BOREDOM KILLING YOUR CREATIVITY? TRY OBLIQUE STATEGIES

 Listening to the podcast #7 Bowie, Jazz and the Unplayable Piano, I was introduced to the character called Eno. He is British musician that was described as working with David Bowie in Berlin, and he had a pack of cards that motivated inspiration (mostly about making music, but many can be used for any creative process). The cards were used with two simple rules: Pick one. Do it. (No exchanges).

Tim Harford makes the argument that limits inspire creativity. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention!

Here is a list from Carine L'Allemand.

Abandon normal instruments 

Accept advice 

Accretion 

A line has two sides 

Allow an easement (an easement is the abandonment of a stricture) 

Are there sections? Consider transitions

Ask people to work against their better judgement

Ask your body

Assemble some of the instruments in a group and treat the group 

Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle 

Be dirty 

Breathe more deeply 

Bridges -build -burn 

Cascades 

Change instrument roles 

Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency

Children's voices -speaking -singing 

Cluster analysis 

Consider different fading systems 

Consult other sources -promising -unpromising 

Convert a melodic element into a rhythmic element 

Courage! 

Cut a vital connection 

Decorate, decorate 

Define an area as `safe' and use it as an anchor 

Destroy -nothing -the most important thing 

Discard an axiom 

Disconnect from desire 

Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them 

Distorting time 

Do nothing for as long as possible 

Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do 

Don't be frightened of cliches 

Don't be frightened to display your talents 

Don't break the silence 

Don't stress one thing more than another 

Do something boring 

Do the washing up 

Do the words need changing? 

Do we need holes? 

Emphasize differences 

Emphasize repetitions 

Emphasize the flaws 

Faced with a choice, do both (given by Dieter Rot) 

Feedback recordings into an acoustic situation 

Fill every beat with something 

Get your neck massaged 

Ghost echoes 

Give the game away 

Give way to your worst impulse 

Go slowly all the way round the outside 

Honor thy error as a hidden intention 

How would you have done it? 

Humanize something free of error 

Imagine the music as a moving chain or caterpillar 

Imagine the music as a set of disconnected events 

Infinitesimal gradations 

Intentions -credibility of -nobility of -humility of

Into the impossible

Is it finished?

Is there something missing?

Is the tuning appropriate?

Just carry on
Left channel, right channel, centre channel
Listen in total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly
Listen to the quiet voice
Look at a very small object, look at its centre
Look at the order in which you do things
Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them Lowest common denominator check -single beat -single note -single riff
Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame
Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list
Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; incorporate Mechanicalize something idiosyncratic
Mute and continue
Only one element of each kind
(Organic) machinery
Overtly resist change
Put in earplugs
Remember those quiet evenings
Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics
Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities
Repetition is a form of change
Reverse
Short circuit (example: a man eating peas with the idea that they will improve his virility shovels them straight into his lap)
Shut the door and listen from outside
Simple subtraction
Spectrum analysis
Take a break
Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance
Tape your mouth (given by Ritva Saarikko)
The inconsistency principle
The tape is now the music
Think of the radio
Tidy up
Trust in the you of now
Turn it upside down
Twist the spine
Use an old idea
Use an unacceptable color
Use fewer notes
Use filters
Use `unqualified' people
Water
What are you really thinking about just now? Incorporate
What is the reality of the situation?
What mistakes did you make last time?
What would your closest friend do?
What wouldn't you do?
Work at a different speed
You are an engineer
You can only make one dot at a time
You don't have to be ashamed of using your own ideas
[blank white card]

OBLIQUE STRATEGIES © 1975, 1978, and 1979 Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt (Formatted from Gregory Taylor’s web site. Composers please note: individual results may vary.)

FALL COOKING MEANS ROASTING SQUASH AND MAKING SOUPS

It's been a week since the temperature dropped and it has officially turned fall. The house has been warm at 20-21 degrees but this doesn't seem warm anymore, and I am in the mood for cooking soups and baking again. That means when I go grocery shopping, I come home with squashes and fat unique looking sweet potatoes that beg to be roasted and transformed.

I have made from perfect onions, carrots and celery a mirepoux and my favourite lentil soup. I have been considering what to do with an acorn squash when I realized that it was labelled a pepper squash. I can't tell the difference, but it did inspire a couple of searches and some really great leads to recipe blogs that I am having a hard time leaving to get on with the business of life today! Wikipedia confirmed I am right. Acorn squash is pepper squash which is also known as Des Moines squash. Ironically, I only think of them in the fall and winter, but they are actually from the family of summer squashes!

Martha's roasting of acorn squash is perfection. 425 degree oven. Cut in half, seed,  and  trim flat to sit open for serving, but roast face down on buttered baking sheet (silpat ideal) , 20-25 minutes. Turn up and season, baking another 25-30 minutes until tender and golden. 1 T butter and 1 T brown sugar, or 1 T butter and 1 T parmesan, or bake two and make dinner and dessert!

Caroline's blog is beautiful and inspired by travel. Her recipes are organized by her inspirations, and many I share with her, so I am in love!

Another lead is 20 Acorn Squash Recipes from Country Living. Both of these sites have a lot of distracting ads, so this is the ad-free jist of it if you don't like the link:

1. Stuffed with spiced mexican beef (garlic, onion, cumin, cayenned pepper), rice and beans. Garnish with cilantro, fresh tomato, grated cheese and green onion.  Serve with avocado, tomato, or green salad.
2. Bake sweet: maple butter and pecans (blue cheese sparingly if desired).
3. Roast in crescents (Microwave whole squash 4 minutes to make easier to cut, then half and cut 1/2 inch slices and bake, brushed with oil, at 375F for 20-25 minutes), and serve with cranberries, goat cheese and a balsamic glaze (reduce 1/2 cup vinegar to 1 T glaze). Sprinkle with rosemary, salt and pepper to taste.
4. Curried coconut squash soup. Saute 1 onion and 1 carrot. Add 1roasted squash, half a diced apple, 1 t ginger, 1 t turmeric, 14 oz of coconut milk, 1 1/2 cup water, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.
5. Stuffed with wild rice, sausage and cranberry and served as "boats"! Prepare rice and sausage, and add to sautéd onion and garlic. Mix in dried cranberries, pecans and parsley, and season to taste. Bake at 400F for 10 minutes until heated through.
6. As another vehicle, this time for spinach parmesan artichoke dip.
7. Drizzled with maple-bacon and rosemary.
8. Stuffing on your choice. (In this case: leek, Swiss chard, garlic, breadcrumbs, raisins, pine nuts and feta.) Buttery spiced brussel sprout dressing or turnip carrot bake works too!
9. Puree with pear, ginger, sage, allspice and cream,  and serve with sugar and butter glazed almonds.
10. Make it paleo: onion, garlic, sausage, coconut oil, apple, spinach, rosemary and thyme.
11. Roast as a crescent snacks with parmesan and garlic salt.
12. Gratiné: Brown sausage with onions and red peppers, and bake covered in shredded cheese.
13. Filled with cranberry walnut quinoa stuffing. I don't think I'd bake this, but just serve warm. Make quinoa in broth, sauté with onion, garlic, and finely chopped mushrooms. Season with sage and thyme, salt and pepper.
14. Breakfast food!(?) Fill with granola, yogurt and sprinkle with dried fruit and seeds.
15. Roast in patatas bravas size with rosemary and garlic, and serve like home fries. Stongly suggest, as with potatoes, to boil briefly, then roast for best results. 475F 10-20 minutes until golden.
16. Lasagne!
17. Mushroom and quinoa stuffing with pomegranate and fresh basil and balsamic vinegar garnish!
18. Roasted apple onion acorn soup. Roast even chunks in a pan at 400 F 30-40 minutes. Blend with 2 cups stock. Quick and easy!
19. Gnocchi! This gets my daughter's vote today on Election Day and led me to Caroline's cooking.  1 lb of potato=1 lb of squash, 1 egg, 1 cup flour. Roll and boil or flash freeze separately.
20. Molasses cookies

I'd better go make some lunch now! Turning on the oven to roast that squash!

MNEMOSYNE

Today I was in a paper store called Note Bene, on Park Avenue. There was a lot of choice. My friend was admiring the pens, but I liked seeing notebooks from France (Clairefontaine), Germany (Leuchtsturm) and Moleskin. I saw a series of notebooks called Mnemosyne, and found myself googling the name that was so familiar, and likely a root to mnemonic.

Mnemosyne was the mother of the 9 muses with Zeus (his dwelling place is Mount Parnassus). She was the Titan goddess of memory and remembrance. She and Zeus created the goddesses of arts, literature and science. Each had a domaine, and are identifiable by their attributes seen in paintings and sculptures from the second to the twentieth century.

In alphabetical order, the nine muses (all minor goddesses) and their domains and attributes, in Greek mythology were:

Calliope (the superior muse, inspiring Homer to write the Iliad and the Odyssey- Epic Poetry, rhetoric, music, writing - Writing Tablet, also laurels in one hand and two Homeric poems in the other
Clio - History - Scrolls, also book in left hand and clarion (trumpet) in her right
Erato - Lyric (love) Poetry - Cithara (Lyre family) and love arrows with bow.
Euterpe - Song and elegiac (death, love and war) poetry - Aulos (flute-like)
Melpomene - Tragedy - Tragic Mask
Polyhymnia - Hymns, Geometry, Grammar - Veil, looks to the heavens
Terpsichore - Dance, Harp, Education - Lyre, wreath of laurels on her head, dances
Thalia - Comedy - Comic Mask
Urania - Astronomy -  Compass, Stars, Celestial Sphere


Pope Julius II commissioned four frescoes to represent the four areas of human knowledge for the Palace of the Vatican. Parnassus, with Apollo, the nine muses, and 18 poets, represent Poetry. The other three frescoes represent philosophy, religion and law.

PRINCE PHILIP'S SPEECH ON MARRIAGE

While watching The Crown with the girls, I was touched by the observations in an anniversary speech given by Prince Philip. I think his insight about ourselves and others is bang on. We will never be able to see ourselves as fully as others may observe. But how lovely is that, in knowing his wife, Queen Elizabeth, that he sees the whole of her and has the grace to praise her treasure. Here is the script:

“Ten years has taught me, the secret of a successful marriage is actually to have different interests.
Well, different interests, not entirely different interests. It’s a funny business.

One sees the whole of the other person. You see even that part of them that they don’t see themselves.
And presumably, they see that hidden part of you.
One ends up knowing more about one’s partner than they know about themselves.
And it can be pretty tough to keep quiet about it.
So you have to come to an accommodation, an arrangement, a deal if you like.
To take the rough with the smooth.
But the extraordinary thing is down there in the rough, in the long reeds of difficulty and pain,
that is where you find the treasure. 

So I would like to propose a toast in the name of love, in the name of our beloved country, in the name of steadfastness, in the name of another ten marvelous years.
I give you mon petit chou, Lilibet, Elizabeth, The Queen.”

CLEANING UP MY SAFARI SEARCHES

My battery life is shorter than ever, so I looked to see what I could alter to improve things. I have over 250 pages open. So here is the great brain dump of a year's worth of searches in hopes that I can keep the contrast up enough to read.

Sultan vs maharaja Arabic (religious) ruler vs Sanskrit ruler or king
Sultana is the feminine version.

Map of the trip in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days

 Movie recommended to me in German class Frantz

Opium

Poetry makes you happier

Cozumel Palace, Mexico

Quebec mortar companies Triage de Joints

Mini Science 2018 Female scientists public lecture series February

German Zoos

The Cuban Ballet I missed: Don Quixote

homelessness-step-by-step

France Quebec junior magazine

Asphalt vs Concrete driveway

list-of-english-words-of-german-origin

Olympics Salt lake City and view from the airport

Sun Valley, Idaho

Chattanooga Choo Choo

Morse Code

Prometheus-Greek-god

Olympic Flame

Home Away 

inflatable easter bunny origami

Buddha's Brain

Maple Fudge

isometrics energy transfer

Art Nouveau Germany

St. Sauveur Ski Museum

Tape residue removal

Poppy Seed Mass

Milky Way Galaxy Tastes like Raspberry

the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time

Keith Haring artist

The Brain that Changes itself

Wellness Adventures New Zealand

Eco homemade sanitary pads

Northwestern State Educational Tour (Derek recommends Steve Sanders)

Mulligatawny Soup

divorced dad opines

Vikings in Europe

Why Do Earthworms Surface After Rain

subsist

Dr. Holly Woman of Distinction

DREAM TRIP: CANARY ISLANDS

North Americans head south to the Caribbean for the sun. Europeans head to the Spanish Canary Islands. There are 28 Caribbean Nations and over 7000 islands. There is only one nation for the Islas Canarias, or Islands of the Dogs and 7 major islands and 4 of Spain's 13 National Parks.

Located off the Western Coast of Algeria, the island that caught my eye was Tenerife. Not that I know any details of these islands, but I remember Agatha Christie mentioned the name. Actually, I had always thought it was a place she visited near her home in England, but now I realize that it was in the Canary Islands. I confirmed this by a blog entry at the top of my google search. This has solidified my dream to visit this corner of the world in the future, and re-read Agatha Christie's autobiography.

MORE FOOD IDEAS

KUNG PAO CHICKEN

Chicken Satay

Marmalade chicken

Vegetarian meal plan

SUNDAY SERMONS WITHOUT IN-HOUSE COMMUNION

My friend and I were talking about work-life balance and she was excited to hear an upcoming Sunday message. I kind of forgot about it, but she reminded me the day before and I was pretty sure I would never make it the next morning.

No worry! Listen to it online later in the day. Brilliant! Here is Valuing Rest in a Fast-Paced World.

"If you can't rest, you are a slave." Galatians 4:9-11

"The Sabbath was made for man, not the man for the Sabbath." Jesus, recorded by Mark

INSPIRATIONS FROM AN INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT

MEAL PLANS FOR THE MODERN COOK

I was eating 1 week old canned pears with a brownie for brunch today after a busy work week of 2 weekend nights and 3 early days, about 50 hours of work and 8 hours of commute, averaging 5.5 hours of sleep. It was not my worse moment, but not my finest.

So when I chatted with a friend, she offered her solution that had worked for her and her husband the last 3 months: a meal planning site called the Fresh 20. The title refers to the idea that each week you only have to shop for 20 ingredients, and they vary according to season. If you are a member, you have access to archives that date back at least 5 years. One year costs roughly $99US.

Earlier this summer, another friend had signed up for a grocery basket called évoilà5 that would feed her family of four for about $132 for 5 meals, but she was going to downgrade it to the $92 2-3 portions basket because she felt it was too much food.

Maybe I should consider these options soon. I keep working on a menu planner, but live meal to meal some days. I also see all my cookbooks and wonder what would happen if I worked my way through them. So many of us use a handful of recipes from a book and no others.

It's also been a rough summer in a hot house. Maybe the solution is a heat pump.

Lots to consider, but cobbled together a meal tonight in 20 minutes that lacked vegetables but contained vegetable protein and iron enriched pasta, with some redeeming qualities. I do miss the option of my friend's catering from home: Coeur d'amandes has gone off line. :(

If grocery shopping doesn't inspire tomorrow, I might just order pizza. Just kidding! I am gourmet girl! I can do better!

MAYBE THIS IS HOW I CAN TRAVEL MORE

Starting from a google search of the highest pool in Singapore's Marina Bay hotel, I found a local blog that has some great tips in how to travel better and more while spending less. Like flying around the world for $1210, hitting Paris, Milan, Athens, Singapore, Phuket, Bangkok, and Shanghai, for a month long trip, November to December.  Incredible!

So, keep in mind, and follow: blog.flytrippers.com

CLEAN YOUR CLOSET LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW

DÖSTÄDNING
The Swedish exercise of death cleaning. It is about paring down what you really need to the minimum and finding a permanent form of organization that makes everyday life run more smoothly. It thinks about who will come after you if you die without doing it. Intuitively, we all do this is some way. De-cluttering and non-materialistic pursuits are linked with happiness and streamlining feels good. But this means evaluating your storage spaces and filing systems so that you are ready to turn your estate over to the next generation, whenever that comes.

MARIE CONDO

This one woman wonder singlehandedly started the KonMari Method, and wrote a book by the fundamental idea of only keeping items that "Spark Joy".

Her six basic rules of tidying are as follows:

1. Commit yourself to tidying up.

2. Imagine your ideal lifestyle.

3. Finish discarding first.

4. Tidy by category, not by location.

5. Follow the right order.

6. Ask yourself if it sparks joy.

If you want to get the bigger picture, check out her Netflix documentary series called "Tidying Up."

The executive summary is this: Tidy by these categories, and in this order:

1. clothes

2. books

3. papers

4. komono (miscellaneous)

5. sentimental items

"Keep only things that speak to the heart, and discard items that no longer spark joy. Thank them for their service - then let them go."

BEN FRANKLIN'S THIRTEEN VIRTUES AND HIS DAILY CHECKLIST

check if successful

a friend's masterpiece, begun in pregnancy with nutritional goals as the start

weekly 

BEAUTY IS NOT OPTIONAL

My colleague asked me recently about my motto, and this is what I replied:

It’s a motto I thought I came up with but I think someone clever said something like it first.

I have long ago learned than I cannot just survive or accept being reduced to a number or a cog, although as you so eloquently outlined in your response, this is the pressure on all of us in the ER in Quebec, and elsewhere too. But I need to hear the story or meet the person behind the pathology. If I have a need, I try and find something in it that I also love. It is the mark of great design; function and beauty. It is the only thing that I am sure that I am good at; being an admirer of beauty. It is why I am an avid member of Montreal's Fine art gallery, buy paintings from friends, travel and photograph whenever I can, admire people’s strengths and try and forget their faults, write, weed, paint, and decorate.

It’s a reason to exist, struggle, and live despite the stress and failure and regret. It keeps me from only judging (a personality trait I fight against), and keeps me sane (or at least keeps me closer than I would be otherwise!😂)

From environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams:

"When we were working in the village of Rugerero with Rwandan women who had lost everything from war, I saw a light in their eyes return when their children began picking up paintbrushes and painting the walls of their homes. Joy entered in. Creativity ignited a spark. In that moment, I saw that art is not peripheral, beauty is not optional, but a strategy for survival.

In Rwanda, USAID was saying, "How can you dare to paint a village when people are hungry?" But beauty feeds a different kind of hunger. And when there's so much ugliness in the world that we've created, I think it's essential, that whether it's pausing in a garden with a trowel in hand, or walking up to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, or picking up a paintbrush with children, our soul seizes beauty and is sustained.

Finding beauty in a broken world is acknowledging that beauty leads us to our deepest and highest selves. It inspires us. We have an innate desire for grace. It's not that all our definitions of beauty are the same, but when you see a particular heron in the bend in the river, day after day, something in your soul stirs. We remember what it means to be human."

From Lord Byron:

So the next time you feel stressed, choose to create or admire or do something beautiful. Make it beauty for yourself, or someone else. Don't just do something minimally. Elevate it to art, whether it is a conversation, a gift, a need, or a desire. If you can't create it, find a forest, and bathe in its beauty. You and the world around you will be better for it.

MONSTERS

I don't love monsters. I hate gore. I despise Halloween and zombies. I miss the simpler Halloween of my youth, full of candy and ghosts, but  now Halloween is so full of characters of the graphic horror films and walking dead that I literally feel ill  about how the macabre is celebrated. So I was surprised how much I liked Guillermo del Toro's point of view of a life dedicated to creating monsters. He was being honored for his movie The Shape of Water, and he convinced me to love his monster. I do like making silly monsters like Monsters Inc. in colour and string.

As he received his first Golden Globe, for 25 year of creative work, and fending off the music with the most charm imaginable, he said,

" Monsters [] are the patron saints of our blissful imperfection and they allow and embody the possibility of failure and life."

Maybe it's time to be a little more accepting of the bizarre and the strange. But I think the gore is enough in real life. I don't need any more than that, and continue to work towards minimizing that.

BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA AND HOMEMADE CLOUD MAGIC

AYN RAND ON LOVE

I didn't really know or like Ayn Rand, but I was aware of her and may or may not have read her second book Atlas Shrugged, her magnum opus if I understand correctly. I definitely read part of it but didn't get what it all the hype about it was. Then again, maybe I should give it another go.

This year, I happened upon a movie with her name in the title, and was surprised to know that she had  developed her own following for a brand of philosophy called Objectivism. The film was made for 1999 tv and features Eric Stoltz, Julie Delpy, Peter Fonda, and Don McKellar.

I learned that her name did not resemble Ann or Ain, but was pronounced like a hard "i" followed by an "n"; like "ion" without the "o" in the middle. I learned that she was self named, being born Alisa Rosenbaum in Russian.

The premise is that every human must find their own virtues, and reject doing things for others. By living with self-love and self-esteem, we become worthy of our own love, and do things for ourselves, but in doing so, can be loved for these virtues and pursuits. She clearly rejects altruism as being selfless, but also does not agree with immoral egos unchecked. This may be the seed of individualism today, but, as most of us with philosophies, the movie is interesting in large part because of the contrast between her ideals and how she actually may have lived her life.

Of course, like most rationalists, she was an atheist, but practically created her own religion.

One of the last quotes she gave (in Helen Mirren's voice) was at a conference in Los Angeles in 1981, one year before her death, in response the question of what is the nature of love.

"Love is a command to rise to one’s highest potential, the best and noblest vision of ourselves. Love is a reward, the greatest we can earn, granted to us for the moral qualities we have achieved in our lives."

I like the romantic idea of the first line. It inspires me. But the second part breaks down on me. I would love no one, and no one would love me, if if was based on the "moral qualities we have achieved  in our lives". I know I have loved when the other did not deserve, and continue to love  many with no doubts that no matter what they do, I would love them anyway. Maybe, though, they have shown their virtues for so long and unerringly, that I disbelieve them to be capable of hypocrisy.

But there are others that I do not love. They are distastful to me. I find myself avoiding them, because I am a truth teller, and if I told them each time we met how little I trust or value or believe in them, it would only cause pain for no good. So how to end things with someone who is so hypocritical? A blow out with ultimate truth in the absence of grace, or a passive death and avoidance. Neither seem good options. But in this, I agree with Ayn, I must follow my principles and not lie. I cannot be with them as I do not trust them. I want to tell them of their hypocrisy, but they will not believe it. I know what things they say about me because I have heard them say them about others. I cannot abide the idea of friendship where there is no kinship. But how to be kind. This, objectivism, does not seem to answer.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS AND DATA TO DATE

BODY

DO SOMETHING
1 snow shoed circles in the yard for 5 km, sometimes running
2 walked circles in the yard and pulled the sled around the streets to admire the super Wolf moon rising
3 cross country skied at The Cap

CLEAN SOMETHING
1 living room window sills
2 shower doors
3 dishes and laundry

FIND MONEY SOMEWHERE
1 deposit check
2
3 use points instead of money

BOOK SOMETHING
3 our next flight

COOK SOMETHING
1 lentil soup
2 french toast
3 egg noodles and wonton shells

MIND

LEARN SOMETHING
1 Bacterial Meningitis in adults: first Strep Pneumococcus second Neisseria meningitidis Incubation Period 2-10 days third H flu  Incubation Period 2-4 days (all these have vaccines), then Listeria monocytogenes
2
3 Whales can't digest squid lips so they accumulate in their stomach

BLOG SOMETHING (WRITE)
need some time to catchup!

FIX SOMETHING
1
2 hang bookshelf doors
3

SOUL

TALK TO SOMEONE
1 Shaden
2 Karyn
3 Liz

REMEMBER/ HONOR SOMETHING
1 White Christmas and Bing Crosby/Rosemary Clooney magic
2 Bridge To Terabithia
3 Grandma's piano skills

BUCKET LIST 2018

LIT 66 with nephew as senior February YES!
4th of July in USA NEXT YEAR?
Run half marathon Ottawa Tulip Festival NO BUT SIGNED UP FOR MONTREAL SEPTEMBER
Medieval feast/castle in TO, Brockville Fulford house, Adirondacks (Tom Thompson)?2020
Hike Hautes Gorges and Grand-Jardins ?2020
Stewart hall camp TWO WEEKS
Organize cooking - menu and recipes WOP (work in progress)
Apple picking in Rougement?2019
NYC Central Park, Natural hx museum?2020
Louisville inn with vegetarian menu at 100 St. Laurent, Victorian style B and B half way to QC
Berlin zoo/ Peacock Island YES!(?Ammersee, Cuxhaven, Leibzig, Dresden, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Munich, Andech)

TONIGHT I RUN FOR HOLLY

Running starts with eating. Eating light. Not overeating. It's uncomfortable, often cold or too hot. Something usually hurts.

Today I have my running clothes on, day 2.

Yesterday I watched a youtube video about a dad and a daughter who ran a 100 miler together for the first time. He was 59.  I didn't run. I worked late.

Today I got up late. I went to a Christmas fair where I had part of a pretzel. On return, I ate a box of candy, and ate breakfast and lunch at the same time, instead of running.

But today I ran for Holly. She called when I was debating about an early supper or a nap. Running was vaguely a choice but I was warm under a blanket, and if she hadn't called from the parking lot of the Salvation Army before she dropped off donations this afternoon, I might not have gone for a run.
Because she gave me 15 minutes to text her that I was going for a run. And texted again when the 15 minutes passed.

But I was getting ready. I listened to the end of Zahn and Sia's Dust to Dawn while my phone charged. I drank water to rehydrate after my glass of wine earlier. One trip to the bathroom, put my hair in a ponytail, threw off the lap blanket, zipped off my warm Lululemon scuba hoodie, laced up my runners, put on my gloves and quilted jacket and junky toque. It was dark, so I found my head lamp and finally, I was off.

I ran through the forest on a crunchy trail, up a hill perfect for tobogganing once it snows, by my daughter's school, through the train tunnel where a bearded millenial was lighting up a joint, along the water past dog walkers who often gave me berth, through the village lit up for Christmas where a gaggle of girls made way for the "runner" and a toddler cheered me on, and finally back up the hill through the golf course and home.

I was happy and tired and chilled when I got home, but a change into pjs and a check-in with my inspiring friend, and a hot soup, and here I sit, warmed up, and grateful for the run, and my friend.

Thanks! Today I ran for you!