Sarah Fain Has Starfish Envy

Seven Words I Never Thought I'd Write

I find this Chipotle commercial really moving.

 

Thanks to Cold Antler Farm for sharing it.

Just Call Me A California Girl

When my college friend Lesley was in town a couple weeks ago, she totally made fun of the California-ness of my kale smoothies.  Which... y'know.  I mean, who can blame her?  (Although, once she tasted them, she did have to admit they taste pretty good.)

Now she's REALLY gonna make fun of me.  Cuz as of today, I have a juicer...

And starting tomorrow I'm going to have trays of wheatgrass growing in my breakfast room.

If anyone sees the old, normal me on the street, will you please tell her where I live?  Cuz I seriously miss her.

 

Getting It Half Right

I'm struggling.

Sometimes therapy makes things worse before it makes them better, and that's where I am right now.  Stirring things up, confronting feelings I don't want to acknowledge much less feel, working through issues old and new, and trying to have some compassion.  Mostly for myself.

It sucks. 

I actually have two therapists right now.  One specializes in fertility issues, and she's the best therapist I've ever had.  The other specializes in food issues (please God let me not be an emotional eater someday), and she's spectacular, too.  I'm in good hands... it's just hard and painful and requires a lot of driving to the Westside.  

And crying.

Did I mention the crying? 

Lots of crying up in here.

It's particularly annoying because professionally, I'm happier than I've been in quite awhile.  I'm absolutely loving my job right now.  Everything WP and I are doing is fun and exciting and inspiring.  I wake up with ideas and am still scribbling down thoughts when I go to bed at night.  There's actual joy in writing.

If I felt even half as good about the life part of my life, I'd be golden.

More Introductions!

I seem to be on a People-I-Know-And-Love streak, so to keep that streak going...

Tonight I'd like to introduce you to Maurissa and Jed.  That's Tancharoen Whedon and just plain Whedon, respectively.  The creative talents behind all sorts of good things, from some of the best episodes of Dollhouse, to the brilliant Whedon-family-extravaganza that is Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.  (If you haven't listened to Mo's song in the musical commentary, DO SO RIGHT NOW.)

In addition to being the cutest couple ever, they do these cute little quirky-awesome songs.  In their spare time.  Just for fun.

If I didn't love them, I'd hate them for being so talented.

 

And now that you're in love with them, too, check out Maurissa's brand-new blog, It's So Not Sexy, in which she recounts her ongoing ass-kicking experience living with Lupus.  

Just to be clear, Maurissa's the one kicking ass. 

And taking names.

And, apparently, making sandwiches.

A Flying Metal Angel Baby!

My yoga studio is in front of the studio of a local artist named Peter Shire.  

Shire is quite well known as a sculptor-- though I'm mostly a huge fan of his work as a potter.  He hosts an open house every year, and I can never resist buying just one more black and white bowl...  

I've lived in Echo Park for almost nine years, so you can imagine how many black and white Peter Shire bowls I have.

Okay, I have exactly this many:

(Not counting the ones in my China cabinet.  It's ugly.  But the bowls are SO PRETTY!!!)

Anyway.

Tonight, the back door of the yoga studio was open, and I glanced into the courtyard of Shire's workspace.

This is what I saw:

A metal angel baby!  Flying over the mailboxes!!!

Not something you see every day.  For some reason, it filled me with pure joy.

And once again... I love my neighborhood.

On The First Day Of Thankful... Acupuncture!

If I have ever doubted the effectiveness of acupuncture, the last couple weeks have cured me of all doubt.

Last week, I just happened to go to my acupuncturist as I was approaching ovulation.  (This is where people who don't want to read about the nuts and bolts of the trying-to-get-pregnant process should skip a paragraph or two.)  Usually, I ovulate a little late-- Day Sixteen or Seventeen of my cycle.  (I blame stress.)  

This time, however, I went to my acupuncturist on Day Twelve.  She said my pulse felt like I was getting surge-y, so she targeted her treatment toward supporting ovulation and gave me herbal tea to do the same.  

I surged the next day.  Went in for my IUI and ovulated the day after that, which was Day 14.  Perfect timing.

Then, this weekend, I got sick.  Fever, runny nose, achy chest, exhausted.  Y'know.  The classic cold.  

Now.  If you remember nothing else you ever read here, remember this:  If you are coming down with a cold, GO TO AN ACUPUNCTURIST IMMEDIATELY.

I don't know what they do, but it is miraculous.  Was I instantly cured?  No.  I pretty much spent the whole weekend in bed and on the couch, mainly because I was supremely tired.  But my fever went away, and the other symptoms didn't get worse.  I expect to feel mostly normal by tomorrow.

Which is pretty incredible.  

And this isn't the first time I've conquered a cold with the help of an acupuncturist.  They really can make an enormous difference.

This week, in honor of Thanksgiving, I'm going to try to write every day about things and people I'm thankful for.

Today, if you haven't already figured this one out, I am grateful for acupuncture, and particularly for my acupuncturist, Laura.

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What are you thankful for this week?

And remember, the Give-Away is still going on!  Make a donation of any amount to Water.org, and you're entered to win signed copies of WP's and my two books, a Lie to Me ball cap, and a Vampire Diaries water bottle! 

They Do Run Run Run, They Do Run Run

I woke up this morning to the sound of helicopters... which is not totally unheard of in my neighborhood.   Usually the thudding chopchopchop is accompanied by sirens and deep voices booming through megaphones.

This morning, however, the helicopters were up there for an entirely different reason: the L.A. Marathon started in my neighborhood!  

Then it wove through Downtown, and back up through my neighborhood again, before heading all the way west to Santa Monica.  Just before the start of the race, I headed down to Sunset to cheer on the runners.  

You can (barely) see a helicopter between the trees on the left, hovering right over Dodger Stadium. 

Before I even got to Sunset, the roads were blocked off.    (Quick aside:  I'm so used to seeing abandoned grocery carts, I DIDN"T EVEN SEE THIS ONE when I took the picture. Seriously.  Didn't notice it until I got home and downloaded my pictures.  Hello, observant.)

   

Before the race even started, people were lining up along the route.  How often do you get up early and go stand on the street to cheer for people you don't even know?  Pretty darn cool.

And before I knew it, the first wheelchair racer came flying down Glendale...

That guy was MOVING...

And the front pack of women runners wasn't far behind...

 Some of the most elite runners in the world, right in front of me!

 For just a moment...

 And then they were gone...

Soon to be followed by the men...

LOOK AT THEIR LEGS.  All lean muscle mass.  I had some of that once.  

And there they go...

Did I mention the circus at Mile 6?  

Spending a morning on stilts seems almost as hard to me as running a marathon...

After the lead packs, only a slow trickle of runners came by for awhile...

The trickle slowly picked up...

... and eventually turned into a stream...

And I just have to throw in this picture.  The woman on the right looks Photoshopped, doesn't she?

... and then a river...

... a river with a weird, red-caped guy.  Which is right about when I decided to casually stroll down to my favorite neighborhood joint for a yummy breakfast.

Yeah.

I will never run a marathon.  But I will happily watch and cheer every chance I get.

My Fourth Weekly Reading List

I.  Love.  Roger.  Ebert.  What balls, what beauty.  This is a man you want in your corner.

On a totally different note, this book on women's health sounds pretty fascinating.  Healthy and happy at 80?  Cool.  I'm in.

You gotta love this from Zen Habits.  Permission to STOP WATCHING THE NEWS.  I love this man almost as much as I love Roger Ebert.

Okay, I know the odds of me EVER being an Urban Farmer are incredibly slim.  Close to none. But I still like the idea, and I sort of think I could maybe manage a few chickens.  But bunnies?  From an ecological perspective, I get it.  I just don't think I could do it.  Still, thanks to the people at Good for... making me think about it?  I guess?

Also from Good, deconstructing a taco.  You'd never guess how many miles all the ingredients have to travel.  Craziness.

And, finally, from Nancy Jane Smith, this thought-provoking piece.  I would actually go a couple steps farther and say that believing we need to be humble and modest can be just as damaging as beating ourselves up.  I think teaching young women to be humble and modest IS, in fact, another way of keeping them small.  Which doesn't mean we should all be trotting around like cocky a-holes-- it just means that we need to value ourselves enough to NOT be small.  

I'm neither religious, nor a Maryanne Williamson fan, but I do love this quote so much I framed it and put it in my living room:  

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most.  We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?'  Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you.  We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us.  And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

YOUR PLAYING SMALL DOES NOT SERVE THE WORLD.  

I love those words.  I wish I had the courage to live by them every moment.

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Oh!  And THANK YOU for all the wonderful post ideas and for letting me know what arenas are most interesting to you!  You'll definitely be seeing more on the remodeling front (there's a lot and nothing going on on that front right now, which I will eventually explain, but can't yet), and on the baby-having front, and I will happily write more about my wonderful neighborhood and LA-ishness in general.  

I'll also do some more specifically informational posts about the process of having a baby on my own-- donor stuff, books I've read, SMC blogs I love, etc.

And, Jeanne, you can call me Babycakes anytime!