Month: July 2016

Here it is, this is the mosquito net I ordered! Doesn’t look too bad. I’m still concerned about how the cats are going to be able to curl up with me. Now that I think about it. I need to pull this back even more when I’m not using it. Bleeck loves to race along the top of the couch; it’s his most used shortcut to me, Finney, mice and food, and he will definitely rip it at some point during a run.

Every year I post about mosquitos, which for some reason are a problem in my building. I live on the top floor of a five floor walk-up and for about four or five months every year I am attacked by mosquitos. I don’t know what took me so long, I first started posting about my mosquito problem in 2011, but I finally broke down and bought mosquito nets for sleeping.

I remember, it’s because of the cats, of course. How will they be able to curl up with me once the opening is closed? Also, they come up and down on the couch throughout the night, and I figured they would rip it to shreds in the process. Well, we shall see. I will report back.

Meanwhile, I passed this by the other day.

That’s what my weather app said it’s going to be today. I don’t do heat well. At all. Hate it. I should live some place like Alaska, or Minnesota, or Canada. I much prefer snow.

I took this picture of a woman adding names to a mural about Orlando, which seems like so many massacre ago now. Sigh. Sob.

I’m off to the library for the whole day, probably. Free air conditioning and research, a perfect summer day. I wouldn’t mind going to see the new Ghostbusters movie after, but it will be too crowded. Maybe next week, during the day.

A couple of pictures of the graveyard at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, where I went to my first rehearsal of David Lang’s the public domain there.

I was just reading a book review, and the reviewer said the book (Heather Havrilesky’s How To Be A Person In the World) was corny and sentimental, but it still worked. One of the things she quoted from the book:

“The world has told you lies about how small you are. You will look back on this time and say, ‘I had it all, but I didn’t even know it. I was at the center, I could breathe in happiness, I could swim to the moon. I had everything I needed.'”

It’s similar to that famous graduation speech that was going around years ago, about how you won’t know until later how perfect you are right now. I looked at a picture of myself in my 20’s a few years ago and I was floored (I probably posted about it). I remember what I *thought* I looked like at the time, and I realized I was so totally, totally, totally wrong. I realized I had had it all. I could have ruled, but instead I let some people walk all over me. (I’m just talking about romance in this example, and looks, but I let others walk all over me in other arenas. I had it all in other ways I didn’t realize at the time either. I don’t believe Havrilesky was talking about looks, and her quote applies to everyone. You know, screw “looks” anyway. That’s an insight I just realized I’ve gained at 60. I’m not saying I don’t care. I’m saying it’s insane that I do to the extent that I do.)

Anyway, what I realized looking back then, and what I realized reading the quote above now, is that even though I may not have quite the “all” I once had, I will look back at today and realize how wrong I was about how I look now, and everything else. I am still at the center, I can still breathe in happiness and I can still swim to the moon. (I loved how she put it. Yes, corny and sentimental but it really worked for me.)

I hurt my knee the other night, and I was thinking it’s all downhill from here. And yes, it’s a sucky injury, but if I’m still around in 20 years I will look back at today and think how vigorous and young I still was, regardless. So I really should try to enjoy it now. My 20 year old self didn’t have this awareness, but I do now. I should take advantage of it! I can still swim to the moon.

My cats with extended paws. I call it: I Want to Hold Your Hand.