Self-Portrait (Redux)

Chaos, all is chaos.

(And this without even getting into the stock market's demise. Yuck.  Don't anyone say "2008" to me.  Ever again.)

A bustling Boston is especially odd for a random Thursday in August before the college students return. I've rarely felt the uncertainty biking city streets the way I did today, both morning commute and crossing downtown just before noon for a doctor's appointment.  It was relentless ...

....day-camp teenagers in matching t-shirts, crossing en masse against lights.

.... a beer-delivery truck double-parked behind a bottled-water delivery truck double-parked behind an MBTA van discharging passengers double-parked behind a UPS truck double-parked behind a ....

.... Duck Boats doing 40 mph down the one-lane cow path known as School Street.

.... tourists, tourists, tourists in packs in pairs on steps on corners in jaywalking mode.

.... if a corner had room for a jackhammer, utility truck and police detail, it had all 3.

.... if a block was solid with cars, it had an ambulance stuck at the back of it.

As I dodged and dodged and dodged, I forced my brain to repeat the mantra, "Be the island of calm in the midst of chaos.  Be the island of calm in the midst of chaos."

Could this be my new Zenness from 8 weeks of BHI class, completed last night?  Might that be why, at my doctor's office, the blood-pressure tech commented on my 90/40 reading with, "Hm, a bit low."

Cool. And weird.

Speaking of, you might recall my Self-Portrait from the start of things;  here is the post-course attempt:

(Let's all agree 1:05 is an improvement....)

So for the record, I DID make more toned legs .... and shoulders and arms. 

Evidently my blood pressure was low enough -- yesterday too -- that I didn't press hard enough with my apricot-colored crayon.

A girl could have worse problems.