what lies beneath

A little while ago I attended what just might be the 5th or 6th bi annual clothing swap. A small group of friends get together every other year or so in order to clean out their closet, eat, laugh and catch up. Basically we all paw through each others cast offs, take what we want and donate the rest to charity.

Its a win win.

One of us gets the racks out of my garage (who knew how much use I would get out of these silly racks when I bought them over a dozen years ago!)

We pick a date. RSVP, and losely plan a menue.

Then people arrive, unload bags of stuff, mostly clothes, some take advantage and bring plants and other household goods also... I scored a great big Sage plant this year!

then the fun begins! Some use the rest room, others, not so shy, try on clothes right there. There is a wide range of sizes and types that attend, sometimes there is that one right person for the article of clothing, lots of "OOhh, this is perfect for you" not so much fighting. Sarah and I did get into a staring contest over a grey mock turtle neck shell. She graciously let me have it.

Then there is some eating. But between bites some get up and look at other pieces that they didn't notice in the first rush.

What I finally realized this year is that it isn't about the clothes, it isn't about the food. It is about the women, their stories, their history. Their struggles...the house fire, the cancer, the death of a spouse or parent, the divorce, the tears. It is also about the triumphs...the birth of twins, the over coming cancer, the selling of a painting, the magazine article....

I have said it before, and I am sure I will continue to say it...

I LOVE MY FRIENDS

Kidnapped!

I have been laying low lately, still working on healing. Not doing too well at that. SO this week I decided that all I was going to do and little else since I go back to real life this coming weekend.
So Monday morning, first thing, my friend Chadwick calls and wants to take me out to lunch. WEll, I give him my spiel about needing to take it easy, lying low, healing...and then he says Exeter, scenic rides, I'll be back early.
I say "OK"
I honestly, truly really have no boundaries.
I need to work on this.
However....WE ended up having a nice morning and a great lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Enjoy your day!

How did I get here?

Do you ever find your self involved in something and at one point look up and around you and wonder...how did I get here?

I have been wondering that a lot lately/

Let me tell you, 25 years ago (or so) if you were to ask me where would I be at 40-ish, I would have said something about all the adventures I would have had earlier in life, and I probably would have seen myself pretty well settled and happy at this advanced age.

I don't know if I would have seen my self with children.

I don't know what I would have seen myself doing as a career.

I don't even know if I would have seen myself in 'my 20-year house'.

But where ever I saw myself, I certainly did not have a plan to get there.

But now...

A little french girl from podunk Nashua NH, how did I end up here? how did I end up being involved in an international incident (yeah, gonna let you stew about that one!)

How did I end up being a stay at home mom?

How did I end up getting a divorce? 

All of the above can be explained by choices made along the way. The whole journey so to speak. So I am going to let it go. All of it was suppose to happen to bring to where I am now, and I can change the future course of my life.

I get it.

But Seriously.......

How the hell did I end up getting wrangled to teach a course to Seniors on how to buy and sell on ebay?

Seriously.

and I am not even getting paid.

Thank You Sarah

Back!

Here is a copy of an email I sent a friend yesterday....

 I am going out of my everloving mind! I am on so much pain meds that I sleep all the time until I cannot sleep any more, and then I am still too spaced out to watch a movie or read a book, so I lay down for four hours, until it it time to get up to take more medicine which causes me to need to lay down for four hours.
until I get sick of it and realize that I am with it just enough to troll the internet and send shockingly incoherent emails to my friends, who have all been emailing me back asking me to look over the email I sent them, only to find that I can't make heads or tails out of it either, which tells me I didn't stay in bed quite long enough.
I am bored!!!!!!!!!

So Surgerys over and I am recovering.
these have been the 2 longest days of my life.
and not in a good way.

ALways changing.

Well, I have the job with the state ending soon, since they are closing down for the season. (not the state, the mansion...)
I have taken a part time position at a museum I have worked for repeatedly in the past. I joke that there is a revolving door in the basement with my name on it, I think this will be the 4th or 5th time I have come back. Honestly I thought that they have had enough of me. But lucky for me I was wrong.
Less traveling, a heck of a  lot less traveling. So maybe in the spring money will be found for a permanent position with the state, meanwhile, I will still be in the museum field working with a great bunch of people and having fun.
Oh, and a free membership, did I mention that?
got to love non profits, they try to make up for the low pay with perks.
But this Saturday (Oct 3rd) I will be drawing at the Circles of Wisdom in Andover Mass. From 10-4....it will be a long day, but I end up tired and energized at the same time after wards. If you are in the area, stop by. I should have a break in there sometime. It is Andover days, the whole down town will be in a fair like mode.

this is me practicing recovering from surgery...with book and dog, of course it will be sans dock and view....Oh Well

And then I will be having surgery next week. So I need to stock up on some movies...any suggestions? Has anyone seen The Duchess?  I want to see that....I am so out of the loop when it comes to recent movies. I will have to hit the net and do some research !

So What is it....

...about a man in a kilt?  Not one to usually fling my self into fantasy land over something visual....I have found myself to become quite interested in  this particualr article of mens clothing.
At the place I work, a wedding was held a few weeks ago where the groom was Scottish, not of Scottish descent, but actually hailed from Scotland. So we flew the Scottish flag, I didn't blink twice at the groom, his father and all the groomsmen popping the top of some beers at 9am when they were setting up(ahem, click on the picture and notice what the groom is holding)....but then the whole shindig started, and out came this parade of men in kilts.
Oh My.
And it gets better, some of the guests were in the Scottish Military, don't know what branch, don't care. But I have the imprint of that uniform on my brain.
Oh My.
Can anyone explain this phenomenon to me?

The New Puttering

Years ago, my mother use to use the terms 'puttering' and gallivanting' to describe non useful or productive activities. I would be 'puttering' if I was at home and wandering around doing nothing in particular. I would be 'gallavanting' if I were 'out and about' doing nothing in particular, and really getting nothing done. Just aimless going from mall to store to friends house....
I realized the other day, compared to today's 'tweeting' and 'face-booking' gallivanting and puttering are positively heroic in their demonstrated ability to get things done in an allotted amount of time!
I wonder what time will bring for our kids  generation?

I really have to get new pictures scanned in to my laptop...here is a photo of me rowing in college...and NOT meandering, gallivanting or puttering...actually getting something done!

My Baby

Is now 17 years old!
Actually, I am speechless at how quickly this has gone by.
I am at a loss for words.

 

 

 

  

  

 

Getting away from me

This blog has absolutely been getting away from me lately. I have been on a big push to clean and organize my house since the boys have been back in school.  So I have not been thinking about blogging. I have however been thinking about painting and tomorrow (yippee) I am going to get all my stuff out (effectively rendering all the cleaning I have been doing as useless, but I am turning a blind eye to that little piece of truth!)
So I promise to keep those updates frequent and timely.
Meanwhile I hope everyone is enjoying these beautiful end of summer days. This is my favorite time of year.

I am itching to put my garden to bed. My absolutely favorite garden chore. Though  if it is my favorite, then do I really enjoy my garden? I do, but I love how all neat and tidy it looks afterward. I so do not enjoy looking at all the spent and tired perennials trying to eek out a few more days of show...I'd rather collect the seeds and put them ...out of their misery, to bed. (such a nice euphemism)

Oh Well....

Debi over at Emma Tree beat me to the punch with this post title. I have been mulling over "Oh Well " for about a week now.
It is my new Mantra (yes, I have a mantra, doesn't everyone?)
It is surprisingly versatile.
I highly, HIGHLY recommend it to all of you out there. You would be surprised at the situations where it is exactly what is needed.
A friend of mine , a few months ago, was going to be out of the country over Mothers Day. Her Mother and husband were a tad bit miffed at her for this.
I looked at her when she said this, shrugged my shoulders and said "Oh Well."
A huge smile lit up her face.
"Oh Well, exactly"
as in Soo sorry that  you are put out by my actions, but honestly there is nothing I can, or for that matter, want to do about it.

Sarah has just emailed me some bad news (for me at least) I emailed back "I hate you"
what she did was respond in a caring and compassionate way...
what she could have done was to write back
"Oh Well"
and I would have been ok with that.

Son #1's GF (the GF as she is called around here) thinks I do not like her.
He came to me with this concern.
I tried to be the good mother and make all sorts of excuses (I am not here to be her friend, I am here to make sure I do not become a grandmother prematurely)...blah blah blah....what I could have/should have said was
"OH WELL"
...but I don't think it would have helped the GF/Son/Mom diplomatic relations....

Cleaning the kitchen, I got into it a little too much and didn't finish before dinner. I thought , Oh Lord, how and I going to feed them? as I surveyed the contents of each and every cabinet occupying every flat surface including the stove...
The first thought that popped into my head was (see, you're getting the hang of it)  "Oh Well"
as in 'you know, cereal for breakfast isn't a bad thing, it is probably a treat in their young lives..and really, 10 years, 1 year, heck in 1 week will this matter?'

So I am putting out this challenge to all of you, try and see how many times "Oh Well" comes in handy in the next few days.
And if you find yourself enjoying it , you have my permission to keep on using it.

Oh and it helps to add the classic Gallic shrug....
Raise your shoulders; hold up your hands, palms out; stick out your lower lip; raise your eyebrows
 

 

(OK, lacking an appropriate photo, here is me walking very very fast......)

Also do not pause, hesitate or in any way act uncertain when you utter these words...if you do, then they will know you are just trying it on for size and will pounce on your inner insecurity. OWN IT!

New things coming

I have been feeling this for a few weeks now. After a summer long sojourn from art, I have been feeling the stirrings of new work trying to get to the surface. perhaps with my job winding down, and the routine here getting more or less back to normal now that school has started, I will get back to creating. It is kind of exciting.
I will keep you all posted.

Really!?

Well, I don't know weather to laugh or just go to bed. There was this commotion in our house tonight. The dogs new something was a foot. They pleaded to be let out side. WE let them out. Then they were yelling to be let back in. Coco came in first (highly unusual) , this huge wave of something really awful smelling came in with her.
She quickly was put back out again. The we opened the door again, cautiously... I thought it smelled like skunk. But it was SOOO much worse. One of us went out side to investigate. The other one kept filling out the endless forms that the school insists on sending home each and every year.
One of us said that it was the smell of an electrical fire, or tires burning. WE do not live in an area that tires are usually found smoldering. I called the neighbors, he called the fire department. We both hung up at the same time.
"its just a skunk" I said.
"the firemen are coming" he said.
about 8 min later, just as a full ladder truck with its lights on made a slow circle around our block, the neighbor called
"did you call the fire department?"
"No, HE did"
Her son asked them in all seriousness "is this the first time they have smelled a skunk?"
I think I will just go to bed now.

The Bad Bad Day

You know how sometimes, you wake up one morning, and things seem...well...good. The humidity is gone, the day looks bright. You have plans. Then little by little, or sometimes, not so little. The day goes all to hell.
What happened? What did I do wrong? Did I anger the gods of beautiful sunny late summer days? Is this some kind of Karma backlash?
Is tomorrow another day as in another day to get it right? Another day to try again? Another day to take what you have learned and move forward? Or is it another day to get blindsided?
I guess the only thing to do is to go to bed and wait and see what happens tomorrow....
I'll keep you posted.

Time.....

To get off my duff and get some art made! I have been practically non creative all summer! Its funny how easy it is to get out of the habit...things get a little busy, you slow down, you tell yourself that 'just as soon as X is taken care of....' you will get back to business. I guess they are right, nature hates a void, so something else soon fills up the art void, and before you know it, after beating yourself up about not finding the time any more, you don't even know where to look for your art supplies, never mind put them to use!
The boys go back to school next week.
I am taking the time this week to organize and rearrange things here, so I will have more of a dedicated space....or so I like to dream!