IN WHICH YOUR INTREPID HEROINE TRIES NEW THINGS...

 Hello, Dearies.

It's an absolutely beautiful Saturday morning, and I am enjoying my second/medicinal cup of damn good while listening to the neighbor's wind chimes tinkle in the breeze. It's just cool enough that I have my trusty blanket, but warm enough that they've opened the complex pool earlier than expected. (It's supposed to be 86 on Thursday...yikes!)

So it would appear that I have fallen down yet another rabbit hole, only this time, it seems like this one might actually be good for me, as opposed to some of the million others that you've all witnessed over the years.

Have you ever heard of Morning Pages? 

Apparently, there is a wonderful book out there by someone called Julia Cameron that I believe is titled The Artist's Way...don't quote me on these particulars, but if you're a devotee, then by all means, come correct me. 

The gist (from what I gathered during my totally half-assed quick research), is that you write in a journal first thing in the morning to dump all of the clutter out of your brain. I think you are supposed to commit to three pages of longhand stream of consciousness, and I'm sure there's more to it, but here's what I've adapted to my own little world:

Every morning (or, in my case, afternoon) when I get up and pour that first cup, I sit down with my little purple book (just a blank journal from the amazons) and my pen (a delightful find...did you know they make disposable fountain pens now?!), and I sit at the kitchen table and write.

I don't think. I don't fret or organize or edit or do anything, really, that would make these pages at all understandable. Heck...half the time they aren't even legible (because I have the handwriting of a serial killer and my hands are terribly sore most mornings from diamond painting or stitching the night before), but at the end of my scribbles I somehow feel...better.

In addition to the Morning Pages, I have developed the habit of staying OFF of the phone and the ipad and the TeeVee almost the entire day. I read or sleep or stitch or play with paper or diamond paint instead. No news, no doomscrolling, no Insta this or FaceBook that to distract me into tears or hopelessness. I just blissfully go about my day doing my futzing and puttering and whatnot without engaging with the world in any meaningful way until I'm ready.

Of course, this has all been super easy to do while Rich is visiting his mom in New Jersey. My old spinstering habits kicked in hard this time, and I am happy to report that aside from having my toes tended to, I have not left the friendly confines of CS2 in over a week and a half.

Aaaahhhh...quiet and peace.

When Rich returns next week, I am going to try to maintain my little rituals. We re-did our little balcony, so maybe I will take advantage of a few minutes out there with my purple book and damn good. Or maybe I'll actually leave the house and head to campus or the library every now and then?

Doesn't matter. All I know is that this un-plugging has done wonders for my state of mind, and very very soon I hope it translates into the rest of me. My guts are still completely out of whack, and some of these test results are giving me no end of panic, but I finally think I've decided to let the professionals stress about it...I just don't have the bandwidth for it right now.

Today I'm going to finish this darn bunny if it kills me. Of course, I ran out of the Colour & Cotton thread that I was using, so I've had to switch to another one that I think comes close for the last tiny little bit of his face. Once that's done, all I need to do is add the ground shadows beneath his feet (paws?), and this lovely little thing will FINALLY be done.

I have absolutely not one clue as to what I will play with next, but methinks there might be a good long rummage through my WiP baskets in the near future. Stay tuned for that!

I've made really good progress on the enormous diamond painting, and before I know it, it might be time to look for another in the basket. I am on a strict no-buy policy, since I promised myself when I started this new hobby that I would  NOT...UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES...amass a huge pile of canvases in a stash that would taunt me to my end of days.

And finally...my reading life. Oh, dear John Irving, how I love you so! I read Owen Meany for the first time right after college, and devoured every single John Irving novel that I could get my hands on. I've always said that he is my favorite author, and that one of these years I was going to have a "John Irving Summer" and read his entire catalogue back to back to back, but I never have. I do like the idea of spacing them out a bit, because at this point there are so many other great things I want to read and re-read. I just finished Madame Bovary, and am thrilled that I seem to have found my reading bug again after so many years of half-heartedly skimming through a page here or a page there of whatever library book was next to the big girl sleigh bed. This time, I'm going in awake and doing more close-reading...somewhat like the days of yore when I read and retained rather than read to simply fall asleep.

Well, it looks like my second cup is finished, Dearies, so it's time to get on with it, Before I settle in with my stitching, I want to attempt to do at least one chore. I have a full list of eighteen tasks to be completed, but so far all I've managed to do is stick my tongue out at it and have more damn good. Seeing how it's Saturday, and the traditional day of household crap (at least it always was for me), I might as well do a thing or two.

So Happy Saturday...Happy Weekend, and most especially Happy Mother's Day to all of those who observe and celebrate. I hope that your little corner of the world is swell and exactly how you want and need it to be.  Come tell me all about it!