A Scribble-Scrabble Letter….

This is the first time I try to blog on this device. I miss it so, but there’s never a good time or position or Internet connection. We were thinking of getting the Internet for Michael’s class, but he’s been in it for 2 weeks and seems to be doing fine without it, so if we get one now it will be because I’m tired of the connection disappearing just as I am about to see what Cate Blanchett wore to the Oscars. Needless to say that feels frivolous!

We got our taxes back today, which was welcome and timely. One third to debt, one to savings and one to the pot, but we are back in starvation mode, not because we don’t have enough money but because we are planning so many trips this year. Ideally, 2011 will see us in DC, Chicago, Costa Rica, Boston and Austin. This may not sound like much, but it’s about as much as my vacation days will stretch to cover.

Just sang with Nashirah for Limmud Philly and, as almost always, I am reminded of how well I was trained in Greeley’s chorus and Spur. Mr. Dunn trained us to memorize the music so that we could always be watching him; come to think of it, even if the music was not memorized, you were still better off watching him than keeping your eyes clamped on your music. Spur trained us very well to listen to each other, which really does solve a multitude of problems off the bat; for one thing, you may go off-key, but you’ll all go together. So that’s what I learned….Look. Listen. Okay, I didn’t realize I was going somewhere quite so trite, but I can’t help it; that’s what I learned!

Add to the zero waste a new and exciting trend…. Minimalism! Not the art movement, just the art of owning less. Now instead of opening my linen cupboard or china cabinet and gloating over the piles of snowy, fresh sheets or colorfully gleaming bowls and glasses, I glory in the empty drawer, the picked-over bookshelf. I get twice the thrill from putting something in the donation pile than I did in the buying or using of it. Check out the new link.