I am currently making my way through my Cultural Intellectual book. I am not much for one single page of reading at a time, the way this book is set up. I love random knowledge and facts, so I like reading this stuff. I like reading in chunks. So I'm about halfway through this mountain of knowledge. It's got 7 different categories from politics to music, from sports to literature and film.
Anyways, I recently read a novel called Barefoot, by Elin Hilderbrand. I really enjoyed this reading. I was another gym book exchange pick-up and another one I stayed up all night to finish. It's really been a while since I've just wanted to dive into books and escape. It is so much more refreshing than scrolling endlessly through Facebook. Which, side note, I was trying to stay off Facebook from Monday through Friday and last week was the first time breaking it since the start of the year. It is bad. I broke again today. Excuses, excuses, my phone has been acting up and messenger kicks me out all the time and acts like I just downloaded it. So to get my messages, I go in and then I get sucked into the vortex. I just need to not. It really is amazing how much time you have for other things. Back to the book. It was one of those "gets to your heart" novels. It's a multi-person perspective novel, so you see the story from everyone's point of view. I like novels that give you the story from many different angles. It just makes the story feel broader and well-rounded.
The story is of three ladies that move out to Nantucket for the summer (which I just learned where that is the other day while watching the weather channel...nerd, I know; but it was on at the gym. I also learned where Montauk is located). Two of the three women, sisters, and owners of the house their family has held on the island for generations. The third is a friend of the eldest sister who has come to escape the city and some troubling relationship problems. All of them are dealing with issues and trying to solve them with "a little Nantucket sand in their shoes." The first day arriving on the island, they meet Josh. He is going to school to be a writer. The moment he sees them, he knows there is a story. His path keeps brushing up against theirs and he eventually becomes the babysitter for the eldest sister's two small boys. The story continues from there.
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Nantucket and Montauk on the map, because I know you wanted to know
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I have been trying many things for my dry mouth for years. I recently got TheraBreath to
try. It seems to help with my dry mouth,
especially over night. I feel like it could be better. Having a family
history of sinus problems tends to lend itself to mouth breathing at
night. I drink water like it’s going out
of style, I’ve tried oil pulling in the past (and loved it, however, I do it in
the morning and my mouth tends to feel dry afterward). I need to work swishing into my nightly and
morning schedules a little better. I’m
also going to try and make oil pulling tablets (maybe make a few with turmeric)
and try that. I will report on that as
soon as actually get around to doing that. My dry mouth doesn't bother me throughout the day. It's mostly that I wake up with the driest mouth and worst morning death breath. My mouth has that dry, crust covered feeling. I'm almost desperate for a drink of water as soon as I wake up. I just know that the dry mouth can cause lots of problems for my teeth. That, and my propensity to clench and/or grind my teeth when I am highly stressed. I am wondering if combining tongue scraping and oil pulling prior to brushing and rinsing with TheraBreath after would help. I should probably also investigate if a Breath Right strip might help reduce my mouth breathing at night; therefore, eliminating the need to go through all of these steps.
This last week, I helped a friend move. She was going to get rid of a wine rack (“I
never keep enough wine around to fill this or make it useful, I always drink it
right away!”). I like wine, but I don’t typically
collect it and keep it around. I usually
buy it with the intention to drink it soon.
I took it anyways. When I was
bringing it into the house, I was struck by my muse. It was a little rickety, so I used our hex
screw set to find the right fit and tighten up the screws. It needs a rubber foot added to the bottom of
one leg and maybe a paint job. Those
things might have to wait until summer. I might be able to do it this week
since it’s been in the 50s and 60s recently.
I found a board in our scrap collection in the garage. I set the board across the bottom rungs that
hold the two opposing sides together. On
top of that, I placed my blocks, strap, towel, mat spray. Across the rungs at the top, I set my yoga
mat. This keeps my fancy cork mat from I
Love Gurus from sitting on the floor and being an open target for a dog to
randomly pee on. I placed this along the
one free wall I have in my room. The
plus side is, once I take my mat off, I can easily move the rack out of the way
and use the wall space for playing with handstands and other poses with a wall prop modification. 
