12 things I'm excited about

I absolutely love having things to look forward to, often enjoying the anticipation as much as the actual "thing", whatever that may be. I remember the feelings of excitement in the air on the days just prior to Christmas just as much as I remember opening the presents. As luck might have it, there are lots of fun things to anticipate in the next few weeks:

Family time- seeing my nephews play football & visiting my family,

Trips- to Hot Springs & Eureka Springs- two cool little artsy towns in Arkansas,

Creativity- I'm taking next week off to do nothing but paint, have art night with friends, maybe paint/stain some of my flea market finds. I'm definitely painting a dog in a tutu. I can't wait to play with the new camera,

Autumn things- having a fire in the chimenea, raking leaves, making hot cocoa...

What are you anticipating this month?

A love letter

Dear Camera,

Hi, it's really nice to meet you. I've heard a lot of good things about you from my friends.... mainly that we would get along really well because we have so much in common. You are creative... I am creative... You like finding the beauty in everyday things... so do I... Am I rambling? Sorry, it's because you make me a little nervous.

I must admit... it's only been a few days & I think about you occasionally when we are apart. Too soon...? You're right... that was too much.

I should warn you- I worry that although we may be great friends, there will probably be some communication problems. I'm not the best listener, although I'm really trying to get better about that & I can occasionally be pretty impatient. Which leads me to a very important question... how do you feel about profanity?

Well... let's hope it doesn't come to that & just enjoy our time together, okay?

Love, Sherry

36 things list: Maisy's second favorite thing

Nothing makes Maisy happier than going for a walk… nothing except maybe a clumsy person carrying a plate of meat. Other than that, a walk is at the top of her list.

It’s interesting how she magically can’t hear me calling her when she’s about to get a bath but if I even pick up the leash to put it away she can always hear that & she comes flying down the stairs at a really unsafe speed for a dog her size. It’s still astounding to me that she can make that hairpin turn at the bottom.

This is the first house my dog has lived in with a fenced yard of her own & after 10 years of walks around the neighborhood several times a day, then “new” wore off that private yard before the boxes were all unpacked.

The weather is beautiful here now, during that short few weeks between the blazing heat & the creeping cool, giving Maisy the opportunity to drag me around the path & the trails by the Arkansas River.  It really couldn’t have been a better day for her- unless of course someone had shown up with that plate of meat.

Almost famous & a costume contest

Check out the new photos for my sidebar. Maisy, Ralphie & Ron Burgundy will be famous. I think I might dress them up for holidays, since I had so much fun dressing up Oliver. I might dress up the photos, not the actual pets.

I shudder at the thought of trying to coax (wrestle) Ralphie, who is approximately 20 pounds of teeth & claws, into an actual costume. Let’s be real here- he knows he is in charge. I can’t tell you just how unsettling it is to wake up to a brand new day & find yourself nose to nose with a cat that size; a cat who is somehow silently communicating his willingness to cut you if you don’t open a can of Friskies pronto.

Maisy has actually worn a costume or two but she didn’t wear them well. The last time I bought her a costume she was a pirate (made of stone, apparently) for approximately 30 seconds. She didn’t move a muscle until I took the costume off & then she left the room in a huff. She was also a pumpkin, for the amount of time it took to take a photo & then it was over. At that point I promised her to never embarrass her like that again & I haven’t.

Ron Burgundy is a mystery… as is often the case with cats. There was one unfortunate incident with a little Velcro kitty bow tie, which somehow caused him to have invisible springs in his feet, causing him to spontaneously leap straight up repeatedly in a really alarming, gravity-defying sort of way. He chilled out as soon as I matched the rhythm of his leaping well enough to remove the tie, but he immediately took it from me & left the room with it hanging from his mouth. I’m not sure what happened next- all I know is that he went up the stairs with the bow tie & came down without it. We haven’t seen it since.

CONTEST:
Any suggestions for Halloween costumes for the sidebar photos? If you come up with the best idea, I'll also dress up a photo or your pet & showcase it on my blog sidebar & the Meow Bark Art Facebook page. Please leave your costume ideas in a comment on the Facebook page. Ask your friends to "like" your comment to vote for your idea.

OMG. Yeah, you heard me... OMG.

OMG. And surely you must know the gravity of the situation if the only thing I can come up with to begin is a clear regression to such an adolescent phrase. But that’s really all I can come up with at this point… OMG.

How is it already almost October 16^th?? The frantic concern has nothing to do with turning 37 on that day… I’m embracing aging way more than most people my age- my theory being that aging is better than the alternative. The problem is that I made this list of 36 things I wanted to do before I turn 37 & after a quick review, I see that I have only marked off… 10.

Don’t get me wrong, I never expected to finish each & every single thing on the list prior to my birthday, but sheesh… couldn’t I do half of them? Maybe even a few more?

I guess we are about to find out, aren’t we? I have 26 things left to do & 26 days to do them. I’m going to shoot for 10. I do, after all, have 2 jobs that have nothing to do with this list. Buckle up, Buttercup…

Sometimes I disappear

Sometimes I disappear & I don’t just mean from blogging. Not that I physically disappear, but I might as well. There are no search parties, because I show up where I am expected, but only to take up space. If you practice at it a little, it becomes easy to sort of crawl down inside yourself & only leave enough of “you” available to the outside world to occasionally check in, smile & nod at appropriate intervals.

So I disappeared for a little while & never even said good-bye. Sorry about that.

Art Gallery Love: New Orleans

During my recent trip to New Orleans, I was really excited to see the art gallery of George Rodrigue, the artist made famous by his brightly-colored blue dog, who he paints in every imaginable setting... always in brightly saturated color. He's a man after my own heart.

It was late when I got there so I had to be content to stand outside on the sidewalk in the French Quarter peering in the window. It was magical for me, not because I was sharing the sidewalk with a ghost tour or because I could hear a brass band meandering the street a block away, but because I was staring at that blue dog. And he was staring right back at me.

Or maybe he was staring at something going on with that ghost tour- he does look perpetually startled. When you are in New Orleans, how can you ever know?

Quote of the Month: Mark Twain

This quote was used this week in Kelly Rae Robert’s e-course “Flying Lessons” & I thought it would be perfect for the quote of the month as I become more comfortable trying new things & practice leaning into the feelings surrounding my efforts at making a creative life.

It also speaks to me as someone who learned about the permanence of death at a really young age. Although I allowed myself to live in a bit of an inauthentic fog for much of my early adulthood, I have always had an acute awareness that time was passing me by. It can make a person feel a little frantic- even as you are letting life carry you along without putting much thought into your choices, there seems to be an undercurrent pulling you in another direction, toward the person you were meant to be & the things you were meant to do.

Accepting that may be scary but it also creates a calm inner stillness when you allow yourself to go in the direction you were meant to all along, the direction that allows you to hopefully leave this earth without an abundance of regret & disappointment.