What's on my mind

What's on my mind today...

I woke up this morning at the usual 6 a.m. to take my temperature and, sadly, after yesterday's spike it plummeted again. My temperature fluctuates so much, I'm beginning to wonder if I'm even ovulating at all.

Spiders invaded the house overnight - the only thing I don't love about Fall.

Spent all yesterday designing something a little more intricate than usual, for a friend. I hope she likes it!

I now have 4 finished designs sitting around waiting to be strung and completed. They're doing nobody any good sitting in their bead trays!

Last night Eric and I watched Tony Bourdain's "No Reservations from Beirut". This coming on the heels of watching "A Mighty Heart" about the kidnapping and execution of Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. Normally I do not watch "war movies", but I told myself as I started watching "A Mighty Heart" that if it got too graphic, I would just turn it off. It never became too graphic, despite the subject. It was actually quite engaging, a bit of on-the-edge-of-your-seat, even when the action turned over to a scene back at the Pearl household where everyone was bored while waiting for news. Thank god they didn't re-enact the scene of his beheading. When they watched the video, I turned off the sound just in case, but all you saw was the glow of the TV reflected on the faces of all these people who had been so desperate to get him back. Angelina Jolie was incredible. If you think you know what the term "gut-wrenching" means, you haven't seen anything until you've seen her as Mariane finally breaking down at the news of Daniel's death.

The "No Reservations" episode from Beirut had a completely different feel to it, but it was still depressing and surreal. Tony and crew had the (un)luck to be taping a how about Lebanese cuisine in Beirut during July 2006 - they started filming the day before Hezbollah kidnapped some Israeli soldiers. That night there were Israeli fly-overs, and they woke up the next morning to learn the airport had been bombed. They spend the remainder of the episode living and filming from hotels, with nothing to do other than congregate by the pool with other stranded tourists and locals: there they catch what gossip they can about the situation, watch the bombing only a few kilometers away, and stare hopelessly at the helicopters air-lifting people out of the city as they wonder when it will be their turn to escape.

I've never been able to wrap my mind around what it must be like to live in the Middle East, where war and bombings are often a daily occurrence. Watching it through the eyes of culture-shocked Tony Bourdain and crew only left me more dumbfounded.

And on that note, it's time to get up off the sofa and check on the spider incursion.