11/24/2013**

• Another night wherein I slept for three hours and then after a long hiatus, for another two hours. I don’t feel sleep deprived but I have noticed that it is only on the occasional days after the occasional seven-to-eight hours sleep that I feel good.
• I have just had a bagel and am drinking a cup of tea. After the tea is finished, I will go for the 8 to 10 minute walk which is what I can manage these days.
• I just looked out of the window and there is a teenager standing on one of the walkways and talking on the phone and smoking. I am almost willing to bet money his parents don’t know about at least the smoking!
• The temperature is 33 degrees. Coat, hat, AND gloves this morning! {One of Fred’s "rules" about being dressed for the weather was gloves if the temperature was 50 or below… He was always having to remind me because before I moved to Vermont, I lived in Mississippi where "sunshine" automatically meant "warmth!"}
• I am, strangely enough, looking forward to this heart stress test on December 2 because it is one step closer to getting the surgery which hopefully will fix all the problems I am having with my bowels… I am tired of living in limbo…
• I just realized I have to wait a bit before heading out for "The Great Ten-Minute Walk" because my hair is still not dry from my shower! I DO have a dryer—in fact, I actually have two since I have one I use for art, always supposing I ever do any again, but I have no idea where either of them are! I really dislike hair dryers since the heat makes my scalp itch….
• Plans for the day. I have some stuff for the washer, I have heaps of mostly book-and-paper stuff on the coffee table. Jake and I are planning to swap coffee tables after T’Giving. He has a house with a big living room and has a small coffee table. I have a small apartment with a big coffee table. I also need to pick up a couple of packages from Amazon from the apartment office…

An emotion is only an emotion.

It’s just a small part of your whole being.

You are much more than your emotion.

An emotion comes, stays for a while, and goes away, just like a storm.

If you’re aware of that, you won’t be afraid of your emotions.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. — Marcus Aurelius