randomness

Here it comes:

1. The poem, done in brush on gold washi with long strands. Final product came to 24" x 18" approx.

The framing placement should help offset the apparent lack of centering of the poem on the actual sheet--I am usually a firm believer in , but... (sigh). It is also written straight (yes, I drew lines like a good girl, although I resisted, trust me!), just photographed slightly off (did I mention I am just slightly off-kilter?...yes, that is a joke--JA!). Greatest challenge in doing this project? Definitely the blending of culture--Western concept of beauty is extremely different than Eastern (Oriental) concepts of beauty. The simplicity of the strokes--writing horizontally with a brush that is meant for writing vertically was tough. So I instead tried to incorporate the techniques for character formation (of Chinese characters) into the formation of the English and hence the result. I like it. It is very, very different than my "usual" calligraphy style.

2. Two new McMansions just went up across the street from my humble 45 year old brick abode during the winter. The one really LOVELY thing about my humble abode is my garden and my fence...oh, I guess those are TWO things, not one. Anyhow... *both* McMansions had exactly the s.a.m.e. fence as I have had for, what, three years or so now put around their properties. I did mine to be different from everyone else. Not anymore. I say I have rights to a sign that says "Mine was First." Or I should get a cut from this fencing company's revenue they have made on our street since we got ours--another property, to which one of the McMansions is adjacent, also did the same fence about a year after ours was done. It is a bit further down the street. However, now that makes three properties, all in a little row, across the street from mine all with the same fence.

3. What fence, you may ask, could be so rockin' stylin' that everyone wants a piece of it? Well, here you go-sie...last week's coveted Garden Pictures (all garden work, by the way, courtesy of blood-sweat-tears of Mama Llama, thank you VERY much):

So at least my garden is not mass-produced. Have I yet mentioned I LOVE SPRING?!

4. A nice compliment. My student tonight told me how much she really enjoys learning from my book and wants to see it on shelves one day. I don't honestly think I will ever produce this text for commercial selling, but it is incredibly rewarding to be able to use the textbook that I have put so much work into authoring and editing (and publishing on my own little printer!) in my own classes, and the feedback is so valuable to me. Unfortunately I have a few more chapters to finish until I will be satisfied that I have what is about the equivalent of 3 semesters of a college-level course, but for adult learners and highly conversation-based (although I refuse to let areas of grammar, reading/literature, culture, vocab development and the like go by the wayside--my job is to teach my students to communicate correctly but not ignore the colloquialisms and the cultural variants that create the richness of language).

5. I can make an arrangement with this place and get a three-months no-interest on the piko-ring of my choice. I am happy about that. Fortunately, I can't (read: ought not--those of you who really know Mama Llama know just how impaciente Mama Llama can be...and like a true Taurean llama, incredibly stubborn to boot) even change mine yet so there's no huge rush now, is there?

6. Bikini bought. Tried on. Fits. Imagine this furry creature in a bikini. Gonna scare everyone away.

7. We had just over 3 1/2 inches of rain here on Sunday. Dude...imagine had it been even a month or so before, that could have easily translated to almost 4 feet of snow. It was wet. Have to cut my grass again--can barely see my tulips over the long weeds. But the tulips survived, as did the phlox, which I cannot believe. Only one tulip broke, and La Princesita rescued it and we placed it in a tiny vase.

When I fell asleep there was something on my mind I had wanted to blog about. Now that the midnight hour is upon me and I am in my insomnia cycle for the night, I can no longer remember what on Earth that deep thought was. Someone recently told me she preferred to think her lack of memory was due to the fact that she was blonde over the fact that she was getting old. I think I prefer the geriatric approach. I see wisdom in those who have lived longer--and with all that wisdom crammed into We Wise Women's brains, where IS the room to remember every single detail?

(added Friday morning)...A-ha! I remembered! Am-A-zing what sleep will do for you!

8. Change. I figured that out to be the root of my problem. This year was especially difficult in that La Princesita started a new school, I knew nobody there and my security blanket was therefore swept out from under me. I came to terms with a shyness that I seemed to have somehow developed in my adult life. I realized I had to become active in her school in order to start meeting people and let that shyness melt away. And I was thinking, last night before falling into dreamland, why someone like me, who has lived all over the world, moved so many times in my adult life (I never left 'home' until I was 18. The house where I was born is still where my mother resides in Oregon.), who taught for a living, could feel so strongly like this...a strange and very potent form of introversion. Then it came to me: this is the first time in my life that change is being imposed upon my by others. All along I have made the decisions to go, to change my scenery, and along with that decision-making came mental and emotional preparation. I am not accustomed to having others (even those being my own children) creating this change of environment in my life and, for me this signifies a great loss of control. I realize that over the course of this school year I have made great strides to regain this lost sense of control and last night I reflected a bit on how much better I feel now, that I have settled into this new environment and hopefully can be a complimentary figure to my daughter's elementary school career--not an overpowering one, not a controlling one, but one that will give her the confidence to grow and learn and, likewise, learn to accept and integrate change.

And so there you have it.

Happy Friday to all!