I went to class yesterday, even though I am not actually enrolled yet. I am starting the Gerontology Certificate program at UGA. The class was the Psychology of Aging and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I really like learning and the challenges that go with it. I have to buy two books and get busy reading and writing. There were 6 or 7 others, an interestingly diverse group. Two Ph.D. students seem very young to me, but so does the professor, who just got married and changed her name--I think it's Emerson now. Along with a lot of introductory stuff, like reviewing the syllabus and signing up to do reports, we watched a couple of TED talks--one by Jane Fonda, a hero of mine and Dr. Emerson's. She is now into aging and spoke about the third act of life and being finally able to be yourself, especially for women.

The other TED talk was by a woman neuroscientist who had a stroke and talked about the experience. It took her 7 years to recover, but she was clearly pretty sharp again now. The left lobe of her brain stopped working, and so she couldn't talk or dial the phone, but the right brain took over and she had a euphoric feeling of well-being. She says if we could all turn off our left brains occasionally, the world would be a better place. Fascinating and powerful.

Other than that, I spent about an hour pulling up grass in the garden, hoping to plant some beans before it is too late. But I have to buy some seeds and I don't know if the stores will have them. We have a few old ones, which have not worked when I planted them before.

I went to the doctor for my physical. My cholesterol and blood pressure meds are working pretty well, but I am still creeping toward diabetes. She told me to cut back on carbs and get more exercise. When she started telling me specifically about potatoes and rice, I told her I was doing that, but it didn't seem to help. Of course, I will do better now that I am home, especially the exercise part.

I went to Earth Fare and bought a f ew groceries (including white bread flour), as well as some things for lunch: tuna salad, Asian noodle salad, squash salad. I went to my Dad's, brought in his mail, and ate my lunch there.

After class, I came home. Ray and I made Roman rice and beans for supper. We still have Olympics on tape, so watched some of that, plus a little John Stewart.