Random Thoughts

I got rear ended the other night. I was driving home, through DC, and stopped at a red light.  The car behind me was also stopped.  Only, then it WASN’T stopped, and it bonked (quite hard) right into me.  I was startled.  I jumped out to see what had happened, who had hit me.  The guy was still sitting in his car, so I walked up to his window, which he opened.  “What?”, was his response.  “What???  Umm, you just HIT ME, that’s what!”.  What followed was an exchange where he insisted it was “nothing” and I insisted that he had HIT MY CAR.  He got more and more irate, and I got more and more ticked off.  He said, “Yeah, I looked at my phone”.  Look, I am no angel.  I look at my phone at red lights, too.  And I do not know why he decided to step on the gas, just because he was looking at his phone, but for some reason he must have (or perhaps taken his foot off the brake, but he hit me pretty hard so it fe...

DONE. My teeny tiny “cancer journey” * is finished. Got the stitches out today at the ocular plastic surgeon, have to go back and have a quick follow-up in 4 weeks, but for all intents and purposes my “little ride on the cancer train” * is over. I am hesitant to include this photo, but in the spirit of honesty, here you go.  Nurse David captured not only my recently removed stitch area, but also every clogged pore on my face and my very unplucked eyebrows.  Here you go, world!   And I realize how LUCKY that makes me.  Starting out with this form of cancer, basal cell carcinoma, has been a primer for me.  It’s the most common type of cancer.  It very rarely metastasizes (spreads to other areas).  If detected early, it can be removed.  I was one of 4 million people in the United States alone to deal with it this year (I was in great company!).  (You can learn more about basal cell carcinoma and other skin cancers here:...

I DID IT!!!!   I tackled a BIG new project, and I succeeded!!!! This is the WINNER POSE at our house.  All big accomplishments are celebrated with a WINNER POSE! Those of you who know me know that I always have a project, okay, SEVERAL PROJECTS, happening simultaneously…  There was the huge Trader Joe’s project in 2014 – I reviewed a Trader Joe’s product every single day of the year (I still add to that blog periodically by reviewing more).*  In 2016 I started Kindness Activist – where I write about kind things people do in the hopes of inspiring more kindness…**  I often have “Project Warmth” going on our front gate – giving away warm clothing to passersby.***  And I always have a “Photo A Day” project going, though 2014 is the only one that I have taken the time to compile and complete so far.**** So, given my love of projects (and apparent OCD-like nature in terms of said projects…) it should come as no surprise to you that when I got a S...

I honestly don’t know how long it has been there.  David and I both have this sort of weird disassociation with time – him much worse than me.  But both of us really don’t have a handle on how long things are, how far in the past they were, etc.  It is like time blurs or something (which is why neither of us can ever, for the life of us, remember what anniversary we are on until we count back). So, filling out the blank on the processing questionnaire that asks “How long has this issue been there” is sort of impossible.  But how do you explain to medical professionals that you DON’T KNOW?  So I lie.  “Around a year, maybe a year and a half…”.  I could just write “Your guess is as good as mine”, but that would be even less helpful and harder to explain, so I assign a number.  So yeah, I have this “bump”.  That’s what I called it.  A “bump” on the right side of the bridge of my nose, very near my eye.  It has been there “for...

RELIGION was something I hadn’t expected in India.  I mean, I know every country has religion, but I wasn’t prepared for the PERVASIVENESS of it in India.  Religion is EVERYWHERE there – it is in the way people dress, the way they eat, the way they relate to one another, the way they worship, the way they celebrate, it is even in their politics.  Religion is an integral part of life there in a much more “real” sense than I see in America. And religion in India is SO DIVERSE.  There are many, many different faiths represented throughout the country – Hindu (the majority religion of the country), Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Bahai, Christian, Catholic, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Parsi…  And it seems, at least to this outside observer, that the different religions coexist in harmony.  There do not appear to be overt attempts at convincing others that one religion is “right” and therefore “better” and others should convert to it.  It seems to be acce...