Days Like Today

I love those days when I get to stay in my pajamas all day.  Lazy days when even a trip to the grocery store is a challenge and so I rummage thru the cupboards for edibles, and shift around the bottles of mustard and ketchup in the fridge in hopes of finding a delicious gift from the divine – a shifting that’s taken place days before already.  These days of frequent contact with the cats’ eyes, for they are by my side for most of the day.  Days of gratitude in which I realize how blessed I am to be here, with the few old possessions and hoarded books and emotional tokens that surround me; my things – things that I’ve worked hard to accumulate, fruit of my labor, my ingenuity or creativity, things I have collected over time, love letters, cards, journals, calendars.  This is wonderful place; filled with love and cat hair and scratches all over the furniture and hardwood floors… but there’s love.  I love days when I can sit back and see the beauty in what it is.  Days when I allow myself to stop measuring us against irrelevant guidelines and I allow myself to see how great this is.  Days when I allow myself to celebrate this, celebrate us, celebrate me.  I love those days when I acknowledge that every single part of me is beautiful, every single part of me belongs to me, and that is alive!  Today was one of those days – and I am not only thankful for the goodness that surrounds me, but also for the chance to be here and to be me.  Thank you for today!

My cats, the internet and I.

We are becoming an isolated society.  Social media and technology are facilitating and encouraging isolation.  What makes me say this?  Well, first, my commute from Concord to San Francisco takes up two hours of my day, so technically by the time I am home it’s almost seven and I have my daily home tasks to tackle (feed cats, pet cats, clean the litter box, water plants, take out trash, etc.) – so it’s not like I get to go hang out and be social.  And when I do have time to be social, I am actually pretty freaking exhausted from the week running around and all I want to do is sit on my sofa with a cat on my lap and watch Netflix.  Yeah.  But, I love it.  Yes, I do – I LOVE IT!!!  I look forward to my down time.  Alone.  Me. Me. Me.  And I cheat myself into a faux sociability thru social media.  I post thoughts and commentaries and whatnot and a few of you participate in the dialogue, and this leaves me feeling “socialized”.  Check!!  Done.  However, this weekend I left the house and went to see “I, Tonya”.  It was great.  And you know what was great?  To be in the movie theater with other people.  I did not know anyone of the ladies in attendance (to whom I referred to as “white suburban women” in an earlier post), but it was nice to be part of a collective group with a common goal.  We were here, together – elbow to elbow,  to watch a movie about figure skating.   Movie theaters have reported a decrease in revenue due to Netflix and other access to entertainment online (sorry, I do not have a reference), and that troubles me because what if theaters were to close down due to decreased attendance?  Where would we get our people fix?  Church?  Gag.  Is there not something magical about going to a movie theater and being there, transfixed into a fictional story line outside of your existence?  Getting the chance to escape “you” for nearly two hours?  I wish movies were not so expensive.  I mean… a movie in the evening and a soda pop is $20 for sure.   That’s a lot for some folks.  In conclusion, I think it’s important that we keep an eye on where we are headed as a society and what heritage we will leave for the next.  One last point:  NY Times had a few articles about Trump and Oprah, but the key take away from these was how did Trump impact our society and what comes next?  Shit has changed.  Very rapidly.  But, besides the political and governmental – I am more worried about the social.  Amen.