Stacy Horn

I am so behind in my writing schedule I must write write write all weekend long. No movies or tv or books for me!

In other news: Buddy is limping. I called the vet and they asked if he is putting weight on it—he is—so I’m supposed to watch it for 24 hours, which means until this afternoon. Whatever caused this must have happened while I was out swimming yesterday. I think he’s better though. He’s still limping, but he seems less tentative. I hope that’s not wishful thinking, but he’s out here with me and he was hiding in the bedroom before (where my cats go when they are in pain).

Swimming Update: My eyes still have lines and are a little swollen from the goggles. Am I going to look 100 years old from now on?? I bought a mask yesterday to wear instead.

A picture of my little wounded warrior, taken seconds ago. Hello sweetie pie. Lots of treats are in your immediate future.

I either swam 36 or 42 laps today! (I’m not going to calculate olympic-sized laps anymore.) I can’t believe I lose count when it’s so important to me, but I do. Also, I started out on Tuesday having to rest after every lap, then I had to rest after two, and today I could swim 6 without resting.

I bought goggles yesterday, which I’ve never worn before in my life, but my eyes were so red from the chlorine. Unfortunately the goggles left these terrible marks around my eyes which make me look 100 years old. I googled it and learned that for some people my age they don’t go away! I’m going to try a mask instead, but I may go back to wearing nothing. I’m used to it. Plus I just read that the chlorine and redness is harmless to the eyes. I loved the goggles though, you can see much better.

Some pictures from our choir benefit last night. This is Robert Gardner, a baritone. I’ve gushed about him here before. He’s one of the best and handsomest baritones in the city. He disappeared for a while and I just learned that’s because he’s been living, singing, and conducting a choral society in Colorado. He just moved back.

An audience shot. It looks like it was all-female, but the men were standing all along the sides.

That is Tony Bellomy, our associate conductor, on the left. He played the piano for the recital.

I did a brief interview about it. The picture below is from the article by Ichi Vazquez, and I’m on the far right. It’s not too bad considering it was a million degrees out and I’m in old tshirt. But I’m not sure that haircut is really working for me.

Even though today is going to be even hotter, at least a billion degrees, I plan to do the following walking:

Perry Street to Waverly near Broadway—.8 miles.
Then over to 24th and 1st—1.3 miles.
Then back to Broadway near 18th—.8 miles.
Back to Perry—1.1 miles.
Then Reade Street and West Broadway—1.6 miles.

My last stop is a choir benefit, where I’m supposed to look presentable. Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen.

I was so intimidated, the whole process felt daunting: buying a lock, how cold was the water going to be, wearing a stupid bathing cap, was everyone going to be faster swimmers and I’d hold them up and annoy them, and when I did this once a few years ago I remember getting out of breath right away—was I going to swim half a lap and then feel like I was going to die and get all discouraged??

Sure enough, after only one lap I was exhausted. The life guard recommended swimming a lap, resting, swiming a lap, resting, etc., and after a few weeks I’d build up my stamina. So that’s what I did and after only 20 minutes I could do two laps at a time!

I swam 14 laps, which I calculated to be equivalent of 6 laps in an olympic-size pool. NOT BAD. I’ve only gone swimming one other time in the past in 35 years.

This pool is closing shortly for the summer however, and then the outdoor one will open, which is open to the public. It will be way more crowded and I don’t know how swimming laps will work. But I felt so wonderful and elated walking home after. I’m leaving in a few minutes to go swimming again.

My friend Chris has rescued another kitten. We’re now discussing trap and release for the mothers. But look at this new little guy!! A picture of the two of them together follows. Thank you Chris, protector of feral kittens!!

23 days ago I watched a TED talk about happiness and at the end the guy suggested doing the following for 21 days:

– Exercise.
– Meditate.
– Write down three new things that made me happy. It’s important to try to find different things every day, because it keeps you on the lookout for what made you happy, thereby making you more aware of happy moments, however fleeting.
– Do one random act of kindness.

I thought exercising every day was going to be the hardest, but the random act of kindness was harder. I don’t know how truly random I was about it. I counted helping people who emailed me about me their murdered relatives (I wrote a book about cold cases so I regularly hear from people asking for help). I used that one a lot. And if you don’t already know how to meditate that would be a challenge, but I’ve already learned something called MBSR.

Some days it was difficult to come up with three new things that made me happy. But in the end I could always recall some brief moment, like the night I killed a mosquito. It had been dive bombing me for hours, and I was accumulating welt after welt, when finally, at 2 in the morning, I got him. I felt this wonderful moment of bliss laying back down to sleep knowing that stupid mosquito wasn’t going to torment me anymore. (I also felt bad at having to kill it, but it was self-defense.)

Bottom line: did it work? Yes. Part of me thinks just making the effort of doing all these things every day in and of itself is a mood-enhancer, but prior to doing this every day I felt a little bad. It’s hard to describe. I’m facing a bunch of challenges, (growing older, finding a day-job, etc.) and it’s not depression, but I was beginning to feel, well, just bad about it. I started every day with an ache. The ache is gone now. I’m still in the same rough patch in life, but I just feel a lot better.

So if you’re in a rough patch and doing everything you can but things aren’t working out, because life is like that sometimes, do the above. I’m going to keep doing it.

I was concentrating on lining up my shot and didn’t even notice this guy look at me with this very annoyed expression! I’m sorry movie-set guy.