Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my birthday.....I guess that makes me 103 LOL...  I'm back again from Indiana....very glad I went.  It was so worth it to be there for my friend and her kids! I've always told them they are my kids, once removed....great kids, all of them....Each one of them ran and grabbed me when they first saw me....I really feel for their loss.  Losing my father was the hardest thing I ever went through. My friend and I stayed at the home of her brother....his wife and I went to the same church while we were growing up, and her family was like extended family to mine.  I really enjoyed getting to catch up with her, and connect to a part of my childhood....Indiana was a carpet of green....green fields with islands of woods stretching as far as the eye could see.....I miss that beautiful green in California....the effortless luxurious green of Indiana.... Other than the green, the other thing I miss about Indiana is the tomatos.....I have never had tomatos as good as what they have there.  They can grow so big, you cut one up and need two plates to put it on....the taste, texture, and juiciness are just unmatched by those from anywhere else!  Something in that soil, I guess! Just about everyone there seems to have a tomato plant or two growing in the backyard....I don't even buy tomatos in California, they are a pale, tasteless, anemic version that is just too disapointing! My friend's brother and sister-in-law live about 60 miles from the nearest major airport, so I had arranged to get a rental car.  When my plane arrived Tuesday night, although I had a car reservation, there was no car there....they had to go through some changes while I waited (and waited) to get me one.....by now it is 11:30 pm and I still had to make the drive.....on the way there, the car started knocking loudly and vibrating and I was scared I wouldn't make it....there I was, late at night, on a deserted highway....but.....I decided to limp on in and got to my destination.....The car company finally brought me a replacement car two days later!.....YIKES.   (Don't use Thrifty in Indianapolis!) Anyway, back home...went in to work yesterday two hrs after my plane arrived.....needless to say, I'm a wee bit tired.   Normally I always take off on my birthday, but because of the backlog of rescheduled work from being gone, I am working today. I am the resolutions type of person.  I make New Year's Resolutions....usually even keep a lot of them!  I also like to take a sort of "Life Inventory" around the time of my birthday as well... Have decided to start taking off a day a week.....OK, I know most of you are laughing at that, but I have really been driven since I quit gambling to come through the economic crisis it caused.  I have been taking off only a day every 2 or 3 weeks. I think it is starting to show....and I've decided I just can't do it anymore!  I don't know how much this will effect my "survival plan", but I can't do it anymore.  TOO MUCH.  UNCLE, already!I guess my friend's husband dying has made me feel my mortality.....I have been putting my health on a back burner too long...it is time to get my prioirities straight. One of my resolutions is.....slowing down to notice and to listen.....to myself and others....to my body. I am going to look around myself and in myself to see what works and what is broken. I am going to inventory my health and really do what is necessary.  I am ashamed I am not being more proactive in doing all I can.....for example, I have a shelf that has all kinds of wonderful vitamins, flaxseed oil, etc. on it.....and I have gradually stopped taking them.  I know better!  I should be taking that little aspirin a day as well.....(I was told in a recent seminar that people who take that little aspirin a day are about 1/3 less likely to die of any cause as people who don't!)  Talk about a miracle drug! Of course, there are a few people who can't take aspirin for some reason or other. I was recently told that the majority of cardiologists take an aspirin, a little beta-blocker (high blood pressure med), and a little statin (cholesterol med) everyday, whether they have big problems or not with htn or cholesterol....(hmmmmm) I want to get back into regular exercise, which I have slipped off from. Exercising regularly has always made me feel great in so many ways!  I feel completely different when I'm not.... I want to get back into eating in a really healthy way!  Too easy to eat fast food when I am working too hard!  High fat, high carbs (bad carbs), little nutrient value, except way too many calories!!!! OK, so now I have to figure out how to make myself make this happen! (THE HARD PART) Thanks for being my friends.....Love to all.....Dianne