Cool

(CNN) -- New photographs released by NASA have captured images of a vast stellar formation resembling a human hand reaching across space.

Link here.

I heart Hugh Laurie

My future's so bright...

...I gotta wear shades.

Ogden - The Inappropriate Yoga Guy

Tag, I'm it

From my sis-in-law...

1 - Diamonds or pearls?

I am not attracted to diamonds. I like pearls and own three strands - two white and one pink.


2 - What was the last movie you saw?

Videotron rental - Quarantine. A Hollywood remake of a European movie. Not bad. A slight twist on the old zombie theme.


3 - What do you eat for breakfast?

Whatever's at hand, usually in sandwich form.


4 - What is the second first name on your birth certificate?

Ann


5 - What are the foods you would never eat?

I would never eat brains again. I tried them twice but the texture is too slimy.


6 - Coffee or tea?

Coffee. Mocha latte, to be precise.


7 - If you were a colour, which one would it be?

Pink, all shades thereof except pale.


8 - Who was the last person you spoke on the phone to?

My friend Colette. She owns the farm where I work part-time. We do an exchange of goods and services.


9 - What is your favorite day of the week?

Saturday all the way! It's the one day I don't have to get up early. But I do anyway.


10 - If you could take off on a plane today, where would you go?

Anywhere where it's not winter.

Clutter vs simplicity

I am always torn by a desire to acquire stuff and the urge to pare down and keep things spare and simple.

I have been waging this battle for years. And the "stuff" always wins. Every time I move I shed things and start again with basics.

With a few choice pieces I love and need occupying suitable space in this small apartment, I don't really have room for much more. There are, however, a couple of non-choice items that just might go into the garbage very soon. To make room for other things.

I've noticed that people are not always quite as possessive about their material things as one might think.

For instance, I fell madly in love with a friend's bookcases a few months ago. They are tall and elegant, made of dark wood with glass doors. Quite suitable for a law office or venerable accounting firm. At the time, my friend said Oh no! He'd never part with them. But as he has also been reorganizing his space and acquiring new stuff, he has since sold me two of them. I'm waiting for delivery.

At the farm where I work part-time, I espied a lovely antique headboard leaning against a wall. I asked the owner if she'd ever consider selling it. She said, Not really, but what do you think of bartering for it?

In another 14 hours (that is to say, after 14 more hours of "unpaid" work) that headboard will be mine.

I don't even have room for the bookcases. But I want them - actually, if I rationalize quickly, I need them... for books and CDs that are still packed in boxes. Which will free up closet space for, um, other stuff.

56 days

Not the longest I've gone, but the best - liberated at last, it seems, from the obsession.

I think my last rock bottom, brief as it was, was an existential wake-up call. Sounds corny, but hell...

I truly wondered if I had any purpose here. If there was any meaning in my life. If I mattered in the greater scheme of things (small dose of self-pity, there). If there was any reason I should stick around. I cried buckets, and gnashed my teeth (figuratively) and counted the trazodones in my little bottle. There were enough to put me down. Just go to sleep. I tidied up the apartment first. Wanted to leave everything looking orderly.

I was tired of being me, tired of my thoughts and memories.

But I got dressed and trudged my way angrily through the routine for a couple of more days until one morning everything was OK again.

And since then it's been better than OK, it gets a little better every day.

And for that, I am grateful.

(And it's not even Thanksgiving.)