You Haven't Got Mail

My name is Petrea and I am an email addict.

23 years ago I had the help of Nicotine Anonymous to quit smoking. I consider myself an addict still because I know if I smoked just one cigarette I'd be a regular smoker again.

When you're addicted to a substance, even one as seemingly benign as cigarettes, you hide. You separate yourself from the world. There's shame involved. You want to quit but quitting is physically and emotionally excruciating. You are a slave to that substance and you must do what is required in order to get it. If you're a smoker, you have to go outside at parties, no matter the weather. Your mind departs every conversation as soon as the nicotine cracks its whip. Worst, non-smokers won't date you.

I sat in those Nicotine Anonymous meetings and listened to heroin addicts talk about how nicotine was the hardest thing to quit. That helped me, because I knew they'd been through so much.

I wonder if they can help me now.

Now my drug of choice is email, and I haven't been able to log on for days. It doesn't matter how it happened, or why. I am a slave to it and in order to get it back I must go to Apple's Genius Bar. While I wait for my appointment I am adrift, aimlessly surfing the web, a junkie on a shiny silver raft. It's excruciating to be unable to get my fix.

When I quit smoking, for months I abused sugar-free candy and gum. I ate a lot of actual food, too, and gained enough weight to go up a size. I discovered fine coffee. I used all these substances like I had used nicotine.

What is there for me now? Books? I mainline books. The great outdoors? Bah! I dose on that junk every day.

Facebook is boring. Twitter is chirpy. What will I do to feed my habit until everything works again?

Must I make phone calls? Oh, the horror!

Monthly Theme Day: Umbrellas

 

You may know that City Daily Photo is a worldwide blogging community. We have a few rules, but they're pretty loose.

For instance, we're not required to participate in theme days.

But I like theme days. They connect me with the other bloggers who make up this fantastic group. With our new City Daily Photo portal, we've added more (optional) theme days this year, some in which I may or may not participate in. Of. Which. What?

I used to link you to our newest member blog on theme day, but our new website works differently and I don't know which is the newest. So I'll just send us all to one I haven't visited yet. Today I think I'll go say hi to Yogyakarta Daily Photo.

The photo above: looking up from the parking lot behind Little Flower Candy Company, where I had lunch and bought the most delicious, handmade sea salt caramels ever.

Seed Bombs

I love new. It's good for the brain to introduce it to new. This was new to me.

Even though the concept of seed bombing came in with the concept of guerilla gardening in the 1970's, it held but a vague spot in my memory until I encountered this seed bomb gumball machine outside the Little Flower Candy Company on west Colorado Blvd. last week.

"Combat the forgotten grey spaces you encounter every day," says the slogan. They could be referring to my brain, but what they mean is vacant lots, parking medians and, in my case, my yard.

GreenAid, the company responsible for this particular dispenser, is doing some wonderful stuff. If I had a store or an office, I'd want one of these babies out front.

You can make your own seed bombs, according to this LA Times article, but I'm not the crafty type. So I bought three bombs--three, because they were 50 cents each and that's how many quarters I could borrow. They're bigger than a giant jawbreaker, so three ought to cover a good deal of space. I can always go back for more once I see what grows from them. At least it'll be something new, springing from the grey matter of my yard.

Sweet

My life was profoundly changed when a friend brought me a bag of the famous Sea Salt Caramels from the Little Flower Candy Company. You may already know you can find a jaw-dropping variety of handmade candies there. But did you also know you can sit inside the charming shop and sip a cup of coffee or tea while you eat homemade soup or (and) a tasty tartine?

Now you know, and now you have a new favorite spot. Isn't that convenient? Just in time for the second biggest candy weekend of the year. (Do remember them come Halloween.)

I'll be going back soon. There were some marshmallow things that looked like ice cream bars and I haven't been able to sleep since I saw them.

Speaking of sweets: every so often, Postie checks in here From the Sidelines. In fact, one day he clicked the "follow" button and won a t-shirt. Here he is, modeling his prize. Thanks, Postie!