Quick Update and then Bed

Wow! Busy day. Good meetings, good friends, lots of laughs, lots of work.

We ended up going Disco Bowling with everyone - big bosses and all the managers. The food at the bowling alley was quite good, I must say. I played a couple of games of pool (which I sucked at) and hung out with some of the managers I have gotten to know better. I think the most fascinating thing is watching people and how they behave in groups. Makes for some very interesting viewing.

I'm going to meet some folks before bed, so I will have more to say later.

My box didn't arrive yet. I hope it gets here in time...I bought some goodies to pass out but I waited too long and now it may not get here...Boo.

Oscars, Thai Food, San Jose and Update

So, we met another friend for breakfast this morning, but I couldn't eat or drink anything. :( It sucks. Gonna be one of those long haul instances. Luckily, all of them have been around when it happens and they know not to fuss about it.

After breakfast, we went to the movies and saw "No Strings Attached" with Ashton Kucher and Natalie Portman. It was sweet and funny and made me laugh. I'm moving pretty slowly - my energy is draining because I feel dehydrated. It's a weird thing, but I did enjoy the movie and I was able to relax a bit.

When the movie was done, we went back to the house, played more "Bananas" until it was time for the Oscars at a cousin's house. I was bummed because they were going to order Thai food and I was SO EXCITED for it. Finally, at about 8pm (when the show was almost over), the spasm ended and I was able to eat and drink. I was so happy. It made the Thai food the best Thai I've had in a LONG TIME. We had pineapple fried rice, Pad See Ew (spelling), and a bunch of appetizers plus some brown rice. This is the second time I have had the Pad See Ew and I really liked it! I think I'm going to order it next time and eat it while it is hot! :)

The Oscars kind of sucked. There were some good moments, but James Franco was not a good host. It was almost painful to watch him and then see how hard Anne Hathaway was trying. When Billy Crystal came on stage for a few minutes, I almost cried from relief for those few minutes. I don't know if I have the heart for the Oscars anymore. Ever since "No Country for Old Men Staring at Goats for Oil" year, the Oscars have left a lot to be desired. Maybe next year I will tape it and THEN watch it so that I can forward past all the pain.

After the Oscars, we had to pack up the truck and drive to San Jose so that I would be ready for the meetings tomorrow. The hotel is Hayes Mansion. The room is nice and the grounds are a giant maze. I hope I can find my way around tomorrow. I'm excited to see everyone. And I'm thrilled to be able to drink WATER again! You don't know how much you miss it until you CAN'T have it.

All right - good night! More tomorrow!

Good Day, Bad Outcome

We had a fun day - just hanging out, chatting, playing a game called "Bananas" - like Scrabble, but better, talking some more. We got Greek food and then it happened. :( I had my swallowing/esophagus problem and I haven't been able to eat or drink anything since. I'm hoping it will go away before too long. Sometimes sleeping helps.

We watched "Glee" from the DVD - I love that they have a music jukebox on the set so you can buzz through and only watch the musical numbers if you want. I love that. I like the stories, but when I'm watching it again, I prefer just the songs. I forgot some of the numbers - I haven't seen them in so long. I love the pilot and then the Lady Gaga episode and all the episodes that Idina Menzel was in. She is amazing and to hear her sing with Lea Michele - amazing.

Anyway, wish me luck for tomorrow. I hate it when this stupid thing happens. It reminds me that I need to keep drinking my magnesium drink even when I feel good. Sigh.

Airport Delays

So I got all excited to leave work today because I was worried about getting to the airport on time for my flight. I like to get there 2 hours before the flight (at least). Normally, I have someone drop me off at the airport, so I can kind of control the times and whatnot. Last night there was some talk of more snow/ice, so I decided to leave my car at work and take a cab. I didn't realize that I would get anxious about it. When they asked me if I wanted them to pick me up "now", I thought it would be the best thing.

I went downstairs to get my luggage and went outside just in time to see the cab pull up in front of the building. The ride there was good and when I got to the airport, it turns out that the flight was supposed to be on 2 hour delay. Luckily, it ended up being only an hour and 5 minutes. The weather down in California has been bad enough to cause all of Southwest's flights to be delayed. Tons of people milling in the airport trying to get out of there.

The sky was CLEAR AS A BELL all the way to Sacramento. My friends met me, even though it was about 10:30pm before I finally got my luggage and we got out of there. We went to Mel's diner (a little tradition we have), had a great chat and I'm getting ready to go to bed. Can't wait for the weekend!

Packing Lessons

I think I need lessons in packing. I don't know why I feel like I need to take everything in the world with me when I go on a short trip. There are little booklets and pens and crosswords and things to do hidden in my purse, my backpack, my suitcase.  What I really need are clothes, a book, some music, my toiletries, my comb, some medicines I might need. That's it.

I think I have to go back to the backpack and unload some stuff. It is too heavy. If I didn't touch it last time I went on a trip, I don't know what makes me think I will use it this time.

I will try to blog from the trip, but I may have to do manual entries for a day or two and then catch up and type them in.  Handwritten posts still count in keeping my commitment to myself to write every day - there is just a little anticipation before I get it all posted on the blog.

It will be nice to get out of town for a few days (business and pleasure). I will be missing the "arctic cold front" that is here now and bringing in 20 degree weather at the end of February. I'm not sad about missing that, for sure.

Limbo-Land

We are currently braced for the latest episode of "Snow-meggedon" or "Snowpocolypse" or "Super Storm 2011".  So far, it has all come to naught, so I'm not holding out much hope that there is going to be any snow-stickage for me to photograph tomorrow.  I will get up at my usual time, get ready and see what it looks like outside.

Other than that, a relatively uneventful day. I went to Art Media and got some Caran D'Ache Neocolor II water soluble pastels. I have been wanting some for a while. I think the thing I have been missing on my pages lately are the little frills. Some of the penwork, doodles, details, etc., make the pages what they are and I think that even though I like some of what I'm doing, I haven't felt like they were mine or that they were complete.

Also, getting ready for my trip - a combined business and pleasure trip. Hard to pack for those, but it will be good to get away for a few days. I'll miss out on the cold end of the Arctic Blast while I'm gone. Yay.

Waiting Gifts

When I arrived home today, I was struggling to get the key in the lock so that I could run to the restroom (special share, I know) when I spotted a package by the door.  It was my brand new copy of the "Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert" that I saw in the movie theatre a couple of months ago.  I'm SO EXCITED to watch it again.  I love that I live in a time when we can have the things we love so close by and easily accessed.

I have always been one of those people who would rather see a known, loved movie than a new movie, so DVDs and videos are perfect for me. I watch movies over and over and over again. I like the comfort of knowing what is coming, that if I fall asleep, I won't have missed anything, that I can watch it again later.  Musicals are particularly great for that.

If you want to watch a couple of clips from the concert, you can pop over to the Video Inspiration page. I think I have been pretty good about adding labels so the videos are easy to find.

Other tidbits:  I am thinking again about how much the blog has changed. Last year was pretty challenging and there were lots of things I couldn't really bring to this forum. I think I got used to talking about non-essential stuff, but now, sometimes, I feel shy about bringing things up but feeling like I want to do something more.  I'm working on getting over it. :)

I bring this up because I am currently taking a writing class and I am *considering* posting pieces from the class here. I haven't decided yet.  I barely decided to say something about my writing class - it felt like something I wanted to keep to myself for a little while, but I realized I might want to post some of the pieces, so I decided I would float it out there.

Catching Up

I finally got my camera out of the car. Although it is ever-so-tempting to post photos of my friends from the weekend, I said I wouldn't, so I'm not going to. Instead, I am adding the photos from art journaling yesterday - I don't love the pages but I learned something from it. I started using the templates from my classes, but then I strayed. The end result is that I should not improvise until I have been doing this longer.

Anyway, without further ado, here are the newest pages. I get to do all kinds of things to them now, though, since I'm not attached to how they look now.

I liked how the Buddha page went well with the pear page. I used some shared back grounds. For some reason, I couldn't get the Buddha single page photo to work.

Not loving this one. It wasn't well-planned out. I was searching for backgrounds - I felt a little like I was getting repetitive and then suddenly I had a school theme. And all the yellow. It's a bit much for me. I felt like I had to put in kids but I didn't love how it all came together.

Here is my yummy snack and my snack tool. Four scores of the Sunkist tool (or Pampered Chef, depending on where you get them), four flicks and voila!

Yummy natural snack action!

Scattered Sunday

I slept restlessly last night.  When I woke up, I did some art journal work, I read for a while, worked on the computer.  I watched a little bit of "Eyes on the Prize" about James Meriweather entering the University of Mississippi and how the Governor was determined to maintain "their way of life". It was incredibly moving and made me want to see the whole series. I keep seeing parts of it, but I have never seen the whole thing. It is on sale at the PBS store, so I'm going to buy it so that I can also support public broadcasting.

I didn't take photos of the art journaling from today just because I was too lazy to go get the camera out of my car. I will do it tomorrow. :) Now I'm off to watch Bill Cosby accept the Mark Twain award on PBS. That is television worth watching - not the stuff I have been complaining about. (I really do learn my lessons - sometimes it just takes me a while.)

Art Journal Week 7

I'm still a little scared of the "sleep typing" I did yesterday, but I'm forging ahead. :)

I am enjoying the process of trying to put pages together without worrying too much. I know that more layers and more stuff will come later.  I like practicing to put things together and see what happens.  I still like the violin pages the best so far in this new journal, but I am having some other good results.

Here are a couple of pages I did today: 

This model reminds me of an actress but I'm not sure what her name is...maybe it is the same girl.  I will have to find out. There is something about her look that is really intriguing.

Now, I'm going to go get ready for TWO, yes, TWO social engagements. Of course things always come on the same day. That happened in January, too.  Today is Chinese New Year with some friends from high school. I get to see Kevin today and my friend Jeffa.  Later in the evening, a games and birthday party with another long-time friend and some of their friends. I had dinner with them last month and it was good clean fun. And I lost in Apples to Apples for maybe the second time. I usually do well, but I don't know these folks well and I wasn't able to read them very well. It was still fun!  More later.

Stuff and Art Journal

I have been spending a lot of time looking at supplies, magazines and purchasing special paper for some of my art journaling. Those "artist's dates" are as important to me as any other part of the process - finding colors, images, words to express myself, to use in my collage work.

I did do a page tonight, so I am posting a picture here. All of these that I have been doing feel a bit unfinished - I think they will end up with another layer at some point, but I'm not there yet.  If the Germans get controlled [I am leaving this in to show you how tired I am - I was typing my post and apparently nodded off and this little fragment appeared...YIKES!]

Here's the most recent art journal page:

Also, check out Balzer Designs blog today - she posted about an "Everyday Book" that I LOVE LOVE LOVE.  I'm going to try to implement something like that.

Now, enough from me. I'm off to bed now.

Snow? No

For the first time in a long time, I woke up on Wednesday, got ready for work, opened up the door to go out to the car and it was SNOWING!  It was already sticking and looked beautiful. I got in the car and just started off.  As I got closer to the hills, the snowflakes were bigger and softer and more snow was sticking. It looked beautiful and everyone was taking it slow where the roads were slick. I didn't have my camera with me or I would have pulled over to take a picture.  It all melted within hours, though.

The prediction was that it would be similar weather this morning and on Friday morning. For the first time in a long time, I was kind of hoping for snow. I was going to bring my camera and take a photo this time. No such luck. No snow today.

I doubt there will be any tomorrow morning, either. I'm only a little disappointed.

News Noise

I am compelled to watch at least the first few minutes of the news on a semi-regular basis, but it is getting harder and harder. I try to make it to the weather forecast most of the time, but sometimes I can't do it.

A sampling of today's news noise: A very sad story about animals rescued from a neglectful situation with a very effective shot of a reporter standing out in the dark and cold at the Humane Society after dark. A story about caramel coloring in colas causing cancer without information about how many thousands of pounds of coloring they had to feed the rats before they got the effect they wanted. Banter from the anchor people. Bed bugs. Baldness and cancer. Fear. Robbery. Fear. Snowpocolypse 2011.

If I listened to all of this and took it all seriously, I would feel more like rolling up into a ball and pulling the covers over my head than I already do.

Sometimes I wonder what the anchor people think as they read their ridiculous fodder.

Oh. OH! And don't EVEN get me started on one of the most horrific commercials EVER!  Isn't it bad enough that there is a local commercial that actually shows a close up shot of dog poop or the commercials where the bears have toilet paper stuck to their behinds. EW.  But last night. Last night's entry took the cake. Or pie, as it were.  It is a Mac and Cheese commercial and the very cute little girl who is about 8 years old (give or take a year) complaining about the food her mother has made for her.  I believe the phrase "shove...down my pie hole" actually came out of her mouth.  The first time I heard it, I doubted myself. After the 4th time I saw it last night, I was flabbergasted. I don't eat macaroni and cheese, so my lack of consumption will not make any impact, but I am seriously considering writing a letter to the company about it.  I have always considered that phrase to be equal to swearing.

Revisiting Some Old Thoughts

About 15 years ago, I was in Barnes and Noble, minding my own business when I was drawn across the aisle to a very plan, tan book that I would normally never pick up.  The book was "Highly Sensitive People".  I thought it was people who are "overly sensitive" - you know how people say that sometimes. In a way, it is about that, but it is about WHY people are like that. Like any self-help book, it had a little quiz in the beginning of the book and I took it. I'm pretty sure that I answered true to all but one of the questions.  I'm pretty sure that if you answer True to like 5 or more, it is likely that you are an HSP.  I'm not even sure what they call someone who answered all but one question that way. Like Super HSP or something like that. Anyway, the book was really helpful in understanding my own reactions to things and trying to find ways to self-soothe or to avoid getting overstimulated.

Lately, I have noticed a return of feeling uncomfortably overstimulated, so I ordered a newer book, "The Highly Sensitive Person's Survival Guide". I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of this book.  It kind of came to a head on Sunday night when I was watching (of all things) "America's Funniest Home Videos".  I usually have that on on Sundays - it is innocuous enough and I don't have to pay too much attention to it. This week, there was video of people crashing into things. I don't find those videos funny - I actually have a visceral reaction to some of them. One guy bounced his bike or something on top of a big can-shaped structure and it caved in. I got this really strong zing from my waist up the back of my neck and up through my arms. I have had some physical sensations to seeing this kind of thing before but never like this.  It was really disturbing and it made me kind of realize that I have been feeling "highly sensitive" lately and maybe need to look into what I need to do to mellow out.

It's weird how we are all so different, isn't it?

To Love Another Person is to See the Face of God

Form doesn't matter. Only love does.

That is all.

Poetry Selection for this Day

Sonnet LXXXIX
 
When I die, I want your hands on my eyes:
I want the light and the wheat of your beloved hands
to pass their freshness over me once more:
I want to feel the softness that changed my destiny.
I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep.
I want your ears still to hear the wind, I want you
to sniff the sea’s aroma that we loved together,
to continue to walk on the sand we walk on.
I want what I love to continue to live,
and you whom I love and sang above everything else
to continue to flourish, full-flowered:
so that you can reach everything my love directs you to,
so that my shadow can travel along in your hair,
so that everything can learn the reason for my song.

~Pablo Neruda

Fruitful Sunday and Bowling Metaphor

Well, I've come to the conclusion that art journaling is like my bowling game.  When I used to bowl a lot (it helped me heal my sciatic nerve pinch back in the day), I would bowl three games. The first game was a warm-up. Okay score, kind of lukewarm, inconsistent. The second game was always the BEST GAME.  Each week, I got better in the second game. That second game always made me think that if I just played one more game, I would be able to beat the score and get on a roll somehow. I was always wrong. The third game was a downhill slope that moved quickly. I was either overconfident or just starting to get tired and my scores were always terrible.

So it is with my art journaling pages of late.  I did four spreads today (which I enjoyed thoroughly, even though the results are mixed).  I still haven't figured out what I want to do with my inchie project that I started last week, so I worked with my Kelly Kilmer-style pages, using templates she provides in her online workshops.  I like letting go and trying things just to see how they work. Obviously, sometimes things are not going to turn out the way I want them to, but sometimes some good stuff comes out.

The colors here aren't quite right. I think I need to take a photo in different lighting. It's weird that I took the spread photo in the same light and the background color came out more pink and I adjusted them with the same program at the same time. 

This is my favorite spread and the two pages look beautiful to me. I would NEVER put these colors together, but I liked the end result. 

The colors on these didn't come out quite the way I wanted. I didn't have the right backgrounds, I think. I wanted a brighter pink for the girl, but then I rethought it.

I started this page with a totally different focal image and then screwed up the template and didn't really know how to recover. I don't like the dark blue at all, but I just decided to stop messing with it and let it go. It doesn't have to be perfect, right?

Revised Title: Thoughts about VDay from 2011

I watched the movie "Valentine's Day" tonight.  I liked it a lot more than I had expected to - it is one of those movies with a lot of stars.  Sometimes those movies don't come together well or you think someone is going to be in it and they are in it for like two minutes and it is very unsatisfying.  This movie seemed to tie all the pieces together and utilized all the stars pretty well.

There is one character in the movie, played by Jessica Biel, who is totally neurotic about Valentine's Day and how she is alone on Valentine's Day every year. Her character got me to thinking about this. I have never felt like less of a person if I don't have someone to celebrate Valentine's day with and I have never understood people who do.

When I was growing up, Valentine's Day was a holiday for kids mostly.  I always dreaded it because I was afraid I wouldn't get any valentines at school. Several of our big moves happened in December or January, so when Valentine's Day rolled around, I was still the new kid on the block. Luckily, by the time I was in school, they had instituted the all-or-nothing rule - if you were giving out valentine cards, you had to give them to the whole class or none at all.  Back in the 1970s, they didn't have "Harry Potter" Valentines or themes from Disney - they mostly had animals and cutesy kids and stuff like that.  There was always a valentine in the package that was a little meaner or not as cute or definitely for the kid in class you didn't like as well. I remember a couple of years that I didn't want to give those meaner/undesirable valentines because I felt there would be repercussions.

I think I said this last year on Valentine's Day - my dad never forgot Valentine's Day.  He didn't make a huge deal of it, but he always brought us something - flowers, a necklace, something to let us know he was thinking of us.  Since that wasn't really his regular way, it was always really sweet that he would do that.

Anyway, just some things I was thinking about today.

**I was getting all these random hits from all over the world from people who were Googling "Valentine's Day Thoughts", so I thought I would change the title and prevent some pain for those who are really just looking for a quote for their sweetie. Who knows if it will work...

Art Journal Week 6?

I am disappointed that I just can't seem to make/find time to do 10 minutes each day. I think I am more of a "big chunk of time" person.  I want to train myself out of that, but I didn't make it this week.

I worked my 40 hours in the first 4 days of the week and then some. By the time I got home each night, I just wanted some dinner and some time to veg. I did a couple of small things, but I didn't do any new pages or anything.

It's all a process. I have decided that even though I feel disappointed, I'm not mad at myself and I'm not going to do that thing that I sometimes do - "oh, I didn't succeed at what I wanted to do PERFECTLY so I will stop doing it altogether." I'm going to keep trying and keep working. That's all. This is for me. There is no competition or race or expectation except for the ones I put on myself. Expectations aren't bad, but I am also working on being fine with not doing everything 100% all the time.

I'm still working to carve out a dedicated workspace. That will help. Sometimes it really is about the whole set-up/take down that is the discouraging part.  Anyway, I will be working on some stuff this weekend and will post more later.

Friend Update

I haven't said much about her lately, but my friend who was deathly ill back in early January is still in the hospital, but they think she may be able to go home next week. From really being at death's door all to now, she has made a miraculous recovery - the folks at the hospital where she is now are quite surprised at her speedy progress.

What a way to start a new year for her!  But I'm so happy to know that she is doing so well and will make a complete recovery.

An Interesting Lesson

The mistakes you make echo around you like an air horn in a canyon. The good deeds are like a pine needle falling from a tree in the middle of a forest, unnoticed, uncelebrated.

You do good deeds because it is good. That is all.

When is my Vacation?

I'm feeling a bit burned out right now. I know it is temporary.  I came back from the holidays with so much going on and it hasn't stopped since.  Every day seems like an endless list of things to do. I keep telling myself I'm going to leave work at 8 hours and then 2 hours later, I'm still there. The turnaround between being their in the evening and coming back the next day needs to be longer, in my opinion.

I'm dreaming of a trip to the beach with a book and some quiet time and lots of sleep. Maybe I can steal away for a long weekend in March.  I have a work trip at the end of February that I am hoping to combine with a trip to visit my friends in Sacramento. For sure, that will be one positive step in just changing up the routine for a few days.

No reading today, but I did take a lovely green apple break in our sunny break room. It was beautiful out today, so I got to bask in the warm sunlight and talk to a couple of folks as they meandered into the room.

I'm off to bed as I'm actually not feeling so great. Hopefully, it will be gone in the morning and I will feel better. I'm not SICK, just off.

Reading Renaissance Redux

I have been reading about books and thinking about books and moving my books around for the last couple of weeks. I finally started carrying a book around with me again - it's been a long time since I have really done that. I don't read for pleasure much these days which is a shame because I have a million books to read and I LOVE reading.

So, now it is time for my annual attempt to revisit my 30 minutes a day (or more) goal for reading a book for pleasure. I even found a cool little gadget that will help me. During the holidays, I went to Barnes and Noble a number of times and on Christmas Eve, when I was standing half a store away from the register in line, I found a little gadget called, "Mark My Time - The Digital Bookmark".  It is really made for kids to help them know when they have been reading long enough. It also helps track number of pages and some other stuff. I thought it was a cute little thing and bought a couple for the kids in my life and one for myself.

Wish me luck, fellow readers. I have many books to read and I am excited to start them. I'm even going to take a break at work and find a place to read quietly for at least a few minutes a day. (We'll see how long that lasts...)

This Week in Art Journaling

I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with my little inchie project, but I will figure it out eventually.

In the meantime, I have some photos of my other adventures in creativity this week.

Stage One of My Saturday Pages

This is the first page I made to prep.

The first edition of Artful Blogger magazine that I purchased a couple of years ago had an article/how-to about "inchies" and had a really cool page of photos showing how to take 1 inch pieces and create some art with them on a page. As soon as I saw it, I wanted to do it, but I didn't keep the magazine close by, so I wasn't really sure how to copy the techniques.  I have thought about it a lot since then.  A couple of days ago, I was looking at some blogs from the Art Journal Every Day group and saw a couple of folks doing "inchies" art, too.  I decided to try it with my favorite Hermes ads with the beautiful yellow, orange and pink elephants and flowers.

This is the first page I did. I didn't get them all straight, but I hope it won't matter once I work on the edges and really have a chance to work on the rest of the page. I'm not sure how it will turn out but that's the point, isn't it?  To experiment and try things I haven't tried before.

This is a smaller page that folds in and is next to the page pictured above. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with the inside page yet, but it will probably include some of the other Hermes ad campaigns and won't be inchies (I'm not sure if I'm spelling it right).  For some reason, the editing program for my camera closed while I was adjusting the photos, so this one is a little dark but you get the idea.  I will work some more on this when I get up in the morning. Photo resizing on the computer always takes so much more time for me than I think it will.

Working on a Project today

I'm working on a project today for my art journal. Something totally different. I'm stoked. I had to say something about it because I'm enjoying this so much.  More later.

I Miss Poetry

I was reading someone's Facebook a couple of days ago and that led me to Andrea Gibson's web page and some other poetry. I miss poetry.  I'm sort of particular about it, but I miss reading and writing it. My poetry muscles have atrophied in the last few years. My reading muscles, too.

I'm thinking about starting a book club for earning CEUs for certification. I think there are a lot of great texts out there that could definitely benefit me as an interpreter and a manager.  Why not earn professional development credit while I'm learning something?  I just have to figure out how to do the independent study.  I also want to take an art class sometime soon...

Tomorrow, I journal. Today I am too tired. Long week. I'm beat. Today went well - the attitude adjustment was just what I needed to get through the week. Now, a sigh of relief as I breathe into the weekend. Ahhhhh.

B+ for Effort

Today was a better day and I know that it was all due to my attitude adjustment. It really does help to get up in the morning and say, "Today is going to be good. It's all in your hands."  I didn't get rid of all the weird energy, frustration, struggle, but I tried to focus on doing nice things for people, being grateful, and trying to focus on what I can change and do in myself to keep things on an even keel.  I give myself a B+ for effort. I really tried, but as I got more tired, it was harder to keep it up.

I watched an entire CSI episode with guest stars Marlee Matlin and Phyllis Frelich (I love her - if you haven't seen the movie "Love is Never Silent"...brilliant!).  I don't like those shows because they are normally gruesome and gory and I prefer not to fill my overactive imagination with that kind of imagery.  They kept the gruesomeness to a minimum for this episode. I'm glad I watched it, but I will never be a regular CSI viewer.

I'm off to read for a while, then to bed. Tomorrow is Friday, which is good. I am working for an A in attitude tomorrow.  I'm not expecting perfection. I'd like to get to a 90% if possible. Aim high, right?

Time Out Chair for Grownups

I think that adults should have a Time Out Chair that is proactive.  If I feel the need coming on, I can just go to the Time Out chair and have a few minutes of solitude, quiet and contemplation.  I needed one today.

I am going to go to bed soon and then I am going to wake up in the morning with a different attitude. I just need to choose again and my outlook will be much better.

See, I am trying to practice what I preach. Not happy, change what you are doing. It is so liberating to know that I can make a different choice and change things for myself. I can't change the situations I'm in but I can change how I choose to think about it.  I can't wait for tomorrow. I'm already feeling the change coming on.

Bob and Weave

Today, I was frustrated that I am not able to be proactive enough to address issues, get answers, clarify. Some days I just feel like a Martian and that I speak Martian language but it seems like I am speaking the same language and yet there are all these misunderstandings.

Intellectually, I understand that everyone thinks differently, but since I only know how to think like myself, sometimes it is difficult to predict where other people are coming from, what motivates them, how they will react or what they consider important. I get frustrated when I can't figure it out.

I worked on my zentagle from last night tonight - added some color to it. I'm not sure I like it. I just need more practice - it isn't precise in the way that I think they are supposed to be. Maybe I will post some pictures later this week - I'm not sure. I'm also going to work on lettering this week. I think that is something I might be able to practice without getting antsy.