Loose Leaf Notes

1. Plastic surgery is to Hollywood what steroids is to sports.

2. At the Floyd Mardi Gras Ball on Saturday I ran into a friend who told me she loves reading my blog but never comments.  I said ‘thank you” and then told her that my blog was like PBS.  If supporters want to see it continue, they should make an occasional comment donation.

3. It wasn’t too big a leap to go from spreading my velvet jacket on the ground to see if I could photograph some snowflakes as they fell to dropping my whole Mardi Gras Ball outfit to see how it looked in the snow.

4. Once Upon a Time in a Cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains THIS really happened.

5. I wasn’t at the Mardi Gras for more than five minutes before a man in a devil mask asked me if I’d consider selling my soul.  “How many tickets is that worth?” I asked.   It cost me 2 tickets for a local craft beer on tap.   – More on the Mardi Gras and with me wearing the above outfit HERE.

5. Something I learned at the David Whyte workshop I recently attended: The word “sin” comes from an archery reference, meaning to miss the mark.

6. A record?  THIS picture that my son posted on my Facebook wall of him and me at the Taubman Museum opening of The Great Road got over 300 likes.

7.  My Ketch and Critter (from Old Crow Medicine Show) video of them singing Wagon Wheel at the Floyd Country Store is my most watched youtube video.  It recently beat out Joe running the Log splitter, beating those 12,000 hits with nearly 15,000 hits.

8. Each one of us grows almost against our will into a steadily unfolding story where the horizon gets broader and more mysterious, the understanding of loss and mortality more keen, the sense of time more fleeting and the understanding of our own mistakes and omissions more apparent. In the midst of this deepening we have to make a life that makes sense: there is no other life than the one that involves this constant beckoning, this invitation to the fiercer aspects of existence.  – David Whyte

9. Glass Slipper of Moon: It’s a fairy godmother’s moon / that glitters at midnight / A glass slipper of light / from the day’s dizzy spell / It’s a perfect fit / in a palace of darkness / in a happily ever after / end to the day  

10. While on a walk with my 3-year-old grandson Liam today, we passed a red shed in the snow and Liam said, “Maybe that’s Santa’s house.”

11. Five year old Bryce was building a world with Mine Craft on his Dad’s IPad and said, “Mine Craft isn’t similar to our world because in Mine Craft you can look at the sun for a long time and in our world you can’t.” 

12. I call the photo to the right “White Wedding.”

13. My stink bug spray of choice, especially the ones that gather on my windows: Windex.

________Thirteen Thursday