Early in the Morning

Little rooster crowing, must be something on his mind!

Since changing up my whole existence (okay that's an exaggeration and I know it!), I have been waking up at 6:40am despite how late I stay up, reading and watching movies, avoiding the lonesomeness of my new bed.
Maggie sure appreciates the early mornings, I like knowing that she is comfortably relieved even before I am awake enough to worry about it.
This little routine we are getting into suits me just fine. My fuzzy-wuzzy widdle girl dog likes her place in this world to be anywhere, so long as she is close to me and so far we have been able to do that.
She comes to work with me and is learning the rule about no doggies in the coffee part of the shop fairly quickly, however her terrier-ness invokes a bashful forgetfulness now and again, as she can't seem to help herself- she feels that she must greet and 'check out' the customers as they enter. Once things become too busy, we will have to start leaving her upstairs during my shift- I am nervous about that. This doggie throws a fit just about exactly the same way I do!

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday, the full moon, the fourth night on my own, the hopeful doc appointment, the yummy exotic dinner, and over all a very very good day.
I took my car to the shop after first pooping my dog at the brisk beach, in the brisk morning.
Found out that my Yoshi car needs a shoe replacement of some sort. The man at the shop is incredibly- I don't know, good. Good at his job, good at listening, good at communication. It will be affordable to fix, and he will have it fixed quickly. I wonder if he has daughters, the way he had dealt with me.
Then it was time to lay out an outfit for Indian food dinner with the Ya-ya's of Adelaide's, my bathing suit for the post yard labor-pre supper sauna and spa, maggie's away bag for her day with my lovely brother Allen- much preparation was required, much baggage was toted from stop to stop, but all was worth it in the end.

The doctor explained to me her experience with people whom are chemically imbalanced from the get go. As babies they tend to display depressed behavior, are particularly moody, as children they ditch their birthdays, as they become older they learn to cope but develop triggers and weak points, teens flake out, become bored with school- as young adults they struggle to keep focused on their life path, by the time they are in their mid twenties, they tend to begin to notice the patterns of ups and downs, the confusing clash of their good intentions and failures. Any how, for women, the hormonal chemicals associated with menstruation can be manipulated in such a way as to take the edge off of the up and down cycle, and more "naturally" encourage the chemicals in the brain to re-balance.
So today, I am going to fill a prescription for Seasonale and take my first dose this evening before bed, so that I do not have to deal with chemically induced morning sickness which will ensue until I adjust. Bleh.
But it is a new approach to the same old problem, and I am keeping an open mind, hopeful heart!

The yard work with Lenane was wonderful! I forgot which Fred how good I really am at it- not to his fault, it was just always a power struggle with him, or maybe I should just say it was more complicated to go out with him. Lenane and I get to have conversations with multidimensional undercurrents and understanding even when blissfully stirred by the gentle discombobulation of the herb.
In the spa afterward, the conversation became even more rich, but I noticed that unlike the time I've spent with women my age (and just fine and dandy, they have been) I didn't grow exhausted my her presence.
Dinner was a little exhausting as the underlying power struggle of folks around me makes no sense and crowds out the possibility for a simply good time, but none the less, the ya-yas behaved for the most part and we all left with smiles, kisses, hugs, and full bellies.
Astoria's waterfront marine drive got a little bare in the past few years. Shops emptied with the coming of the recession, so the bark windows between the few remaining shops made the street look like a toofless grin. Himani is a mother-and-sons owned restaurant- very beautifully decorated- especially when the young son is visible! I am very glad to see the shops start to fill back in.
Ethnic food, as I guess it can be referred as, Thai, Indian, Bosnian- are all so unbelievably flavorful without a lot of fat, or expensive ingredients. The food traditions have been developing for ages, practiced and perfected using the resources at hand through drought, famine, disease and are so unique to their own culture.
Reading Shantram piqued my interests about Indian cuisine, reading words like naan, masala, imagining how in the hell lentils and garbanzo beans could possibly be forced to be delicious.
How is it that you hardly see an obese indian person, though so much of their food is rich with butter, cream, carbohydrates?

This year I received a few cards, the cards from my grandmother are always elegantly beautiful- so I have one pretty card on my tv, surrounded by one on either side depicting funny babies. It's a good reminder of  how I am getting up there, have a couple decades under my belt, I am still very much an overgrown baby in the scheme of things. I feel as young as ever, maybe just a little more steady, a little more patient, a little less prone to cycle and circle pain and pleasure like I used to. But still very young, fearful and in awe of the big bad world "out there" but hungry for it, infatuated by the idea of it more and more so every day.