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You’ve heard the old saying physician heal thyself, but we all know how easy it is to see the how others could just do some minor tweaking and improve their lives and yet, we struggle like ants with a crumb trying to scale a curb.

I was speaking to my life coach the other day and he said he was looking at three areas in his life and giving them priority – health, fun, and recharging. I passed this advice onto a friend I met for coffee this morning before heading to attend to my computer YET ONE MORE TIME.

On the way to the computer fixer, I thought, damn, I need to focus on my own health – I haven’t really worked out since November last year, and I haven’t really cared one fig if I ever worked out again. While this might seem like the norm, it isn’t for me, I really love to get physical and not moving my body also makes the rest of me seem inactive.

And fun – well, having been indoors for two weekends in a row bookends the fun I did have in New York and I just think that maybe I had a little too much fun, and so perhaps my marching orders would be to spread it out and not drink gin and tonics like it were my job or something.

Re-Charge – here too, I need to work on down time as I’ve been caught up with entirely too many projects both professionally and personally to actually take the downtime necessary to restore. Pay closer attention to meditation and states of relaxation.

So today, I knew I was going to have to deal with my computer, so I wiped everything off my morning schedule and since I had an hour between dropping Tin off and meeting the computer fixer, I met a friend for coffee. I gave myself a doable pace and didn’t spas out about the fact that I wasn’t sitting at my computer, wasn’t firing off replies to emails, wasn’t writing or culling or typing or beginning another to do list. I just simply did those three things – took Tin to school, met a friend for coffee, and went and had my computer fixed.

I’m also consciously not checking my iPhone at every red light or pause. Just because.

Greenlight – GO.

The dogs and I walked to City Park this morning but detoured across the street to look at one of the large houses that line the avenue because the porch was recently redone. I like having a wood porch but the rain has been playing havoc with it and the latest affront was that after having it redone, the guy fixing the house left two tubs of termite control on either side of the newly redone porch and there remains a big gloppy mess of stain and sticky substance (even outdoor bleach wouldn’t take it out).

But I digress, I detoured and then began walking through the neighborhood to come home from the other side. The gardens are in a state of confusion, while I had my hood of my winter coat up, Japanese magnolias bloomed in the front yards along with pansies, roses, and even daisies. You cannot help but feel all jazzed up to pass any of these homes that have their Mardi Gras decorations up – either banners, beads, flags or even one house that had purple, green and gold lights shining on the porch.

There is also the warm and fuzzy feeling that our architecture inspires with the floor to ceiling windows that line the front porches, and need I say the porches with their swings and rocking chairs and even one with an oversize candle that had obviously been burning recently. The canopy of large trees, the soft lights from people eating breakfast and getting ready to greet the day.

Then to come around to see the bayou again in full view and a pelican swooping low. Really sometimes all a person needs is to see beauty all around them in the morning to be inspired to greet the day.

I watched the news as images of Whitney Houston were shown against news banners that said the singer/actor is dead. Such a beautiful woman with such a beautiful voice and so beautifully messed up. Why are there so many out there with pretty girl syndrome – stunning beauty crushed by deep seated insecurity and demons? Or maybe it’s that you’d think with those looks, life would be a breeze, but instead it’s a death sentence.

I remember back in college when I was reading feminist literature by authors who fought the label of female, feminist, or anything that smacked of something other than “author” because they didn’t like the narrowing of their definition.

I was reading recently about Cynthia Nixon who is involved with a woman and is raising children and how she eschews the label of gay, or lesbian, or bisexual preferring instead to define her own sexuality and lifestyle.

I was pitching a story to a media person and they moved it immediately into the mom realm which is interesting because just recently a director had tweeted that I am a mom writing a blog and I thought of all the things that I have been distilled down to – mom – is the singular adjective?

The truth is that on becoming a mom the reality is that it really is who you are sort of 24/7 – even if you do manage to sneak out and have some adult rage time, your mind is thinking (I’m out – but this too shall pass) and make sure your phone is set to vibrate.

So mom it is.

They say the first year your child enters nursery school and is around other kids is when all the bugs come home and get everyone throughout the house sick – although, come to think of it, all of my friends who have kids no matter the age are sick all the time – trading bacterial infections, viruses, common colds, and other horrors that kids seem to get so much of (read: hand, foot and mouth). So here we are at Carnival time and we have missed two of my favorite parades.

And right now the whole right side of my head is about to explode and nothing seems to be able to make this any easier – so ear go ahead and explode, head go ahead and pound, throat go ahead and be stripped bare, for tis the season of bugs and building immunities.

I for one, am sick of it, so to speak.

I have been given the one two punch of a heinous cold, infection, yuck, and bam, I have barely made it through the day and the biggest accomplishment was Tatjana getting the Z-pack called into my pharmacy and my not needing a trip to the doctor’s office.

But I want to remember some of the parts that did shine through the grey mist – Tin and I have gotten into a habit of cuddling at night and speaking gibberish – he’s so good at it, that we count in gibberish, we argue in gibberish, and we sing in gibberish. It’s hysterical.

And my source turned life coach called and had a lot of wisdom to share with me that made my next project seem even closer since he’s now going to help with the lead I need.

I was looking at Twitter and someone was saying some pretty awful things about Obama so I conveniently checked unfollow.

I noticed people are getting political on Facebook and so now is the perfect time to cut way back on my time spent there.

I realized getting sidelined so horribly with this cold that health is just about paramount and that I have not found my way into a new routine that is sticking for physical exercise and I need to make that a priority.

So despite the fact that I could barely walk or talk today, and that I got very little of my to do list done, nor did I have the opportunity to lie on the couch, which was where I was headed nearly all day but barely got there, I had some incredible moments that are worth remembering.

And so tonight, I want to lay my stuffy head down and once again, count my blessings.

When I was in NY, I was speaking to a friend, who had come to New Orleans once, and we had gone to my mother’s apartment to say hi before taking him to the airport. While we were catching up, he said, “I hope you don’t mind me saying this but after meeting your mother, I understood you more.” He said, “When I think of her, I always get a smile on my face.”

Today when I lit the candle for my morning meditation and remembrance of my mother I saw out the window that an angel trumpet had bloomed in the middle of February:

I didn’t see this out my window, lucky me.

I don’t know who said this quote but I like live it. “Love your life and life will love you back.” But I have to say the quote I heard today is now my all time favorite – “That was the best job I ever had and it’s the last job I’ll ever have.”

Which brings me to the subject of nature versus nurture.

Here we have nature:

Notice the ducks, swans, and turtles segregated into silo’d communities (and color blind mind you).

Now here is nurture:

The caca card kook is extending his brand to trash. But I ask you who is kookier the condemned or the condemner?

I stayed at Miracle Baby’s apartment in Astoria and I must admit she continues to be a miracle in my life. She’s an artist, she’s smart, quirky, funny and simply amazing. So in her honor – since she’s a photographer about to have a big show at the WIX Lounge on 18th Street in NY on February 23 – here is my pictorial blog of my trip up north.

3 Queens in Queens

I heart Brian

The pleasure of friends out of context

My work husband reappears

Miracle Baby at Pipa’s

Brian and Rich at Pipa’s

Fab Frank

Um, that’s all folks.