Extending from snidegrrl's recent posts, I'm thinking about the difference between empathy and compassion. I feel like I have a lot of the first and not so much of the second, which when I look at the text book definitions seems kind of odd. But it could explain why I try to be decent to people, get so angry at injustice, and how I have a hard time watching ( Read more... )

This is going to be some personal reflection that was kicked off by the protests in Baltimore. It doesn't really have anything to do with the protests, at the moment I am feeling very overwhelmed, not so much by the response to injustice, but by figuring out my own place within this fight and now to support and participate in an appropriate way. ( Read more... )

Today I did an hour private lesson with a friend to learn some fundamentals of working with a heavy bag. She taught me some kickboxing basics (stance, how to step to go side to side or forward and back, 4 kinds of punches, and 3 kicks), had me run them in little combos, then had be drill the combos and then free form drill in 2 minute increments ( Read more... )

I think I need to have one real goal for 2014 and that is to get my habits changed so that I can make it out for multiple out of doors, in nature, quiet, with wildlife, not on pavement walks per week. My sanity might depend on it.

So I made it through Halloween before succumbing to the cold that my office is passing around. I'm ok with that, it meant I got to thoroughly enjoy Justin's birthday dinner at Maggie's Farm, as well as the day-after-birthday breakfast at Clementine and the day-after-birthday late-night dinner at Hamilton Tavern (because holy crap would I have been ( Read more... )

A couple of months ago I catsat for one of my cat foster mom friends. She lives about 6 blocks away, and it's nice to have someone I can trade cat duties with, as well as meet up with for a glass of wine and some crazy cat lady talk ( Read more... )

A discussion over at clevermanka's LJ led to me mentioning that my mom did the Nutrisystem diet thing for a while in the 1980s. I'm not sure if she lost any weight when she did it. Maybe, I can't see how you'd want to eat if your meals were made up of that crap. I remember eating the little bits of freeze dried BBQ chicken from one of the meals, like it was ( Read more... )

For the past two weeks I've been in some sort of moody mood-mood. All broody and introspective, except in a very vague way. I actually didn't even bother to listen to music in the car or house until today. I started doing that so I had more time to think but I had a different realization. See, because of dancing I tend to mentally choreograph to ( Read more... )

I started following a bohemian design blog, which is mainly a way to look at lovely houses and hopefully light a fire under my ass to get working on and decorating my own place. A home profile led me to Justina Blakeney , a stylist, designer and professional blogger. Sidenote: the idea that blogging can be job and a way to make a living kind of ( Read more... )

Christmastime 2011 I had one of those life wake up moments that seem to happen at critical junctures (mine being that I'm on the "closer to 40 than 30 part of my life"). My mom made a casual comment to me that she was worried that she's worried be pre-diabetic. Diabetes is in my family, mostly from habits I'd say. Of my grandparents one had it, my ( Read more... )