Week 4 - Check-In

1. Morning notes were 7/7, although as usual sometimes they were night notes. I had a busy week on the domestic scene and there wasn't time or focus enough for a good job of it, but I did write something every day.

2. While writing Task #1 for my blog it occurred to me I could expand the exercise into my Artist Date. Maybe taking pictures of houses I'd like to live in is crossing the border between fantasy and lunacy. It was a busy day in Franklin; people had family in town for the holidays and a visit to Franklin is a treat for out-of-towners. There was lots of Christmas shopping going on in the warm sunshine, so I had to snap quickly (not easy with a digital camera) and dodge some traffic. I was even followed by a police patrol car (I mean around all four corners—he wasn't just strolling; he was watching my strange behavior.) Fortunately the house I had circled the block to photograph had a "For Sale" sign in the yard and he saw me focus my camera on the house. I think he thought I was planning to come back and break into these places.

I ate a delicious chicken salad sandwich and too many molasses cookies at Merridee's Breadbox, while I watched country singer Clint Black and his wife Lisa Hartman order their lunches with their little girl. (Nashville is pretty blasé about music stars and he wasn't too recognizable in his baseball cap and shades, baggy pants and anorak—looked like any other yuppie dad on an outing with the family.) Franklin and the surrounding county are where all the stars live and you can often share a sandwich with Naomi Judd or get on an elevator with Ray Stevens.

I couldn't even get excited by a visit to The Stitcher's Garden. It has everything known to the quilting world, but it's an impossible store. The bolts are stacked so high the place is dangerous. It's just a mess and in my current clean-out/fix-up mode it was not at all appealing to me.

The Buried Dreams exercise didn't do much for me. It was very hard to come up with 5 things I would never do that sound fun ('cause if it sounds fun, I usually do it). The 5 silly things was particularly hard. All I could come up with was 1) have a personal make-over (hear that, Debra?) and 2) have some silly spa treatment (mud baths, whatever). And that's IT. Couldn't think of anything else.

The Reading Deprivation exercise was a bitch. I am aware of how we crowd thought from our minds with static—television, yakking on the phone (a serious problem now with cellphones), listening to talk radio, surfing the 'net. We have a mania for avoiding quiet contemplation. I already make quiet time a part of my day. I often drive in silence. So as Corky in "Waiting for Guffman" said, "I get the joke, people. Okay? I get it." I did no reading except for our blogs and TAW book. The deprivation probably was not as noticeable or useful because I was busy a good bit of the time with Thanksgiving chores.

Toward Friday, I noticed I was restless and looking around for things to do. I did some long overdue cleaning of cobwebs from our high ceilings, and I even went to an antique mall (something I used to love but have stopped doing for a couple of years). I bought a cute old wicker stool/sewing box that I plan to reupholster (maybe in tartan crazy patches?). I even put "jigsaw puzzle" on my shopping list (and wouldn't you know—I forgot it???)

By week's end I am in a tearful blue funk, and I've spent a good deal of time trying to figure out why. My glass has not been so half-full since Thanksgiving (more on that later). I wonder if reading deprivation has something to do with it? I'm a news junkie and it has killed me to watch Don read the morning paper every day and not pick it up myself.

I completed Tasks #1 (see blog) and #2 in which I imagined my life at 80. Since my mother is now 80, it was easy to see myself living to that age. Task #4 suggested creating a creative space for myself and I just did that. Task #6, composing my own artist's prayer is something I did, despite not being much of one for praying. I didn't say it every day, but I did read it several times and think about what I was saying.

I continued to try to do something nice for myself every day, but it was hard. When you're blue you don't want to do anything nice, or anything at all for that matter. Franklin is a neat place and it almost broke my funky mood. Hope this passes soon.

To see other Week 4 check-in posts, use this link:
http://artistwayquilters.blogspot.com/2005/11/chap-4-check-in-november-27-2005.html