Saying yes...

Bad judgment

During our recent road trip, I heard a song that will forever make me think of fun and alcohol poisoning... I know, I know, I should not say those two things together, but thank gawd for whatever it is that gets us through our stupid decisions in life...

Imagine if you will... an endless heatwave... going grocery shopping with your roommate/bestest friend... deciding at 9AM that margaritas sound REALLY GOOD... so you buy LARGE QUANTITIES of STUFF at the store, deciding not to eat when you get home, but go straight to the margaritas...

Hours and hours later, after a person or two has left the party, and the margaritas became anything you and your roommate could mix with tequila, if mixing was really even necessary... and after the dancing around and on the table while wearing your roommate's red sheet; dancing to the song below, you decide you probably need a nap, but the man you've been seeing (and will eventually marry) has shown up, decides maybe you need dinner and prepares you food... and stays with you throughout the night, which is a good thing, because you wake up in the wee hours feeling sun burnt and insane... and he gets you water and helps you to the bathroom, and does all sorts of responsible things... while your crazy roommate somehow finds it within himself to actually go out on a first date!!!

That is what this song makes me think of... and when I hear it, I still smile... and thank my lucky stars...

 

Things I learned yesterday... (Updated with newer learnings from today!)

1) That if I drive a different vehicle to work, the people coming to my class will not enter, even though the large glass doors are unlocked, and the lights are on... they will then be amazed when I invite them in after 10 or so minutes of private amusement. I would be lying if I said this cartoon did not flash through my mind...

2) That if an affair is had, it's entirely the woman's fault, thanks to Eve. In light of the latest JFK affair revelations, it was pointed out to me that the 19 yr-old woman was solely to blame for the 40 yr-old, most powerful man in the world, deciding to stray. After all, she was a grown-up and should have known better... and, she is temptation. A man is helpless and blameless in the face of temptation. The only reason he was a dirt bag was because he was a Democrat.

3) I am a cranky wolf in polite sheep's clothing.

4) Snag is not only alive, but posting! Woo-hoo!

Update:

My brain is not as plastic as I would like, or maybe is still too plastic, I don't know. I updated my Firefox a couple of days ago...  they put my damn bookmark tag way on the other side!! Thus causing my bookmark droplist to open in a completely different spot. I misclicked 700 times, but kept breathing, knowing my old brain would adapt... just keep clicking, just keep clicking... I was getting better. I was rewiring... and then this morning, the damn tab is nearly back to its orginal location!!! At first I was glad, thinking yay, no more spazzing! But NOOOOO!!! My brain had already adapted more than I realized and now this seems effed up!WHY!?!?!

Daily changes will either keep my brain young and springy, or it will explode.

Dream Art Studio: Update Edition

I recently described my dream studio

... but I'm always tweaking, always rehabbing. I realized, my dream studio would need this app:

I would like to be able to push a button and all of the things I'll never need again, will never use, will never think of, will just be GONE! No sorting, no wondering, no pulling out some ancient box of whatevers and thinking, "WILL I EVER NEED THESE WHATEVERS EVER AGAIN!?!?"

If I ask my mind that, my mind will suddenly go to the millions of ways I might need these things, all of the ways I could use them. Best to keep it JUST IN CASE!

However, I'm finding that I have shelves full of "Just in Case"... when I really need to use those shelves for "What I'm Doing Now!" I would allow myself a shelf for the near future and a shelf for just in case, but my shelf is turning into a closet of "Just in Case".

I want to not have to even look at things I'll never use again because if I look, I might wonder... And it would also have to be things the lamblets would never use, because they're creative sorts and love to have access to a random smattering of things. Even if I don't want something, I might keep it for them.

Of course, my dream studio would also have that, "Exactly What You Need Right Now" closet... which would hold what I needed, whether I knew it or not. It would hold whatever anyone needed. Whoever opened the door would see only what they needed.

I would also like my dream studio to have the "This is exactly what you need to eat right now" fridge... which when I opened it, would have the perfect meal, ready to go... full of whatever nutrients my bod was lacking at that time... and not full of things that would give me hives, go directly to my butt, phlegm-up my sinuses, etc, etc. (My stomach just typed this one. It's lunchtime, and I'm hungry).

I am once again trying to clear out my office/studio space so it's not full of ghosts of abandoned projects from the past or monsters from the imagined future. I need it to be a place of focus, of clarity, of ease. I think I'm going to invent a drawing table/easel/line of sketchbooks that have blinders on them so you can't see anything but what you're working on... No, even better,  you can't think of anything, but what you're working on.

I have three areas I need to be able to devote my space and thoughts to (not necessarily in order of importance):

1) Class-planning

2) Finishing work I've promised

3) Getting 3 specific projects to their next level of development.

I need to get distractions out of my way. I need to make space for what's going on now. That eject button for things I never need to think about again would sure come in handy.

Infatuation

I've spent way too much time over the past couple of weeks staring out of my office window at a particular bunch of branches and watching their leaves change and all of it play with the sky. Every day I try to figure out a new way to paint it. Depending on the direction of the sun and the amount of cloud cover, I find myself thinking of different underpaintings (most of the time it's crying out for Mars violet)... and which layers would go on after. It would not be a classic landscape, but just a square of interacting colors... colors that shouldn't make sense together and yet do... colors that hum... colors that the mere thought of applying leave me breathing a little faster each time.

I've started photographing it during its various moods... always cropping it down to a little square. It wants to be a square. Today, when thinking of what I would layer first, and what I would try to keep as pure as possible, I realized it wanted to be a batik... the dark blue dye going on last, after the wax has been cracked... forming all of those wonderful little branches. But tomorrow? Who knows.

I'll probably never paint it. I'm not that fond of autumnal scenes rendered with paint... they can look garish and cheesy really fast, but I've painted it in my mind a million times this season and every time has been as satisfying as if I'd really done it.

(Today's photo was taken through a window, with my cell phone camera... it's kind of blurry, but actually enhances the batik effect)

 

Summer Blogging in One Post!

Garden. Garden. Flower. Butterfly. Fucking rain! Dog. Dog. Dog. Lake. Grizzled. Garden. Lamblet. Lamblet. Lamblet. Driver's Ed. AHHHHHHH! Lamblet. Hot! Too chilly! Wet! Where's the rain?!?! FUN!!! Woo-HOO!! Grrrr! WTF?? Still can't access any of ZRM's many blogs... 3B's! What contest?! Garden. Garden. Painting. Painting. Grrrr. Life is good. WTF??? Dick joke. Dick joke. Thought-provoking post. Dick joke. Garden. Animules. Painting! Grrrr... painting!!@!1 FRUSTRATION! In the zone. Fireflies!! Ah, summer smell. Butterflies! Orbs!!! Orbflies!! Thundra. Von. LOL! Garden. Dogs. Frustration. Satisfaction. Good. Bad. Love everyone. Hate everyone. Weeds. WEEDS! BG!! Lake. Reading. Thinking. Anniversary. Snag. Birthday. Cicadas. School? Already?

Not Skirting the Issue...

YL and I were off on errands yesterday after dropping off EL. She had completed her dance photo shoot for the upcoming recital, and EL is old enough to leave alone for hers, so YL and I were off like a prom dress. While leaving, a fellow chorus mate of YL's spied her in all of her recital finery... YL told me to make haste!!! MOVE!!! I asked her why? She explained in the car, although the chorus pal somehow signaled that she would keep this aspect of YL on the down low, YL said she did not want the dance recital fact that she occasionally wore flamboyant clothes with a hint of make-up to harsh her tomboy cred. I said people are complex... never, ever assume that what you see is all that you get... and heaven forbid it is, because it would be boring.

One of the things we were out to do while running errands was to buy YL "boy shorts". Apparently I had failed in trying to fulfill her request. I know she does not like uber-frilly stuff. Oh heck, she rarely likes frilly stuff (except for the one year when the recital called for sparkly, stretchy zebra pants... she was all over that. I told her there was a very, very small window when anyone could rock the stretchy zebra pants so now would be the time) and even though I had purchased what I viewed as tame, even gender-neutral shorts, they were not what she was expecting. What she should have said was that she wanted sports shorts. Anyhow, off we went.

On the ride home, I told her we'd have to buy her a new dress soon as she had a Daddy/Daughter function coming up and I knew she had grown enough that nothing she had would fit since she wears dresses and skirts so rarely. I then said maybe we should get a few more skirts so she could wear them if the urge hit... this was said more so to elicit a reaction than to actually suggest she needed to wear more skirts.

It did get a reaction, to which I asked if she'd wear more skirts if she found out boys liked her in them. Her response???

"Mom, if a boy doesn't like me for who I am, he's not the right boy and he can just keep on walking. Any boy who likes me will know I prefer shorts over skirts."

I sat there and soaked it in and then said, "Never forget that, OK?? And not only for boys, but for anyone... anyone who expects you to change from what you are in order for them to feel OK about who they are."

She replied, "Why would anyone do that?? Change who they really are just so someone else will be happy?? Wouldn't it just be easier to find someone who liked you for you?"

Oh yes, out of the mouths of babes...

And as I had told her earlier in the day... "People are complex... and some people will expect you to act as they wish, even if it's not who you are, and they probably won't even realize why and that it has nothing to do with you. If and when that comes up, you think of this shorts conversation, and you know it's still OK to wear the shorts, OK??"

I don't think I'll have to worry about her.

Friday the 13th Comes Early for Blogger

Bummer...

Now it seems that not only can't you comment, but posts posted in the last day or two are missing.  I never realized how many Blogger blogs I visited. I guess I'll be getting more work done today. Thanks Blogger!

These songs all fill the same spot in my head...

And I think it's the similar "chingaring" portion that happens in all of them at some point, and maybe their rhythm, and the fact that they remind me of a theme song from a show long ago (posted last).

 

Happy

These things made me happy today... and probably will for a while:

A photo discoverd from the end of last summer...

Another year of Mr. Turtle fullfilling his potential...

These will always make me happy...

This stuff, because it's just too good in a pie, plus the plant is awesome....

I found this the other morning... someone had apparently left the tape out and then made a sandwich... Pinko???

These things... that fill up all of the shady patches and give the lamblets and friends a soft place to land when going down the slide...

Even these things...

And last but not least... ending a lovely day outside with one of these...

Potting has commenced...

Sun and warmth finally found its way to us so potting has commenced. While Grizzled usually grows most bedding plants from seeds, I buy most of what of what will go into pots from the nursery. I keep thinking I wish there were a way for me to take all pots along with me so I could follow my whims without buying first. I keep thinking I should keep better track of what's been done in the past that I really liked, but then, even the leftovers that have been thrown together still look pretty when they're in fullbloom and scattered throughout the yard.

Grizzled is pretty patient as I'm loading up the cart, only on occasion asking why I've got 3 yellows... when he should know that I've got 3 yellows because they're different yellows, and three different types of plants... one that will trail, on that will spread, and one that will add height. Pfffft! He should know better as I usually find him adding things for the very same reason... or for the other reason... it's pretty or cute or fun.

I found a new combo for this year's "creepy pot"!! Last year had a combo of caladium and spooky coleus... and some white flower (I can't remember its name) that gives the illusion of insects hovering in and about the foliage. This year's pot will the same white flower, but will have an newer coleus that has what appears to be black in it, as well as some funky black petunias (deep, deep purple in bright, bright light). They're ominous, but fun. And on top of it, they have a scent! It's not reallly a good scent, but it's kind of an intriguing scent since you don't expect to smell asiago cheese by a petunia... it's like a child's unwashed blanket. You know the ones... the ones that no one else wants to smell, but them. The pot will be far enough away that no one has to smell it unless they really want to. Knowing a petunia dares to smell like cheese is enough for me.