Blogging is Empowering!

Through my blog, I can analyze my life, get ideas from others, develop strategies and discuss them, and then I can talk about my progress! And I know that some other people have learned things from my blog, too.

I love all of the comments from my ydy's blog entry! Jim, I don't know if I know you; I do know a Jim, and I wonder if it's you. ;) You're right that I cannot be scheduled very strictly. That's because I'm a nomad. I can't get involved in things that require me to be in a particular place for long, because .. I'm not going to be there!

I would like to get into "real" artistic media. I've always been more of a doodler than a sketcher, but that is not because I don't like to sketch. And I do play the piano a bit, though I don't know if people would actually want to hear me play! LOL I actually care more for people than to subject them to my playing. ;)

Maddy.. she is um.. trying to get better about jumping on people, but she still has a way to go. I don't think that she'd be good for being a therapy dog. People would NEED therapy after spending much time with her. :D

Becky, I'm glad you told me not to beat myself up for not wanting to get out. I realize that I need to just mellow, and that is going to take time. And the time I take now is not wasted, because I'm using the time to HEAL. I think that healing sometimes requires some quiet time with computer games. ;)

Lynell, I love your story about Jack Kilby! I have not eaten at a counter since I've been alone. I should try that. Every day might be an issue for me, because I think I'd put on weight, if I ate a good meal every day at noon.

Now.. I'm not actually shy. I am fine with other people -- friendly and funny, and people like me. I think that I'm probably better with others than I was when I still had Michael, because he overshadowed me.

My problem lies in just getting out of the house to begin with. Once I'm out, I'm good. Travel .. is fine, once I'm out the door.

And tonight I ventured out to do some shopping! That's right. I left the house at 5:30 pm.

First I went to Jones Photo to pick up the prints that I'd ordered, and they turned out GREAT! Having printed a few things on laser printers, and seeing my stuff printed in magazines and books, this is such a great option. This ain't Walmart, folks. Walmart prints are nowhere near this good. This is a Tucson photo lab which uses actual humans to make the photos, and I am just amazed by the work they did. The colors are vibrant and rich.. and true to what I gave them. I guess that says something about the calibration of my monitor, too.

The cool thing is that anyone can order prints and have them sent. Jones Photo has an interface that's very straight forward to use, and their prices are comparable to using your own photo paper and ink on your own printer, but the results are FAR better. And if you don't want to deal with shipping, try a real independent photo lab near you.

After I picked up my fab photo prints, I went to the mall. I leisurely shopped, looking for slides for my neck ring, clothes.. and just stuff.

One sales woman made me chuckle, but not till after I left the store. I am looking into the display cases at various things, not pausing for long at any one case. When I got to one particular case, the woman came over and said, "The things in this case are 50% off."

She had done nothing to establish what I was looking for, what I liked or did not like. I wonder if anyone ever buys something just because it's 50% off?! That seemed to be the assumption that she was making!

I bought a couple of cute shirts from Ann Taylor Loft (on deep discount), and then headed over to the Food Court. A slice of pizza with pineapple and pepperoni. Not hot.. not great at all. Bought a brownie and leisurely walked back through the mall.

I found a place that I'd visited before with Ione, and where I'd seen a clock I liked. I bought it tonight! It's a sun for the bathroom and it's perfect. I put it up when I got home.

Again, there were no spotlights on me. Nothing bad happened. I sort of had fun, and I had shopping successes. I found my car with no trouble, because I had paid attention to where I parked when I went into the mall. (That was always Michael's responsibility!)

On a sad note, my friend Jack called to tell me that his Dad died this evening. He was 92 and had taken himself off dialysis, so there was no surprise, but I know that this has been a difficult few weeks for Jack's family. :/