7ToF: Are we gonna let the elevator bring us down?

1. This was a stressful week (see below), but I managed to hang tough. Until this morning when I heard that Prince died. I was headed out the door to run errands, so I plugged in my phone and started up the Prince songs on my workout playlist (Let's Go Crazy, Raspberry Beret, Little Red Corvette) as I backed out of the garage. For some reason at that moment all the stress hit at once. I stopped the car and sat there and sobbed for about a minute. Ai-yi-yi, what a week.

2. Lots of stuff happened this week. MadMax is still recovering from surgery, and still hasn't been back to school. My mom fell and hit her head and ended up in the hospital for a couple of nights. My niece who courageously hung in there through a long stretch of sobriety is back in rehab. And that's just a partial list. And on the inside, all my own little insecurities chose this week to swarm me. It got a bit ugly. There are times when I want to crawl in a hole and pull it in after me, and sometimes that's exactly what I do. But I couldn't this week. I'm worn out.

3. One thing that has been helping is a new app I found called Relax Melodies by Ipnos Soft. Even in the free version, there are more than a dozen different types of sounds (rain, birds, ocean, thunder, even vacuum and urban) that you can mix and match to create your own meditation background or relaxation mix or white noise or whatever. You can set the volume level for each sound. There's a timer so you can set it to fade out after a certain amount of time. It is endlessly fascinating to me. My current favorite mix is night (crickets) with slow ocean waves and distant thunder. I told you last week about some new insights I read about meditation, so this app has been a great accompaniment to my renewed interest. Highly recommended.

4. At least we do have some good news. (Mom brag ahead.) MadMax got the big scholarship he applied for months ago. We are proud, proud, proud. He's a great student and a great kid, so I might have driven down there and collared somebody if they had turned him down.

5. Like most middle class Americans, I have way more clothes than I need. But on the other hand, I've been losing weight and I actually do "need" some new clothes. So I've done a little bit of shopping recently. I have the same problem I've had with women's fashions for the past decade. I don't like fussy clothes. I don't want ruffles or flounces or bell sleeves or ties or things that flap around my legs. I like clothes that are feminine because I'm wearing them (because, you know, I'm female), not because they have dropped shoulders and embroidered pockets and rhinestones. le sigh. Eventually simple clothes will come back into style, right?

6. You know I've avoided political posts like the proverbial plague. But I did say once in this space that I was a Bernie fan, so I feel that I should say I no longer am. Or rather, I am a fan of Bernie as a voice in our political scene-- I think he has valuable things to say as a counterpoint to all the business-as-usual rhetoric-- but I won't vote for him for president. For one thing because he's too divisive, too polarizing, but for another, I don't think he'd be a good one. At the time when I said I liked him, I didn't think he seriously had a chance. Like many people from both parties, I can see no good outcome for this election. It worries me.

7. At least it has been stunningly summer-like around here. It was nearly 80 today. We sat out on the deck and ate dinner. It won't last--in fact, it's supposed to be 54 and raining on Saturday, but it was nice to have a taste of summer. (you can tell I ran out of things to say.)

That's all for me. Thank God it's the weekend. Hope you have a good one. I'm planning to.