improving mood by talking to yourself

Can talking to yourself help your state of mind? I'm willing to try, and I'm starting small. Every morning I noticed that I would wake up stressed, thinking "Today I SHOULD do this or that, or everything. Supposedly, and I believe it, this is bad for your mental health. All those imperatives in your brain. It turns yourself into a slave driver. And the only person you're driving is yourself. Ok, so I tried to step back and eliminate the "shoulds." But they were always lurking in my brain- at first a subtle reminder, then an order. "Oh, go to hell" is what I wanted to tell my brain. Finally one day recently, it just came to me-- Hey, let's just substitute COULD for SHOULD. Amazingly, this works really well, at least with me. I Could iron today. I Could fire the kiln today. I Could swim today. I Could caulk all around the house. Etc. Etc. and whatever applies to you. I Could put this in my blog, and I did.

I Dream of Wienie in East Nashville

Going to East Nashville

56 years ago I was born in Nashville. I am a native- a rare and vanishing breed here. But there is one part of Nashville about which I know very little- East Nashville- across the bridges over the Cumberland River. I had never been to East Nashville until last week! Susan called me to go have brunch there and look at the cute shops. She wanted to know if I knew where this restaurant was. "Susan", I said, "I've never BEEN to East Nashville. My mother told me NEVER to cross that bridge!" Now I must tell you that it was a reasonable warning back in my younger days. Now, East Nashville is undergoing a rejuvenation, and lovely homes are being renovated and restored. There are some great restaurants and cute shops. But I really didn't know how to get there (other than crossing the river). So, I picked up another friend who was going and we decided to get lost together. We found the restaurant after being a little lost, and we all looked at "cute" shops afterward. It was just like going to a completely different city! I know that there is still a lot of crime there, but East Nashville deserves to come back strong and safe. Maybe I'll even go back there one day.

Beets and digestive tract

Fresh beets are such a great fall vegetable. Over the years I have cooked beets many times, but only last week did I roast some beets- and they were yummy! Here is how I did it: First I cut the greens off and scrubbed the beets well. Then, I parboiled them for about 10 minutes, dried the beets, and rolled them in olive oil. I sprinkled them with Kosher salt and ground some pepper, then roasted them in a 500 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Tasty. Rebecca was at the house for dinner and she snarfed beets too.

The next day I had the most horrifying moment of looking at the contents of the toilet, and thinking that I was bleeding from the colon. The whole business was red! I was already planning my funeral by the time I flushed. After a few minutes of hyperventilaing, I thought, "Hey, wait a minute- that must be beets" Or at least I'll THINK that it is beets unless this should happen again. Being the helpful person that I am, I told Jon, "Hey don't get all nervous if you have bright red poop- it's the beets. He just looked at me like I was crazy, and said, "Who looks?" Me, that's who.

Later that night before I went to bed, I was talking to Rebecca. We chatted about this and that, and then she said, "Mom, a little alarming about the beets." Immediately, I knew what she was talking about, burst out laughing, and said, "thank goodness, at least I know it wasn't just me, or worse, BLOOD!" Then we got the giggles which increased when I said that Jon never mentioned it. Bec said, "He must be one of the .2% who don't look." Exactly! was my comment.

So enjoy those beets, but expect the unexpected!!!

The end of daylight savings time

Time again for me to complain about the short days until December 21 when the winter solstice occurs and the days begin to slowly, ever so slowly, lengthen. Night just comes way too soon now. If I were in the mental institution (where I probably belong) I would be one of the people that the doctors call "sundowners". They go crazy when it gets dark. I love the light of daytime. When Jon gets up early, or I get up to go to the bathroom before the sun comes up, I open the shades so that the sun will awaken me naturally by shining on my face. When we built this house I had all the rooms except one bathroom and the laundry room have windows on at least two sides. Ah, the sun! I'm sorry, Rob, but I don't think that I can move to Seattle. They don't make enough Zoloft to keep me sane where the sun doesn't shine for months at a time. Also, we are on top of the hill where we get the last bits of sun much longer than the people in the valley. How sad it is to see the my friend the sun disappear. I love the moon too, but she can't compensate for it being dark. So time for us all to burn more lights, light more candles, and to look forward to when the days are long again.