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My work outs continue, but work is slow. The Personal Trainer tells me it is time for more photos. This is to monitor progress (or lack thereof). D@vid inspires me to keep going and to post – for courage and encouragement. Thanks to his example, I agree it would be useful to post my photo from time to time – mostly to remember where I put them. I won’t bore you with my self-critiques.
There is nothing more today, other than my vanity !
Recently a Spo-fan communicated his confusion on the Inspirations who visit and contribute to Spo-Reflections. Who are The Muses anyway? How do they differ from The Furies? I thought to refer him to Bullfinch’s Mythology, but this seems too cumbersome a reply.
Here is a brief summary of Who’s Who. It is a sort of “An Observer’s Guide to Goddess Guidance”.
The Muses.
These 9 ladies are my number #1 source for inspiration. After all, it is in the job description. They evoke creativity. Spo-fans know they are rather irregular in attendance. The Muse’s contract has more vacation time in it than anything seen in Socialist Europe. When they can remember, they send me substitutes….
The Graces.
They are the goddesses of charm and beauty. If the Muses inspire, The Graces coif. Two crucial differences: instead of putting ideas directly into my head as The Muses do, they use email. And, there are three of them, which makes for less noise.
The Fates.
The downside of The Fates is they aren’t very inspirational. On the hand, they are fantastic at arranging things to meet new people. Indeed! It was The Fates who got me to blog in the first place. Look at my Blog list – all fateful encounters. At times they tangle up the threads, so people come and go. Such is Fate.
The Furies.
Rather disagreeable, their inspirations creates rants or get readers itching for an argument. When Spo-Reflections has friction, The Furies are responsible.
The Norns.
This bunch of glooms show up when everyone else is away on holiday or too busy to drop by. I see them as that substitute teacher the administration calls whenever everyone else is sick. Norn-ideas are never colourful. They induce lecture style entries and post poetry no one wants to read. The entries illicit few comments- and these are usually ‘short and polite’. The Board of Directors Here at Spo-Refletions likes The Norns.
The Boswells.
They don’t often stop by Spo-Reflections, but when they do their inspirations are pleasant, musical, and in E-flat.
The Aadvarks.
A very nice group; please don’t feed them buns and things.
And when all else fails …….
The Skanks.
Never far away (alas), they are ever quick to suggest ideas – usually bad. They recommend gossiping about fellow bloggers, Cheez-Whiz recipes, and dropping my trousers on the internet. With them I always use “spell check”. Whenever I get comments of ‘What on earth were you thinking of when you posted this?” then I know I’ve been inspired by the Skanks !
Spo-fans will be shocked shocked shocked to hear I enjoy divas of song.
They fall into a heirarchy. Some are prima donnas; others are not as important.
At the top, serving as The Triple Goddess, are my favorites:
Eartha Kitt Loreena McKennitt Enya
Someone schmears them into “Lorenya Kitt” . They reign supreme (at least in my heart and ipod).
Under the Triple Goddess dwell the Major Goddesses. Do not dare to question this. They are:
Annie Lennox
Kate Bush
Patsy Cline
Ethel Waters
Apart and perhaps slightly below reside the General Goddesses – no less important, but not as powerful as the Majors:
Bette Midler
Cher
Della Reese
And then there are the demi-goddesses; the “B-girls” who are ‘less in potent’ but still quite enjoyable.
Ruth Etting
Karen Akers
Connee Boswell
Nanci Griffith
Cass Elliott
Lola Beltran
No Pantheon is complete without a few Tricksters who do not quite fit anywhere. They define classification; they stand apart in their uniqueness.
Susan Boyle
Madonna
This Great Chain of Being is not static; on occasion a goddess transcends to a different level, or falls a notch. A few have fallen from grace (or were cast out of Heaven).
Once in a while a new diva comes along and tries to squeeze in somewhere, although none dare try for the Triple.
Thanks to a week in Key West, Lady Gaga has crept into my psyche and is vying for position. The Pantheon is outraged – they recognize a Eve Harrington type (after all, they are divine).
Will Lady Gaga succeed in staying on Mt. Urspo? How far will she rise? And will she throw someone out in her ascent?
Alas, the relaxed mood which blossomed during last week’s holiday has withered away. Work is again unpleasant. There are too many demands in my day. Besides seeing two dozen or more patients per day I have to address ~ 50 chart matters, a handful of calls, and a few forms. Despite coming in early, hardly having any lunch, and working into the evening, it is not enough to keep up.
I continue to have a cold. It seems to go away only to return. I am rather spent. I’ve had no time to do much else. I feel a bit down in the dumps. The Muses appear to be staying away; they are probably trying to avoid catching my cold. So I don’t have anything profound or witty to say.
Someone is ill as well. His cold has more aches and fevers (mine is more sneezing and congestion). Only Harper has some energy. This evening I took her for a brief walk for she loves to run loose in the park. She dashes off as fast as she can, running in circles for the joy of it, and then runs even faster back to greet me. It is a heart warming spectacle.
There is nothing to journal, for nothing is happening. I write to experience life twice; once in the moment and again in reflection. There is naught worth the scribble time.
So I bid my Spo-fans a good night. I will crawl into bed with Harper and perhaps too the latest edition of The Wine Spectator. With luck, I will nod off quickly and wake tomorrow a little less congested and perhaps a bit more hopeful.
I am slowly getting over my cold. It has evolved from sneezes/congestion to a dry hacking cough coupled with malaise. I am feeling better. Happily it was not the flu.
I thank one and all for the thoughts about the conference. I contacted a colleague friend whom I haven’t seen in ages; he and his partner will be attending, so I would have some companionship. Someone will start looking into flights and hotel rates for me. Do I have time to make another shirt?
Speaking of shirts, the Shirt of Shirts is now at Will’s DesignerBlog. I hope to prompt it along down the list.
I was not familiar with Lady Gaga’s music until I got to Key West. I heard her music constantly; now she is stuck in my head.
The new iphone and I are slowly getting acquainted. This weekend I need to get a case for it. I traditionally get a red one, so when I loose things I can find them more readily. My fat fingertips don’t type very well and what few texts I have sent out often have a lot of typo errors. I haven’t ‘purchased an app’ yet – despite my attempts I can’t find the one for warping time and space. While in Key West The Other Michael showed me an app called “Grinder” – heavens to Betsy!
I am reading several books at once and making no progress in any of them.
This weekend we have another ‘Live from the Met” opera- jolly good fun !
It’s been years since I have attended a medical conference. I used to go to them all the time. They were tax deductible; I got to travel to places warm and fun, learn a few things, get my obligatory credits, and see the sights. Nowadays I keep up on things via CD lectures, which I hear going to and from work. This is oh so practical and no fun.
It came to my attention there are two upcoming conferences which strike my fancy. The first one is the annual American Psychiatric Association convention, in Honolulu. The other is a conference about diseases linked to depression. This seminar takes place in Anaheim CA, just down the road from Disneyland.
I can only go to one, so which one should it be? Pros/cons …….
Honolulu
Positives:
If I am going to visit Hawaii I might as well make it “tax deductible”. It the official APA convention after all, so the courses I will attend would be more relevant. The APA’s Gay and Lesbian Society (of which I am a member) will have several social events; this gives me a great opportunity to hob-knob and network with my fellow wizards. I can show off my shirts and make everyone mad-jealous. There are fabulous fabric shops in Honolulu. My nephew is a student at the University of Hawaii. I can take him out to dinner.
Negatives:
Someone wouldn’t go to this one, due to $ reasons. I have not traveled alone in nearly 15 years. Someone always does all our travel arrangements, so I will have to ‘get around’ on my own. Going to Hawaii by myself sounds lonely, and I hate being alone in hotels. Hawaii would be very $$$. I would have to take more time off compared to the CA option. I would have not time to ‘see the sights’ given the demands of the Hawaii conference.
Anaheim
Positives:
The chief plus is Someone would go to this one. He would drive while I fly over and then we can drive home together. This makes a rental car unnecessary. Neither of us has been to Disneyland and we both want to see it. The conference is less expensive; the trip is a fraction of the cost of Hawaii. The conference is far more practical and thus would be more interesting. I think there are some blogger buddies in the area I could meet?
Negatives:
The conference offers no networking or socializing. We could go to Disneyland any time, while Hawaii as a tax write off is once in a lifetime opportunity . The CA conference credits may not apply. If we both go, there is the extra expense of putting Harper in a kennel.
I may get cold feet and not go to either. It remains far more economical to stay home. After all there are house repairs to do.
I’ll keep you posted.
No trip is complete without a few souvenirs and Key West 2011 was no exception. I came home with:
A T-shirt.
A choker made of sea shells.
12 yards of tropical fabric for future shirts.
Four used sci-fi paperbacks which haven’t seen daylight since 1970.
and
A stainless steel device consisting of 3 rings, in various sizes, their rims put together to form a triangle.
Alas, the chief souvenir is unintentional: I have a cold. Not fair. I came home feeling relaxed, only to be laid low by a virus. Worse luck, I feel ‘charged’ in certain energies that had been ‘running on empty’ for a while, and this can’t be exploited either.
From High School I have a friend who was a Christian Scientist -or ‘was’ until she went several stages above and beyond Mary Baker Eddy. She would poo-poo this so-called virus and tell me to ‘unsee’. I’ve tried this and unfortunately it refuses to unsee me. I have the usual symptoms of a mild sore throat, runny nose, paroxsyms of sneezing, and personal guilt about returning to work.
Physicians are rather hypocritical they scold patients for going to work while sick, yet they have to be near dying before they follow their own medicine.
I know there will be dozens of charts to attend and patients to call. The new patients, some of them have been waiting months to meet with me, would be devastated. I’ve learned from experience a new patient waiting anxiously for weeks if not months for the appointment would rather have me sneezing and coughing than be told the doctor called in sick. They don’t empathize when they are to told ‘The doctor didn’t come in today as he didn’t want to give you his cold. We’ll have to reschedule you. How about May?”.
I hope a good dose of Nyquil this Sunday night is sufficient remedy to make me halfway decent for the morrow.
Just for luck, I will forgo starting one of the sci-fi novels and read “Scientific Statement of Being”.
Today we travel homeward. I feel OK to go. It was a great trip; I feel rested. We will say farewell to The Best Friend, and all our traveling pals and drive to Ft. Lauderdale and then fly westward. I miss Harper! I hope this feeling of being at-ease carries into work so I will be a happier and more patient.
This week reminded me how important it is for all of us to take time off from our toils. I’ve said this before: vacation time is crucial for our physical and mental well-being. Nevertheless, I still have to persuade patients to take time off. Usually this is balked by worries the world can not spin without them (and even more, they worry it can spin without them). Nowadays, asking for time off is seen as a sign of ‘negative character’. People actually fear losing their jobs if they ask for time off.
I now have the problem there is nothing to look forward. This next scheduled trip isn’t until August, when we have our annual trip to Canada. I need to remedy this. Palm Springs and Flagstaff are always good for weekend trips. Or perhaps we should do something new and adventuresome. But where? We ‘owe trips’ to people all across the nation. Maybe we can visit and meet blogger buddies? How awesome that be awesome!
The spring time has some potential medical conferences. One is in Anaheim in April; the other is in May in Honolulu. Both are ‘work’ but they are at least in fun locales. Someone is encouraging me to go to one of them. But which one? I will blog about these two choices at some later time.
First things first. We need to pack up our belongings and load up the rental car and drive north to the airport. Lord Willing, we will be home safe and sound by evening time. I will try to catch up on blogs tomorrow evening.
My week’s holiday is drawing to its end. Yesterday we went sailing. I was looking forward to this, for I haven’t been on water in ages. Being a Cancer, I am quite happy being around water; it makes me feel well. Being around saltwater makes me thoughtful. I am very happy sitting on the bow, looking ahead and thinking deep and happy thoughts.
I had thoughts of boating trips, when we sailed the Great Lakes. My reflections included previous Key West boat drips, and the friends (and romances) therein. Ah, good memories, these!
I know this will scandalize some Spo-fans, but when we were far enough away from shore, some of us dropped our trunks and sunned ‘au natural’. There is a cleansing and spiritual component to swimming naked in the ocean. For me, it touches upon The Numinous.
On a less profound note, the first mate also ran out without his trousers. What an Adonis. Ironically he didn’t evoked ‘lust’ as much as ‘envy’. “Geez, I got to get back to the gym when I get home…”
So it was a lovely time. I must get back to the sea again, and soon.
It is the last day of our holiday. I am happy to say it was a very pleasant time. The weather was excellent; my travel-mates were enjoyable. And the Other Michael has fallen in love, bless him ! – with a local fellow. I wish them luck nurturing a long distance relationship.
There is one last agenda item: getting a new sponge. I had a real sponge purchased over ten years ago, and it is in need of replacement. I am off to Mallory Square to find a new one, no rubbish.
Spo-Reflections 
