Lovely Morning

Wow. It's been a while since I posted. I've had thoughts about some postings like "Is My Body Supposed to Be Doing This?" -- meaning, falling apart! I just can't work out and be active like I used to be. My joints ache, I don't get strong as quickly, etc. It's such a cruel irony that while our wisdom and comfort with ourselves seems to increase over the years (well, for most of us, I think) our physical selves deteriorate. Some weird universal balance? 

Tonight, I wanted to write about how lovely it was this morning. I'm sitting in my living room now with the screen door open, hearing the crickets. Earlier the katydids (or locusts? not sure which we have here) were making their racket. It's odd, too, I can just slightly hear the interstate which isn't horribly far away and it's actually kind of comforting. Maybe because when I was a child, our house wasn't too far from I-55 (Festus, MO). It must just remind me of childhood when we would play outside for hours and hours, well into dark and would hear the same sound. 

In the morning, I sat on my little patio and had breakfast. For a while after that, I just enjoyed the fact that my skin wasn't melting off my body. This summer has been brutal. I really, really dislike the heat and can't remember the last time I looked forward to fall (and maybe even winter) so much. Remind me I said that when I'm complaining about the rain and the wind and, eventually, the snow. I feel like I'm living in a tree house up here. I'm including some photos of the view from where I was sitting on my balcony. Much better than the last place! 

Other random things:
Maddy invited me to go see her friend Claire play at a coffee house in town. It was really great! Claire also showed up in one of my previous posts (with photo). 

I Went to Chicago last weekend with Norma. Doing the girlie thing -- we went to the Bobbi Brown make-up counter. I now have flawless looking skin, a healthy pink glow, huge eyes, and, you heard it here first, eyebrows! At least I have all these when I spend time in the morning putting them on my face. 

I walked around Lincoln Park while Norma and Don went to see a play at Steppenwolf. It was a great day! I also talked to my sister Lisa because it was her birthday. She was having a good day so that made me happy too. Here's a view of Lincoln Park -- you can see the Sears Tower (or whatever it's called now) right below the far, far street lamp. 

Finally, would this make the coolest painting or what? It was the reflection on the wall above my fireplace one morning. My hands were itching to grab a pencil and trace the patterns on the wall so I could paint it directly there but since this is a rental, I'll have to content myself with creating something separate. I'm not sure why it has that double exposure look. The shapes are from my balcony (sometimes the architecture of this place reminds me of a ski resort). The sunlight passed through a sliding glass door so maybe the angles of refraction on each of the doors made a difference. Who knows? I just made that refraction bit up. Sounded good. 

Those are all of my odds and ends from the past few weeks! As you can see, my life has calmed down considerably.