BAKING, PAINTING AND KVETCHING

I woke up about eleven AM this morning, but I still made Pumpkin Bran Raisin Walnut Bread. It would have been a lot better without the bran, but I can fix that next time. Meanwhile, I'm eating what I made. And Friday I bought low calorie/low carbohydrate chocolate peanut butter ice cream and I'm eating that no later than three PM. Harry always cooks up a storm. He's made Borscht from scratch, pancakes, and pierogies all recently. We've been going out a lot because we've been taking showers everywhere in the afternoon and then we eat dinner in a restaurant. But Harry gets tired of the mediocrity in restaurants and goes back to cooking pretty quickly.
I have been sneaking in painting and have two more paintings finished or almost done. I've just started a new one and I'm hoping to go shopping at Utrecht Wednesday when I'm in town. The errands are piling up for Wednesday because I don't like to walk around in the cold and my free time now--on good days--is being used by showering.
I'm still frantically looking up houses for sale on the web, seeing houses being built--that I'd love--in far-flung towns too far away to seriously consider. I really am a city girl; I can't imagine me in conservative suburbia. I like the little semi-suburban towns around Philly, but they are still convenient to everything I enjoy. And the people living there aren't all the same. And don't have to be the same.
When we lived in our Bustleton apartment thirty years ago--but people haven't changed--one neighbor complained about how we put out our trash, and I can't remember the difficulty with another but I remember them, and the noise from downstairs and the banging. I used to take Honey to kindergarten on my bike and I started a food cooperative. I began Art school at 23 and painted all night, had long hair and was obviously a hippie. (To my neighbors.) The community in general thought I was crazy. I've learned to stay quiet and alone but wouldn't it be great to have some "anti-establishment" neighbors? Wow! Please God, let me not reside next to any flag-waving George W. voters.
Yeah, I'm depressed by the lack of affordable ranch houses in Glenside. (I'm thinking Glenside is my kind of place but for all I know it could be an American Legion anti-abortion demonstrating guarded-personality stronghold.) I have yet to call my friend Randi who knows basically everything about everything (except vision and self-examination.) But she's a font of knowledge about vacations, real estate, education, and doctors and that's pretty good. She lives in Elkins Park and knows well all the surrounding areas.
And I haven't done anything about my eating habits or my fear of speaking up either. Since I'm a very opinionated person who yearns to be a star, that's pretty harsh. I have been thinking of doing EMDR which is a skill my (old) therapist taught me and that I still do with her. But I can do it with drawing. Honey tells me really good ways to request stuff from the universe, meditations and affirmations but I forget them all. It's easy to coast along when I have only to talk to Harry. I'm hoping I'll get around to doing the EMDR work, order books, get my unused clothes and shoes together to give away, etc. etc. I still love being retired; it's always Saturday and the only insanity is mine.