Change the World

What's that I hear? You want to save the world? Make it worth saving first! One volunteer moment at a time. Baby steps, my homepeeps, baby steps. We can all do something better.

So tomorrow night is the reception at the Rising Sun Cafe in B-ville, and I will publicly unveil my "Backstage Pass." Done. On to tomatoes and tornados....a new weather theme for my cycle.

Ahhhhhhh. I could sleep for a month if the dogs didn't need to go out so much. Miss Bandit is not feeling well so keeping an eye on her yardly habits is fun in the dark. Where are the fireflies this year? I have been looking for ufos and the northern lights, but alas, only little piles in the yard have been found underfoot.

Dad and Momita will be coming down for a few months so lucky me! Get the sisters together! Wish the kids were here... Sky mentioned a possible visit in Florida at some point. Chris is having a wedding soon. Congrats to him for graduating as a Martial Arts Instructor for the Marines! Good stuff.

Torchwood: Children of Earth knocked me out. Best ever of the series, just fantastic writing and an all out thriller. Finished "The Physick Book of Deliveranse Dane" well done. It will be a happy Halloween this year with all the reading I have lined up. Spooky stuff.

la la la.... me.

All Good Things

Don't complete that sentence. I have had a great week, (knocking on wood) filled with kid's activities and painting stuff. This was the Children's Advocacy Center Art Camp week, and as the first to do the roundup, comic book art was on the agenda. I think for the most part they Got it! I would have been happy to share my intimate knowledge of the lives of superheroes all day, but trying to get them to contain stories into 3 separate rectangles was the deed of the day. My theory was : panel 1 contains something that has Happened.

panel 2 contains hmm, should I tell someone about it?

panel 3 contains I am telling someone.

Well, getting the darlings to conceive of a happening was tricky. Miss Jennifer, the therapist, had been discussing when it is a good time to trust your instinct (in not so many words) and go to a person of trust. She referred to good secrets (surprise parties) and bad secrets (bullying) as examples. Still in a quandary to think of an example, I said "What if a ufo landed next door. Would you want to tell someone about it or would you keep it a secret?" Obviously there is a rash of abductions going on around here because everybody had a story! It was so funny, and so amazing to see their wheels turning. Creative, spontaneous, shy, stuff. I am humbled by them. And grateful to have had Lynne and Evie standing by to pitch in where needed.

Lynne's day was yesterday. Awesome! A natural at getting their attention (which is half the battle) and a great organized presentation. We all had fun with her project. It is a cryin' shame that art has been eliminated from some schools here. The arts community has offered to present some options in the past, but nothing solid has come of it. Yet.

Weeki Wachee will be hanging my latest piece, an acrylic painting, called "Backstage Pass." It will go in the banquet room, thank you very much! and I am so honored and pleased and Thrilled to be in the park. Oh yeah, and ARTIST IN REZ! Yep. good week.

To top off the celebration, Rhonda and I ate a ton of candy at the premiere of Harry Potter this afternoon. We have more in common every day... Love of all things Harry, being one of them, and this one was too short for me...I think I would like to re-edit the film, personally, since there was less dialogue than I would have liked. but the effects were interesting and the casting of the Tom Riddles was perfect. November 2010 for the next one is way too long.

Life is good....still the luckiest person on Earth!

Just Around the Corner

It's just past the 4th of July, and I can sniff the beginnings of hurricanes and marching bands practicing for the fall. I have a personal request for you high school band people out there--I want to hear a version of Kelly Clarkson's " Walkaway" from a marching band on a grassy field on a warm autumn afternoon. With all the pings and heavy beats. I dare ya.

I'm finishing up a new piece, called "Backstage Pass" which may define my slightly fantastic yet colorful way of looking at underwater scenery. Just can't take the world close up. More on that soon, I will be getting prints of this one...

Ok, I'm just gonna say it. Sometimes being a military mom sucks. All the parades and the fireworks and nobody's at the table this Sunday night. Don't know if I will get to see them before the end of the year, or next year or ever. I just ache to hold them and smell their necks and run my hands over their hair. And to see them come home from work still in their uniforms tired and frustrated and proud and hungry.

I am missing my sons and daughters a whole lot. Just makes me busier. which is good, but I would trade in my brushes for an afternoon with the gang around the table..... with all the dogs, past and present. With the stormy season coming I think back on a night in Denver when Johnny Depp's "Sleepy Hollow" was on. It was raining and windy, the downdrafts were chilling through the open windows. We watched Christopher Walken ride his horse into the tree trunk and I wanted the night to go on forever. Of course, Chris and Sky probably don't remember that night, preoccupied with other things going on, but I am so glad to have had real Halloween weather and really cool kids to eat popcorn and scarify with. Life has gotten scary for real now. Wish I could eat popcorn with them now...

Hmm lotta this is about eating. hmmmm