Another no-art day. Ah Christmas. You eat up my spare time with your neediness. Today will be different. I feel it. Christmas morning will be here at the house, so cleaning, plus we have to deal with grocery shopping for the festivities, but that’s not much…just some dusting, some floor cleaning, and an hour at the store, maybe more. Today I personally have no plans, although there is still a to-do list. I don’t have to do anything on it though…except my daily Winter Break drawing.
Yesterday. Yesterday was a lot of cleaning and cooking and then we walked the dogs to really tire them out…oh wait, but before that, I finished the present wrapping and there’s Kitten, guarding the tree.
She hasn’t gacked up any pine needles yet, but it’s not for wont of trying.
We took the dogs out to Crestridge Ecological Reserve…I keep forgetting about this one, because it’s a longer drive to get there.
It has a beautiful grove of old oak trees though. Obvious rain damage to the trail from the two batches of rain we got a few weeks ago.
We were trying to do 4 miles, but were just short. The weather was perfect…a little chilly even.
The last time I was here, it was too hot.
We wandered around a trail for a bit…
The dogs like to forage. Mostly. Here boychild went to explore a pile of stuff in the brush, and Simba refused to go with him. So we waited.
This is coyote country, so I do pay attention to Simba’s instincts. Although he’s also a rampant barker…but not on leash.
Even in winter, we get flowers…
Although not many. More of that rain damage.
Makes for interesting patterns on the ground. Remember that for the next drawing.
Anyway, then I bathed the big dog. She has skin issues and needed her special soap. Dinner. Picked up girlchild from the airport, which was hellish. Too many people. Three introverts in a car looking for the one extrovert. Then they dropped me at the music venue where my guy was playing last night.
And I upped my daily step count yet again. It was a nice way to end the day…short set, not too late, got a good view up front. Wine was horrendously expensive, so I gave up on that.
I did draw while waiting for the band to come out, though. Got some weird looks and some comments. I was there by myself, so I was OK with it.
This is one of the smallest sketchbooks. It fits in my purse. I did most of the drawing in the 20 minutes before the band came out (shitty lighting), and then finished it while waiting for the man to pack up his equipment. This is 6×9″ I think. I don’t like the bird, but the rest is fine. Filling spaces. Like I said, I enjoy the freedom of drawing without a purpose. One woman wanted to know why I didn’t do it earlier in the day, since I knew I was coming here. I was like, “I didn’t have time. Plus I knew I’d be standing here.” I think the idea of going somewhere by yourself was confusing to her. Maybe if I’d explained that I was with the band? She was all talking about how she had friends in both bands. OK. Well. I go to a lot of these and there’s a lot of waiting around and I like to have my brain busy. So I read or draw. I also danced for an hour, so I’m OK with that.
Meanwhile…did I get anything done on that quilt in progress? Fuck no, I did not. Nothing at all. That will change today. The kids are Christmas shopping and then they will go to their dad’s. The man is sick, so I’m suspecting dinner here or out and that’s it, and I’m OK with that. I’d like to start ironing this quilt to fabric today. I would like to get a big chunk of that done, like 4 or 5 hours. I’d like to do the same tomorrow, but tomorrow gets more complicated. I’d like this shingles vaccine rash to go away (I finally took Benadryl last night…it helped a little.). I’d like more sleep. All these things are possible. I want to finish grading the last of the science units. I got about a third of the way through the last period yesterday. I even did a few at 11 PM after the show, but I didn’t finish. Today I would like to finish, so I can pack that pile up and just deal with the computer stuff. I might change out of pajamas…but I might not. That’s a decision I can make later.
*Regina Spektor, Genius Next Door
Kathy Nida 