Done yesterday (20090906)

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A very uneventful and mostly unproductive day. Yeah, I know I need a little down time, and I did get about a foot or so of books moved into the bedroom, but still...

Odd walk to the Rose Garden, with a couple of poorly-explained slowdowns. There were people's lawns that I'd never noticed before, or at least don't remember noticing; I must have been at least a little bit in the moment. I sat for a while by the fountain, observing but not really meditating.

Thought about calling a friend, but didn't. Slightly tense; a little down.

Made dinner by microwaving some packaged, frozen chili verde: the fact that it came out significantly better than what we'd had a Chevy's on Thursday was pretty sad, but not unexpected. I decided not to have seconds, which is rare. Go me! (I'm having the leftovers for breakfast.)

Since I'd noticed it while shuttling books I decided to read Julius Fast's Body Language. Some of the cultural differences, from having been written by a male, white East Coast resident in 1970, were a little jarring. And I don't think it was particularly helpful, though I did get one useful insight out of it:

Colleen and I usually sit next to one another, facing in the same direction, but close enough to hold hands with a little reaching. Some of our communication difficulties may come from the fact that she's often not looking at me when she wants to start or continue a conversation, so she has no way of knowing whether she actually has my attention. We're both getting a lot better about this, though.

Mostly what I got from Body Language, though, was that the subject is still poorly-understood even by experts, and that there are a lot of signals I never learned when most people do, and will probably never take the time and effort to learn now. I may be able to pick up a few by observation now that I know what to look for. Maybe.