Today is the first day of October, and a lot is happening: The Portland Marathon [I am not running], sorting bins [yarn, stuff, and fabric], running, gallery show, and looking ahead.

Gary kept saying that today was the Portland Marathon, but we only ran the half in 2010 and even he didn’t know the full marathon course included NW 23rd!

Just after 7am, I was out for a short, easy run because I am supposed to run again tomorrow and I am also tapering before the Bridge Crossing next weekend. My warmup is a quarter mile uphill. As I turned right on NW 23rd, a half dozen runners were coming up the street behind me. Fast. I thought: running club? Then I remembered.

What do I think about as these runners whisk past? My beach running tourists need to study their form—all of them light, upright, and using their arms. And then they were past me and more and more younger and quicker runners passed me, and finally turned up to 24th and I continued on my way to Thurman. I’ve since checked the course map and I really did see the front runners who were only in their 3rd mile. I walked home with Gary and by that time we saw the last runner heading north on 23rd.

There will be news after the Bridge Crossing. Will I stop running after running across the Columbia for the third time?

MAKING

Each year I sign on to the Apartment Therapy Decluttering Cure. The goal is to reorganize and remove unneeded items from the home. Sometimes I am more successful in this task than other years. It always begins with setting up three boxes: yes, no, maybe. This is a useful strategy. What I know I want but needs to be moved, what I know I do not want, and the troubling items that I am unsure about… which will, during the process be either retrieved or sent off. That last is tricky.

Bins of yarn and “junk” and fabric got completely out of hand. Gary pulled them all out and cleaned the floor. I have finished sorting yarn (keeping it all, but in tidier order back in place) and I am most of the way through the “junk” (a lot to get rid of), and once that’s cleared away, I will spread out the fabrics and see what I want to use and what I can send away into the world. I mean to cut back, but I will likely have to sew something to make much of a dent. So far I have emptied 3 medium and 1 large bin. I feel sometimes like I would prefer to just toss everything, start the next project by finding what I need, starting all over. [That will never happen.]

Another bin of “maybes” has remained in the bottom of my closet for years—clothing items I absolutely loved for their fabrics that I reasoned I might one day cut up and incorporate in my quilting. I have, in fact, cut up a velvet skirt and a silk jacket to piece Christmas stockings, but most of those items stayed in the bin for years… until in 2020 I decided to completely change my eating habits. A year later and 40 pounds lighter, I rediscovered the original purpose of many of those garments. I can wear them.

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I will be taking a few shawls and at least one ruana to the Cannon Beach Arts Association Gallery either later today or tomorrow for the show opening next weekend. We have to drive back to the coast first.

BODY

This morning I am up two pounds, but my weight has also been down almost two pounds. My BMI is 22.6 today. When I began my diet revamp, it was 29.6. You see the problem. I was edging up to “obese” and even though Body Mass Index isn’t a perfect measure, it’s not a total waste either. It is only a rough gauge, but it is a gauge.

Famous (thin) people are fond of saying that diets don’t work, but my experience and common sense tell me otherwise. I dieted off the weight from my first and second pregnancies in my 20s. Grief after my mother died took weight off in my 50s. The trouble is temporary “dieting” that ends once the goal is achieved. I needed to continue my healthy eating habit. That’s common sense too.

In September 2020, I changed what I ate, how much, and when. I made this a permanent change. One snack (11 almonds have 70 calories), biggest meal at midday, no eating after 5:30pm. I wrote down everything I ate and estimated calories. I hoped to lose one half to a full pound each week. I knew from experience that my weight would vary day-to-day. I do not use inevitable weight bumps as an excuse to give up.

I feel better—sure, I look better too, but I feel better. I began running again, I am more comfortable in my body and in my goals. I pay more attention to what I eat and do. I reward myself in ways other than eating.

My feet are very happy about the weight loss.

WRITING

Two presses and an agent have asked for a full manuscript All the Daughters Sing. I don’t expect much will come of that, at least for another month or two or six.

“The Promised Hour” is out in CALYX. Also my review of a wonderful story collection by Wendy Wimmer.

I am prepping to work on a story collection to draft during NaNo. If It Were True Owls Dream will include that story as well as several new ones I will begin in November. [I cannot remember now who told me that stories are harder than novels because each story demands its own beginning and ending—the trickiest bits to get right.]

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It seems I am reorganizing my body, craft, and writing. I am forever a work in progress.