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2020 Bang Bang

or Life in the time of Quarantine and Riots.My last post was a little over a year ago. The end of May with lots of fun things to look forward to in June 2019. I have fuzzy memories of a big down time after my solo show, but then what? I’m sure there were lots of things that happened during the 2nd half of 2019, but damn if I can remember any of them. I can’t recall much of anything from before the complete clusterfuck that has been the last 3 months. Maybe clusterfuck is the wrong word. Maybe not. The beginning of 2020 started out fine – joined a gym and was doing yoga again. We went to San Diego for a long weekend in February. We had plans for a few more trips this year already booked. Then March hit and things started to go sideways. Coronavirus hit the news. March 16th the schools were closed. Then everything was closed. Months of sheltering in place. Then George Floyd was murdered. holy fuck. Throw some rioting and looting into the protests and a lot of bad decision making from the top and here we are. The world is on…

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I DID IT!

We moved Kyle into the dorm at Sac State (California State Univ-Sacramento) yesterday (happy dances for everyone!) and yes, I am taking all the credit for this monumental occasion. And I don’t even care how that sounds. I have gotten a lot of things accomplished these last 8 months, but nothing took more of my psychic energy than Kyle. The stress that kid put me through caused full-on panic attacks, more sleep-less nights than I can count, and it has taken quite a toll on me mentally and physically. There were several times earlier this year that I tried to write a post about all the shit going on, but I was unable to get past the second sentence. There was just too much and I wasn’t ready to share it on this or any other social media platform. I still don’t feel like suffering the  carpel-tunnel that I would inevitably get trying to write about “all the things”. But let me tell you the story of Kyle. Kyle, whose graduation ceremony was on a Thursday night and we didn’t know if he would even graduate until Monday afternoon of that week! Let’s let that sink in. The child almost did not…

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The Artist’s Way

One tube of white paint at a time. Today’s easel view. I will be forever entertained that the gun print in the background always seems to be pointing at someone’s head! We have been in our new house for over a year now and I can’t even express how much I love my studio space without resorting to lots of little hearts and glitter. And I don’t roll that way. much. I love sitting at my desk and being able to turn and mad dog whatever is on my easel. Today we have two acrylic paintings that I have been working on in fits and starts for a couple months. Actually the bottom panel was an old unfinished painting from last year. So many layers. And I’ve spent the past two days just adding white paint over white paint. I have no idea where it will go from here, but it’s at an interesting place right now. And then there is all the stuff churning around in my brain. I was hit with a wave of ideas for art pieces last week while flying down the freeway blasting some permutation of Jack White on the stereo. And it wasn’t just…

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Merry Ho Ho Ho

Santa came! and replaced my daughter’s regular legs with mile-long spider limbs!   freaky oh man. Kyle, Erin, and I played a game of Life – it was almost as painful as the real thing! And with this gift, Chris gets his phone back. Priceless. But then he had to build the Monster High Catacombs. No Barbie Dreamhouse for our little ghoul. I don’t think Chuck Norris appreciated his inflatable unicorn horn, but I sure appreciated this box of art supplies from Santa! And with the arrival of the grandparents, came an outfit change. Girl cleans up nice. We are in trouble with this one. Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!

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Mayday Mayday Mayday

crap. We still have 2 more weeks of May. Each month I hope our stress levels are gonna drop back down to “normal”. It hasn’t happened yet. My fear is that this is the new normal; a crisis a day. And that would suck. My adrenal glands need a freaking break here! Kyle sprained his ankle at volleyball practice on April 30th – the day we closed on the new house. Instead of celebrating, I spent the evening with him in Urgent Care. So April went out with the combo good news/bad news emotional slaps upside the head that life is now dealing us on a regular basis. May has been much of the same. All good things must be offset with an equally bad thing. There is a Buddhist lesson in all this about walking the middle path, but my balance is totally shot. So it goes. 2 days later I got 31 injections of botox in my head, neck, and shoulders to help with my migraines. It hurt. I can’t move my forehead. I was in constant pain for over a week. I had migraines. Last week I  finally started to feel “better”, but I don’t think I…

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And *POOF* we bought a house!

If *POOF* equals 2 months of stress, trauma, and great uncertainty. But yes, after the absolute hell we have gone through, we actually “recorded” yesterday. The house is ours. At the end of the month we will move from Cardinal to Soaring Hawk. Bigger, better, bird – bigger, better house. Our current house (which is a very nice house and still has the best laundry room around!) is under contract and hopefully will be sold in a couple weeks. So now its all about packing and the logistics of the move. joy. I definitely have trust issues now. I still don’t quite believe that something else won’t happen to screw this up! I will probably need treatment for Post Traumatic Bad Realtor Syndrome. If you’ve heard any of the stories, you’ll know I am not exaggerating. Not even a little bit. So now I’m trying to catch up on all the ‘art’ things I need to get done. Still trying to figure out what to submit to this year’s State Fair. Due tomorrow! Still need to mat, frame, and wire the pieces for the Crocker art auctions. Drop off next Friday. Ooh and I just got an invite to participate…

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