02.11.2012

http://3x3x365.blogspot.com/
Three Friends.  Three States.  Sharing One Photo Every Day

I dunno how I found this blog.  But it's written by 3 friends who live far apart.  It's the way they keep abreast of what is happening in each other's lives.   I find it amazing that they have the time to write something so perfect for each picture they post.  I take a  picture a day, but the captions I write are not amazing like these captions are.  

I'm going to try to start doing that with my pictures.

My third favorite son Sam is a 1st year grad student.  He is studying Creative Writing and teaching 2 sections of Freshman English.  When reading 3x3x365 this morning (and crying over some of the posts) (they're not SAD, it's just that my heart was touched and I cry) I thought that this type of thing might be a wonderful idea for Sam's classes.  

I don't know that his freshmen could do this, but they at least could try. Perhaps he could create a blog for each to post to on a weekly basis.  Or at the least a file somewhere and at the end, everyone gets a copy.  

My favorite teacher in high school was my senior English Teacher.  Mrs. Jane Bills.  she was quite the unique woman and an excellent teacher.

She had a piece of concrete on her desk entitled "concrete example", she had traveled widely and wore colorful Hawaiian dresses to school.   anyway - we had a weekly assignment.  It was a 100 word theme.  I do not remember exactly the requirements, but she'd give us a topic on Monday and the 100 word theme was due the next Monday.  It had to be exactly 100 words.  That's the only thing I remember about it really.  Probably 3 paragraphs only, opening, body and closing.  Opening statement had to have elements..you know all that stuff better than I do now.  

I really wish I still had my stack of themes.  they're long gone and I wish I had them.  I don't remember any of the topics.  I remember writing, then counting, then rewriting, then counting, slashing, counting.  

I guess my Pic-a-day pictures are my daily One Word Themes.  :)  

02.06.12 Stuff

Today is the day AFTER the Superbowl!  The Giants won, after a close, FAST game.  Sometimes football games last forever - this one was quick!  Madonna at halftime?  meh.  fairly unmemorable.  But then, she's never been a favorite anyway.

A FB friend is "eating naked" - losing weight FAST and feeling great!    She's given up dairy and gluten, focusing on basic, unprocessed foods, and doing quite well.  I'm thinking of giving up gluten just to see... I myself stopped eating DAIRY a few years ago.  I finally realized the daily yogurt I was eating was causing great discomfort and actual pain.

I remember the first time I felt something weird was going on in my stomach. I was in bed reading and all of a sudden, it felt like there was a small herd of butterflies fluttering in the middle of my chest.  I thought oh gawd...heart palpitations.  Eventually went to the doctor, and she signed me up for a heart monitor.  They saw nothing on the tapes.  The doctor didn't pursue it further, which I thought was odd.  I thought doctors are supposed to track down the CAUSE of discomfort...just not say "Oh Good!  it's not your heart!  Carry On!"

What does it feel like?  You know the water coolers that offices have and the bubbles that occur in the bottle water as someone is filling a cup?  That's how i feel.  sometimes little bubbles.  sometimes MASSIVE bubbles that actually make me feel like I might faint!

Anyway, a doctor I saw last fall prescribed Prilosec "well, as we age, digestive problems occur!  Take a pill!"  bah.  I did that for about 2 months - but truly, it didn't help all that much.  I HAVE found that a few TUMS work just fine for me.  Nice to know it's not my heart.

Anyway - back to the dairy.    I gave it ALL up and  only eat the occasional cheese on pizza.  Last week a friend of my son Tim mentioned that his stomach problems were solved for the most part by eating Greek Yogurt (with all the active cultures.)  I thought, "huh! Mebbe I just need to find the RIGHT kind of dairy!"  So I bought and tried some.  My first tentative tsp was so good, I plopped a bunch onto my morning oatmeal.  BAM!  HUGE stomach discomfort.  :(     So no yogurt for me.

My sister Carol was telling me she'd read that SOY milk (which I've been using as my milk alternative) is not a good choice, for a variety of reasons NOT the least of which is a cancer link.  So I'm thinking perhaps Rice milk or LacTaid.  Concerned about my calcium intake, i'm back to popping calcium pills and keeping my fingers crossed.