Live Life Fully with Eyes Wide Open – by Gary Smolker

I’ve been living in a rut.

I got out of that rut on the weekend of January 13, 2017.

My Creative Weekend

During the weekend of January 13 through January 15, 2017, I discovered many treasures, including a double-Decker-merry-go-round-carousel in the Westfield Topanga Mall in front of the Target store.

My goal/project for Saturday (January 14, 2017) was to hang a plate on a wall in my kitchen.

However, I didn’t have any nails.

I decided to go get some nails at Home Depot.

In the process of going to get some nails at Home Depot, along the way, I ended up at the Westfield Topanga Mall in Canoga Park …. where I discovered the double-Decker-merry-go-round-carousel pictured above.

Art

My housekeeper had given me a plate the day before, on Friday (January 13, 2017) early in the morning before I went to my office in Encino.

Below is a picture of the plate she gave me sitting on a granite counter-top in my kitchen.

On Saturday (January 14, 2017), I decided I would hang that plate on a wall in my kitchen.

However, I didn’t/don’t know how to hammer a nail in a wall and (at the time) I didn’t have any nails.

Luckily I know a woman (Christy Rusk) who knows how to hang a plate on a wall and how to hammer nails into a wall.

My Nine Hour Hanging A Picture on A Wall Project

It took me nine hours from the time I left my home to buy nails to when I got home, hammered nails in a kitchen wall and hung the plate.

To get my project done, I picked up Christy (a young lady who knows how to hammer nails in walls) to help me with the task at hand.

I picked up Christy at Christy’s home near the Grove in West Hollywood, at 11:15 a.m.

After picking Christy up, Christy and I meandered over to the Home Depot store in Woodland Hills, located at 7345 Variel Avenue, Woodland Hills, CA. 91367.

The Lost City of Los Angeles

Los Angeles is a lost city.

I say that because Los Angles is spread over so much territory that hardly anyone living in Los Angeles has seen (or been to) every part of it.

On our way to Home Depot, Christy and I stopped at the Westfield Topanga Mall to look for a store that would replace a dead battery in Christy’s watch or would sell Christy a new battery to replace the dead battery in Christy’s watch.

None of the jewelry stores or watch repair stores we visited in the mall would do so for a reasonable price.

That is how we ended up in the Target store at the Westfield Topanga Mall, where I discovered a most amazing book.

The Most Amazing Book

See photograph below.

I didn’t know that book existed.

I found it by “chance” in a Target Store while looking for a new watch battery with Christy.

Fashion As Fine Art

Before Christy and I got to the Target Store, Christy and I meandered through the Nordstrom in the Westfield Topanga Shopping Mall.

While meandering, we walked into the “Chanel Store” and the “Gucci Store” located in the Nordstrom Department Store.

What an eye opening experience that was.

Chanel

Below is a picture I took of a “Clutch” I saw in the Chanel Store.

That clutch is a recycled used cigar box.

It sells for $14,000.00.

Gucci

I also saw amazing purses and clutches at the Gucci store.

See photograph below of a $2,800.00 clutch.

Look at the attention to detail.

Isn’t the attention to detail amazing?

I think so.

Next, I looked at and took a photograph in the Gucci store of a $3,800 Gucci Purse.

See photograph below.

I think the attention to detail in that Gucci purse and the design of that Gucci purse are amazing.

But wait, next I saw and took a picture of, another astounding and even more expensiive Gucci purse.

See picture below.

Don’t you agree that Gucci purse has priceless style, intricate stitching and fabulous design?

 

        

The sales price of that Gucci purse is $5,800.00.

Lush Cosmetics

While we were in the shopping mall, Christy wanted to purchase some soap.

She loves Lush Cosmetics Soap.

We meandered over to the Lush Cosmetics Store.

It was an amazingly creative fun experience to be in that store.

Below are three photos of  signs I saw above three of the different types of soap.

TAKE AWAY:  Signage counts.

Lush Cosmetics knows how to merchandise their products.

See photos below.

In my imagination, prompted by being in that store, I could see myself bathing by candlelight in my bath with a girl friend …. to add a sense of calm, magic and seduction to taking a bath.

I have enchanting candle holders on the side of my oversized bathtub.

The Ultimate Decadent Bathing Experience

I have a wine glass holder on the side of my bath tub.

I was missing the right kind of bubble bath.

Now, thanks to my trip on Saturday (January 14, 2017) to Lush Cosmetics store in the Westfield Topanga Shopping Mall,  I have everything I need for the ultimate decadent bathing experience except a woman to take a bath with me.

How sublime.

I am taking one tiny step at a time.

Heat Is the New Black

According to an article I recently read,

• “Hyperthermic conditioning (calculated heat exposure) can help you increase growth hormone (GH) levels and substantially improve endurance.”
• Hot baths can significantly increase GH over baseline, and have been shown to cause a massive release in prolactin, which plays a role in wound healing.
• If nothing else, they seem to dramatically decrease DOMS (delayed on-set muscle soreness).

Supporting Good Causes

While at Lush Cosmetics I purchased:

• A Twilight Bath Bomb, price $$6.95
• A Yoga Bomb Bath Bomb, price $7.95
• A Tisty Tosty Bath Bomb, price $6.75
• A Frozen Bath Bomb, price $8.95
• A Avobath Bath Bomb, price $6.75 and
• A container of Charity Pot hand and body lotion, price $7.95.

The purchase of these products supports good causes and good groups like ….  the “International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council” which provides education and resources on wildlife rehabilitation to promote conservation and welfare worldwide.

According to their literature, Lush Cosmetics funds grassroots groups working on environmental, human rights and animal protection issues.

By the Way

There are beautiful things to be seen all around us.

On Saturday (January 21, 2017) I went to Glendale with Christy Rusk to eat Dim Sum at Din Tai Fung.

While waiting to be seated we walked outside and saw a little girl who had one hand holding her mother’s hand and her other hand holding a string connected to an elephant balloon.

I also saw many young women wearing sweat shirts broadcasting the printed message: “The Future is Female.”

Copyright © 2017 by Gary Smolker, All Rights Reserved

By the way,

• I am a fashion blogger for Dude’s Guide to Women’s Shoes.
• Check out my posts on Dude’s Guide to Women’s Shoes at http://www.dudesguidetowomensshoes.com
• I am also on Instagram.
• Check out my posts on Instagram @garyspassion

 

 

 

 

You Can’t Cheat Reality – by Gary S. Smolker

People of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them.  They went out and happened to things.

User Agreement

You can’t cheat reality.

Every attempts backfires in ways you don’t anticipate; the unanticipated consequence of backfire goes beyond far beyond your that if this doesn’t work that will happen.

Don’t try to cheat reality; it’s a failed proposition from the get go.

Respect reality.

Reality tries its damness to teach you to do the right thing.

What will happen to you if you try to cheap reality will be worse than being “bitch slapped.”

The author does not warrant any positive result will arise from use of anything stated in this guidance.

Most especially there is no guarantee of a happy result.

Guidance

Guidance Number One

Don’t marry anyone under 40 years old.

EXCEPTION:

• If you don’t want to be autonomous.
• If you want to procreate.
• If you are so young that you have no concern about your future.

Guidance Number Two

Being married involves sacrifice.

Raising children and maintaining a marriage is complicated.

Don’t marry anyone who has children if you don’t want to be constantly sacrificing for the benefit of someone else’s child.

If you marry someone who already has a child you will be subject to many “outside forces” (as a result of the presence of that child in your life) that will block and overpower you.

Guidance Number Three

Don’t think getting involved doesn’t involve marriage.

Guidance Number Four

You need to confront aging and death.

Understand that as you age you become less attractive to the opposite sex; as you age you become more like furniture than a sex partner.

OLDER PEOPLE:

Recollect that as you walked down a street during different phases of your life the members of the opposite sex paid less and less attention to you.

YOUNGER PEOPLE;

Note that as you become older when  you walk down a street members of the opposite sex pays less and less attention to you.

Guidance Number Five

Never believe that money isn’t important.

Money is like water, it flows.

Guidance Number Six

BEWARE: The tiniest leak can sink the largest ship.

Guidance Number Seven

Don’t believe you can control access to your money.

Guidance Number Eight

BEWARE: Selfish has to do with values.

• Most women with children will value their children more than they will value their husband.
• Many men will value their career more than they will value their wife.
• A secular culture tends to regard individuals as autonomous; it fails to provide a rationale for sacrifice for future generations or personal service for the disabled and the aged.
• We all become subject to events that make our intentions pointless.
• Our options are profoundly limited.

Guidance Number Nine

Middle-aged men have a perverse disinclination to accept that they are no longer sexually attractive.

Guidance Number Ten

The majority of men are in denial about their sexual attractiveness to women.

Guidance Number Eleven

Women often become resentful when they become less sexually attractive.

Guidance Number Twelve

Women rarely hook-up with men who are less wealthy then they.

Men often hook-up with women less wealthy than they.

Guidance Number Thirteen

If you have money it will flow to the other person’s indulgences.

Guidance Number Fourteen

You will not be in control.

Guidance Number Fifteen

To save yourself from a lot of grief, although it is impossible for most people to do so, proceed with caution and follow Guidance Number One and Guidance Number Two.

Conclusions

• If you don’t follow these guidance principles, the number of complications and complexities in your life will grow exponentially.
• Stubborn people refuse to accept the fact that they can’t control circumstances.
• The bounty of all the poems and songs about relationships we enjoy so much, especially country and western songs, were written about people who didn’t follow the guidelines set forth above.
• In order to have full employment of song writers, singers and musicians it is necessary for people to continue to fail to follow the guidance set forth above.

Counterpoint

I believe in love, marriage, and having a family.

The things we love tell us what we are and who we are.

Man is not meant to be alone.

Men are meant to be with a woman.

Women are not meant to be alone.

Women are meant to be with a man.

METAPHOR: It is safe for a ship to be in a harbor.  But, a ship is not built to stay in a harbor.

To not dare is to have a wonderful relationship with a member of the opposite sex is to have already lost.

Be with someone who you enjoy being with and who enjoys being with you.

The way you treat other people and the way you treat yourself is the measure of who you are.

Seek to get into and then get into a meaningful relationship with a member of the opposite sex.

Life has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.

In order to achieve anything you must be willing to be creative and you must be willing to fail.

Creativity takes courage.

Never be afraid to fail.  That’s the first step to succeeding.

Life is all about who you become on the journey.

If you are willing to accept less than your best effort, you will never maximize your potential.

Fatherhood

Being a father is the best thing that ever happened to me.

Being the father of my three daughters is a source of endless joy to me.

Below is a picture of my grown-up daughter Judi practicing ballet when she was a young girl.

Below is a picture of my daughter Terra dancing with me at her wedding reception.

Below is a picture of my daughter Terra during the religious ritual ceremony at her Bats Mitzvah.

Below is a picture of me cutting the loaf of bread we all shared at the reception.

Below is a picture of my sister and her two daughters dancing at the reception, a party which followed the religious ritual.

Below are pictures of some of our men friends dancing at Terra’s Bats Mitzvah party.

 

Below is a blown-up picture of Leah’s face and the full-length picture of my daughter Leah going somewhere, when Leah was five years old.

Since the picture below was taken, Leah has traveled to thirty countries.

 

Credentials

The guideline information provided above is the result of a private survey of veterans of human relationship folly and the joys of being married and having children.

Copyright © 2016 Gary S. Smolker, All Rights Reserved