Enough!

Time to get serious with the diet (okay, food plan), and stop messing around. The prohibits are poison to you, so stay away from them! Are you a child that you can’t stay away? Seriously pissed at you now! Fix it! You gain weight, you don’t promote to Second Year! Is that enough incentive?

New year

And a restart to all that means anything. Keep it clean and good, and don’t screw up. And let’s get rid of this ridiculous cold!

Salem

My annual trip to Salem for haunted happenings. Every year for the last several, I’ve made the trip on the non-work day before Halloween. yes, Salem is just up the coast so I could go any time, but there’s just something about going this time of year, something magical.

This day is a day off from school, and the only time I can go into Salem without any monetary restrictions self-imposed.

Didn’t start out so good. I missed the train I had planned to take (10:42am). It was early, and I was there at 10:43am (got delayed by cat spoilage). Didn’t see it go by while I was walking up market Street, and I was looking. Sneaky train! 😦 So, I took the 459 bus to Salem depot.

There in time for lunch at Caffe Graziani (Shout out! 🙂 ). Pasta soup to start, homemade lasagna with meat sauce, green tea, bread, a tall glass of cool water to cool down the mouth (the food is hot!). Paula, the waitress, remembered me from previous visits–where I like to sit (by the window) and what I like to eat. Dessert–apple pie a la mode (pumpkin pie had just come out of the oven so it was too hot to even slice). Amount–$16.80. Left a nice tip (but not too much ’cause I’m not rich) because they’re nice people.

Stayed away from the Army Barracks; never a good idea for me to stop in. I did stop at the Trolley depot (also not a good idea), but only bought an owl charm, the put-in-your-pocket-but-not-wear kind.

To the waterfront. Going for the junior ranger badge for the ship ‘The Friendship’; got the booklet, did some activities, asked the park ranger a few questions. Got lighthouse and waterfront postmarks. Also got a track book and a sheet of park passport stamps.

Also stopped at the psychic fair. Not sure what I expected but this was very low-key and crowded. Crowded as in a lot of vendors in a small space. I was tempted to get some cut stones, but I passed. But I did get SHIELD comics #8-10 at the shop in the mall.

4pm, heading home by train. Still have some $ left. How’d that happen?

Train’s not until 4:35pm, but I have a ticket about to expire, so I’ll wait.

Not many costumes other than witches, so it wasn’t very Halloweeny. May be different on the Night. Not a disappointment, just quieter than I expected. Maybe if I had more $ and could’ve done the museums and tours and even had a psychic reading, it’d be different.

To home and cat (not black, a torti girl) and finding out what happened to Gemma!

Home at 5pm. Still have my train ticket; no one ever collected it.

meanwhile

Nothing to report since August? Get with it, self.

time’s wasting

Summer’s nearly up, and you have work to do. Haven’t even started field training. Get to it! More time in SCI training. Let’s finish on a good note!

Motif #1

Old, and yet not so old, the original was a victim of the blizzard of ’78, the present an insistence and gift from the public.

Red now, she is a sign of home and welcome.

It’s breezy but calm and peaceful here, the inner harbor rung with houses, fishing shacks, and wharfs, a few boats waiting for their owners’ orders to head out to sea.

It’s relaxing to be here (despite the persistent breeze), away from the big-time hustle and business of the city I work in or the smaller one I live in.

The motif is a reminder of calmer, slower days when you could go about your business and still have time to gather your thoughts.

Is it the seas within our cells that seek out places like this, with the water, the peace, the memory, the call home?*

This was written after a visit to Bearskin Neck, Rockport, MA, and is what I thought as I relaxed at the wharf by the motif.

* A scientist/explorer/philosopher of our time and far wiser than me explained himself by saying “I am the sea, and the sea is me.”

Is it Spring yet?

I’m sitting here at work, after 4am, and it’s cold out. Not break-out-your-parka cold, but still cold. I mean, it’s May 2, and it feels like March out there. 40s? Tomorrow is the Walk for Hunger, always done on the 1st Sunday in May. We used to have good weather, 70s and 80s, like God was one of our sponsors (and S/he is), giving us beautiful weather for a 20-mile walk around Greater Boston. Been either cold or rainy or both lately, but I still do it. Important cause and I want to help. Plus, community service is a good thing for Nelson Academy students to practice (and may be a requirement starting next fall).
Getting green leafwise, what clancats would call ‘Newleaf.’ Beautiful time of year to see. Better when it’s all sprouted out. Two months left of school, time to plan the summer. Yep, summer school.

Sprong!

Is it spring yet? Silly cat. all 12-13 years of her, was playing with her toys on the bed last night, batting them around like she was a kitten. Not unusual, you say, except that this cat really doesn’t play. As a kitten, yes, doing all the kitteny things, but not much since. I’m sitting on the bed, watching Zorro, and someone is by the pillow, kapouncing all over the place, and knocking toys at me to flick back. Weird! This on top of running around and scratching the heck out of the uprights/scratching posts of her cat tree, and then flopping around, being cute, on the top pad. No, she didn’t overdose on catnip; she doesn’t do catnip, so we don’t have any.
Easter is done, Passover is passing over, Marathon Monday is coming up, and so is the Walk for Hunger (1st Sunday in May), a sure sign of warmer stuff coming. Yeah, but this is New England, and that’s Mother Nature. We’re not always on speaking terms (There’s still snow on the ground in places).

note to self

Getting sloppy and slow with the work. Snakes are on your tail, and they eat eaglets. You gonna hand it to them again? Time to get cracking.

quickie

Today 12/28/14 is the last day to cheat on the diet. Let’s get the new year started right by practicing what we will do, eating clean and in appropriate amounts, exercising regularly, and taking proper care of ourselves. Tomorrow the diet starts and we do the MMA/fit center workout, see how it feels. Got it? Btw, enjoy the 3-day weekend.