The woman in blue jeans wins the race

Went for a walk today at my favorite park. There's a stretch of paved road that runs through it. 1.8 miles one way. I walk up and back.

Today a woman passed me. She was wearing jeans with snaps on the back pockets and a pretty pink shirt. Man, was she fast. It didn't even look like she was breaking a sweat. Just casually swinging her arms and leaving us all in the dust.

Here I am in all my "exercise" gear - sweatpants, t-shirt, sports bra, my walking sneakers. And she looks like she just left her house to go pick up milk at the store and thought, "Hmmm, maybe I'll go walk 4 miles."

She inspired me to walk faster. I have a tendency to stroll. This time I walked fast the whole way. On the way back, I kept her in sight, but she still kept putting more distance between us. I timed myself and did the math and I did a 15 minute mile pace.

It's funny how you get an image of someone from just a small encounter. All she did was walk past me and wear jeans. And for some reason I think that she is one of those people who is skinny because of all the nervous energy she carries around. And she spends too much time in the sun. And at some point in her life she was involved with jet skis. I picture her going home, lighting up a cigarette and drinking cup after cup of bitter, black coffee.

I'm sure I am wrong. She probably goes home to eat granola and turn her compost pile.

Similarly Atypical

Went to a dermatologist today to have moles checked. Dr. Miller. He had very nice skin. It looked well moisturized and very likely exfoliated on a regular basis.

I have many atypical moles. None are in the scary stage. He took one off just to check. If it is low-level scary, they take another one off and check that too. If it is okay, I can just come back and see Dr. Fresh Face every year to check them again.

It must be satisfying to be a dermatologist. You find the bad parts and just cut them away.

He was explaining how I had a lot of moles and they are atypical, but in the same way. So I said, “They are similarly atypical?” And he said yes! And then asked if I was a teacher. Is that something a teacher would say?

A haiku:

A mole on my back
Similarly atypical
Uncommon sameness

(Okay, it is not a haiku because the second line has 8 syllables)

I didn’t take any pictures and I will NOT take any of the gaping hole in my skin where the mole used to be. So here’s my mole picture:

Farmers Market Morning

Decided to go to the Hillcrest Farmer's Market this morning. Bought a coffee called Merlot from an exuberant young man who probably had a touch more than his daily recommended allowance of caffeine.

Stood in line for 45 minutes to buy a crepe that people had raved about in reviews of this farmer's market. I didn't mind the wait because it gave me time to look around and get a feel for the place. I got a crepe with bacon, cheese, avocado and an egg. It was $9.00. It was quite good, but I don't know if I would rave about it, or wait in line that long again. I'd rather try something else next time around. There were so many different food booths that had great looking breakfast fare. (Didn't take a picture of the crepe, sorry.)




Ate my crepe and then roamed the aisles. Bought cucumbers that looked like the kind my mother used to grow in our garden. Didn't buy any fruit because I had bought a bunch at Henry's just yesterday. Didn't buy any other vegetables because I am still eating those wildly expensive, prepared meals.


Bought some special goodies for Beth. Lots of jewelry booths but didn't buy any because I HATE trying to pick any out myself. Got a 15 minute massage, mostly neck and shoulders. Felt really good afterwards, especially since this week of work had my neck and shoulders in knots at the end of each day.


Bought some pretty flowers on the way out. I almost didn't get the ones I wanted because I only had a 5 dollar bill left and they cost $6.00. But then I remembered that I had lots of change and so I got the ones I wanted.

How I make iced coffee

More plants I haven't killed yet

This is the plant that I almost killed by NOT planting it in the shade. When I bought it the woman at the nursery told me it liked partial sun. She lied. Apparently it is a little more finicky than that and needs full shade.

AND I found out that you are not supposed to water things with a watering can that sprinkles water all over it because then the leaves get BURNED by the sun. Why do they sell those watering cans then, huh?

Since I am too lazy to dig it up and move it and my backyard doesn't have too many areas that are not cement, I've devised an ingenious way to shade it. The plastic chair fits right over the top of it and keeps it shady.

Don't know what I'll do if it grows much bigger but it is really doing much better now. It had lots of red flowers when I bought it and hopefully they'll come back some day.

I don't know what this is, but it refuses to die no matter how much I neglect it. It was here when we moved in, so I never felt anything special towards it. The plants that I bought were the chosen ones - the fact the I picked them out made me want to care for them. But this plant just keeps blooming with its white and pink flowers even after months and months of no watering, lots of bugs and webs all over it and me never giving it a second glance.

So now I think I should pay attention to it. It has been tenaciously clinging to life in spite of me - you have to respect that.

This is the begonia that was infested with something. The nursery gave me an organic pesticide to spray on it and it is doing better. I still don't know how often I should apply it. It had a nice bloom of reddish flowers when I bought it but none since then.

The plants I haven't killed yet

My poor sad lavender plant. At first it did really well because this time I read something about it before I planted it. I made sure it had lots of little white things in the soil for aeration and put it in direct sunlight all the time.

But now the leaves near the base are all drying out and the flowers at the top seem to be dry and brownish too. I water it when it is dry like the smart ass at the nursery told me to do. So now what?

I did spray some pesticide on this too because it looked like it had bugs and webs on it like the others. Maybe I wasn't supposed to do that?

Look, it's crying... so sad.