While almost there to the end of 2025, I saw a sign in Brookline, Massachusetts letting me l know that I was almost there.
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No matter what my goals or destinations are, I keep feeling like I’m almost there. Maybe that’s because I keep adjusting what “there” means to me.
Can you see how I’m almost there in my other images for today?
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Wondering when this blog post will end? We’re almost there.
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Thanks to all who are here now for this almost-there post, including YOU!
This is one of those times when it all feels like too much.
When it all feels like too much, I’m glad there are supports like the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Help Line.
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When it all feels like too much, I self soothe by taking photos and asking questions.
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Here’s what I find when I search for “when it all feels like too much” on YouTube.
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When it all feels like too much it helps to listen to these Todd Rundgren songs.
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When it all feels like too much I am even more grateful for people like YOU.
In June, I’ll be manifesting my dreams by singing and recording my original songs with people I love. I have a lot of work to do before I’ll be manifesting my dreams and it reduces my anxiety to be manifesting this wisdom: I have all the time that I need.
Now I’ll be manifesting my dreams of a hopefully helpful daily blog by sharing these images.
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Here’s what I find when I search for “manifesting my dreams” on YouTube:
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Thanks to all who help me in manifesting my dreams, including my dear friend Jeanette (whose birthday is today) and YOU!
Yesterday, when it looked like I was looking at a difficult drive home through a scary-looking snowstorm and I looked like I needed some hot chocolate, I looked and saw this:
Everybody looks like they’d love a free drink, don’t they?
I don’t know what you look like as you’re reading this but I rarely know what I look like, especially these days, when my looks have been changing. My boyfriend Michael, who looks like a wonderful person, has had trouble recognizing me when he looks for me in the supermarket when we’re food shopping.
On Sunday, my life-long friend Arnie, who looks beautiful to me, took me on a walk to look at a poster of somebody he thought looked like me. He had looked at that poster, very near to where he lives, for many months and thought “That looks like Ann” until he was inspired to call me and reconnect with me after six years.
You look like you’d love to see that poster and what I look like now, next to it.
I don’t know what that looked like to people in busy Coolidge Corner on Sunday.
Look, I don’t think I look like her but, like her, I have tamed brows and am wild at heart.
An hour before Arnie took that photo, I looked like a guilty person when the Brookline police stopped me for looking at my phone while I was driving a few yards from that poster. It looked like I might get a ticket, but the two policewomen, who looked kind and reasonable, gave me a warning. It looks like I won’t look at my phone any more when I’m driving.
You look like you’d like to see my other new photos from yesterday.
You look like you’d like some of that home-made chili and like you’d like to hear “You Look Like I Need a Drink” by Justin Moore.
I look like I need a comment from you. Look below to leave one.
You look like you’re expecting me to express my thanks to all who helped me create the looks in today’s blog post and — of course! — to YOU, for taking a look, here and now.
Yesterday, when I was having the time of my life visiting my friend Megan’s office, I captured this still life with my camera:
Life is like a camera. Focus on what is important, capture the good times, develop from the negatives, and if things don’t work out, take another shot.
Yesterday, I did focus on what is important, capture the good times, develop from the negatives, and take another shot at recording my first original song, “I Don’t Like You,” because my life-long friend Arnie suggested I change the camera from vertical to horizontal.
I don’t like negative people (even though they help me develop) but I do love both Arnie and Megan, and I captured the good times yesterday.
Do you think life is like a camera? Take a shot at a comment, below.
Thanks to Megan, Arnie, my son, my camera, and — of course! — YOU.
Today’s post could have been titled
Day 2096: Welcome y’all, come on in and stay awhile,
Day 2096: News & Blog,
Day 2096: Essential Knowledge,
Day 2096: Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn,
Day 2096: Dude! September isn’t even over,
Day 2096: So Far So Good,
Day 2096: That’s What She Said,
Day 2096: Creating a Buzz,
Day 2096: Whatever you are, be a good one,
Day 2096: What Do YOU Care What Other People Think?,
Day 2096: Outliers/Being Mortal,
Day 2096: Self-care for the real world,
or Day 2096: There’s beauty in simplicity, BUT I prefer the title
Day 2096: Bloom where you are planted.
Do you like that title or do you prefer another?
Since I bloom where I am planted, I bought something at the Brookline Booksmith yesterday. Any guesses?
Today’s post also could have been titled
Day 2096: JAZPNO or Day 2096: Jazz Piano, because this comes up on YouTube when I search for “Jazz piano bloom where you are planted.”
Today’s post could also have been titled Day 2096: Thanks to everybody who helped me create this post and — of course! — YOU.
Here’s a meaningful thought: This is my first post in many years of daily blogging that’s been explicitly meaningful. I mean, I’ve written four previous posts focusing on meaning (here, here, here, and here), but never one with the word “Meaningful” in the title.
It’s meaningful to me where “meaningful” comes from today:
I saw that meaningful poem last night in the window of a shop in Brookline, Massachusetts. Apparently, that store held a meaningful contest for meaningful children to write meaningful poems, including these:
All of the images in today’s blog post are meaningful to me — otherwise I wouldn’t have taken them. However, one seems particularly meaningful to me, here and now.
Which one of those photos do you think is most meaningful to me? Even more meaningful, which photos are most meaningful to you?
According to the Top 10 Most Meaningful Songs, this is #1:
I look forward to your meaningful comments.
Meaningful thanks to all who helped me create today’s meaningful post and to you — of course! — for reading it.
Yesterday morning, I published my 1000th blog post on my 1000th consecutive day of blogging.
What’s that?
“Blogging” means web logging and, yes, I have blogged for every day since January 1, 2013, through health and illness, sun and snow, fears and relief, ups and downs.
What’s that?
That’s our cat Oscar, seeming to celebrate my 1000th day of blogging.
What’s that?
That’s Oscar again, pressing the power switch on my lap top, turning it off, on, off, and then on.
What’s that? Somebody allows their cat to step on their laptop?
There’s really nothing I can do to stop Oscar from being right there, wherever I am. So, I just take photos of him using my computer and post them on his Facebook page.
What’s that? A cat has his own Facebook page?
Have you seen Facebook lately?
Yesterday, in the middle of a beautiful day, my 17-year-old son Aaron and I went to Brookline, Massachusetts.
What’s that?
Brookline, Massachusetts is a town almost completely surrounded by Boston, Massachusetts, with great schools and restaurants. Aaron and I went there yesterday to have lunch and walk around while he worked on his comedy routine for an important appearance at a Cambridge comedy club last night.
What’s that?
Yes, my 17 year-old son does stand-up comedy. Isn’t that amazing?
Before I took my first photo in Brookline, Massachusetts yesterday, I said to Aaron, “What’s that?”
Aaron took a break from trying to memorize his comedy set to reply, “It’s money and outer space.”
As I’m writing this, I realize that whenever I take a picture, it’s because — in some way — I’m asking “What’s that?”
I shall now present all the other photos I took yesterday, in chronological order.
What’s that?
That means I’m including the pictures in the order I took them. Feel free to ask “What’s that?” about any of them, in a comment below.
The last few shots are of last night’s super moon lunar eclipse. If you don’t know what that is, you could look it up.
What’s that? I hear my readers exclaim, as if in unison. YOU DON’T HAVE ANY PHOTOS OF YOUR ONLY CHILD PERFORMING HIS COMEDY ROUTINE FROM LAST NIGHT?
Well, the Comedy Studio didn’t allow patrons to use their cell phones once the comedy show began. However, Aaron got a DVD of his entire routine, created by the staff there.
What’s that strange word the host used to introduce Aaron last night? Ignore that, and just enjoy my son in his first performance at the well-known Comedy Studio, located above the Hong Kong Restaurant in Harvard Square.
What’s that? Those are the first exchanges, on OkCupid five years ago, between me and my boyfriend Michael.
What’s that? I haven’t expressed gratitude to anybody yet, in this blog post?
Many thanks to Aaron, Michael, Oscar, the Comedy Studio, Rick Jenkins (the owner of the Comedy Studio), Brookline, Cambridge, the moon, and every person, animal, place and thing that helped me create my 1001st blog post, today. And special thanks to you — of course! — for visiting, here and now.
Sometimes, I find it beautiful to deliberately misspell the word beautiful, as Lewis Carroll did in the mock turtle’s beau-ootiful song from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, “Beautiful Soup.”
Here’s beeeeootifulll Gene Wilder, as the mock turtle, singing beau-ootifullly in one of the beeootiful Alice in Wonderland movies.
Yesterday, I spent some beeootiful time with my beeeooooootiful son Aaron and my beau-ootiful beau Michael in beautiful Brookline, Massachusetts, USA, which has a beeoootiful book store, many beeeooteeful restaurants, AND a beeoooteefulllll art deco movie theater.
At the beeooooteefull Booksmith, I spotted this beautifully signed poster:
The beeoootifulll author, George Saunders, has byootifully written
Thanks, Booksmith
You are more byootifull
Then this phlower
Luv.
George Saunders
… which I find beeoootiful, in many ways.
What do you find beeooootiful, in this moment, where you are?
Here are 57 varieties of additional beeeooootiful photos I snapped last night:
WordPress uploaded all of those quickly and smoothly. Beautiful !
Are there any of those images you find particularly beeoootiful? It would be so beautiful if you’d let us know why! And if you wish, I’ll let you know, as best I can, why I took that beeooootiful shot.
Which reminds me of an exchange I had with somebody who asked me a question, many beeootiful moons ago, while I was taking lots of photos in his neighborhood:
Unknown neighbor: I’m sure I’m not the only one who would like to ask you this, but why do you take so many pictures around here?
Me: Of course! I’m glad you asked. I write a daily blog and I take pictures of things I find interesting and beautiful.
Neighbor: That’s okay, then.
Many beeeoootiful thanks to neighbors, Aaron, Michael, beau-ootiful Lewis Carroll, Alices in Wonderlands, Gene Wilder, turtles (mock and otherwise), Brookline Booksmith, George Saunders, the Regal Beagle restaurant (although none of us had the Beau-ootiful Soo-oop), the Coolidge Corner Theater, gangs of Harleys, The Wolfpack, and all the other beeeooootiful things I saw yesterday. And special thanks to beeeeeeeooooooooteeefullll you, for visiting today.