Nope, nothing spectacular today,  This is just my senior pic from high school (well, one of them).  It's always been by far my favorite picture of me.  I have ALWAYS been really into 70s stuff and this SO reminds me of a 70s pic!!!   Isn't it groovy?!

  *disclaimer: no bell-bottoms were worn or harmed in the making of this 70's pic*

Hey everyone! 

Still feeling kinda cruddy today.  Coughing like a little chain smoker, which is kinda funny. 

Not sure if my job has gotten way way busier or if it's just been a rough two days, but I have REALLY been struggling to get everything done in time for deadlines.  I'm sure in a day or two though, I'll have figured out a way to work my new tasks into my routine! :)  Today the other office person was gone, so that made it really crazy.  I did still have occasional free moments to read my mail and blog though so I guess life is still good :)  I also got caught up totally today, to the point I would be in a normal week, so by tomorrow I hopefully will be blog-hopping away!

I'd been feeling really plain lately, so, as a form of therapy, I went shopping.  Hahahaha sounds like a great excuse, eh?  I actually just went into the dollar store to buy a bandana.  That's all I wanted.  Just a simple bandana.  I walked out with 2 hats, one set of headbands (which I have no idea how to make them look cute... but I'll figure something out), 2 sweaters (one pink, one a pale green color)... and of course, as you guessed, no bandanas.  LOL 

I tried to take pics of the hats Mrs D but my camera just doesn't do well inside... every pic I took was full of glare.  :(  I'll try and have someone else take pics of me soon with my hats okay? 

Now I'm gonna hurry and post my SPT and get to bed, I just looked at the clock and it's 10:15!  I'd meant to be already asleep by now, and I still need to do my "morning" pages and several other things.  *sigh*  I think I'm gonna give up and just go to bed.. If i can't rest enough to fight off this cold, I'll never get better. 

"Remember that in order to recover as an artist,
you must be willing to be a BAD artist."

"Give yourself permission to be a beginner."

I had meant to blog about my reactions to this part of my chapter, but forgot until I was bloghopping and came to the blog of another AWer who had mentioned it. 

I was so releived to read that... which is illogical, but hey, whatever.  Anyway... sometimes I feel like anything I start creatively must be instantaneously perfect.  I can't start out writing a paragraph, I must start with an epic novel.  I can't draw a stick person, I must draw an anal-retentively detailed sketch of a full-life scene.  I can't crochet a simple potholder, or knit an easy scarf, I must design a masterpiece. So it's nice to realize that the creative things I try to have to start out perfect.  It's okay to do childish projects, write a story (or a blog post) that doesn't make perfect sense, and misspell words, just cause you can! LOL  

That takes off SOOOOO much pressure... that obsessive need for perfection... the constant desire to prove that it's "good enough" to meet a certain set of standards.  It gives me the freedom to experiment, to try new things, to be creative just because I can, without having to WORK so hard at it... cause isn't creativity supposed to be fun???    

Okay guys, this one looks REALLY fun!!!!  I posted it seperately cause I thought it would be fun if we all did it!

Task #8 - If you had five other lives to lead, what would you do in each of them?  
   I'd be a world traveler, author, photographer, lab person/scientist, professional computer geek!

What about you all?  List your five!

Then, part two of this task is... look over your list, choose one, and do it this week!

I've already taken pics (will put them up when I'm feeling better) and I think I might write a story about them.  We'll see!!

Well, I decided to put two of my weekly tasks on my blog for you all to see.  I've already done tasks 1-3... well, actually I'm still working on #1, (the morning pages,) and I've already done and blogged about #2... and #3 wasn't public broadcast material.  You all are still strangers, and I don't want to be THAT vulnerable yet.  So... Here's #4:

Task #4: Select and write out one horror story from you monster hall of fame.  (not directly related to to creativity in my case, because I was too emotionally shattered to ever display any creativity, or anything else remotely revealing about myself)
   I remember the first time I was made fun of at school.  I was in kindergarten, probably close to the beginning of the year.  The kids at school had used the 1 hour bus ride to my house to unmercifully tease me, and I'd gotten off the bus, tears still fresh, and desperately needing to be told I wasn't all the mean things they'd said I was.  When my dad asked why I'd been crying, and I hesitantly told him what had happened, I really needed loved... instead he thought touch love was the order of the day, yelled at me, and called me a baby @#%.  I was crushed... he was my daddy, my hero... and he'd just told me I was even worse than all the things they'd called me. 

Task #6 List three old champions of your creative self-worth.

1. Mr Grover - 7-8th grade Art.  I remember going to his art class and learning about basic shapes, lighting, shadows, perspective... but more than anything I remeber never ever being made fun of in his class.  I don't remember him ever yelling at anyone for doing it... something about his class just suppressed it.  I remember him liking my projects, and being able to do them just as good and even better than some of the other students!

2. Mr. Reberger - 10th grade Band.  I remember going from the school where I'd gone to grades K-9, and moving to a school about half of it's size.  I moved there, and joined the band.  I was valuable to them because as a school with a very small band, a student who could play the clarinet AND the trumpet was a wonderful thing! I practiced hard (to beat Laura Schibley and be the first chair clarinet player haha) and got a lot of compliments.  They scapped the chair competition though because they didn't want to "rock the boat," but the band teacher told me I had beaten Laura, so I felt kinda warm and fuzzy inside.  Anyway, I got lots of compliments that year and was almost never made fun of. 

3. Janice Davis - A lady from my old church.  She moved to our area and we taught Sunday School together.  I was used to just being accepted... not complimented, not insulted, just accepted.  She came in, and seemed so amazed at everything I did.  She complimented me on how I decorated the room (which, the time frame in which she came into the class WAS my best decorating time ever! *big grin*) , she complimented me on how I taught the kids, she complimented me on the way I played the drums during worship service... I thought she was just kinda strange LOL but thinking back I am pretty sure she really did mean those things!!! I need to send her (and maybe Mr. Groover?) a card.  *nodding wisely*

Yep, you guys got it.  I finally get over monthly stuff, and immediately get sick with a cold.  So, I won't be to talkative today.  I'm gonna eat some soup & my leftover cheesebread, take some Benadryl Allergy/Cold, and fall asleep on the couch reading the rest of Chapter one of AW.  (Probably while watching Discovery Health)

Also, I may be a little less chatty in general for a while.  Remember when I told you that my boss had added a task to my workload?  Well, it's sapping up more of my time than I planned, so until I get in the groove of doing it, I may be posting a little less and bloghopping WAY less.  So no one feel unloved okay?? I'll be back to hopping around again in no time I'm sure :)

Hey everyone!  I watched two veggietales movies a few weeks ago at my cousin's house, and finally am getting around to doing a movie review.

Veggietales - Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush 

This one was VERY cute but I am a die-hard Indiana Jones fan, so of course I had a moral obligation to love it.   I burst into laughter when the Cuke was going from place to place and they had the little map with a dotted line showing where the plain was going!!! DEFINATELY a great movie.  The moral lesson was about bullies, and how to deal with them.  I wish dealing with bullies had been that easy in real life... but maybe it was and I just never tried it.  *shrug*  Anyway, cool movie, and loved the "artifact" being Samson's hairbrush... as silly as the idea of the Ark of the Covenant making the Nazi army invincible (hello, like God's gonna supply THEM with power?! Pshhh I do not EVEN think so!)   The silly song is great too!!!

Veggietales - Lord of the Beans

OMG I absolutely loved this one!!!!  I just absolutely rolled in laughter!!!! Instead of Hobbits, they have Flobbits!!!!!! hahahaha  This movie was SOOOOO great and actually it had a wonderful moral lesson as well.  Obviously it was based on Lord of the Rings, so the characters in it were AWESOME!!!!!  You all have GOT to see it!!!!!  And you gotta see Junior Asparagus's hair!!!! Hahaha it's too cool!!!! 

Okay, for those of you who are not doing AW and just reading my blog, I should explain what an Artist Date is. 

Basically it's a date with yourself, for like 2 hours per week, to do something that you love and that inspires your creativity. 

So yesterday I decided to do my Artist Date.  It was BEAUTIFUL outside!!!!  I got dressed (with a long john shirt under my regular shirt, and a jacket on top of that... a pair of tights, with an extra pair of knee-high socks over them, under my skirt... and off I went! 

I decided I wanted to do some back-roads traveling just for fun... but as you all know, I just moved here.  So just FINDING a stupid back road was an adventure! Haha.  I could only think of one place where there were back roads, so I got in my little car, drove over the Wabash River, and into West Terre Haute (Hello, can we say GHETTO?! Whew... I think all the redneck jokes about cars in your front yard were made from that city hahaha)  And, randomly choose a back road.  Drove, took pics, drove, took more pics, drove... and thought I saw something on the top of a hill.  So, circled back (I swear, anyone who saw me at any time that day must have thought I was on crack os something!) and what did I find???  An old deserted cemetery!

So, being the wierd person that I am... I got out of the car, and hiked up the hill to see the cemetery.  It was SOOOOO pretty.  None of the stones were still standing up, so most were propped against trees.  I took lots of pics, and then decided (thinking of the poor geneology buffs probably desperately seeking info about their loved ones in that cemetery) to write down all the dates & stuff and put it online.  So... did that.  Then, realized that there should be more stones.  (lots of sunk down holes) so kicked around some leaves... and uncovered at least 4 more stones!  All of the stones (like 10 or 12) were for people who died within a year of each other... 1850 - 1851.   I think I might write a short story about them.  *nodding wisely*  There must have been an epidemic of some kind.   It'd be fun to write a story about

Then, tried to drive back to civilization... cause I was truly in the middle of nowhere!!!  Eventually got home, after a WONDERFUL date with myself!  Hopefully soon I'll post some of the neat pics I took while I was exploring!  I found this wierd little brick wall along a road, I want to see if anyone knows why it might have been there.  Saw some ducks too... aren't they supposed to be migrating right about now?

Today i findally took the plunge and did my morning pages!!!  I had planned on doing them at home before I came to work, but I didn't get up in time for that to be a possibility.  So instead I brought the notebook with me (which unfortunately was COLLEGE ruled... my hand hurt SOOOO bad by the time I was done)  and actually I think it worked out better.  I didn't have any customers, any tasks scheduled, or anything else I was supposed to be doing, so I had the freedom to do my pages.  I enjoyed not having any distractions.  I think maybe I'll take my morning pages with me and stop at a park on the way to my other job from now on, because it is SOOOO hard to sit at my house without thinking of a million things I need to be doing. 

Kind of enjoyed the morning pages this morning, it's a whole lot like writing in your blog.  Like blogging with a pen instead of a keyboard hahaha.

Now that my boss is gone, I think I'm going to do some cleaning here and then read the rest of Chapter 1.  I started reading it earlier and was actually... moved... by it.  Just the image of little dreamers, having their dreams slowly snuffed out by so many things... "it's not practical.  You can't get a job from that. How will you get money to eat?"  I guess no one had the opportunity to really snuff out mine, because I instinctively knew as a child that artistic things wouldn't be appreciated/encouraged in my house.  So no one ever knew my artistic urges existed.  Tho my mom does have some VERY cute little stick figures that I drew her hahahaha 

Haven't decided on an artist date yet... I'll probably check the local paper, see what's going on this week and if there's anything I'd want to do. 

Feeling better today, though still a bit queasy.  One of the guys made homemade noodles & mashed taters for us today for lunch, and it is SOOOOOO good!!!!

My boss gave me a new daily task today.  I'm not sure if that's good or not, but I think I'll like it.  I've done this task before, but only when one of the guys was on vacation.  It's not that hard, just kinda monotonus (sp?).

I'm so badly craving a Diet Coke.  I know that caffine is bad right now... but I want one SOOOOO bad!!!!!!

Kathryn gave me a link to a knitting site, so I'm gonna attempt to make a scarf this weekend.  Well, I don't mean I'm gonna FINISH it this weekend.  I'm gonna start.  Or maybe I'll start with making one for my little cousin's Barbie dolls? LOL That I could finish this weekend.

Other weekend goals:

Laundry.  I have got to get it done!
My living space MUST get cleaned before my sanity suffers!
Must read the rest of the AW intro and post wise thoughts.
Finish my first project for Mixed Media Memoirs
Be at church Sunday AM for Breakfast. Maybe even ON TIME!
Start AW Morning Papers tomorrow, when I wake up, VERY late in the day! *grin*
Take down the Christmas junk and find somewhere to put it!
Love on my cat.  She's sad.
Make a new banner for my blog.  I'm bored with this one.
Take pictures!!!! (No real reason... just cause I can! hahaha)