I started a new painting. It’s another PPE one. Here is the outline of the photograph ready to be transferred onto the canvas. It’s going to be 16×20 inches because I have a frame free for that size. All those lines are going to be hard to draw accurately onto the painting surface but I’ll use a grid to help me. I’ll probably have to take a Ritalin the day I do the drawing because it’s my least favorite part of the process and I procrastinate terribly when I attempt to start.
Saturday
Today I need to clean the upstairs because I have been putting it off all week. I am also going to tidy the studio up because it’s a mess right now (more than usual). Ritalin is going to help me in getting the cleaning done because I have an absolute wall of awful between me and cleaning. It’s also laundry day.
This is our last Saturday and Sunday at home doing nothing. I’m trying to enjoy it because the last two weekends of October we are out of town and the first weekend of November we are at the beach.
We almost missed our plane to Chicago. I just happened to check the flights yesterday and they had changed our departure to late on Thursday night instead of Friday morning. There had been no email notice to tell me about the changes and I searched long and hard through my inbox to see if I had missed the alert somehow. Nothing. I had to call them and reschedule our flights for a different one on Friday because there is no way we can leave on Thursday. Now we have a connecting flight and go to Seattle before we leave for Chicago, but at least it’s on the day we originally planned to leave.
I bought tickets for The Art Institute and The Field Museum in Chicago. We are going the former on the 26th and the latter on the 27th. I haven’t been to either museum since I was a kid so I’m really looking forward to visiting again.
My oral surgeon’s office sent flowers to wish me a good recovery. I’ve never had that happen before. I guess I did pay them 6000 dollars so perhaps it comes with the treatment. They aren’t shabby flowers either, from a proper florist and everything.
Monday
I decided not to do the Bosch study quite yet (I might start it when I’m out of town and can’t paint with physical materials). It just wasn’t inspiring me enough and I think I’ve had a long enough break from working on my last piece that I feel ready for a new one. This image is going to be from the 2014 Ebola epidemic. It’s a particularly hard picture to paint so it will really be a challenge. I have never painted African skin before and the hazmat suit is especially wrinkly. It’s only going to be the two front figures, I’m not doing the one in the back.
Saturday night we had a bit of a drama. My husband cut the tip of his finger off while cooking! We had to go to the emergency room and he had the bit that was chopped off glued back on and now it’s bandaged tightly. He’s still able to play video games though, which is good. He’d be bored out of his mind if he couldn’t do that.
The “do nothings” consumed me Friday through Sunday. I didn’t feel like doing art, but I felt so guilty about not being productive that I couldn’t just relax and enjoy myself. All day I either sat there and did nothing or I layed in bed and did nothing. Bored out of my mind, I got really depressed and just felt awful. This is a new week though, I’m going to try my hardest not to waste a bunch of time doing absolutely nothing.
I didn’t run today because I’m having a real hard time motivating myself to get out there! Tomorrow I am doing a 10 mile run after I finish the first 4 miles with a friend. If I can get the momentum going, I can keep running after she leaves. I was going to do the long run last Saturday or Sunday, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it on my own.
I’m going to start doing prompts from a book I bought called 642 Things to Write About which is just filled with different ideas. You are supposed to write in the book itself but I am going to type because it’s easier than writing by hand. Today’s prompt is “what can happen in a second.”
A car crash can happen in a second. My crash did. I pulled into the next lane without looking because there was a fire truck behind me honking with its lights flashing and siren wailing, and I panicked and just swerved right. There was a car already there and I totalled both of us. Fortunately no one was hurt, but I haven’t been able to drive very much since then and it’s been four years. Changing lanes is terrifying for me now so I only do drives where I am in a single lane and don’t have to move; that includes going to the grocery store, my husband’s work, the doctor’s office, the dentist, and a friend who lives really close by. All those drives are one lane and are familiar to me, so I can do them. I am thinking about getting driving lessons again and re-acquainting myself with lane changing while someone skilled at teaching is in the car with me.
Intentions for this week:
(I’ll put an X next to the goal for each day I achieved it)
1. Get started on my new painting (do art for 5 days) X
2. Do Instagram (5 days) X
3. Take the dog on a walk (7 days) X
4. Cook at home (5 days) X
5. Run 3 miles (3 days)
6. Run 10 miles (1 day)
7. Run the half marathon on Sunday Oct 20
8. Keep my teeth clean after I brush them (7 days) X
9. Meditate (7 days) X
10. Eat one sweet a day (7 days) X
11. Play video games and read/make time to relax (6 days) X
12. Stick to my calorie goals (7 days) X
13. Get back down to 120 pounds by Sunday morning
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Things I saw while out on a walk last weekend:
The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman 
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