If You Think...

Worked half a day and by the time I finished with errands, the weather went from sticky to stormy. I, reluctantly, took off my swimming suit put on other gear, grabbed my umbrella and headed out to walk.

For some reason, impending rain makes me think of that scene in The Color Purple when a boy says to Harpo -- It's gonna rain on your head.

Thinking of Alice Walker made me think of Gwendolyn Brooks' The Mother poem:

...how is the truth to be said?

You were born, you had a body, you died...

Brooks led me to Lucille Clifton's Good Times:

oh children think about the

good times

And good times made me think about the evening that I had with Hazira and Rabija.

H & R somehow reminded me of the Syrian intern whose stomach has been in knots and who said When you live in a dangerous country... And even though it's been an unbelievably violent June and July in this area, she was not talking about this country.

I read 11 Ways to Have Your Best Summer Yet on Oprah.com earlier in the day. Number six: take a nature walk...

I often feel connected

and grounded when I take walks and today was no different but I wasn't totally grounded because my throat felt totally constricted at one point...

What truth needs to be said???

The Same Pounds Twice

I keep thinking about Alice Walker's book The Same River Twice in which she discusses The Color Purple controversy.

While I don't have a controversy, I do seem to have pounds that I lose and regain again. I'm up two and, while I'm not fretting, I would like to see the scale move south.

It appears that New York's mayor has weight issues as well. Mayor Doesn’t Always Live by His Health Rules was entertaining. I'm fascinated by people with huge appetites who eat what they want to eat. That's called living vicariously, I suppose.



Here's my favorite line from the article:

HE dumps salt on almost everything, even saltine crackers.

It seems like we all have our trigger seasonings.

Old Jones, #2

I was going through some clutter and found this relic.


I can remember hauling myself across town for Il Vicino when I could have been making my own pizzas. Besides having good pizza, I liked that Il Vicino's was not Pizza Hut where they would unceremoniously dump almost whole red onions onto the pie.

Il Vicino is inviting. The interior and exterior is visually appealing. If you sit outdoors, you can look at the beautiful metropolis of Clayton and contemplate where to dine next at perhaps First Watch or City Coffee House & Creperies or...

Usually, I would pick up my pizza from Il Vicino then head straight to Straub's. How could I not go? Straub's was right up the street. And as Shug said to Celie in The Color Purple : I think God gets angry when you walk past the color purple and don't pay attention. I felt the same way about Straub's and getting to the dessert corner.