Moving Right Along

Phoning It In

ME (to person answering phone at nearest Vinny Testa's):  So that'll be one famiglia size Classic Chop Salad with no dressing, onions, or fried onions; one famiglia size Spaghetti with Meatballs with meat sauce; and one individual size (which we both know will really serve at least two people) chicken picatta.

HER:  Yep.

ME:  Oh, yay!  That's our Thanksgiving dinner.  We order it from you guys every year,  so we can spend it together without any bother.

HER:  Oh, god.  I go to my mom's house every year, 'cause she lives right around the corner.  I have to peel and chop 20 lbs. of potatoes.  My hands are always bloody and raw for days afterward. But at least my boyfriend is coming this year, and he's going to help.

ME:  Yay!

HER:  Yeah, it'll be a LOT better.

In which the artist reveals that she has not lost her marbles.

At the super fun Toy Shop of Concord, I buy them individually.

Some of them I keep in a special lamp.

Some of them I keep in a dusty jar.

There's no rhyme or reason to what I choose when I buy.  I pick what moves me, different things on different days.

This one looks like a planet.

This one imprisons a frozen flame.

And this one, barely paler than my skin, giggles all over with polka dots.

See?  I still have quite a few marbles, lots of different kinds.  And I know just where they all are.  And I know just how to hold onto them, too, firmly, but not so tightly as to block the light.

(I think that one looks like it's made of grape popsicles swirled with cream.  What do you think?)

Land of Long Naps

Left the house all alone today for the first time in, gosh, over a month, maybe longer.  Usually I've been needing my true love to go with me either because I'm just too tired to drive or because I can't lift all the stuff I need to buy anymore -- sacks of bird seed, boxes of cat litter.  It's very strange for me on a lot of levels to be this dependent on anyone.  The one thing that keeps coming to mind is how when I worked at Whole Foods, one of the baseline requirements for employment was the ability to lift fifty pounds.  I only quit that job a little over two years ago.

I tried to take pictures of where I went for you, but my camera had a little panic attack, couldn't decide whether it was on or off, and in the end only recorded this one very blurry image that only approaches visual intelligibility when cropped this small.  Meanwhile, I was lurching about in a leg socket that's gotten so big I think I could fit a puppy in there next to my stump.  (Don't worry; I won't try.)  So it all took a very great deal of energy with little to show for the expenditure, at least online, at least today.

I once read that walking around on the average, correctly fitting, transfemoral prosthetic leg burns three times more calories than walking around on equivalently average, all original, organic body parts.  I think the version of walking I do when my socket is this loose uses about six times as many calories, and I've only been eating between a half-cup and two cups of food per day since sometime in August, certainly far less than that last week.  So it felt great to go out, to drive myself around, to breathe the frigid air and meander clumsily to please only my own internal timekeeper without worrying about wearing out or boring or imposing upon anyone else, but when I got home, I was completely done in and slept for hours.

And now I'm headed back to the couch for more of the same.  Hope you had a lovely day, even if it was a Monday.

Still nothing to see here.

I still have a fever of about 102°F, and now I am also high on Dramamine.  Whee.  My brain is hot mud.  I won't even tell you how long it's taking me to type this.

However, for a diversion, you can go visit esteemed correspondent Amorette's Etsy Shop, where she is selling handmade cat toys called "smurglebags."  (And now you know what Sam is probably getting for Christmas this year.)

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Don't forget!  You only have one more day to enter my Third Annual NaBloPoMo Midway Contest!

Nothing to see here; move along.

Today I feel like crap, but rather than go on and on about what that's like I shall direct your attention elsewhere.

Check out what esteemed correspondent Ron Sullivan's been up to.  (Ron blogs at Toad in the Hole, if you didn't already know that.)

Okay, going back to the couch now.

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Don't forget!  You only have two more days to enter my Third Annual NaBloPoMo Midway Contest!