What would it be like to chronicle your day in all its mundane-ness? There is a certain art to the mundane. The zen of being with the mundane instead of sleeping, watching television, or getting involved with any number of activities so as to avoid facing the giant sleeping dragon Mon-Dane.
Being gentle with myself and observing being with Mon-Dane may be the sanest approach. Staring Mon-Dane right in the eye and responding, “I am perfectly fine with my small list of non-accomplishments today, thank you very much!”
So here is my list for today, Monsieur Mon-Dane:
1. A little bit of email and Scrabble before breakfast.
2. A large helping of cantaloupe and watermelon, dressed with homemade berry yogurt and topped with apple granola, with the last of a good strong pot of decaf. It tasted really yummy, and I was overfull when I finished it.
3. A shower. Yesterday (8/30), this was skipped and I started to dread personal hygiene as too bothersome, much the way Frances McDormand’s character, Jane, in Friends with Money, decides to stop washing her hair. I got back on that scary horse right away. One day is my maximum vacation from a shower, even when camping or sick.
4. Peeked at my prints that were being flattened in the garage. Couldn’t resist taking them out and ooohing and aaahing over how smooth and flat they are. It makes them look so much more professional. Felt them and sensed a small bit of dampishness still, so put them under a few pages of blotter on the dining room table to finish up. Thought about how impatient I am because I was told/warned that this blotting is at least a 2 week exercise, but no, my prints were ready in less than 24 hours. Express Blotting! To be fair, I didn’t soak my prints - only sprayed them with a light misting of water.
5. Made a pot of chili - lowfat turkey a la Judith’s recipe. It was nice to work in a clean kitchen and take my time cooking this instead of rushing to throw it together. I decided after cooking it for awhile this would be a good dish for the Michael Graves crock pot, so I found it and transferred the chili and cleaned the stock pot. Yummy dinner.
6. Took a call from my son that the guy who is buying my fridge from the condo is there and now wants to pay only $40 instead of $75. What a shit. This is a $900 fridge that probably needed a minor repair. I don’t fight it. That point has long past. I feel like a schmuck.
7. Removed two halogen spot light bulbs that are out in my kitchen. Used the reach tool for short people to take the bulbs out as a way of avoiding getting out the ladder, yet again. The nail it is hanging on in the garage is tenuous and I don’t want to have to fix that - as yet another little home improvement project. Yet, I won’t be able to reinstall the bulbs without the ladder, so I am just delaying the inevitable. On the second bulb, the metal can falls down and the protective decorative ring also comes out. Now I have to get the ladder to reinstall this piece. Hopefully, no tools are needed and hopefully nothing has happened that requires a repair person.
8. Worked on my 2010 calendar as a party gift for my birthday party in two weeks. I decided to go with all B&W photos because this reflects my dull outlook right now. I remember Jane, the artist from the Women’s Craft Show and how one year, all her work was in B&W after 10-15 years of gloriously juicy greens and yellows. I asked her about this and she said she was in the midst of a divorce that year. Hmmmm.
9. Printed out the calendar just as I was leaving for an appointment at a local chain store coffee shop. On first glance from the printer, it looked pretty good.
10. Met with the caterer at the local coffee shop. I was anxious because she was 10 min late and at about 15 after noon, I realized she’d been there the whole time, talking to another friend. I didn’t recognize her from the back, with her glasses on and her hair down. I felt stupid for thinking she was late.
11. Discussed the party menu and I outted myself on my expected spend (budget). We removed dessert and oysters from the menu and she suggested a different way to prepare the ahi tuna that sounds good and stretches things a bit. We talked about my burglary last year, how important it is to listen to our barking dogs, and decided to go for a walk up Montara Mountain tomorrow morning. I realize that part of my uggh feeling is probably missing all those endorphins I’ve been mainlining with my super-big juicy walks with Nancy and her dogs these past few weeks, even if I haven’t lost any weight at all. I do feel firmer.
12. Had a phone interview with a woman for a volunteer program about coaching high-school girls who are interested in making social change happen. She asked me lots of really good questions about what’s in it for me, what kind of work I’ve done before with kids, and I start to get a glimmer of a feeling of worth because I think my strong project management skills are going to come in handy in this program. It’s just a hunch I have. She tells me I have to get fingerprinted and I think about going over to HARD for this a few years ago. Too bad they don’t share information.
13. Picked CB up at school and went to the hardware store so I could get light bulbs. Went to Safeway for lunch food and back to the drug store for some nail polish remover. CB is in a much better mood than when I dropped her off this morning, which is nice. We jokes around a bit while doing the shopping together. She pushed the cart, leaving me to just pick up stuff and pay. It was peaceful and almost fun to be at the store.
14. Confronted the pit bull from across the street when we got home from the store. He or she went right into my garage and then into the house, after one of my dogs. Thankfully, they worked it out without a big fight and no blood was shed. The pit bull, which has no collar or tags, seemed to sense I had meat (in the groceries) and didn't want to leave. Finally, we got her out of the house and the garage so I could come in and put away groceries. I realized I'm still a *teensy* bit scared of vicious dogs. This dates back to when a pointer would bark and bite me when i walked home from school in 2nd grade.
15. Somewhere during the afternoon, when I went to pick up my daughter, I realized the sun had come out and that it was actually quite a beautiful and warm day. CB's guitar teacher that I met while in the produce department at Safeway said it was hot out and that he was enjoying the air conditioning of the store. I felt like the temperature was “just right” outside. We drove home with the car top down.
16. I made cornbread to go with the chili. Another nice thing to fix with everything in the kitchen where it is supposed to be. It tastes really good with some butter on it.
17. I waited all day for the email from Blue Cross about my health insurance. It didn’t come. I was very worried, but then there wasn’t much I could do about it. (Next day, I found out they doubled my premium, but did reinstate my health insurance.) This issue was a big factor in how I down I was feeling on Monday. I really want to be well, and most of the time I am, but at my age it is also sensible to have health insurance for the unexpected. Like my meniscus tear last year. Who saw that coming? $10,000 later it was fixed, but the pain was beyond bearable while waiting.
18. The mail finally came at about 4 pm. I miss my 10 am postal carrier. There is was a nice check and a nicer package with my postcards for the Opera Tour of Napa Homes. My commissioned painting at the Green’s will be featured. The post cards are perfect, even though I ordered them while in a stupor. No mis-spellings. Done from bed late one night or early one morning last week while recovering from the pain of painting. Did I mention how much I LOVE Moo.com?
19. I emailed Tia to tell her I got in for the volunteer thing. It will be fun to do, and fun to work with her on this engagement.
20. By 7 pm it was time for me to go to my weight management meeting. I really didn't want to go and ended up staying home because I didn't feel good. Plus, I've felt quite unsuccessful in this program lately. No gain, and no loss. Just homeostasis. Fat homeostasis. I long to lose 30-40 pounds. I believe my life would be completely transformed with this type of weight loss. I eat two large pieces of cornbread with my chili while I think about this. I only had a bran muffin for lunch.
Today I cleaned up so many art-related parts of my house:
- took books, ephemera, etc. I've collected over the past 3 months from around the house and out to the studio and put it away;
- cleaned surface of art drafting board and put away all the junk stacked on it;
- cleaned up edges of all prints and sprayed them to put them in the blocking station;
- sorted out prints that aren't first rate for use as collaging materials;
- found my photo transfer binder;
- cleaned pronto prints from failed attempt a few weeks ago;
- sorted through all magazines and put all the old ones out in the recycling for tomorrow's pickup;
- cleaned the keyboard and top of the art table with Method Lavender spray cleaner (like Windex, but smells better);
- talked to my friend Tia about volunteering with Girls for A Change and submitted my application;
- left a happy birthday voice mail for my friend LB who has a birthday today;
- framed the print I made from the Denny@6th Street solar plate and hung it up in my guest bathroom; and
- did some paint touch up.
Last night I re-hung the curtains in the front room, so that means almost every painting-related chore is completed. Except that I keep seeing little holidays - everywhere.
The seniors are having a Hawaiian luau soon and wanted some decorations to add to the festivities. We're still getting to know one another so I thought a clean and easy project would be to make flowers for their hair. They already had a source for leis. We took 6-8 six-inch squares of tissue paper in a stack and fan folded them with the folds about 1/2 inch wide. Then, using a twist tie from the local grocery store (thank you Safeway), we used the tie to secure the folded bunch. The ends of the ties made a way to clip the flower to a lapel or put behind an ear.
The seniors had great fun pulling out each piece of tissue paper gently from it's folded position to create the flower petals. All one color of tissue was nice, or a combination of colors was also nice. Everybody did a few so there were extras for the people who didn't attend the art lesson.
I hope they have a great luau.
I attend the 3rd of 3 photo transfer classes I've been taking with Julia Nelson-Gal at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto. Julia has been focusing us on solar plates (photopolymer plates that use UV light to develop the image), pronto-plates (a linotype method), and gum arabic/xerox transfers.
My technique coming into the class with the gum arabic/photo transfers was adequate, but I knew I could probably get better results. Julia's instruction on technique was just what I needed to learn to mix the inks and lay down a light, but effective layer of ink on my paper. I am much happier with the results after taking this class. I learned it helps to be patient though (not my strong suit). I am also really happy to have learned the solar plate method. It's a bit expensive, but basically, you are creating a plate that is akin to an etching. It can be inked up the same way an etching can, and printed from the plate.
Today, I made a solar plate of a photo of a rose I took in Victoria at the Empress Hotel a few weeks ago. I printed it on it's own, and then with a layer of yellow chine colle, which also looked nice. Here I am checking the print against the plate:
and here is the chine colle print. More tools in my bag of tricks! Yay.
I've been terrified to paint the walls of my home for years. The house was new when I bought it and the walls, though a beautiful and clean white, screamed out for some color. But I was afraid that if I picked the wrong color, it would be a huge mess. I was also worried that either I had to pay someone else to paint it for me, which can be quite expensive, or I could do it myself (DIY!) and that I would botch it up terribly.
A few months ago, I did paint two test patches on various interior walls to "try out" some colors. One patch was Carrington Beige, which I am wondering was it named after the elegant and fabulously rich Carrington family on Dallas?
The other color I knew I loved was Palladian Blue. My neighbor with exquisite taste discovered this color and painted one wall in her bedroom, only to move back to the east coast just a few months later. I saw it "in situ" with her orange pillows and chocolate brown rug and just knew I had to have it somewhere in my home.
We still have a ways to go to finish up. All rooms except the bedrooms are getting the beige, and the blue will only be on a small portion of the living room, for now. But we "ripped the bandaid" off by starting the project, and thanks to Claire's amazing taping skills, it is looking extremely professional.
I'm very happy with the results.
I have to go to a photo transfer class today, but I can't wait to get home late this afternoon and continue the painting, hopefully finishing it on Sunday or Monday. Stay tuned for pictures.
ROCKS!
We left our place in Chelsea right on time and took the subway and Air Train back to JFK, but I could see that we were starting to run really late for our 1 pm departure. We had that typical running to the gate experience - what would any vacation be without that to top it off - but I knew when we got there, that we had probably missed the baggage cutoff time.
At any rate, we got to the gate and the flight attendants were so, so nice about getting us on the flight (hello United, are you paying attention to Virgin's customer service?). We weren't actually even the last ones on, and the flight was gloriously uneventful otherwise.
Thankfully, it is foggy and cool here in Half Moon Bay, though there is a thick and pinkish cover of smog out there that we flew through upon landing. I spent most of the flight alternating between playing Scrabble and fixing up the photos I took on my trip. I have 416 to go through and delete out what doesn't work, but I will probably end up with at least 250-300 in that collection.
Thank you again to Nancy for the tip to use Lightroom. It is really a great application.
These shoes saved my life, these past three weeks. They are the worst for walks on the beach at home because of the holes that let in the sand, but they are by far THE BEST for walking on sidewalks, subways, up and down stairs, etc.. Hours and hours, over days and days, and my feet never hurt. Not once.
And thank you to my friend Laurie, for taking me to REI in Minnesota to get them back in June.
Today was our last full day in New York. We had checked off everything on our list, so all that was left to do was just get out and enjoy the sights.
First thing this morning, while Claire slept in, I went to the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum at 91st and 5th Avenue. This museum is in the former Andrew Carnegie Mansion, so it was a treat just to see inside the building which has rich dark wood paneling and a wide staircase (10') to the second floor.
The exhibits I wanted to see were Fashioning Felt and Nature Conservancy's Design for a Living World.
Fashioning Felt was a display of felted wool in a variety of fashion and industrial applications, including this yurt:
A unique dress:
And a grey flannel women's suit:
The other exhibit, the Design for a Living World, sponsored artists such as Maya Lin (architect/designer of the Vietnam Wall in DC), Isaac Mizrahi (fashion designer) and Christien Meindertsma (textile artist from the Netherlands) were dispatched to work with people in various parts of the world and explore how to use their materials in new designs. Isaac Mizrahi made a dress with pastilles (sequins) made from salmon skin leathers from Surrey British Columbia:
Christien works with a sheep ranchers in Idaho where she created a project to make wool carpet knit from the sheep wool raised on this farm. The carpet tiles, interlocked, are each about 3' in diameter and were knit on needles three feet long and about six inches in diameter which is hard to see in this photo which looks just like a sweater until you realize this piece is 15 feet wide!
The museum is right along the east entrances to Central Park, at the Engineers Gate:
I saw this gate as I walked across the street to hail a cab. Did you know that there is no one single entrance to the park? During it's construction in 1862, designers decided to make many entrances to the park based on different professions: artisans, hunters, engineers. Monuments with these names were installed in 1999 (NYTimes).
In the afternoon, we went to Herald Square to Macy's - all 9 floors - and then sat in the outdoor mall area on Broadway and had NY hot dogs. While sitting there in the somewhat pleasant breeze, we noticed this billboard reading 89F. Tomorrow, we go back home, and it is supposed to be hotter and more humid.
We finished off the day with our last true NY pizza at Patsy's Pizzeria on 23rd Street (yum!), and realized heading back to our place that I had forgotten the keys. We buzzed a random apartment and luckily were let into the building, but met by a man on the second floor wondering who he'd let in. Yikes. Scary.
Now, off to pack and clean, then some shut eye before heading to the airport tomorrow.
I think all those years of watching Friends and Seinfeld, and then Friends and Seinfeld re-runs (clap-clap-clap-clap) wore off on Claire. The activity she chose for today was to get some lunch fixin's and head to Central Park for a little bit of blanket time.
I could tell it was hot before we even got out, so I was dragging my feet a bit. We started with a stop at a local deli so that we could get some sandwiches and drinks, then went down into the sauna, also known as the New York Subway. To be fair, only the platforms are hot - it feels they are around 10-15F warmer than the outdoor temperature, which was 89F today.
Inside the cars, it is a beautiful cool oasis of liquid loveliness flowing over your face and shoulders and almost feeling like your legs will stick to the seats like your tongue to a pole in the winter. We took the subway uptown to the 106th Avenue stop and got out a few blocks into Harlem. That felt a little unsafe and I think we were walking in the wrong direction, so we hailed a Yellow Cab, but instead a black Olds pulled up. Claire was right that we probably shouldn't have taken it, but it all turned out okay and he took us right to the park entrance near the Flower Conservatory.
We ate on some benches under a huge wisteria that unfortunately was not in bloom. Down past the benches is a fountain and a big lawn, where a couple were having their wedding photos taken.
Here are some flowers from the park:
Our activities today took us up to Central Park for a picnic, then all over the place on the subway and a bus, and back to our place in Chelsea.
