She's Baaaaack!

The weekend and week ahead will see me (yet again) messing with my profile.  I'm tired of being so clean cut.  I need a little funk.  The problem I have with my old layout is that I cannot expand it with the changes that blogger has made. 

I've got a lot of work to do here, Folks!

***UPDATE***

I'm still self-teaching myself how to adjust html code.  I find it fascinating.  How frustrating was the opaque writing last time around?  I'd post pictures and you'd see the background mixed in with my photos; at times this was cool, at times it was bothersome.  I FIXED IT!!!

This is fun but I can't adjust anymore at this time. 

Please be patient as I declare my blog:

Cheers to the freakin' weekend!

Thing 4

Learn calligraphy.

My Mother had the most amazing handwriting I have ever seen.  The thorn in that truth also came from the fact that her writing was so unique and definite that it absolutely screwed all of us children when it came to needing her signature; it was impossible to forge.  Believe me, I tried.  I cherish the things that I still have from my Mother that were hand-written.  In fact, years ago I designed a tattoo around her signature.  I have no idea what will ever come of the whole tattoo, but I am fairly convinced that at some point I will (at least) get her signature on me.  That is another story though.

Perhaps it was part of the artistic flare that came from her side of the family; it seems like most of her siblings excelled in different medias of art, and each of them had unique, legible, and in my opinion beautiful handwriting. 

My handwriting bugs me.  Every few years I completely change my writing.  The only thing that stays the same is my autograph. 

When I was very young I remember sitting at the table and coloring as my Mother practiced the art of calligraphy.  Hours spent on achieving perfection with each letter.  Pages and pages of individual letters filled sketchpads and notebooks.  In the end, her perfect cursive became an even more stunning print.

Calligraphy is an art I never mastered.  I made attempts through the years but those attempts were just plain lame. 

Sitting on my couch, with Beans and Ivy dozing beside me, I taught myself Calligraphy!  Thank you, Instructional Booklet from Hobby Lobby!

WARNING: If you are a beginner and are attempting to write something brilliant and beautiful, DO NOT START AT 1AM. Calligraphy-ing(?) in the wee hours of the morning leads to horrid spelling. The word 'definitely' does not contain the letter 'a'. Apparently at that hour of the day, however, it does. I saw that writo (get it? typo/writo? Gah! I'm a nerd.) when I woke up and thought "are you kidding me?" I think I just wanted to write another 'a' because the letters 'a' and 'm' are my favorites to write using the art of Calligraphy.

One more challege met.  Yes!

That's about all I have to say about that!

Monday 23

"Gabe is awesome. He's accomplished so much career-wise and height-wise. Thank God he's my boss because I would not have said "yes" to a first date if I didn't have to, but it's been great."   -Erin


I love my Office calendar.

Uneventful

Midway through my week off of facebook I had to 86 it and log-on to be in better touch with family.  Even though I only made it almost 5 days with no facebook I still learned a lot.  And by a lot, I mean a LOT.  I'm still undecided as to my usage of it at this point.  It will still be part of my life, but will it be daily, weekly?  I'm not sure.

I took a peek at it today, after another 2 or 3 days of easily surviving without it, and I thought to myself "why do I have so many friends on here?"  Today I read about 3 status updates that where whiny and complainy about random things and at times I find them funny, or agree with them, but today it just annoyed me.  Like, why do I care if you're the healthiest food eater on the planet?  You just completely trash talked foods that I love and now I feel like a horrible fatty for no reason. Why did I just willingly subject myself to this by reading the praised and aclaims your other "friends" wrote? I mean, you haven't talked to me in real life in probably over a year!  And, and why am I looking at pictures of this couples wedding?  I'm not even friends with them but they know a person I know and then all of the sudden I've just looked through about 50 pictures of complete strangers before asking myself "how did I get here?"

Facebook is a strange entity.  I now realize that I have a love/hate relationship with it.  I love it for communication but I hate it for the same exact thing.  Ironic.

At the end of the day, however, I have learned that it is like so many other things and I can live without it.  If the time came that I had to shut it down forever, my life would go on.  I think testing things in our lives; whether facebook, Internet, Television - you name it, I think it's important.  If I become too reliant on things of that nature it's good to have a wake-up call that there IS life outside of these things.  There are books, friends, birds, squirrels, sun and snow to hear, feel, touch and see.  Although don't touch a squirrel, unless you know it; it could be dangerous.  Just sayin'.

At the end of the day, no one missed the crap out of me while I wasn't posting witty status updates.  And after a day of re-conditioning myself NOT to involuntarily grab for my phone to post something, I found myself seeking out physical human life forms.  Meaning: I become un-self-focused and contacted people personally - even if it was just by text.  Sometimes we substitute "likes" for actual conversations.  How sad is that?

This social experiment was interesting.  It showed me a lot of things and I think I'm better for having done it!

New Year, New Art

I haven't tackled any of my list in the past few days, which is understandable considering things that are going on at the moment.  Last night I enjoyed my favorite Wednesday night programs of Revenge and Criminal Minds.  I tell you, that Derek Morgan and that Spencer Reid...when will one of them wake up and realize that they are meant to be with me? 

That sketch that I began a few days ago, remember?  The one I did the same night I danced, pathetically, to "Thriller".  Yeah, that one.  Well, I actually started painting on it. 

I've been bragging about the shoes that I intend to wear on my wedding day - don't worry, it's not anytime soon; you didn't miss any important announcements!  Anyway, I've been talking a lot recently about the shoes I've always planned on wearing.  Hint: I'm tall, so I won't be able to wear heels.  Regardless, I have had lots of strange reactions to my plan and I've found it humorous almost.  In the end, I decided to paint it.

Why paint it?  Easy!  One of the items on my list is to send a postcard to Postal Secrets.  I can explain more about that in a future post.  But seeing as this painting was something I wanted as a post card I made the choice to paint it and use it (maybe) for two of my check marks.  Only time will tell if any of that happens.

I'll keep you updated.  I'm sure it's the highlight of your day - finding out where I am on some random art or writing project.  Sure it is.  Heh heh heh!  Like I said, I'll keep you posted.

The Bachelor and Michael Jackson

Last night I did a slew of random things.  That's how I roll though; random.

I won't list all the boring things, I'll spare you, I'll skip ahead to 7pm and The Bachelor.  Yes, once again I find myself rooting for two people to end up together that I don't even know.  Ben should pick Clarksville, that's my choice out of the bunch.  Her name is really Kasey (sp?) but I call her Clarksville because that is where she's from.  It makes sense to me.

During the show I pulled out a blank canvas that I've had at my house for over a year now, and I began sketching on it.  I do believe a new painting is in the works.  We'll see how that goes.

Lastly, I decided to see how much of the "Thriller" dance I remembered.  This is always an important mystery to solve around the midnight hour, when you should be in bed.  It wasn't pretty.  Don't get me wrong, it was hilarious but it was in no way pretty.  I am so out of shape.  I really need to fix that.  I mean, if I can no longer do the "Thriller" dance, what purpose do I possibly serve?

*sigh*

Yes, I'm kidding.  Partially.

By my next birthday I had better be able to do that dance again.

Thing 3

Make a snow angel in my pjs.

Last Thursday night was our first "big" snow of the season.  Two months from now a snow like that one will be child's play; lame and not a big deal.  But seeing as it's mid-January and we're just now seeing white on the ground, it's pretty exciting.

After a long day at work, I had safely made it home in the storm and parked myself in for the night.  I ate dinner and bundled up in preparation for shoveling the sidewalks.  After spending enough time huffing and puffing outdoors, the walkways were cleared and I locked myself in the house to thaw out.  A bath sounded perfect right then.  So that is precisely what I did; I drew an incredibly hot bath and plopped myself in, melting back to room temperature.

About an hour later, there I was on the couch; every muscle in my body relaxed and ready for bed.  Glancing over to my left I noticed that my phone was lit up.  Text messages from Mel.  Picture messages.  One by one pictures of her in her pjs gearing up and heading outside flooded my screen until finally I "got" it.  She had made a snow angel in her pjs!  One more "thing" done!  DANGIT!

I was SO relaxed! And WARM.

Me:  I just took a bath and am all relaxed.
Mel:  It's the first snow!  I JUST TOOK A BATH TOO!!!!
Me:  Dangit!

At spas you pay big money to go from hot to cold.  Here in WI, you go from your bathroom to your front yard!

Here it is, #79 on our list; my third "thing"...

                              ... DONE!

A few words from the wise(er):

1.  tie your hair back.  My long hair froze solid/stiff.  It was pretty comical.
2.  have a fried take your picture, it's very difficult to get decent pictures of yourself in a FLATTERING manner, while making an angel...
3. Live life and ENJOY it!  Do things that force yourself to look stupid once in awhile!

(You can imagine how awesome I found it that a police car was in the background of this shot!)