Wonderful World

It's a wonderful world

On a bad day, search out the good 

http://twistedsifter.com/videos/hermit-crab-finds-new-shell-and-takes-anemones-with-him/

http://twistedsifter.com/videos/dog-walks-4-miles-into-town-each-day-to-say-hi/

Thank you Twisted Sifter

Getting Jiggy With It

Convinced that my brain was beginning to atrophy.

I began various attempts to challenge the synapsis

and keep them in excellent firing capacity.

I tried crosswords for a couple of years

 until I went crosseyed.

Then came sudoku which found me 

doing just a numbered crossword of sorts.

So addicting was sudoku that

 after a couple years, I spent 

 a couple days doing

nothing but sudoku, and I had to 

enter a rehab program.

Soon I was forgetting movie stars names,

and how to subtract, and I quickly searched

for mental health answers.

I found -

drumroll please-

http://thejigsawpuzzles.com/ 

(didn't I mention this before?)

and yes I have an addiction problem once more.

They're a cheap brown bowl of bar peanuts.

I started with the 100 pieces with an initial 

self set goal of 

completing a puzzle within 20 minutes.

Giving my mouse clicking 

and dragging skills a major workout,

I was soon at 12 minutes and this week

most have been done in under 9 minutes.

Whether or not my brain is less likely to atrophy

because of it remains to be seen.

The lightbulb moment this morning was

acknowledging

my issue may really be avoidance.

I need to create new projects to teach,

repaint the garage floor and redo

the entire back yard.

My feet are immersed in cement it seems,

so I push oddly shaped jigsaw pieces 

around on the computer and achieve satisfaction

of accomplishment. But do I really?

Once more, I play mind games with myself.

An hour ago,

I told bloggie pal Carole that 

I was headed up to the studio.

 I had good intention

I swear

Instead I came here.

to visit all of you.

Meanwhile...

six minutes for 100 piece

seem too difficult?

Z

ADELE - I Adore You

Words cannot express

the hours spent overwhelmed 

with emotion and joy

at the Adele concert 

last Tuesday evening at the Staples Center.

Her voice is still on a constant loop 

through my mind, six days later.

DD had given me the concert as a Christmas present

and it will go down as a lifetime memory. I could

swoon and attempt to describe but let me just say this.

IF you EVER have the chance to go to an Adele concert...

It means waiting on phone line for over 3 hours, and 

every date is sold out in hours but it is 

worth it so GO!

Adele is gorgeous, chatty, funny and 

remarkably down to earth.

Her voice vibrated up through 
the floor and surrounded us. 

She had me and everyone

else surrounding me, 

all 18,000 of us, in tears.

I drove down to CA early Monday morning,

after teaching a class on Sunday. 

My first time teaching outside my home 

in over a decade.

Some of the girls and just one of their projects.

The 10 women were all lovely and put me at ease 

and I'm excited to do another class soon at 

the brand new store on Eastern,

The Paper Bunny.

This CA trip I took

Howie, who had never been in another home before, 

let alone on an over four hour car trip. 

He was fabulous.

He adapted to the lack of a doggie door and trooped

up and down flights of stairs all day long,

 and sat patiently in outdoor restaurants.

He loved it, and was a hit everywhere we went.

Elevators were a bit scary and after a couple rides,

he just started planting his rump down

 and refusing to go.

It felt like we ate our way 

through Culver City, a bit of Beverly Hills, 

and each meal and setting

was wonderful, and outdoors!

Check out this succulent wall

in a restaurant on Wilshire down from DS's office.

The first dinner out they had me downing margaritas

and shooting mescal. I had such a buzz so quickly,

I could tell the kids were getting a kick out of tipsy Mama.

All gushing aside,

it was such a wonderful trip and late each evening we 

hung out at DD's and drank wine and nibbled some more

and talked and talked and talked.

Those kids of mine are incredible.

I am so proud of them.

Both of them have films in a festival this week.

Think I could live here in this studio?

It's across the street from DD's.

it's nearly 3,000 a month.

I know I could live IN it,

but I couldn't live WITH it at that price.

We looked at several places but I would need

to live farther out to afford anything.

I really did enjoy staying in DD's 400 sq feet studio.

Coming home only reinforced for me the excess of

space I have and "things" that I have.

So local gals I feel another major purge 

stirring, so stay tuned.

Laundry and such await me.

This week my brother will be coming 

with a gaggle of his friends.

One of them had comps to a time share,

thus the trip.

I have not seen Scott in 10 years.

I have not lived near him since I was 21.

My two kids are

so close and such good friends,

and share their lives.

I envy that.

Have a great confetti filled week.

Z