I Was A Good, Bad Girl

Yesterday was my "day off" and I beaded, and beaded, and beaded some more. I got a lot done on my project and realize how much more I need to do. And with NaNo breathing down my neck and scheduled to start on Saturday, I also have to do some prep work before I dive into that as well as a repair that I didn't even touch on Wednesday and that's due to the customer on Friday. O M G ! There's just not enough hours in the days any more!

Time is never my friend, but now it's my active enemy. 

I'm having breakfast with Eleanor today. It will be the second time we're getting together since she told me to jump off the nearest cliff several years ago. I'm not as unsure as I was last month when we got together, but I'm still not sure if we have a lot in common any more. Still, she replied to my text invitation promptly and breakfast is always a good thing, so I'll make it work.

Coffee is always a good thing, and when shared with
friends and talk, can be the best thing EVER. 

I'm just going to remind my readers that beginning on Saturday and throughout the month of November, my posts will be more truncated and I'll have more photo blogs than usual. Basically, what's going to happen is a shift in schedule. I'll be writing my daily word count for my novel first thing, then doing a quick blog post and finally I'll be catching up with emails and other people's posts and fics after I get to work and set up my laptop. I know this schedule works, but I also know that I don't like it on a permanent basis, so it'll do for one month. But then my novel pulls back and sits on the shelf once again - not really what I want, but the way it seems to work. *sigh* I really need to retire so that I can work. Oxymoron - much?

Although it would be pleasant to spend non-scheduled days when
I retire, I suspect I'll make my own schedules anyway. No sitting
and relaxing for me - no sir! 

So have a great Thursday. I am actually running ahead of time today, so I'm going to get this posted and then see if I can get a quick 30-45 minutes of beading down on this monster project. Enjoy your day!

Update and A Celebration of Seasons in Photos

I'm short on time and in a mood for photos, but first a quick update. Yesterday's breakfast with my long-ago friend actually went pretty well. We'll try to get together again next month sometime, but I certainly won't return to the weekly routine that we had been on for more than 15 years. Nope - not happening! But, I'll see her a few times a year. Now for some pictures.

I was looking for something to indicate the passage of time, and found a lot
of these trees as seen through four seasons montages. I thought
that might be something really fun to share today. 

I asked for "Seasons of the Year" and found these images. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

I really liked the composition of this quartet. The person
seated in the upper photographs also adds a nice touch. The
moon and stars over Winter make it just that touch colder. 

I really enjoyed this one. The subtle changes from spring through winter
are really nicely realized. 

I really love this. It's called "Tree of the Four
Seasons" and is painted by artist Josephine Wall.
For more of her art, follow the link.
I've sold greeting cards with her artwork in my shop over
the years. She does some beautiful color work. 

Finally, I really enjoyed this more fanciful version of seasonal trees. It is
a Deviant Art piece, but I couldn't read the artist's name so I'm unable to give credit
 or a link. I love the way the sky moves over the entire piece, pulling it into
 cohesion, and the undulating ground also contributes to
this uniformity. It's cheerful and a bit whimsical. 

So there you have it. A celebration of seasons for all of you as autumn moves into the foliage with speed. Fall is almost here and winter is not far behind. The Autumnal Equinox is Tuesday - time's a fleein' quickly. Have a fabulous Friday!

Old Friends, New Choices

While at the State Fair a few weeks ago, I ran into an old friend who had tossed me out to dry several years ago, cutting us apart with a sharp knife. It was a rather bizarre situation that ended our friendship, and it was equally odd to run into her again quite unexpectedly. But, I am a forgiving person and when she mentioned that she was sorry and could we possibly get together, I agreed. We're meeting for breakfast today and I'm a little nervous.

So very true, this. LOL

I am looking forward to catching up with her, but I don't want to fall back into our old habits either. I will enjoy meeting with her, but don't want to pencil her in for weekly get-togethers again, even though that had been our schedule for more than 20 years. I want to take things slower this time, maybe meeting once a month, but not a lot more frequently than that.

Friendship isn't always a smooth road with an easy goal. 

A lot has happened in my life since she cut us off. I've intensified my writing, I've been published, I've participated in NaNoWriMo twice now, winning both times, in other words - I have other things clamoring for my time and have to be careful about what other obligations I allow into my life.

I do have several friends I have had for more than 40 years, this friend is
not one of them. But it will still be nice to see her again after being apart
for several years. 

So I'll quite happily meet her today and find out about her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and I'll also get the scoop on the death of her husband which I think was quite recent. She seems quite a bit sadder - the light has gone out. I don't want to cause more sorrow, so I'll be a listener because, I think that's what she needs right now. Because I am a friend.

Those small memories make up the ground upon which friends walk. 

Talk with one of your friends today. Let's keep this ripple flowing. Happy Thursday to all! Also, I just noticed that this is my 1750th blog post. My goodness - things certainly got out of hand, didn't they? LOL.

A Little Heartsick

So, I had hopes, slim but hopes nonetheless, that my friend who had tossed me out of her life while I was suffering with my root canal issues would realize that we had been friends for longer than I had been her client, and that we would manage to put all of this behind us.  I wanted to continue our friendship, although I have no intention of having her as my accountant any more.  Six weeks ago we had planned to get together again this morning for our usual Thursday morning breakfasts.  I phoned her yesterday and left a message asking her if we would be getting together for breakfast today and for her to phone me back.  I didn't get a call back.  I guess it is actually final, although I'm not willing to call it quits quite yet.  I'm stubborn, and I was her friend long before I was her client.  So I'm not giving up yet, although I probably should. 

One of the monitors at the shop has been dying for the past few weeks.  It starts the day out well, but by the end of the day the monitor screen has begun to shrink, making it difficult to turn the system off since it is shrinking the bottom control bar.  So I purchased a monitor yesterday and today (or Friday) I get the dubious joy of installing.  That means that Computer #1 will get a new monitor.  Computer #2 will get the monitor that had been on Computer #1, and the old Computer #2 monitor will have to be recycled.  It wouldn't be bad if there wasn't a crapload of stuff piled in front of the CPU for Computer #1.  My partner just can't seem to avoid piling things onto any horizontal surface.  Computer #2 will be easier to get to, but the cables have to snake through some tight holes.  I'm not sure I'm up for this today.  I probably would rather just be reading "Fall of Kings", the last book in the Swordspoint saga.  Have a wonderful Thursday.

Chilly in the Hot Weather

Well, conversation is still not happening at home.  I'm supposed to care about this, but realistically this has happened so many times that I just don't care anymore.  I did have an opportunity to see Eleanor yesterday for a later breakfast.  It was such a joy to see her again.  It's been such an emotional rollercoaster that she's been on with Lee's heart attack and the other health issues that he has had over the past three weeks, that she almost burst into tears in the restaurant at least three times.  It was my job to steer her to the positive things and get her away from the brink.  After all - he is still living, is improving, and shows every indication of continuing to improve.  That's a very good thing. 

The Hotel that we stay in for Metal Clay World.

I took advantage of early registration for Metal Clay World 2011 yesterday also, and phoned in my early-bird registration on the first day they were accepting them.  Last year's conference was absolutely wonderful - one of the best times I've had in a long time.  I can't wait for next year's, I'm sure it will be an equally wonderful opportunity to share creativity with friends, both old and new.  The PMC Conference and Metal Clay World switch years, so the conference I'm attending at the end of this month is the PMC Conference.  If it is held in Purdue again in 2012, and if the pre-conference classes are still as boring, I might skip the PMC Conference 2013 completely (that's providing our world doesn't completely self-destruct in 2012 as has so often been discussed).  Creativity - my life preserver in stormy seas. 

The route for Le Tour de France 2011.  Wicked mountains!

Le Tour de France begins tomorrow.  Can't wait!!!!

Accomplishments

Yesterday was a great day, even though I had to drive all over the cities for several hours of errands.  But after I finally got home in the early afternoon, I started work beading on my BFAC box and have almost finished it.  The heavy beading is complete, and I can do the fill-in beadwork around my sun tonight.  Then all I need to do is place my Swarovski crystals where I want them to go and glue them into place, mount the beadwork onto the box and mount the disk as the final step.  An end is most certainly in sight. 

I dropped by my friend Eleanor's office on the way home from dropping Meghan off after breakfast yesterday.  (Whew!  That's a bit of a confusing sentence, isn't it?)  I had been quite worried about Eleanor.  We normally get together for breakfast every Thursday morning and she had cancelled the past two weeks because her companion/husband was literally deathly ill - heart attacks and pacemakers, etc.  Not good.  But he is home from the hospital now and we can get together today, just at a later time.  So I'll add some more miles to my car, turn things on at the shop first, and then drive north to meet her for breakfast.  I'll have to see if this later time will become the new permanent routine because snow days may be a problem with this increased driving in bad snow.  But, for the summer and fall, it won't be a problem.  Right now she can't leave Lee on his own and has to wait until the home health care worker arrives for his/her shift.  She has two home health care people every day helping her out right now, one for the daytime and one for the afternoon/evening.  That can run through money quickly so I hope they will be OK through this.  I spent a half-hour with her getting the update on what had happened to Lee and how he was doing.  He almost died several times, so she's been understandably on edge.  Lee could use some positive white light if anyone reading feels as if they would like to send positive thoughts his direction.  I hope you have a day of accomplishments today!