Do-Overs

(The image above is by Nathalie Patenteau. Check out her art.)

There are just some days when you go to sleep at night and wish you had the opportunity to have a do-over for the day that you just experienced. Friday was just that kind of day for me. Not that things were bad - just that things were blah. And I try very hard to avoid blah days. So, I'll start today by doing a full smudge with sage at the shop and see if I can't banish the blah demons back into their corner closet.

And that brings a mind picture...what do those closet demons look like? In the comics, Opus (now living the remainder of his cartoon life out in the final pages of Good-Bye, Moon) had a closet of night-terrors. Those terrors ranged from his mother to George W Bush with a wide range of other topical characters between. But when I envision my closet of demons, I'm more on the order of large-jawed, sharp toothed, drooling and hairy monsters. I'm a bit surprised - I would have thought I would put more of an orcish appearance, but my monsters seem closer to Where the Wild Things Are instead of Tolkien. Who would have thought?....

Beginnings and Endings

Today I get to begin my "public" part of the day by attending the funeral visitation of an acquaintence. I can't say that Dave was a friend, because he really was of my Father-in-Law's generation, not my own. And we didn't see each other very often. But he was there for my Mother-in-Law's visitation and funeral (and those were bone-chilling temperature days) as well as my Brother-in-Law's. So I can't let his passing go without saying good-bye and thank you. He was one of the first people to accept me as a member of my husband's family when I moved up here more than 30 years ago. Even though I didn't see him often, I will miss him. Fare well on your next part of the Great Journey, Dave. It's the beginning of the next part of the ride and the best is yet to come.

And today is Friday - yeah! Even though I still work on Saturday, I'm one day closer to my one-day weekend. That pleases me because I then have a single day to do something other than show up at the shop. Even on my "day off" on Wednesday, I still show up at the shop in the early hours to turn things on and tie up loose ends so that I can spend the day doing what I need to/want to. But my Sundays are my own and I relish them. So, Fridays mean that I'm one day closer to my Sunday and the start of my next week. Happy, happy, joy, joy...thoughts roaming in my head about what art I want to do on Sunday (after I play on the computer for a few hours).

Celebrating the Odd

Today is an odd number lover's delight. The date of 05-07-09, those lovely consecutive odd numbers, is apparently quite unique and something that occurs extremely rarely. I enjoy numbers as long as they are not tied up into mathematics. But as symbols, they are really quite lovely. We have the Arabic scholars of the Middle Ages to thank for the zero - great idea, the concept of nothingness. But who decided that a number two would be this wonderful clockwise curve with a base. And who decided that it could be written in so many different ways and still be legible. After all, there is the straght-bottom, the looped bottom, the humped bottom, etc. But the top, that wonderful flourish, tends to remain the same and marks it as a number 2.

People are much the same. We have the basic flourish that marks us as human. But that bottom - oh that bottom. That's where the problems can arise. And it's when the bottom tries to become as elaborate as the top that problems arise. Perhaps remembering that the bottom, although essential, is the smaller part of the whole might help all of us to remain a bit more humble. It is one of the reasons why I click on my astronomy picture of the day first thing every day. I might be the center of my own, very small universe. But I thank all Powers that my part is as small as it is and that someone/something caused the formation of the wonders that are our full universe. I can't ever forget the concept of Spirit being the love that makes the sun and stars dance. What an amazing thought...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A comment was made about how frequently odd numbers can appear this century. I quote here from the UK newspaper that originally published this story:

Numbers lovers (well, this one number lover) say the rare occurrence is an excuse to celebrate.

'The previous stretch of six dates like this started with 1/3/1905 - 13 months after the Wright Brothers' flight,' said Ron Gordon, the Redwood City, California teacher who keeps on enthusiastically promoting these numerical holidays, like Square Root Day on 3/3/09.
Gordon is offering a prize of $579 to those who celebrate the date with the most zeal or who get the most people involved in an Odd Celebration. Good luck.>>

Hopefully this will help clarify what I was speaking about in the post.

White Rabbits

In "Alice in Wonderland" the character of the White Rabbit is constantly checking his pocket watch and running off saying that he's late. How well I understand him. How I can possibly be late when I'm up at 3:30 am is a mystery to me. But I have come to the conclusion that I will have to switch some tasks around because things are falling behind. Today I didn't even get to my blog until almost noon - good thing Wednesday is my day off or my blog would have been inactive until after I returned from work and had dinner. But I think I will have to split some tasks up between my morning and my evening to be able to get things done in a timely fashion and get the "back burner" items back to the front of the stove.

My Emails and chat groups generally take me three hours to run through. But, today I have five "new chapter alerts" from authors that I follow (always a very positive thing that I really look forward to - but a time eater). I also had a couple of intensive Emails - things that I couldn't just read and then go on to the next, but things that I actually had to put thought into a reply for. It's good for me, and I love communicating with my friends, etc., but a comprehensive answer can put me back 20-30 minutes. So...by the time 7am came around, the time when I should be wrapping things up and leaving for work, I still hadn't plugged into my main business Emails or any of my secondary chat boards. I have to get my time under control before I leave for Milwaukee at the end of the month. I'll be laptop dependent then and will have at least two class days from hell with no time at all, so I know I'll miss some things then. I must be caught up before I leave so that I won't have a full month or more to catch up on.

On the plus side, however, I did treat myself to a new, smaller, more powerful digital camera for my upcoming birthday gift to myself. I had a budget of less than $200 and found a Samsung with a great macro (very important) that came in at the price. I wanted it in red, but they would have had to order that. So I got black. I can live with that :-)

Travelin' Times Ahead

The clock is ticking. My friend Poo has her plane tickets and she'll arrive on the 30th. We'll take off early on the 31st to drive to Milwaukee and I have a class that evening. But what I'm really happy about is my Monday schedule. I'm back to the train, and going back to Chicago for another day at the museum.

This time I'm going to the Science and Industry Museum to attend the "Harry Potter Exhibition". I can't wait! I also purchased tickets to their omni theatre for an oceans film. I think I'll have a thoroughly enjoyable day immersed in Hogwart's and water. Then I'll catch the train back to Milwaukee that evening. I'm hoping that the weather will be decent. Last year when I took the train to attend an exhibit at the Field Museum, it was raining on my trip back and I ended up trying to avoid raindrops and puddles. But I'm looking forward to my excursion this year and the tickets have been purchased and put into my B&B 2009 folder.

Today is Cinco de Mayo. A day which celebrates the victory of the Battle of Puebla in Mexico, and a day which has become a day to drink Tequila in the US. I think I'll avoid the drinking aspects and stay with my nightly glass of wine instead. But I do wish a safe and enjoyable Cinco to those of my friends who may want to celebrate in a more immersive fashion. If I didn't have to be functional the next day, I might also indulge. But...work and studio time calls and I can't afford to waste any studio time right now - the clock is a'tickin', tempus fugit, etc, etc. Aaaccckk!!!!

Timing is Everything...

The worst arguments arise over a lack of communication and an inability to pay attention to the moods of the other person involved. I knew that I needed to tell my husband that I was in contact with my ex-fiance, but also knew that timing was everything to avoid an explosion of jealousy. (It's a long process to learn that ownership of a person does not transfer with a marriage license.) But I finally managed to fit it into a conversation in a rather flip way on Sunday, and so the worst is over and I am now free to communicate as I see fit. I think that's important, because I'm enjoying finding out about how the last 30 years have been for my ex, and I have always considered him to be a friend. I don't really know why, after marriage, your friends are supposed to be the same sex only. It seems to cut off a lot of people. I've always chosem my friends because they are interesting people. I suppose my DH is lucky because most of my friends are female and he doesn't need to be jealous of them. Jealousy is stupid.

And I am shooting lots of white light and Goddess Bless towards several friends of mine who are having some serious health issues. It's rather like everything has hit the basket at the same time. So - good thoughts to my friends Marilee and VerLaine, and my friend and her husband, Pat and Jon. If you would care to add your white light to mine, please feel free to aid these friends in addition to any others that you may be helping. Tomorrow, I'll be back to creativity, but today....walk a line of love. A little love and kindness can spread a long, long way.