Musician's Widow

Ever have one of those days when everything just seems good and positive?

I’m having one today.

I mean, not even a way-too-close-near-fender-bender could rile me up today! Not even noticing my yard is the worst yard in the neighborhood and needs to be mowed desperately could get me down. Heck, not even the express lane being farrrr from express at Kroger could upset me.

I just have a perma-smile going on, and I’m loving it!

This little part of me wants to go, “Uh oh. What’s going to go wrong around the corner? This can’t last…” but I keep squashing that down hard. Like a really ugly, awful, poisonous bug. Because I want to enjoy this.

Today is a day when I feel with deep certainty I am on the path I am meant to be on in life. There have just been the tiniest of signs all day that make me go, “Yup. This is right.” And as a result, there is this spring in my step and a smile that won’t stop. I feel carefree giggles want to bubble up from my gut of just joy of life.

As a result, I find people responding positively to me. I went to the liquor store for a bottle of wine for myself. As I left I smiled and told the owner (who was sitting at a table offering out samples since you can do that now in Tennessee), “Thanks! Have a great day!” and he stared at me in shock for a moment. Then responded with a smile and equally happy, “You too!!” The teller at the bank was warm and bubbly back to me with a, “Have a great weekend!” And at Target, I chatted up a particularly sullen looking cashier until she smiled back before I left.

A friend has in her Twitter profile, “When you love life, life loves you back.” And today that was reflected back to me ten fold, everywhere I went.

Oh sure… that little voice keeps going, “Day is not over yet…” as the little Devil that lives on my shoulder tries to bring me down. Tries to turn me from my positive outlook. Instead, I’m looking at it with a bright smile and responding back, “Shut up.” I’m riding this ride of positive things…

Wishing everyone a great weekend!!! Remember to smile… you never know whose day you might brighten with it.

July 1st. Seventh month of the year. There’s no denying we are headed towards Christmas now.

I’ve actually spent most of the last year looking towards this month. My cousin is getting married in a couple weeks, and I’m her MOH. So even though I’ve not been terribly active in the planning, much of what I’ve done — or not done — has been in anticipation of this month.

I’ve spent just enough energy focusing on this month that it almost feels like, “About dang time!” While in the same breath its, “So much still to do! Ah!”

I don’t head to Texas for just shy of two more weeks, but I’m so in the mode already it could just as well be tomorrow.

Except I’ve not packed.

And there’s no flight waiting for me at BNA.

I’m hoping that sometime this month I’ll take some time to do summer things… like go out on the lake. Catch a baseball game. Barbecue out back with friends.

My bikini is on my dresser and I’ve lost just shy of 10 lbs. I need some lake time!! Summer fun has not yet begun and its not far from being over!

Ultimately, time flies and even as I strive to stop and enjoy the moment, there is more I want to do before we are welcoming in August. So here is my goal for July: enjoy beautiful weddings and have a little fun in the sun!

I sat staring at my laptop screen. Visiting the usual haunts. Twitter. Facebook. Flickr. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

I felt lethargic. The previous day’s lawn work and heat left me aching all over. All I really wanted to do was lay on the couch with a cup of coffee. Beautiful sunshine, however, beckoned me outside. I finally consented, grabbing a book and my coffee. I stepped outside, braced for heat and humidity. Instead, a light breeze ruffled my hair. It was warm, but not too hot. I found myself wanting to do cartwheels in the yard or make chalk drawings on the driveway.

Instead, I plopped myself down in my porch swing. I put my feet up, and I proceeded read four chapters of my book, breaking only to refill my coffee mug.

I found myself wondering why I don’t do it more often. I listened to a neighbor mow their lawn. I watched cars go up and down the street. My American flag fluttered in the breeze, making the pole creak gently against the house.

My life won’t always afford me the time and opportunity to take moments to slow down and enjoy the moment I am in… I need to take the opportunities I have now and embrace them. Memorize them. Save them in my soul for when times get crazy and stressful.

The next chance you have to enjoy your world. Take it. Put down the phone. Close the laptop. Just BE. It’s amazing.

I’ve been doing something lately that I never do.

I’ve been taking naps. And it is AWESOME.

Last week, I finally went and got strong antibiotics for a sinus infection I’d been fighting for a month, and therein lies where it all started. Just prior to getting the medicine, I would literally sleep a day away. A huge tip off that something was wrong, because… frankly… I am just not a napper. If anything I will force myself to live on a lot less sleep than I should.

I got my medicine and the instructions were to take it twice a day for 7 days, and due to the timing of when I took my first dose, I was set up to have to get up about three hours earlier than I would normally get up just to take medicine. So, I’ve been getting up earlier, having breakfast, taking my medicine and… I’m awake. No matter how fast I tried to do it before I woke up all the way, it couldn’t be helped. By the time I got it all done, I’d had enough sunlight, etc. to get my body in go-mode.

So the last few days, I’ve just stayed up and checked my email, etc. as I would normally do when I get up for the day. Putter around the house for awhile, then sleepiness would sneak back up. With the recent little heatwave, its worked out nicely. I go crawl back into bed and take a nap through some of the hottest part of the day, and then I get up just as its getting close to time to be able to go outside and get some exercise. It’s a total win!

Now, I don’t anticipate this being a steady thing. I mean, I do have to run some errands in the next few days right when I’ve been taking my little power naps, so its not like this is my new regular schedule. BUT I suddenly see the benefits of napping. I used to say if I took a nap my whole day would be wasted.

Just the opposite. I end up feeling like a million bucks after a naps! And I end up more focused and relaxed about the day. And as a result, I get more done in an hour than I would have done had I stayed up and tried to do it over the course of a few hours.

Naps are a good thing. Babies have it figured out. Cats have it figured out! I’m going to follow their lead a lot more and get more Zzz’s when I need them.

On one of my recent flights, I was reading a magazine. I saw a little blurb about nail polish strips that intrigued me.

The basic idea is its a nail polish sticker. A sticker made of nail polish. Whatever. But the cool part was that they were all these designs that you would have to pay big money to get in a salon… if they could even do it in the first place. So, my next trip to the store, I had to look at them. As I expected, a little pricey, but even MORE intriguing.

I am in a cousin’s wedding later this year, and she is using leapard print as a bit of theme in the wedding. One of the polish styles is leopard print, so the other day I broke down and bought a package of leopard print nail polish strips to “give it a try.” They’ve been taunting me from my dresser ever since.

So tonight, I broke down and tried them. I haaate color on my finger nails. (Except black. For some reason I don’t mind black nail polish on my finger nails.) I usually either have a french manicure, clear polish or they’re nekkid. I stared down the nail polish strips. I just could NOT do it on my finger nails. I just couldn’t do leopard print polish on my fingers for the world to see.

I pulled the strips out of the package and decided that surely I could use them on my toe nails. In fact, I could probably use one strip for two toes (since toe nails are so much smaller than finger nails.)

I carefully took my bright red, chipped polish off. Trimmed my nails. Then I obsessively read the instructions. Three times.

Then I started.

IT WAS SO EASY!! Now, we’ll see if they last the promised 10 days or not, but as for applying the polish strips? Simple. And I did successfully use only half the package (by doubling up toes to strips, with only ONE toe showing a bit of a gap from a size discrepancy from thumb to big toe size). The idea behind the strips? Way cool. The leopard print?

Well.

IT’S NOT ME!

I keep staring at my usually bright red, pink or maroon toes in a mixture of amusement and horror.

See for yourself:

It’s one part cool. One part hilarious. One part wrong. At the end of the night? I’m glad I gave these a shot. And I am glad they actually work! But. Yeah. This is going to take some getting used to…

Note: This is not a paid review of any sort.

I heard on the  news that many schools have taken handwriting out of the school curriculum. I know my sister-in-law commented that she’s had to teach my niece and nephew how to write various cursive letters because they were not properly taught it in school. It’s all because we’ve gotten so heavily tied to our computers and smartphones.

I remember in high school practicing how to write my name.  (Then, later, dreamily practicing my name with my boyfriends-now-husband’s last name.) I remember finding new and exciting ways to write the letter “D.” To swoop or not to swoop?

I was jealous of my best friend, whose name started with an “L.” I thought L was the best letter ever to write back then. Those fabulous loops!  Ah! She was so LUCKY! (See? Another “L!”)

However, thank heavens my name didn’t start with a “J.” I still can’t write those halfway decent.

Today, I’ll go a long time without writing anything. Much like the schools, I rely on my computer or phone to do with writing for me. However, I still need to be able to write to fill out a check blank, or sign important documents. Sometimes its just easier to hand write a to do list and its more personal to hand write a letter.

I wish my handwriting were prettier. Much like in school, I still pout when I see someone with prettier handwriting than me. And much like a woman has “fat days” I have “good handwriting days.” Which is what spurred this tonight. Today was a good handwriting day. It made me happy to see as I wrote out various lists and notes to myself.

I can’t image not being able to identify yourself by your handwriting. I always thought it was a part of a person’s personality. (Heck do a Google search for handwriting and personality… lots of analysis of what handwriting says about you!) I love seeing an older person’s handwriting. At work, we deal with a lot of elderly clients, who have the most beautiful handwriting still today! We also deal with a lot of mid-twenties and below, who you need a secret decoder ring to decipher what they’ve written.

Our written word is so important to our culture and our generations. I pray we don’t lose that all together… all in the name of technology.