Cindys

My daughter has a new friend, S, here in Lakeland. And apparently S’s mother is a 50-something woman named Cindy. 

My daughter and S get together and discuss “their Cindys,” … in a nice way, they swear. 

Meanwhile, I have a new friend, also S (yet not the same one), who has a mom named Cindy who she’s not close to, and I’ve offered to be her and hers kids’ surrogate Cindy. 

Cindy was never super popular, but certainly common for girls born in the ‘60s/70s. I’ve always known a few over the decades. But it’s been odd to encounter two FULL GROWN women who have moms with my name. Like… no, no, Cindys are young and vibrant, not grandmas! 

*blink blink*

Ok. Maybe not so much anymore. One of these days I’ll be a grandma too.

Meanwhile, I’m glad my namesake in the Senate is gone. She was not a good Cindy. 

Recipe: mashed potato pie

mashed potato pie 

Los Angeles plans

My text to Aunt Laurie:

On our first day, Monday, we get in pretty early. And we’ll do Griffith park, see the Hollywood sign, go to the walk of fame. Easy stuff, no pressure, at our own pace. 

I feel like we chose Tuesday or Wednesday for Ojai… 

It turns out there are FOUR museums with Rembrandt paintings in LA. Luckily they’re near each other. 

We will do the Getty one day cause it’s a big museum with nice gardens. Take about 3-4 hours. I’m thinking on this day we will also do a 90 minute Hollywood/Beverly hills tour on a Tea Bus — they serve us tea and snacks and it’s a pretty bus. This is near the Getty museum. If we want tea bus, this has to be Thursday — only day they have tickets for currently. 

I would also like to try to see the TV show Jeopardy. What do you think? It’s free, we just have to apply for tickets. And we will have to stand in line to get in there. It’d be fun to see a TV show made. There is also a studio tour nearby — which costs money — but we can decide on that day, depending on our energy etc. This is all near Santa Monica which has a pier that is supposed to be neat to see, plus the Pacific Ocean, and lots of shops. So just walking around, no deadlines or pressure. 

I think for Friday: The other three museums are close together and don’t need as much time, so we’ll do those another day. We possibly could see a friend of mine in Pasadena if she’s available — the last museum is in the town of Pasadena.  

Glucose and weight loss

I was discussing improved glucose numbers and weight loss with someone. Thought I’d do a face to face comparison — literally. 

Nov 2025 v March 2026 v Nov 2026

I haven’t talked about this too much publicly. In the past year, two doctors got serious with me about how I was not just pre-diabetic but flirting with actual diabetic. I didn’t take action on it right away because moving was my whole focus in 2025 and I promised myself I’d be careful with my eating (HA!) plus the cost of Wegovy (see note at end).

So obviously that didn’t happen as I hit my highest weight (for second time) in March 2026. I finally agreed to go on Wegovy with my new doctor in Lakeland in May after another round of bordering on bad numbers. My glucose numbers improved from May to July. I’m due for new blood tests so hopefully I will be out of the dangerous range. And I’ve lost nearly 40 lbs since March (started Wegovy in May). 

Obviously my clothes fit better and I no longer have big sugar crashes. And walking all over NYC last month was easier. And just this month, I’m starting to see the weight loss in my face. Which is what prompted this post. 

I haven’t been this weight since … 2013? 

The REAL challenge will as always be  keeping the weight off. Especially when I go off Wegovy. But that’s an after tax season 2027 challenge. 

The December challenge is buying some new clothes so I stop wearing saggy pants. 

Note: Wegovy is expensive as shit. Insurance still won’t cover it though it was deemed medically necessary for me. And two years ago, my cardiologist tried to get me on it for heart health reasons (unrelated to weight). It pissed me off that insurance wouldn’t cover it. So my pissiness about American health insurance wasted me two years. Which is stupid of me. Obviously, Blue Cross was not affected at all by my silly boycott. 😜🤷‍♀️

What made you happy this week

What made you happy this week 

• Seeing friends 
  
• Playing Postcards twice and Rings & Things 
  
• Peter asking to read a book together 
  
• Helping Barbara 
• Election 2026 blue tsunami! 
• Meeting new friends Clinton and Carol 
• Skitty 

30 national park bike rides

30 national park bike rides 

Gratitude — a time when a stranger performed a kindness

I was 20 years old and in Venice Italy. I was studying in Italy, and our class was based south of Florence. I had taken the weekend to go up to Venice and meet a friend from college. (Side note: how the hell did we do that back of the 1980s without cell phones? I just coordinated to meet this woman on a random day in a random spot in Venice? I must have!) 

Anyway… so I was preparing to leave Venice and was at the train station. And Italian men have the reputation they have for good reason. And I was tired of being flirted with and chatted up and hit on and pestered by Italian men. I had seen a guy sitting on the steps of the train station, actually playing violin beautifully, and I overheard him speak and knew he was American. He wasn’t a busker, he clearly was a passenger, waiting for a train, just happened to play violin (side note: found out he played violin for the LA symphony!!!) . Anyway, I went to talk to him and confirmed he was American and said can I sit next to you so these other men will stop bothering me. And he said sure.

So then I asked his name, and funny thing his name was literally Guido. He was American, but his mother was Italian. When the train finally came, Guido had a first class ticket and I was back in second class. And it was a late night train. I went into a car and then the rest of the car filled up with drunk Italian men. Which in general they’re harmless but annoying. I knew it was gonna be a long ride. Before the train left, Guido came back to see what my situation was saw I was gonna be in an uncomfortable situation and pulled me out and found me a better seat in a car with nice polite people. And then I never saw him again.