6/14 The Day of A Little Art A Little Work A Little Thunder

Had nice onion rings after work. With tiger sauce, which is a kind of spicy horseradish sauce.

Walking to the car after work, the night was falling, there was a cool breeze from the storm that did not develop, the singer was playing a riff on her acoustic guitar, work was done for the day.

I went out to check on the developing storm. The cloud was tall and high. Lightning flashed inside of it. I could smell ozone.

Someone at work saw my little painting in my journal with the girl aloft over the city, hanging onto a red baloon, and said, “wow, I could see that as a post card.” I thought that was really nice. I would like to sell prints and postcards. Maybe my flying girl would like to fly as a post card.

Talked a little to another coworker about art. She saw my little painting and asked me what medium I’d used. She was an artist too. I don’t often get to talk about art down into the technical stuff. Well not anymore.

During nap, I sketched out a surprising picture of a teddy bear made of the blue sky (and nothing but) except her outline went out past behind her emptyheadedness. She seemed a little angry. I kind of like the idea of an angry teddy bear. Bears are fierce, who are we to make bears into baby toys?

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6/13 The Day of Thunder and Lightning Very Very Frightning in the Target Parking Lot

Holding my arms out to Ivy and having her come running into them, practically crashing into me, to get a hug. :)

Talking to my uncle and finding out that my grandfather’s relationship with his girlfriend (after my grandmother had died) was actually a continuation of a relationship, and she had been his High School sweetheart in Pittsburg. That was pretty cool.

Getting to the Tarjay and finding some things I needed along with a Go, Diego, Go dvd that the kids were SOOOOOO excited about. I got a book, literature, even, that has gotten good reviews. I am attempting to move from mindless fiction to “good” fiction to see if my brain has recuperated from having babies.

The woosh anticipation of a storm rolling in. We made it to the car before it really started. Thunder crashed, lightning flashed, we were safe in the car, very exciting. But the impending storm never really materialized.

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6/12 The Day of Past Bedtime and Oreos and Waiting Tables

Had some steamed shrimp with G at bedtime way past bedtime when Grandma and Grandpa came to pick me up from work with the kids in tow. I finished him off with an oreo and he finally decided he could sleep.That’s what happens when grandma serves favorites like beans and roast pork all mixed together with yucky rice. Little boy gets hungry hungry and can’t go to sleep and needs to eat all mama’s post work dinner.

Busy at work. Busy enough anyway. I was the only waitress on, and while it was a little lonely without another woman to chat with, it seems to be the only way to make some decent cash.

The cool breezy weather. No storms, just clouds. Palm trees waving in the breeze.

The kids all excited to go in the car to grandma’s house and play with all the toys.

Ivy with the remnants of an oreo. Everywhere. Face. Hands. Neck Folds. Dress. Knees. Head to toe, covered in cookie mush. Oh, and the huge, huge grin.

A great compliment from ruthg. She called my writing voice “both wry/clever & tender.” Thanks again ruthg.

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6/11 The Day of Dancing, Pancakes and Paint

I’m watching So You Think You Can Dance right now. I’m writing this during the commercial break. So it could take a good long while to finish up.

Pancake and eggs for dinner. I didn’t get enough sleep last night, so knew my temper was kind of fragile, I went low maintenance, high approval rating.

The kids had their milk out in the garden, running around and getting dirty.

During nap I got a chance to paint. Just a little. It helps.

I also went through my portfolio to see what I had with me. I had a lot of favorites. I really need to get back into painting. I need to take my small things further. I want to take it seriously.

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6/10 The Day of Zeitgeisting and Finding Out I Was an Inspiration to Look Beyond the Surface

So I was looking at sitemeter for my blog and someone found me by googling my name, so I looked at their results to see what there was about me, and I found the site “Rate My Teacher.” Now, I haven’t taught in five years, but I decided to check it out, and this is what I found…set for a date long after I had stopped teaching:

SHE IS THE ONE TEACHER I WILL FOREVER REMEMBER FOR INSPIRING ME TO LOOK BEYOND THE SURFACE OF THINGS AND PUSHING ME TO DO BETTER.SHE TRULY SUPPORTED MY DREAMS I WILL ALWAYS HAVE FOND MEMORIES OF HER.

Bedtime. Kisses and hugs and laying in the same bed in a squiggly, wiggly pile.

Dinner time. Actually putting the food on the table in front of them, because that meant the screaming and crying and trying of my patience ended and my blood pressure went down, and the twitching in my eye stopped. I hate the hour before dinner.

Got some writing done despite the excuses and blahdeblah. I was running out of time before naps ended, and I didn’t give up, I gave it a try, and got a few pages in.

The kids deciding to take up sweeping and mopping. G had the mop and Ivy had the broom, all because a glass of water spilled and they wanted to clean up the mess. ^{twiddling thumbs} Hmm. Can I capitalize on this and teach them to be my house cleaners?

Perusing my blog and other writings I felt good, because I think I have something. I just need to figure out how to get that “something” out there into the wider zeitgeist. I need to find my hundred monkeys.

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6/9 The Day of the Big Rainstorm and Little Steps

I started to paint some pages in my journal. I only got as far as one spread, because the paint was wet. So I thought I’d try to dry it off somehow, and closed the page and rubbed it together a little, and when I opened it up, it looked like a moth. Cool. I wonder what I will write/draw on that page. I think it would look good with a sort of metallic goldish hue, because the paint was a pale lavender gray.

My mom dropped by unexpectedly to have her lunch. She was in the neighborhood, so she popped in.

Lunch: hotdogs and berries and a little brownie.

Lots of relaxing time at work. I had a cup of soup and some iced tea and did the crossword read the free paper and wrote a poem and stared out at the driving rain. All would have been great if I the purpose of work was not to make money.

Getting picked up with the kids… they were very happy to see me, but also had lots of fun at the grandparents’s.

I cut out some paper dolls from the Mary Englebreit’s Home Companion magazine. I was looking through it for interesting patterns that I could collage my journal with when I found the paper dolls. I like that magazine for the artsiness and the view into people’s studios, but I had always ignored the paper dolls as being, well, cheesy… but then I thought maybe the kids would like them.

I decided that I need to take this challenge (to write a page everyday) as a lesson. The goal was to create a writing habit, but I keep getting stuck between my writing goals and my life. If I pay attention to when I am having trouble writing, then maybe I can adjust my writing schedule to where it actually WILL work.

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6/8 The Day of the Gulf of Mexico and the Rain in the Garden

Today we went to the beach with grandma. That would be the Gulf of Mexico, folks. This place has its drawbacks, but the beach is not one of them. So nice. White sand. Warm, gentle water. Sea shells.

It was Ivy’s first time to the ocean and G’s second. They both were a little nervous when they first got into the water, but then they warmed up to it.

When we got home, and after the nap, there was a rain storm, and the kids wanted to go out to play in it. What the heck, I thought. I took off G’s shirt and let them play. After a while, G came and sat down on the steps in the door with me to watch, but Ivy wanted to play and play in the rain, even when she was shivering.

When the lightning got too close, I ended the rain splash time, but G and Ivy went to the porch with Uncle to watch the rain in the shelter, while I finished dinner up.

Dinner was tacos, which G liked. He really had tortilla chips with meat and cheese and salsa, but then he tried to be like Uncle and started adding more things to his tortillas, then Ivy started copying him.

Bedtime. Phew. Big day lead to wired boy. Hard to put down, but hopefully they will stay down through the night. They usually do. For which I would like to take the moment to be thankful.

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