I Love Paris!

Place des Vosges , 1997 - a favorite photo that was manipulated to create how I felt about scene I watched while sitting on a bench. Impressionistic.

I was very happy when the phone rang at 10pm last night and my youngest daughter said, "we're home." I don't like it when they're out of the country. It's more comforting to now that they are only seven hours away. They had a great time at the resort they stayed at in the Caribbean and Jack, three-and-half-years-old, had a good time as well. The ocean was so green and clear that they now realize just how polluted the Pacific Ocean has become. Sad!

The new Sleep Formula I started taking two nights ago is doing too good of a job. I not only sleep through the entire night but half of the morning as well! I came out of a inane dream at about 11:00, had coffee, read the Sunday paper, made brunch and the next thing I knew it was 2:30! This won't do! I think I'll try taking less of the formula. At this rate I'll never get anything done.

From the Sunday Herald - Happy Talk:
Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be. Abraham Lincoln
Some cause happiness where they go; others whenever they go. Oscar Wilde
Whomever is happy will make others happy, too. Anne Frank
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. Helen Keller.
A sure way to lose happiness, I found, is to want it at the expense of everything else. Bette Davis.

Texture - play

I wish I could get out from under the brain fog and flu-like symptoms that have taken up residence! I feel awful! I'm positive that the stress of the last few months has caused this latest flare-up of the immune dysfunction junk that I've dealt with my entire life, but that doesn't alleviate the problem! There are so many things that I want to do but the focus for the past two weeks has been on how to once again convince my immune system to behave itself. I'm not fond of being on a quest searching through data for things that "might" provide some relief from joint and muscle pain, brain fog, migraines, vertigo and flu-like symptoms. I'd rather be on a creative quest that includes a working knowledge of design elements. That to me is much more productive, but if I don't attend to the physical stuff I will never be able to accomplish anything I've set out to do. I've been putting off taking care of my health issues hoping that by ignoring them they would go away. Experience should have taught me that ignoring the health issues will only make them worse when I finally face the fact that I'm nearly too ill to get out of bed.

So, once again I'm re-thinking the supplements I take by the handful! And for the second time in six months I'm going through a detox to rid my system of toxins and other creepy things that seem to be running through my system. Extracting unwanted visitors does marvelous things to an already unhappy system and unfortunately one of the things it does is to make the ability to concentrate fly out the window. Every thought I have disappears before I even put it down and very little of what I read makes any sense. It's taken me two hours to write these few paragraphs today! And they probably don't make much sense . . . If I had the energy I'd be hysterical, but I'm running on empty or what I refer to as "energy deficit."

Almost French

Paris - 1997 is my attempt at making an antique looking postcard. This was the view outside of our hotel room on my first trip to Paris. I loved waking up during the night to see the Eiffel Tower lit up it in all its splendor. The one thing I didn't like seeing in the daylight, however, were antennaes and satellite dishes on the rooftops! Back in '97 I had no idea that in a few years I would be able to manipulate photographs in such a way as to eliminate wires, cars, people and satellite dishes! If only I had known!

For the past few weeks I've been slowly savoring a book, "Almost French" by Sarah Turnbull. In between the mystery reading marathon I've been on (one book a day) I read a couple of chapters in Turnbull's book and go to sleep dreaming about Paris. Reading this book is almost as good as a decadent dessert. I've walked many of the streets she talks about and can visualize places that she describes and I know that I will be slightly depressed when I've reached the end of the book.

Life being what it has been for the past five years I doubt that I will do much traveling in the future. Sometimes that bothers me and other times I know that I will carry the memories of traveling to Europe with me for the rest of my life. Thanks heavens for books like "Almost French" that help me to relive the experiences and adventures that I had in '97 and 2000.