The Visible Woman...December 12, 2003

Workmen came to rework the stone on the outside of the old part of the house. But the drenching rain interrupts them. And the plumbers never show up. (The rain again causing traffic delays?) I am interrupted in my progress by the rain, by requests for a shopping trip by FFP, by a visit from a window treatment company.

But some progress is made. I think I am nearly almost through with Christmas shopping. Not that I buy that many gifts. But still. We pick mini-blinds and other window stuff. We find out the window fashion company also makes custom bedspreads. (So I turn that problem over to her, at least temporarily, until I can see what she offers.) FFP orders some smoked turkey for the Christmas dinner.

It's a time of year when things crop up, parties suddenly appear on the calendar and interruptions abound. Still some progress is made. The newspaper pile is slightly reduced. It's something.

no...we have no plan to recycle as a planter	this progress is interrupted Interruptions seem to abound. Workmen came to rework the stone on the outside of the old part of the house. But the drenching rain interrupts them. And the plumbers never show up. (The rain again causing traffic delays?) I am interrupted in my progress by the rain, by requests for a shopping trip by FFP, by a visit from a window treatment company. But some progress is made. I think I am nearly almost through with Christmas shopping. Not that I buy that many gifts. But still. We pick mini-blinds and other window stuff. We find out the window fashion company also makes custom bedspreads. (So I turn that problem over to her, at least temporarily, until I can see what she offers.) FFP orders some smoked turkey for the Christmas dinner. It's a time of year when things crop up, parties suddenly appear on the calendar and interruptions abound. Still some progress is made. The newspaper pile is slightly reduced. It's something.
JUST TYPING The interruption. It turns out. Is a milestone. All its own.
		Food Diary. *breakfast* banana and an ounce of cheddar cheese *lunch* six ounce steak some hot tofu dip with tortilla chips *snacks* three pieces of jellied fruit candy some little salmon mousse 'puffs' (like eight or nine but they were little) two turkey sandwiches on sweet potato biscuits two tiny pumpkin turnovers two small glasses red wine a couple of clementines *dinner* two bowls of salad with carrots, onions, greens, parmesan cheese, calamata olives Today I - ate too much at the after party, I guess.
		Time flies.... Somehow 10:15 found me with one cup of coffee, some e-mail, some surfing and nothing much else accomplished. I spent a fair amount of time in the gym. I helped pick blinds and shades. I made a trip to Grapevine Market for party wine and gifts. I made a conscientious effort to get the stacks of newspapers off the floor of my office. I told myself I would spend the next hour doing it, no matter what. And I did, sort of. And I maybe got a third of it. But I'm going to get organized, darn it. But it was time to eat a snack and go to see The Nutcracker. We went early so FFP could shepherd around Robert Robriguez (Spy Kids) and family. I listened to the pre-ballet lecture where you can watch class and notes and cleaning the stage and then I had a drink and did the 'meet and greet' with our friends. After the ballet, we went backstage for food and drink (Big Night Catering...great guys) and talking to patrons and dancers.

		Reading. Serects of D-Day on the bike. Old newspapers. Where I learned that Nevada has the highest numbers of suicides per hundred thousand people and D.C. the lowest. Texas is slightly higher than average, thanks for asking. [Ed. note: Author hasn't considered it for many years but a friend mentioned it with more than the usual flippancy recently.] And that a sun storm like one that occurred in 1859 could knock out power grids all over the world. I learned coffee is probably safer than once thought (while drinking the elixir of the Capresso machine, once more returned from the dead). I also found out that irritable bowel syndrome is being treated with hyponosis and that a lot of people are injured each year carving pumpkins. (OK, that newspaper was delivered pre-Halloween, huh?) I learned that most Americans aren't getting enough Vitamin D. [Ed. note: get a little sun, a little salmon, organ meats and mushrooms. LB should be fine.] I also learned, in my decaying stack of newsprint, that the new $20 bill doesn't work in some automated machines; that the new Hilton will the headquarters for the SXSW convention; that Krispy Kreme's are selling at Harrod's and that fatty American imports are fattening up Europeans (ha!).
		nada
		Exercise forty minutes on recumbent bike ab and lower back exercises ten minutes on ergonomic rowing machine twenty more minutes on the bike
	. .	Didn't want to get out of bed and didn't until eight. Felt fine, though. I tell myself that this syndrome of sleeping in is simply my circadian rhythm slipping around the clock, not a slip slide into slackery. Mood was good, mostly because I kinda, sort of, almost finished Christmas shopping. (Somehow you never really finish...you just quit and I do still have to send money or something to my most difficult person.)
	It's a Tangled Web we weave...these days of our lives.	One year ago "The verdict on the journal has for now been decided in favor of clemency. Although I'm becoming a recluse and more and more jealous of privacy, the need to have some writing come out of these fingertips is strong and if all I can muster is a WEB journal, so be it. Also, as I go through old files and pictures, I find the need for an organized recount of where I've been and when. Because otherwise I forget." Two years ago "And Christmas always leaves me feeling that, even though I don't choose to do much in honor of the season, that I have a hundred little things to do."