The Artist's Way: Check-in for Week 2

1. Morning pages.

Morning pages were...done every day this week, but nonetheless something of a saga, to my annoyance. On Tuesday morning (first work day), I once again got up at 7 and had to race into work and do the MP's at work, where I was interrupted repeatedly. The alarm goes off at 6. It gets snoozed a lot. The DH and I spoke and he tried not to snooze it quite so quickly in the future (I don't even REGISTER it before it's gone - or at least I don't remember hearing it when I do wake!). And I got out the travel alarm and set it for 6:05, right next to me. He can't reach that easily, I have to snooze it.

Wednesday I got up on time, started the MPs, and got a work call in the middle of the third page. (I'm on call for work this week.) Sigh. So I had to work on that. Then I came back and filled the rest of the third page with grumbles about bad timing. Thursday I got up at 6:20 and the power went out at 6:25 (and stayed out: a car into a pole had taken out a large feeder line and basically almost our whole city was out of power - not that we knew it then), so I had to take the morning pages into work again. This time I tried doing them in a seating area that is in our building but not in our office. It was more public than I liked but placed so people weren't walking behind me, and I had no interruptions, as I'd expected. The people walking through were distracting, but not as distracting as someone tryingto have a conversation about work with me is!

Fortunately the other days have been less eventful than that.

2. Artist Date

My official Artist's Date was going to Powell's. I won't do that as an AD again: it is something I do regularly enough that I fell into my usual habits and I don't think it worked that well. It was decent! It was enjoyable. But it didn't really seem like a proper date if that makes sense. On the other hand, I wasn't planning for this morning's activity to be an AD but it kind of turned into one. This morning I started the laundry, baked blueberry muffins (from a mix), and started the dishwasher. And when the dryer was running, the dishwasher churning, the whole kitchen smelled of fresh-baked blueberry muffins, and I closed the just-turned-off oven to a wave of hot air that washed over my upper body and face.... It was glorious. Like being a little kid again on a weekend morning or afternoon, as my mother did the household chores and I simply enjoyed the results. I felt like someone was caring for me again - and if it's partly me, all the better. (I wasn't planning this morning and did not know how it would touch me - so I think there was more than just me involved in caring for me just then, even if only to give me the impetus to do this.)

After the five-minute delay while they were in the muffin pan, I transfered the paper-cupped muffins to plates to cool (I don't have a wire rack to let the air flow around - I may have to get one, I kinda like baked goods). And then I ate two of them before theycould cool, still hot and clinging strongly to the paper, the blueberries like molten sweet, not hot enough to burn but hotter than the muffin around them. It was glorious! And it was at almost noon and I ruined my appetite for lunch too - that is very like my childhood. I will have lunch later. I am so very contented right now.

2. Other issues.

I didn't get all the exercises done. Most, but not all. I didn't return to any of the things I like but haven't done recently. To be fair, a lot of my list of "things I like" I had done recently. And some of the ones I hadn't require getting out of the house - not so much an option until Monday again. But I'd found three that fit the bill. I did none of them.

I did not pick up my poetry again. But I'm not too worried about that. It will come. The well needs to fill first - and I have done poetry more than most things, so it may be a bit more time. I have done more creative stuff, though! A couple or three weeks before AW started, I bought the materials to make a snow jar (because getting a snow-globe can be done,but it's expensive to get the globe and base - jars are cheaper). I wanted to see if I liked the process enough to try a globe. Then I never tried. Until this week! This week I made the jar. I didn't like it. The jar is okay. I don't enjoy the process. And finding appropriate figures is a pain, too. It's not just challenging, though. It's boring and messy and a nuisance. I'll buy snow globes in the future, when I want them. :)

I've also started my photography up more again. I'm a hobbyist photographer and that's exactly the sort I want to see - shooting what touches me, what I find pretty or interesting, sharing it and hoping others also find interest. I have not yet looked through the photographs I took but I did take them. Many were snatched "on the run" due to being on call. I am hoping to do a more thoughtful, slow photography session this week, walking around somewhere - probably in Tualatin where a historic building I love the look of is apparently on the list to potentially be demolished. :( I want photos of it if that happens, and I've never gotten good ones because I've never gone and walked around.

I'm trying another project involving decorative painting and some other stuff, but I don't know yet how it's going to work out. I do know that, unlike the snow jar, I have been having fun with this project. So no matter what I think of the result it has been worth something...and I think, I hope, the result may be good also.