ABC

A while back I fell upon the ABC's of Me Art Journal Prompt. It's a site that on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month, gives a letter prompt. I imagine it started at the beginning of this calendar year as I discovered it at the letter "j", the word prompt being "just". I didn't do anything with it except cogitate, then before I knew it "k" and "karma" were up. Again, I got busy with other stuff. Then "l" came along with "look" and I felt a twinge. I rather like this one. I had a piece of watercolor paper that was a miserable mess so I turned it over and worked the back. It's an odd size - 7 x 9 1/2 - odd because I was looking to frame something else I did on another piece of paper from the same block and there is nothing standard about the size. But it appeals to me, quite possibly because it is odd. Have I blithered on enough?

I was experimenting with diluted bleach on photographs, at the same time inspired by the Queen of Arts self portraits. This is truly mixed media, I think there is everything on this one.

Q24 & Q25

I have now caught up (so a new question can be posted later today) with *e*'s 24th and 25th questions. Phew! Q24 was, "Name something you don't understand, but you want to..." Well, I thought about that one for almost two weeks. I thought I might go deep and esoteric, pondering the big questions in and about life but it didn't feel right. So I went for the funny bone, the cornball, but it's sincere. I really don't understand this. Here it is, front and back:

The back reads: Nothing quite says acne like "Clearasil", does it? I would like to understand why, at 48, I can get just as vicious acne as I did at 14. Haven't I paid my dues? WTF?! Who knew you could wake up with fresh wrinkles and pimples on the same day on the same face!

The Clearasil logo photoshopped, the back is simply scrapbook paper but I thought it kind of looked like whiteheads!

The Q25 was, "Have you had a hug today?" I went for the cornball again, but all I could think of was teddy bears and my son. Scrapbook paper and embellishments, ink.

The back reads: It is hard, if not impossible, to live in a house with a small child and NOT get hugs even before you get out of bed and multiple times throughout the day. YES! I've had a hug today!

Perspective

I was just reading Mary's last post over at Holy Mackerel, about the important things in life, after two icons of our time lost their lives last week. I had had recent, similar thoughts but she has put it oh-so-succinctly. As a female growing up in the 70's, every girl my age and older and younger wanted, if not to be her, wanted Farrah Fawcett's hair. She was beautiful, sexy, longed for by the male population we wanted to be longed for by. (horrible grammar, sorry about that). She was married to the six-million dollar man, for goodness sake. Then when hearing about her health problems I thought, how interesting that now, no woman would want to be her. To go from one to the other must be hard, but more importantly in my mind, it made me realize how happy I am to be me, living my life, warts and all.

Slide

From last Wednesday's St. Jean festivities over at the park with the inflatables - one of the giant slides. I can't believe how big my boy is looking, kind of all elbows and knees gangly. I love him.

Scat By Any Other Name

We put off going to the cottage yesterday because of some nasty weather. Instead we went to see "Up". We saw the 3-D version which I wasn't sure Riley would sit through because of the glasses and the effect, but with some toilet paper shoved in his ears to dull the jacked up sound, he made it through with just a handful of moments hiding in my lap. A terrific, terrific film full of metaphors and visually lovely. It's the kind of film you want to buy after you've see it, and that coming from me who doesn't much see the value of owning a film you've already watched.

But this morning after a little dithering, we packed up the car and headed north. I'm happy to report that with the exception of a few droppings here and there, the bulk of which were in Riley's room (drats! going to have to find the hole they are creeping through to get in there), it was a varmint free house. The only other wildlife was your standard lot of houseflies, which had all died of natural causes, so within a couple of hours the house was cleaned down and we are now ready for the next block of time when we can go and just have fun. There were a couple of mysterious piles of scat on the main deck, though, which puzzled us to no end. While cleaning it up, we were analyzing the details, trying to figure out what on earth could have left the deposits. You know, bigger than a breadbox but smaller than a car. There were a couple of standard piles and another couple that had been left up on a stack of logs. I was wracking my brain, thinking what kind of animal would bother to climb up to take care of business as most wild ones usually just drop as they go. These were deliberate collections. I didn't think to whip out my camera for some reason but I'm gathering you are all grateful that I didn't. When my handyman came by we talked about it and showed him the evidence and he pronounced it porcupine poo. B-I-G porcupine. Now I need to find a natural deterrent for porcupines as one of my dogs will certainly be getting a snoot full of quills unless we can relocate it. Right now I need to go and nurse the 18 blackfly bites I have on my neck. They went for the jugular.

Friday Haiku

Bequeathed an Award
An Uber Amazing Blog
What can I say?....Thanks!

This award came from my friend and fellow blogger, Snap. At the risk of repeating myself, what can I say, but Thanks! It touches me to know that what I'm putting out there makes a difference in other people's lives, even one other life. I will try to live up to it.

Snap and Brenda, another fellow blogger also gave me other awards recently which I have, up until now, neglected to mention and thank them for. This all happened at a time when my life got very suddenly frantic and I dropped a few threads. So sorry about that but I do love the sentiment. And in this case, I'm on it!

Early tomorrow morning I'm doing something foolish - I'm dropping some more threads, leaving so much unattended here at home to run up to my cottage to "open" it up for the summer, chase out any wild life that moved in over the winter, fingers crossed that the water pump will be working (if not it will mean hauling pails from the lake for washing up the droppings), get the pedal boat in the water, make sure the dock didn't float away once the ice broke on the lake and so on and so forth. I also have my fingers crossed that the blackflies have died off. It will be a short trip, just to bring things up to snuff for the rest of the summer but it will be computer-less. I only have dial-up and am looking forward to a two or three day email repose. Lots to come once I'm back, I promise!

In The Garden

A little something I've been tinkering with. Inspired by the spring/summer and the surge of green growth. I love this time of year. Collage, pencil, ink & distress ink, acrylic and masks on 4 x 6 140lb. watercolor paper.

Missing

Missing, front and center. Oh, how I've dreaded this moment. The "look" is now changed forever. Soon one big horse-sized tooth will grow in and the smile I've adored for so long will be different. Oh, I'll still love him to bits. And he is over the moon. *sigh*

Books

I recently finished both my fiction and non-fiction book. I usually have one of each going, with the fiction one mostly reading faster. Gail McMeekin's, "The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women," I had mixed feelings about. I'm glad I read it but it did seem a little lofty at times. It comes with very interesting references which I will check out. I have already posted about the chapter on priorities, me coming away thinking there is no way I can dedicate enough of my time to my art since one of my most important priorities is hand raising my son. The following chapter was about our personal saboteurs and I felt a little relieved after that one. I haven't done all the homework in the book yet and one thing I did find interesting was that although she interviewed and included many fascinating women, she admitted there were a number of women she approached that declined to be included in the book because it was gender slanted. I will be the first to admit that we do still live in a patriarchal society, even in 2009, but more and more women are gaining ground as equals, not as "better". To repeat myself, I'm glad I read it.


The fiction book I just finished was recommended by Sherry Lee and what a surprise, the author turns out to be a neighbor of one of my other fellow bloggers, Snap. "The Bright Side of Disaster," by Katherine Center was fun. It was light but intelligently written. A tad predictable, perhaps, but still great vacation reading or perfect for when you've just inundated yourself with more intense material to unwind with and just plain enjoy the pleasure of reading. I will be looking for more of her books at the library.

Sara's Give-Away

Sara is having a give-away over at Locuasia. Go and see the pretties she is offering up, but hurry because she is closing the gates on Sunday night!

Wordless Wednesday

Wreck This Journal, Week 3

Here it is, my second vlog, week 3 of the wreck. I didn't do so well this week, but I did learn a lot about how I hold back during the creation process, how my fear of mucking it up is so strong. So that's a good thing. I'll be much more aware of that as I head into this studio this week. I might even do some real damage to the book.




And, still life with compost, after a few spins around the drum:

Credit

Yes, there is a new look over here, with more to come. Coding is the bane of my existence, though...I would love to take credit for the lovely design but it's a download from Lena (her link is at the bottom of my blog). I was in need of three columns with a new thing coming on soon, I wanted to separate it from my other lists. But in the switch over I lost my book list and the list of blogs I frequent. I'll get it back, slowly but not all today as it's my last free day in the studio for an unforeseen period of time. Tomorrow is Riley's last day of school so I'll have some feet under mine for a couple of months. Can't wait! I love that kid! Happy Monday!

Colours?

Last weekend I bought an orange coloured cauliflower. In the past I have bought all the different designer colours purple, green and goes-with-everything-white. I have been noticing all week while cutting it up that it has these rings of orange colour down the stems and I have been wondering what in the heck "they" colour it with. Does anybody know? Do they water it with food colouring while it's growing? Do they inject it with food colouring shortly before sending it to market? What other colours have they tried to produce, but failed? Did red turn into a grotesque pink? Did they ever try to make a gothic (black) one? I am curious and a little perturbed. But I might stick with the classic white from now on.

3 Columns Question

I'm throwing a question out there - I'm trying to edit my template to make three columns instead of two. I have found a few online sources but whenever I do a "preview" all my existing right column ends up on the bottom. Does any one have a sight that spells how to do this simply? Muchas gracias.

Book

I stayed up last night to finish, "Let Loose the Dogs," by Maureen Jennings. This is a book I've had for a couple of years, found in the discount bin at Chapters shortly after my friend Christine told me about her friend (the author) and another book she wrote called, "The Map of the Mind" which was all about creativity. Lately I have been trying to read up the pile of books I was given or I had bought because I thought it was a good idea at the time, most of them dating back a few years. This is a historical murder mystery with Jennings popular detective character, William Murdoch. It was a fun book, an easy read, with most of the story taking place in the late 1800's Toronto. There is not much more to say about it but it was complete, didn't disappoint or leaving me wondering why or how. The language was in keeping with the time period it was written about and if you like historical murder mysteries then I would recommend it. Now, after catching up with my own rather historical pile, I'm free to move on to those wonderful library books I picked up this week.

Photo Tag

My fellow blogger, Beth, has a challenge up on her blog and I have been tagged. Take the first folder from your photos, choose the tenth picture in that photo, post it and tell the story behind it. Mine is kind of boring as I have an awful lot of stock of Riley, but here goes:


The odds that it would be a photo of Riley were pretty high. And I only have photos on my computer starting from last December, the rest are stored on my MyBook so it's not even an old one PLUS to validate my retentiveness, the folders are alphabetical . From December 2008, probably Riley's last swimming lesson, also taken with my old camera.

Anyone else up for this little challenge - consider yourself tagged! Happy weekend!

Haiku Friday

Today's haiku is accompanied by a photo, because it frustrated me so...

The end of the floss
Shouldn't there be a warning?
Off to the drug store

Rambling

This will likely be a rambling post. After a few days away from blogging it seems I have so much to say and absolutely nothing relevant at the same time. I am not new to irony.

The photo I posted yesterday was taken when I was at the Guelph public market last month. I had stood in line to get an ounce of wheat grass juice and this delicious ropey thing was coming out the other end of the grinder. One end juice, the other end green, unusual ropey-thing. The woman making the juice grabbed a piece off and tossed it to me (I guess I was eying it rather hungrily). It looks like a martian dreadlock to me but I loved the texture and the way it would swing around in the air. I took a few shots of it before I let it go as it was rather inappropriate for me to carry it around for the rest of the day.

This afternoon at Riley's school we had the volunteers' cocktail, thanking everyone who donated time throughout the year. And we had real wine and a nice little spread. The kids present ate all the cupcakes and drank all the juice boxes and the adults ate all the shrimp and goat cheese and drank from the more potent boxes. All this at 3:15 in the afternoon. For all the bashing I give this city and its culture, I have to take my hat off to those who are up to having a tipple in the afternoon, in the school library no less.

I also went to the municipal library this morning, hoping to stock up on some summer fiction and came away with five books. One Grisham from 2005 which I don't remember reading but in 2005 Riley was two years old and any spare time I had then I chose to sleep. I also picked up the Stephanie Kallos that Beth had recently recommended, a Katherine Center book recommended by Sherry Lee and I forget what else. There is no possible way I will read all five within the three week time allotted but it's nice to have a fresh pile of fiction waiting for me.

I have been puttering in the studio too, with somewhat discouraging results. While doing some Wrecking (or rather, trying to do some Wrecking in my Wreck This Journal) I am realizing how incredibly retentive I am when it comes to creativity. I guess that is a good thing (the "recognition", not the "being") because although it has been kind of a disappointing week in the studio, I think I have learned a fair amount and found some other avenues I would like to explore. I have been trying to do gel medium transfers, my first few were dismal. No, beyond dismal they were ineffectual and turned my piece(s) into scrap. On the counsel of the Queen of Arts, I trotted off to Bureau En Gros for some sheets of acetate, but could only find projector transparencies for ink jet at an ungodly price. I ended up buying a package of 5 for about $15. I received a lovely scanner/printer for Christmas last year - the Epson 800 Artisan and today discovered that it doesn't print transparencies because it doesn't "see" them. Poo. I am glad my vintage 2002 Epson Stylus had some ink left because it does print transparencies although the colors it prints are not true to what I see on the computer screen. Double poo. I have been working on a piece for my friend Tammy for her birthday next month. She has recently gone through a difficult separation and has two very young children and a needy schnauzer, not to mention a day job and a full mortgage. I wanted to make something special and for some reason I thought it would involve a transfer. After two tries (complete with sanding in between each transfer) here is a detail of today's adventures:

I transferred more than I wanted, in the way of text surrounding the dragonfly and less than I wanted in other detail and am just feeling like Bill the Cat, AAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK! (Reference to Opus earlier this week). But I think it is still salvageable, might even turn out nice enough to not hide away in her bedroom.

On the positive side I have had a lot of fun and experimentation with photography, not that I have anything concrete to show for it beside the tag I posted on Monday. But if anyone has any helpful hints about gel medium transfers, I'm all ears - what you print on, the length of time you let the ink sit, how much gel medium you use and how long you leave the image on to transfer, I would love to hear from you, anything that has worked for you in the past, even if it hasn't been consistent.

A special thank you to all the teachers out there who are winding down their year and saying good bye, with joy or reluctance and a few pangs, to their students. Hurray for teachers! You will never know the difference you make in so many lives.

Wordless Wednesday

Q23

*e*'s Q23: How can I be kinder to myself?

I started with a photograph of me, giving myself a hug and ran it through befunky.com. I discovered a few more goodies while I fiddling over there, such as adding text right into your photo, which I did here. That aspect is somewhat limited, but good enough for what I was trying to accomplish. The back is the same photo run with a different treatment, which I then took through photoshop to change the color. For some reason I was working all kinds of green with this, both front and back before I settled down with what you see here. (The back reads: Hold yourself closer girl, for starters. Play more. Keep on the path of accepting yourself for who you are and where you are. Forgive yourself and FORGET. Remember what really matters at the end of the day.)

Opus

In my town the powers that be are intending to do away with the lowly strip of bus and commuter train tickets. Billions of dollars were spent on study after study for a few years and the result was the Opus Card. A credit card size piece of plastic with a little chip in it that allows you to load it with certain numbers of tickets. The price of this environment saving genius is $7.00 (before tickets are bought and added on) but for a limited time they are offering it at $3.75. I bought one a while ago and was astonished to find that I couldn't load both bus tickets and commuter train tickets on the same card. Lo! Those billions of dollars spent on studies did not go to waste, they figured they would recoup some of that by making us (the ignorant public) buy two or more cards for different services. These cards have been proven to be extremely fragile and have been fraught with problems since their release amongst the unsuspecting masses. And if they aren't already, they should be a sore spot for those who designed and produced them. My own experience has not been limited to realizing I need two separate cards to get to work as last week (the day after I had just loaded it with twelve new bus/metro tickets), it failed to perform when I boarded my bus. It squawked and made a series of red "alert' lights flash on the machine that is to read it. I tried and re-tried and then tried again. Luckily, the bus driver did not throw me off and instead told me to sort it out once we arrived at the metro. In this circus-like state of a city I live in, it stands to reason that our transportation cards would be named after a herring-eating, tuba-playing, white-brief-clad paranoid penguin from bloom county. Berke Breathed would be proud.

Free Photo Editing Class

I wanted to pass along that Jessica Sprauge is offering a free photo editing class over here at Jessica Sprauge.com. Registration runs from June 22 to 28 only with the class starting on July 6. It's a great opportunity for anyone who has photoshop or ps elements to finally learn some of the basic techniques or to get more out of the program. I'm signing up because I spend a shameful amount of hours trying to teach myself to do what I want to do. And there is no limit to the amount of time you can access the lessons. If you are going on vacation or have the kids home for the summer, you will still be able to log on and learn anytime in the future, but you'll have to register. What do you have to lose?

Oh, and by the way, I am not getting paid to flog this. I have taken a couple of Jessica's classes and have gotten my money's worth, and then some.

Dirty Feet

My sweet, vulnerable six-year old had his first sleep-over last night. A girl called Pearle, in his class since September, and her twin, Olivia, had their sixth birthday party last night. He wasn't the only boy at the party but he was the only one who slept over. Too liberal, perhaps? But they are only six, for goodness sake. Pearle had her eye on Riley from the first day of kindergarten, causing quite a rivalry with Celeste, whose radar also picked up on my son. Pearle and Celeste have, according to stories related to me, had an ongoing war about which one is going to marry my son. I'm told it has gotten quite ugly at times. And my poor little guy, caught in the crossfire, not really wanting to marry either one but not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings, his own feelings be damned, apparently. He came home this morning, exhausted and very unlike himself. He also came home filthy. I'm not ashamed to admit this because he had a great time, and passed another milestone, his first night away from home. *sigh* He was so wonky I tricked him into laying down with me after lunch and after only a few minutes, the boy-who-does-not-sleep, fell asleep. Here's a shot of his dirty feet. There is going to be some ring around the bathtub tonight.


And a little thing I whipped off last night while my boy was out partying. I'm not used to being in the studio at night, so I'm not sure if it's even finished. I was, again, inspired by the distress inks.


P.S. For anyone who is less liberal than I, all the kids slept in a camper in the backyard with one of the parents, about six in all, if memory serves.

Wreck This Journal, Week 2

Eeeek, my first video blog. I still hate the way my voice sounds and forgive me all the "ummmms" and "aaaaahs", I was pretty nervous and even though I frequently talk to myself, this was of a different caliber. I also avoided putting my face in, I think the wrecked pages is enough ugly for one post.

Haiku Friday

My dog's nose can be
A pleasure seeking missile
Nothing personal

Book

Yesterday I finished Lewis DeSoto's, "A Blade of Grass". I will try to be gracious about this one. It is one of the most if not the most depressing book I have ever read. There may be one that surpasses this but it escapes my memory at the moment and maybe if someone else has read it they can tell me something positive or uplifting about it. It is beautifully written. But from beginning to end one terrible thing after another happens. There is no better way to say it. The protagonist never finds redemption and all relationships are grim. There, I'm done.

Wordless Wednesday

P.S. A few words following the comments. Riley is holding the garden hose (you can see it coiling around his leg and in the background)!

Q21

Oh, I got behind again. *e*'s question from three weeks ago, "If you had a free day with NO restrictions, what would you do?" What a great time I had thinking about this one. It was rather nice these last weeks thinking about the perfect day. And since I've been attracting a lot of bird energy, I included them as they represent freedom and flying and soaring. Scrap book paper and ink.

Better Than This

Is there anything better than pulling off the heel of a fresh baguette and eating it just like that? It's incredibly decadent but sometimes when I grocery shop I'll buy the baguette just for a snack. It was great.

Wreck This Journal, Week 1

I feel like such a dork. A month or more ago I signed up to participate in the Wreck This Journal read-along. And I sat waiting for some kind of "OK, we're up and running" email, which never came. Finally, I went over to the blogsite for it to see if I had written down the date wrong but there was everybody, in full wrecking swing, as it were. Now I've frozen - eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! So I did a page at the beginning - "Crack The Spine". See? Perfectly cracked.


I can't even remember how long this process runs for - I'm claiming peri-menopausal syndrome where my hormones take over my brain, leaving me and it devastated and gasping for breath. I might be up to another page tomorrow.

Birds in the Belfry

The strangest thing happened tonight walking my dog. We came upon a bird in the middle of the road, just sitting still. I approached it, thinking my movement would make it fly away, I was hoping to get it out of traffic. It didn't move so I nudged it with my foot and it just took a little hop. I nudged again and it flew up and landed on the dog's leash. I gently walked it back to the sidewalk and tried to shake it off in the grass near some bushes but it held on. I shook a little harder but it held fast, it even swung around like a gymnast on the leash. So we took up walking, I walked all the way home, hoping to get a picture of it but it flew away just as the camera came out. I believe it was a baby cardinal, it had little tufts of baby feathers, a fledgling. I was so relieved to see it fly and it did go high, right up into a tree. I had started to wonder what the heck I was going to do with it. And that white bush on my neighbor's property? It is bridal veil spirea. I thought it was called that because it would make a beautiful cascading bouquet but it also turns to confetti at a certain stage. Here, after my dog walked under one of those bushes, she even got some in her eye:

Haiku Friday

It's hard to believe
I'm at a loss to compose
My Friday Haiku

It's a cop-out, I know. But iMan came back at supper time and everything's just breaking loose. It's the best I can do.

Due

I never meant to sound disparaging about "The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women". I really should give it its proper due and I will once I have turned the last page. I had to laugh at myself after I last posted about feeling inadequate as an artist because I don't put me high enough on my list (actually I do, but that's another story) of things to do. Later that night I got in the bath, one of my favorite places to read, and turned to the next chapter in the book - which is all about personal saboteurs. Well, well, well. Thank you very much, Universe. I guess I needed that.

Things are getting back to normal here, or as normal as they ever get. The next two days I can foresee having a good chunk of time in the studio. I really need that as any time I have scrounged during the last ten days or so, I seem to have given myself permission to make some really ugly art. I don't dare to share, for risk of breaking anyone's computer screen.

I'll leave with a picture of the epitome of happy, for me anyway.

Wordless Wednesday

Book(s)

I am about half way through "The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women" (Gail McMeekin) after seeing reference to it on a number of other blogs I read. It's inspiring, but I think I have to admit that I just can't do it all. So much of it rings true but, I personally can't see how single-parenting can leave me enough time for "becoming" or even "being" much of anything. There is a chapter on Committing to Self-Focus which talks about making your own needs and dreams enough of a priority. Sounds great in theory but....I want to be there these early years of my son's life, these years that he still wants to hang out with me, wants me to help him with things, explain things and answer his questions. I want to spend the time to hear what he thinks, what his day was like, who bugged him or helped him out at school. And you can't get all that in one little bundle of allotted time. It comes out little by little, prompted by other things that are going on, this is information that can't be forced or made to share simply because it's convenient for me right now to listen to it instead of when it's convenient for him to tell me. Honestly, it has left me feeling inadequate as an artist.

A quote, "The problem is the simple reality that the act of writing a poem or a novel, of painting a picture, of sculpting a form, of choreographing a dance, of composing an etude is not a simple or time-bound activity. Rather, it requires a total commitment of energies and attention, and an ability to suspend time and space - eureka, the heart of the problem for creative women, whose total attention would be shifted away from their home and children to their art!" then, "Because of our societal script to care for others, this decision to engross ourselves totally in our creative work, even in time-limited segments, generates more conflicts for most women than it does men." So true. Why is it, if while I'm doing all the other things in my life, a part of my head and heart are in my studio, working away, filing away images and experience and urges, why, when I have those small blocks of time does it take so long to get things down on paper or canvas or completed or at the very least moving along at a clip enough to satisfy?

A little while back I finished Anita Diamant's, "The Red Tent". I had it sitting in my pile for about two years and had hesitated to read it because I wasn't in the mood for something with an old fashioned style of writing. But reading it I felt grateful that as women, we've come a long way since the time of Rachel and Leah. Or have we? Do we have a raw deal now, expected to do even more than before?

Maybe I shouldn't write these kinds of posts when I'm coming down from a stressful time. But what other time is there? Or is it all perception? Rhetorical questions.

Patience

The picture of patience. Waiting, waiting, waiting for me mix up her first real bowl of supper since last Friday:


The boom-bahs have stopped as have the snarf-blatts. Now it's the opposite problem. Or maybe it's not a problem (just yet), more a case of being emptied out.

June Calendar Page

It's a horrible shot, even though taken outside or perhaps because it was taken outside. I was so happy to see the sun, I couldn't help myself but there is too much glare for the gloss of the photo. Nevertheless, it was taken last year from the scruffy corner of my yard, the corner I haven't done anything with yet where the weeds grow rampant. I believe these are weeds although they are pretty. I'm glad they blew and grew there. Quotes are: "Life isn't about how to survive the storms, but how to dance in the rain." (I neglected to mark down where I found that) and from the Dalai Lama, "Be kind when it is possible. It is always possible." It's a good thing I'm going to be reminded of that daily.

Found Objects

The day is young but it started off rather poorly. It was little things, but just too many of them. Example: 8:05 a.m. I had just withdrawn some cash from the bank machine and one of the 20's that came out was only half a bill. I'm not kidding. At 8:05 the bank isn't open. Just one shining example of how my day was headed. And that wasn't even the beginning of the weirdness.

Yesterday was rather challenging and I'll admit that lately I've been asking for a lot of - for lack of a better word - guidance. In fact I believe I shouted it out in my meltdown around 8:35 p.m. last night, likely multiple times. Imagine my surprise when I got in the car this morning and found a little note. A little post-it yellow flag stuck on the INSIDE of where my car door meets the frame. Impossible to not notice. I don't own yellow post-it flags and this is definitely not my handwriting.A cryptic message, for sure. "Let My Prayer". In all the questions I've had lately, "WTF?" is probably the most frequently posed. So I'm just going to throw this out there, WTF?

And because this day is apparently going to be one of those astonishing ones, up there beside the post-it is what I found beside my car parked outside the vet's office. It's seen better days, the center piece has almost come out of the base and it has a unique curve to it. But it hardly makes up for the half-twenty I'm out from the ATM. I hate to sound ungrateful.