So many of the people I care about are suffering from one form of depression or another, especially at this time of year… myself included to an extent. Decreased appetite, some free-floating gloom, mostly just catching myself with sometime despair. Once I recognise the problem for what it is, I can take steps to counter it, either by thinking about the counter to the source of whatever is causing my dark mood… for a lot of people it isn’t that simple. I have a very real desire to help folks ride out the storm, to be supportive and give aid wherever I can… I understand that all sunshine makes a desert, and I’m no fair-weather friend, anyhow, to stretch the metaphor a bit more.

My goal is simply to be there for those that can benefit by it. I feel better when I know I’m of aid.

finished my shopping today, and am now addressing all my holiday cards for launch on Monday.

Dave and I went a broad assortment of places, and I got a clasp that I needed to finish a project I’ve been sitting on for a while.

While shopping, I felt a rush of melancholia and bittersweet… weird mix of holiday feelings. I did find some lovely gifties, though, and the traffic was not too bad.

Dave’s realising the work involved with raising a baby…I’m very happy for him and Cathi.

Monday, (or tomorrow, if times are slow) I finish wrapping some of these prezzies and send them winging on the way to some trees and stockings…

Well, I’ve been putting off this other thing off too long.. back to work.

good advice, I’m sure some have seen or heard it before, but it bears repeating.

(I didn’t write this, but admire the author.)

Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now …

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy.

Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

good advice, I'm sure some have seen or heard it before, but it bears repeating.

(I didn’t write this, but admire the author.)

Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now …

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy.

Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

from a year ago

Eighteen beans…he means, the heifer weans, as she eats her greens. These scenes revere ravines, as butterflies flutter by and snatch the flies out of the butter. Fly as a flock flies, as aerodynamic airplanes and weathervanes maneuver like cranes while dodging cranes. Brainy crania make many errata, mainly men, while what women name minnows and sinews? Flailing in feelings, reeling in relatives, baking cakes and taking breaks when brakes break–“Heaven’s sake!” Sounds, syllables, liable grounds, filled opal~fallopian fetal pliable petals and metals in Constantinople. Steeple, church, weevil’s lurch, Birch bark, feral beast, dark scourge, nutritional yeast. Feast on the means of the queens’ gowns but recall, moats drown. He who wears fake socks and joins the Fake Sox has loins and groins no one mocks, but fettered and frittered in litter covered in flies. Rock beats are seen as red beets and deadbeats and dead Beats. Sine means fine means for three quarks to equal nineteen. Christine.

Also, a favorite Longfellow Poem, The Blacksmith.

dancey dancefun night tonight… poopie talk, and a nice time.

Holiday shopping tomorrow.. launching about 1:30ish with Dave, and heading to Sawgrass Mills and maybe a head shop to get some holiday goodies for the gang. I hope I get to see my sweetie before launching… if not, I wish her a wonderful time out and about, and will be taking her with me in spirit as I’m navigating the stores.

I hope to find a few things that just leap out at me… I’m a good shopper… I’m more than a head taller than the average mallgoer, so scouting works out well.

going to get Cathi a neat gift (which will remain unmentioned, in case she reads this… I don’t think she does, but better safe than sorry.)

I need to get some supplies to finish up Newton and Blackie’s gifts, too… got my checklist on the palm, and I’m ready to rock and roll.

Bedtime for bonzo for now…nighters. But first, a bit of poetry…

OK (ready)? Sit peacefully, all, good gab
opportunites; unionized, wind, and to chase
and Tundra Moss were used unwrapping a
stick the Wealthy In February, prostitutes
from president is said POOP This neck of
useless programming time during the regular
meetings at results viewable to the largest
waves in a hunter who offer legal titillation
Utah Satan, hence the Map Stopped,
gambol in bass (buffet, deserts dove
entrance to express their Bhogavati). They
are described as a New Jersey company
thinks they weigh up on the Kodiak bears
are described as a global clientele in frolic.
There was a chance at a global clientele in
the time. Fresh from Pumpern to do
interbreed with me bow; Games.