My favorite season is Autumn, but every year I’m reminded that some awesome things happen in Spring.
1. The groundhogs are up. There is a stretch of land along I-270 between Tuttle Crossing Boulevard and Rt. 161 which Andy and I call Groundhog Row. The first sightings were reported recently. I always get so excited when I see a big brown hump sitting in the grass. Sometimes, the woodchuck will sit up on his back legs and look around. I usually squeal with delight while passing by at 70 miles an hour.
2. The mallard love drama has commenced. I was walking Lucy this morning and saw the first of sure to be many tenuous showdowns. A female mallard was flying through the air with two males following her. She was the only one quacking. They flew overhead, dipping and turning, and then, suddenly, there was only one male with the lady. Then they both landed in the pond where they may try to make a love connection. Funny!
3. I’m excited that as a result of activities to follow #2, there will soon be little brownish-yellow dudes around. What is more charming than an adult goose, six or seven little babies, and another adult bring up the rear crossing the street?
4. I’m hearing lots of killdeer again. Killdeer are one of my favorite little birds. They’re so darn loud, and I love how they scurry. They run so fast on the ground! Here’s a photo of one that I found on the internets, in case you don’t know what they look like. I think those stripes are so chic!
Last night was the monthly Mercy for Animals free vegan dinner and discussion. Paul Shapiro, factory farming campaign director for Humane Society of the United States spoke. It was very informative. Just like I need to create personal artwork to keep focused, I also need to stay informed about animal cruelty. Learn more here:
eggindustry.com
Inspiration for the above pattern found here.
Recreated exactly from this. Expect more. There’s beauty and insight gained in recreating past masters. That’s what Peter would always say. I’ll listen to Peter this time.
Yeah, creativity is flowing. Working on a book of collages at the moment. Going back 12 years: Chopping up masters paintings and adding found objects. Joyful, believe it or not. Trying to draw almost every night. Wanting to draw again is weird. Creativity takes creativity. Whoever said it just comes to you is full of shit, you get what you put in. My love affair with patterns is being reignited. Good stuff if you’re a dorky graphic designer I guess. I enjoy it.
An old friend from the Uarts days, Sara Gallo came to visit this weekend. She’s thinking of going to OSU for graduate school and wanted to check out the city. We gave her a tour of the city and hit all the cool neighborhoods. Made me think how much I like Columbus. And then that good old thought of wishing we didn’t buy the house we did in the crappy neighborhood that we don’t like started creeping back in. Darn it. Someday (maybe) we’ll be able to sell this beast. But it was great to see her. She’s doing excellent.
Her partner David and her have a great website featuring some awesome artwork: gallostan.net
Ever wonder what all that chat talk means?
I think I’ll try this:
howdesign.com/article/creativemonth
One short sketch per day about the day. Sounds fun.
My dream car. The Honda Step Bus!
Good article from the NY Times.
Inspiration is found here.
Pseudo-philosophic question of the day:
Do couples have children later and later in life because our society is speeding up more and more? Is it a reaction to the speed of daily life?
First bike race of the year on Sunday. Nothing like driving 7 hours each way to race for 2 hours. Funny. Wish me luck.
I broke into webkinz world and got these secret snap shots of Ricki in action. Enjoy.
1. In the kitchen.
2. Playing in the yard.
3. Afternoon siesta
4. Admiring the garden
5. nice flowers
…If you want to call it a party. I think my doctor will tell me to go back to work this Monday. I’ve been off for so long. I was getting used to watching the Martha Stewart show at 11am and being okay with still being in bed at that time. Aaah.
I go to the doctor tomorrow, and hopefully he’ll say that my foot looks good. I don’t have pain anymore, and I could sort of limp around. I’m really glad about that, but I was starting to enjoy my time off. (Too bad there wasn’t much to enjoy at first!)
I have to go play Webkinz now. What I really should do is look into a Webkinz Anonymous group. I would have to say that I have definitely spent more time on Webkinz than any other site while I’ve been off work. Hours upon hours. Sure, it’s meant for children, but the breadth and depth of the site is genius. And every parent I know whose child has a Webkinz pet spends as much, if not more, time on the site than their child! So I can’t be alone.
If I haven’t told you already, I have a raccoon named Ricki Ricardo Raccoon. She wears big white sunglasses and green and white polka dot rain boots. I have an extensive garden which I would like to think is organic. The vegetables from the garden feed my raccoon, but I also go to the store and get her some other things. I also have a newly remodeled bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, and playroom for Ricki. It’s sickening. 
Please understand that the statements below weren’t meant to be focused on one person (myself or someone else). Although they do sound that way, it wasn’t meant to. It’s meant to be a statement on humanity in general. Poor writing on my part made it sound like a complain-fest. Sorry. My point is this: Do we as humans think we are assholes? Do most people rationalize their actions and behaviors into thinking they are nice people, no matter how much of a jerk they act? I think we do. Do most people think they are smarter than the next guy? Better than the next guy and deserve more than others? Yeah, I really think so. Does thinking about this change my behavior? By thinking about this or rationalizing this am I just making excuses for my own poor behavior? It’s something I’ve been wrestling in my mind and I wanted to throw it out for the world (all 4-5 that read this blog) to digest. That’s all.
I never took psychology, it wasn’t a requirement in my basic high school education and college let you pick between psych or sociology. Cooler teacher, I heard. So if my ramblings below are covered in psych 101, I’m sorry.
Human’s are an interesting breed aren’t we. Everyone thinks they’re a nice, good person. Everyone thinks they treat others with respect. We think we are all fine, nice and dandy. I bet Adolf Hitler thought he was a good person. He thought his actions were just. Seriously. I think our psychi bends and twists every situation to our liking. If we act like an asshole, well it’s because the other guy deserved it. We very rarely say ‘Well, I was wrong. I was a jerk. Sorry.’ Don’t get me wrong, I’m no different. I’m an asshole. I’m not looking for pity here. It took me 32 years to figure this out. I was a huge ass hole in high school (straight edge hardcore makes it very easy!). Then in college I think I got better but I was severely depressed also. And now I’m just a normal middle aged egotistical self loathing dick head! Funny. No pity needed or desired. I’m enlightened by this and with enlightenment (maybe) change will occur also. Probably not. I’m set in my ways as are most humans. We’re stubborn, egotistical ass holes. Everyone thinks their idea is the best. Everyone thinks their work is better. Everyone thinks they’re smarter then the next guy. Everyone thinks they deserve more then you. But really, how many people have you met that are truly nice people all the time.
Is it self preservation? By thinking we are ‘good humans’ does it make it easier to move forward with life? If we admit to ourselves that we are actually jerks then will our society begin to fail? Is one of the founding reasons for organized religion to make people feel good about being dick heads? As long as you repent for your sins you’ll be saved. Lets not get religious here though. I’ll find my house burned down, this is the bible belt after all. (see – asshole statement). Ouch.
So I’m done. I’m an asshole sometimes. Humans are assholes. Or maybe I’m justifying me being an asshole by saying we’re all assholes. That’s my rambling. This is what I think about when driving to work, when out on a 3 hour solo ride or listening to the Misfits and trying to pretend to do work. Life goes on. I’ll try to smile and be nice but sometimes I fail. Heavy day. Smile, enjoy yourself.
We were laughing on Friday, the news man was already calling it the ‘BLIZZARD of 08!’ Blizzard? There’s barely 3″ on the ground. But by the time we woke up on Saturday, it was starting to look decent. About 18″ at our house, which to many in the northern states aint much. But Columbus doesn’t know snow. Salt and plowing is still a mystery for them. And this storm really shut the city down. It was the most snow ever recorded at the airport. Back in 1910 we got 12″ at the airport, smashed that record by 8″. We had waist high snow drifts in my back yard and Lucy had a tough time with her short legs! She couldn’t walk through it. Cute.
In other pet news: Here’s Carlos taking a nap on his belly and later some how jamming himself in the ‘cat cave’. I don’t know how he got himself in there. Knuckle head. Look at that belly! Makes ya proud.
Ango-update: She’s doing very good. A little to good, the doctors telling her to rest but she’s up hopping around all over the house. She’s going stir-crazy sitting at home all day. Very little pain and the stitches are out. Doctor said everything looks great.
Stop what you’re doing and watch this. Do it!
www.storyofstuff.com
Now spread the word.
The f-word for the day is fierce. I need to comment on the finale of Project Runway. I can’t explain it, but this was an emotional finale for me. I think Jillian Lewis has such a cool point of view, and when she was getting teary-eyed during her own show, well, so did I!
But anyway, Christian is just crazy as hell. I can’t believe he’s just 21, and his energy level seemed unbelievable on the show. I didn’t like that final feather dress but that’s not surprising for my vegan self. But my favorite look of his was the burgundy velvet jacket on top of the champagne-colored blouse.
I love Project Runway because I used to fantasize about being a fashion designer when I was a little girl.
My family used to buy me sketchbooks, and I’d get some colored pencils and draw fashions. Then, as I got older, well, I did model casting for my dream show. I would write a list of supermodels that I would want to appear in my show.
As I entered my middle school years, I stopped doing such activities, and I never learned to draw or sew. But I still love fashion. So that’s why I love Project Runway because it shows what it actually takes to be a designer. It’s fascinating to me to see the process and the actualization of ideas.
That’s part of the reason why I can watch designers on QVC talk about the rhinestone-studded holiday sweaters they’ve made because I like to hear where they’re coming from. They have a point of view, too, you know. It’s at times both hilarious and intriguing. Maybe that’s just me, though.
