I had a busy weekend and didn’t even step into the office once. That’s rare for me. Saturday was the Celebration of Life and Memorial for Rev. Judith Vidal. I loved that the address it was held at was “343.” To me, 343 is the number of the heart chakra, 4th chakra, 3 above, 3 below. It was so fitting for Rev. Judith. It was a great service of memories, stories, music and laughter. Yes, laughter. When someone has had physical pain for years, it’s a blessing to have the body drop and everyone there understood that. Even so, the body has times it wants to cry even when I’m not sad, so at times the tears flowed freely during the music and memories. I wrote on Facebook later, “A heads up: If you know you’ll be somewhere that you end up crying like a baby and want a really really waterproof mascara that doesn’t flake or clump, try Maybelline’s Falsies. An outstanding job, even in hot, humid Florida. (Did you know all the mascara ads you see on tv and in print show models wearing false lashes?) I connected with good friends, including Rev. William McNeely of the Crystal Center of Illumination in Fort Pierce, a long time spiritual brother.
That evening, Bryan Tilford a/k/a the Beloved B came over and we played dress up. Ok, so maybe it wasn’t dress up, maybe I’d just asked him to bring over a couple of pairs of jeans that were waaaay long so I could hem them. Then we got creative and found some really cool fabric I have here and we put a strip on the hem of each. “We?” Ok, so he and Yinnie the MiniCow sat on the bed and watched while I sewed. We did them once without shoes on and then got smart and put shoes on. Heads up: always hem jeans with the shoes you’ll wear with them!
Afterward, we scrounged in the fridge for dinner. We both have odd eating habits. I eat only low fat and he’s a super taster, which makes many foods taste bitter (watch this PBS video, it explains it). We’ve done some testing on different foods that I eat to see how they reacted on his tongue, like my beloved kale. It was mega bitter. The eggplant was not, but the tamarind was. It was pretty funny watching his face as he took a bite and chewed a moment. “Hmm, this seems ok…” then AAUGH! I could tell when it hit those taste buds. Instant face change, instant spit into the trash — we were prepared! Too bad I didn’t have the videocam rolling. We solve the eating differences by cooking our different foods at the stove together, he gets the right burners, I get the left, everyone’s happy and no one gets hurt.
He likes to bring me goodies and he brought a DVD of Polyphonic Spree. He spent some time hooking up my DVD player but we couldn’t get it to work, so we finally watched it on the laptop. I didn’t know I could watch DVD’s on my laptop – upgrade! I’d not heard of the group before, they were very high energy and full of good vibes. I just ordered the DVD and a cd of theirs. Totally inspiring and uplifting!
Sunday we went to The New Way and it was packed. (No, it’s not affiliated with The Way International – my cult days are waaay over.) I spend so much time sitting at the computer that I opt to stand when I can. Especially when music is playing, my body likes to sway and bounce and wiggle. I’d been hot flashing like crazy the past couple of days, likely due to the the pickles and peppers I’ve been eating, and 15 minutes into the service I began dripping sweat. My glasses fogged up and I was glad I wore a scarf so I could mop my face with it. Heat doesn’t bother me like it used to but we ducked out a few minutes early and wow I was ready to get inside the cool again.
Last night’s dinner was a giant cold salad of spinach and sweet butter lettuce, with red onion, sliced tomato, diced apple and carrot, and chopped turkey and swiss cheese, with a dressing of olive oil, dijon mustard and garlic rice vinegar. The perfect end to a perfect weekend and I was asleep within 30 minutes of eating it.
I am so glad I am the one who gets to live my life.