The Other Side of Somewhere

Tornado

I hesitated to post about this, as I was not directly impacted, but I've received a flood of emails and calls about it, so I thought I would make a little post.

The city where I live was hit by a tornado yesterday afternoon.  There is a lot of damage in Suffolk near Obici Hospital and in a a little section of Suffolk called Driver which is within a few miles of where I live.  Because my work route takes me past Driver, I can report that the tiny (and charming) downtown is in splinters.  The damage in both locations is not to be believed.

Our house was not impacted by the tornado.  It is very strange because we had a thunderstorm yesterday afternoon that seemed very mild in comparison to many many storms that pass through our area.  Because I am paranoid about and terrified of tornadoes, I checked the weather on TV for any alerts only to discover a tornado was down in our general area!  What?  Really? I grabbed my cats and put them in the downstairs bathroom (we have no basement) and then stood in the hallway monitoring the situation on TV and occasionally looking out the window to see if there was anything to see.  I stood there until the weather peeps said the storm had moved out.  We lost power briefly several times, but otherwise, no damage. 

If you would like help the tornado victims, here is a list of agencies from our local paper who are accepting donations.  I am not affiliated with any of these, though personally I often give through the Salvation Army as they do good work.

Thank you again for the outpouring of concern.  It's been pretty amazing.

♥

American Red Cross www.redcross.org – Suffolk, Southeast, Petersburg and Greater Richmond Chapters

Salvation Army www.salvationarmy.org

Federation of Virginia Food Banks www.foodbankonline.org

Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia www.cceva.org

Lutheran Disaster Response & Lutheran Family Services of Virginia www.ldr.org

Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia www.sbcv.org

Virginia Baptist Mission Board www.vbmb.org

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance www.pcusa.org

Virginia United Methodist Church Conference Disaster Response www.vaumc.org

Adventist Community Services www.communityservices.org

Virginia Beach Society for the Preventions of Cruelty to Animals www.vbspca.com

The Humane Society of the United States www.hsus.org/disaster

United Way www.unitedwayshr.org

Pomegranate Smoothie and Peanut Butter Toast

When Mr. P is home, we sometimes go out to breakfast on a weekend.  His absence is good for my waistline, but not so much for my heart.

My solo Sunday breakfast: homemade Pomegranate Smoothie and peanut butter toast.

I've felt the need for quiet, lately.  Most of the activities I am doing (exercise, reading, emoting) are not interesting or blog-worthy.  I know there are people who blog spectacularly and movingly about these sorts of things, but I am not one of them. 

I am spending time reading other blogs, soaking up inspiration that will hopefully hold for me, until I feel up to being creative again.  Not only is blog reading good for the spirit, it can also lavish you with cash and prizes (ok, well not cash, but certainly prizes). 

First I had the good fortune of guessing a mystery photo on Susan's blog (it was "car wash") and I've STILL got that song on a continuous loop in my head!  If you are not familiar with this disco-era classic, you can read all about it here.  I would send you to itunes for a listen, but whoever edited the clips did not include any of the words.   

Susan, the magnet is so lovely and colorful - it definitely adds some brightness and whimsy to my grey office decor:

I also am delighted beyond reason to have named one of Stacey's sock dogs!  I so wish I made an art or craft that lent itself to making up little stories and personalities. 

Lazy Sunday

It is difficult to blog about a lazy day.  It doesn't make for interesting visuals.

Here is a photo of me in my glasses, sweats, and cupcake slippers.  Here is a photo of Mr. P. and me sitting on the couch watching football.  Here is a photo of me teasing the cat.

See what I mean?

Because Mr. P. will not be here for Christmas, we are celebrating in little ways now.  I refuse to put up a tree or lights until December (in my family, we didn't do anything until December 15th and that always worked well for us) and Mr. P. isn't so into that whole aspect of things anyway, but we did go out to dinner last night the way we usually do on Christmas Eve.  Not only was the dinner superb (as it always is which is why we go there for special occasions), we had a fabulous waiter - Gaston from Rome! - who was so attentive, engaging, and funny I didn't want to leave!  He made it all the more special for us.  Thanks, Gaston.

As I write this we are waiting for batch of homemade butterscotch toffee crunch candy to cool so we can break it into pieces.  This is something we usually make and give away to the neighbors during the holidays.  This is a going-away batch for Mr. P.

After I post this, we're going to settle in for a movie.  Probably a Christmas one. 

Seriously, the holidays are going to be all out of whack for us this year. 

Day Eighteen: NaBloPoMo

Back to Reality ...

Now that Handmade Parade is over, it's back to reality.  Prepping for the show gave me something to focus on besides Mr. P.'s upcoming departure (sixteen days from now) and our year apart.   

I'm as ready as one can ever be for this kind of thing.  There are many good things about this in a "it-could-be-so-much-worse" kind of way.  Being apart for such a long time will be hard but not as hard as it could be; not as hard as it is for others. I try to keep that in mind. 

The hardest thing for me at this point is the long goodbye.  I dread driving him to the airport and driving home alone.  I wish they'd implement that "beam me up Scotty" technology already so he would just shimmer and *poof* be overseas. 

Today we hung out together ... took a drive to Virginia Beach for lunch and a stop at Jerry's Art-A-Rama where I picked up a few (ahem) treats.  Can't wait to sit down and play in my journal tonight.  It's been awhile.

Many of you have asked me about the ornaments I made for Handmade Parade.  I have one left from the show and will be adding additional ones to the etsy shop over the next couple of weeks.  If you'd like to be notified when they are available I recommend heart-ing (bookmarking) my etsy shop and checking out my flickr account (if you're on flickr add me as a contact!).  I will do limited announcing of shop updates here, but generally don't want my blog space to become a billboard.  You can also email me at any time if you're curious about availability.

Day Twelve: NaBloPoMo

Making Peace with Morning

summer days, breakfast at noon
Originally uploaded by *stereopathic

I am not a morning person. Unlike most people, I have my highest levels of energy and alertness after 4:00 p.m. and my body naturally wants to be awake late into the night. When I force myself to sleep during "normal" hours, I always find myself blinking and wide awake at 3:00 a.m. then nodding off again just before my alarm starts bleating.

Needless to say, this is extremely frustrating.

Unfortunately, as I have a job, I have to conform to the 9-5ish schedule most of society operates on.

Most of my working life I've waited until the very last possible moment to engage morning and then I have to rush to get myself together and to work on time. At various times in the past, I bribed myself out of bed with the promise of a latte or a donut or a muffin, but this is not a healthy nor wallet-conscious coping method.

This morning I was finished with my routine about 15 minutes earlier than normal. I poured a glass of milk, checked the weather on the TV, and paged through the latest issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine.

That 15 minutes was a revelation to me. Taking a few minutes to just "be", helped me ease into my day and got me to thinking that it's probably time for me to make peace with morning .

The idea of purposefully getting up, say, an hour earlier than usual is an intriguing one and I'm going to experiment with this beginning on Tuesday (my next work day).

Mr. P. is always asking me to get up when he does (about 5:30 a.m.) and join him downstairs for coffee before he leaves for work. I grumble and snarl at him and pull the covers over my head, trying to hold on to those last dregs of sleep. He's only here for a few more weeks, but I will accept his invitation next time it is offered (or surprise him by putting the coffee on for him).

Carving out a purposeful hour of personal time in the morning offers lots of options for filling my creative well: writing in my journal, reflecting on a book passage, and seeing morning with new eyes and renewed perspective (instead of battling against it).

And finally, it would be nice to have a simple but deliberate breakfast instead of grabbing a handful of goldfish crackers or a swig of soy milk and rushing out the door.

On the days I work, I will still be tired in the morning (because of that whole waking up at 3:00 a.m. thing) but getting up with purpose and allowing myself extra time will probably soften some of the edges.

I'm interested in seeing how this plays out.

Day Two: NaBloPoMo.

Avoidance

What happened to autumn?  It is so hot here.  And humid.  Have I ever mentioned that I am NOT a hot weather person?  Every time I take an Internet quiz about what climate is right for me, my score always points me to Seattle.  I could totally go for cloudy skies and rain today.  Seriously.

Things are weird right now.  Was expecting sadness to reign supreme as the time winds down to Mr. P's November departure.  And yes, of course, I am sad.  But more than that I find myself overwhelmed by the simplest of tasks.   I'm alarmingly forgetful both at home and at work (not good when one is paid to monitor details whilst keeping the books).  My brain has apparently taken a vacation and didn't notify me first.  Either that or I've misplaced the memo.  Hee hee.

On the creative front, I have a lot of stuff due within a very short period of time, and as always happens, I am struggling to find a balance between being an art making machine (working frantically to meet commitments and make "product") and enjoying the process ... seems in my creative brain these two sides of the equation are mutually exclusive.  Thus, my various commitments are making me cranky - ahem - and avoidance is kicking in.

This book is proving to be a nice distraction.  I hesitated to buy it, because I find the writing style to be kind of gimmicky (the constant references to revolution give me a headache) but the authors are passionate about their subject and offer up both technical instruction and ideas for journaling topics.  The book makes me want to drop everything pressing, and play in my journal (which I think is really my favorite thing to do, artwise).

Yesterday, Mr. P had the day off and so we took a little trip to Norfolk, where he treated me to hot fudge cake at a local institution. 

Time with Mr. P. and hot fudge cake are also really nice distractions!

Officialness

It's official.  Mr. P. will be on his way shortly after Thanksgiving.  He will be away for a very long time.

Although in the last few weeks I had a feeling it was going to end this way, and even though we've had all summer to gear up for it, I'm in shock.  Because it is real now.  This IS happening.  All avenues have been traveled, all loopholes explored, and all of our pleas, in the end, have gone unanswered.

It's going to be pretty icky until he leaves.  It's weird living your normal life - going to the grocery store, washing dishes, doing laundry, going to work, being friendly and cheerful for everyone else - while trying to squeeze as much time together as possible and readying yourself for a new way of living for a year.

I find it amusing how Mr. P. and I have differing views about the deployment (it's not really a deployment but I don't know what else to call it).

I am inclined to be a smidgen jealous of Mr. P.  He is going to a different country with interesting customs to explore and new currency (currencIES, in fact) to deal in.  He will be doing a lot of traveling to some potentially scary places (not either of the two you are likely thinking of) and some exotic and interesting places, but the fact is he is still going somewhere with the potential for some measure of adventure.  He will be able to immerse himself in work.   In other words, he will be doing something DIFFERENT.

My challenge, on the other hand, is living our regular life without him in it.  There will be no obvious adventure, nor intense work to keep me occupied.  There will be much anxiety and worry about his safety. The only thing different will be the big holes and spaces he leaves behind. 

I have ideas for little adventures of my own, which involve everything from driving home to California to rearranging the furniture and setting up a little study for myself downstairs, to dyeing my hair hot pink and growing dreadlocks.  Mostly though, I need to pull myself together and figure out a way to make this experience, this year alone, count for something other than laying on the floor curled in the fetal position and not moving for 365 days.  Gah.  :)

More likely, my adventure will be of the sort proposed by Miss Eudora Welty:

"A sheltered life can be a daring life as well.  For all serious daring starts from within."

We'll see.

**insert deep breath here**

Catching Up

Whew.  It's been a crazy couple of weeks ... haven't had much time to devote to my blog and creative pursuits.  This is the first day in awhile that I've had all to myself!  Wheee!

Mr. P.'s work situation continues to hover over us.  The entire process has been a twisty, dizzying roller-coaster ride (I don't like roller coasters, literal or figurative).  It's been hard not to just crawl into bed with the pillow over my head until everything is finalized and official.  There is still hope he will remain at home, but I have to ready myself for the possibility that he will leave.  It's a very weird place to be emotionally, stuck somewhere between hope and despair.

My Blythe doll obsession has proved to be a worthy distraction from all the stress.  Working with them and photographing them is such a challenge, something totally new for me.  I actually spend a lot of time reading my digital camera manual, twisting knobs, and pushing buttons (and using a tripod!) to take more considered photos.  I'm still traveling a major learning curve, but it's fun! 

In addition to being a great distraction, Blythe is also a gifted ambassador.   I had the pleasure of meeting Amanda (a local blogger) last weekend to drop off her first Blythe doll (I predict the first of many!).  It was such a treat to meet her in person after following her blog for awhile ... Amanda is charming and kind and she is already well on her way to creating her own Blythe fashion line!  Can't wait for that!

Beyond the dolls (and worrying!), I've spent a lot of time paging through this book.  The tone occasionally borders on over-zealous (though the D.I.Y. movement is one I support), but the photos and ideas for different graphic design projects are verrrrrry inspiring.  I'm itching to spend some time with my publishing software and my printer making cool stuff. 

I've also been working on pages in my newest art journal, which you can see at my flickr site.  I found out recently that a few of my journal pages have been selected to appear in a book of art journal pages to be published in the near future.  I've never had my work published in a book, so that's kind of fun news.  I had to submit my artwork to the publisher electronically and I got a very thorough education about scanning, resolution, and file sizes ... it's a completely different ballgame when the photos have to look good printed on paper instead of the computer screen. 

This is becoming a monster post, and though I could probably write more, I should stop so I can go make stuff!

Hope all is well with you!