.

I answered e-mails and created some. And answered the answers. I surfed the WEB to find some facts about this and that.

I hung a picture and helped fix a meal. I washed the pans and cleaned off the stove.

I read some other stuff.

I went to a wine dinner and ate and drank and socialized. OK, four hours of tasting and drinking and socializing. Hmm...that's where the time goes!

None of it counts. A lot of nothing.

the closet---messier now and more lived in

JUST TYPING

Accomplishment.
Comes slowly.
But.
Some steps don't count at all, it seems.
They are just living.

Food Diary.

breakfast

nothing

lunch

about six ounces of steak with Pickapepper sauce
some canned field peas

snacks

a slice of American cheese

dinner
[wine dinner at Wink]

OK...I was presented with eleven small pours of wine and one large pour of apertif wine (a Chenin Blanc from South Africa). I left some in some of the glasses, of course. Of course.

duck liver paté and toasts, red onion confit in mushroom and a parmesan crisp with herb chevre

rabbit confit on warm Israeli cous cous wiht arugula and dried cherries

braised boar belly on roasted root vegetables and wilted spinach

grilled lamb loin on salsify with grilled collard greens and blackberry reduction

a bite of three different desserts

Today I
- didn't ever feel hungry except a little before lunch.
- thought the portions were small at the dinner but still got very full...I guess five small courses add up!

Time flies....

I got up early...I think around seven. I made the bed, put on workout clothes, got coffee, let the dog out and fooled around on the computer doing yesterday's entry, finding different sites I hadn't looked at in a while, adding movies to my Netflix list. I went to the club for a long workout. I did various chores and various little nothing things. And suddenly it was five o'clock, we were going out at seven and I hadn't had a shower. I got cleaned up, leisurely, watching a bit of The Longest Day DVD that I have out from Netflix. Man, everybody is in the film...Sean Connery, Richard Burton, John Wayne, Red Buttons, Henry Fonda, Paul Anka, Sal Mineo, Rod Steiger, Eddie Albert, Fabian, Roddy McDowell, George Segal, Robert Mitchum, Robert Wagner and Peter Lawford! The movie makes a neat intersection between my current movie-watching project and my study of the D-Day invasion for my visit to the anniversary in France.

We go out to the Les Amis du Vin deal, enjoy the company of some people we meet and some old friends, tasting Rhone wines and eating Wink food among the noise.

Reading.

Newspapers. Travel article on South Africa.

The (never-produced) screenplay of Harrow Alley in an old issue of Scenario The Magazine of Screenwriting Art. It's about the Black Plague in London.

nothing

Thinking about Things.

Writing instruments. Pens, pencils, markers.
They are everywhere. In drawers, in cups on counters and desks. WIthout bothering to count I'd guess 200 or more. Of course, then you never have one handy that writes.

(3505)

Exercise

recumbent bike	1 hr
treadmill
ergonomic rower
water aerobics
chest, shoulder, triceps	x
leg, back, bicep
lower back	x
ab exercises	x
stretches
walking
tennis

I almost did everything I thought I should do today...except a few more abs and stretches and a little more variety on the cardio. I don't sweat enough on the treadmill and I can't read on the rowing machine.

Physically good although a little sore in some weird places from shoveling and tennis.

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

One year ago
"The journal is an addiction."

Two years ago
"Work. Lunch in the office. Accomplish little. However, I am trying to do so. Actually working hard at it. Sometimes the results are just the same."

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