Blogging as therapy

So many things are happening now, it is just mind boggling. Blogging helps me sort it out, dump it from my brain and ease the emotional stresses. Painting helps, too as do friends and family. Last night, we had painting class again after a 2 - week hiatus. I brought in the two paintings I worked on at home - the African field, "Finding Grace" and the red/yellow tulips, "Mammo Tulips". I asked my teacher for some tips and she looked at them and liked them. Didn't want me to change anything. She especially liked the African scene as did most of the class (to my surprise). She said that she was glad that I was painting at home and that she would continue to teach me the use of color and painting in class to help improve on what I was doing.

Yesterday's class took a change of direction as we began to work on a Matisse collage for the cancer center at El Camino Hospital Cancer Center. We were given large pieces of heavy white art paper and told to draw random shapes and paint them in one of three primary colors -yellow, red, blue. I drew a free form dancing woman and a dancing/singing dog, some little hearts and a couple of random, bumpy shapes. It was a fun class and everyone was talking and laughing together. After drawing and painting, we started cutting out the shapes. Next week, we will start to paste the shapes onto primary and secondary colored background blocks and on top of each other to make a large, colorful collage that embodies everyone's spirits and talents. It is difficult to explain but I think will make a very dramatic effect on a big wall.

I finished off the evening by starting on a needlepoint that looked so simple but is actually very difficult. There is no printing on the fabric so you must look at a picture and then count spaces in the fabric (between warp and weft threads) and stitch according to the picture. I am doing the epic, "Footprints" which has probably over 100 words. In two hours, I managed about 4 words so this is going to take a while............I have never done any needlepoint at all before so this is interesting.

And...back to the day. I started off by calling my friend Cathy to see how she was doing and see if I could come visit while I was making a trip down to San Juan Bautista for more supplies for the Breast Cancer earrings that I make and have sold out of. (They seem to be very popular). Both her and her husband are facing cancer scares right now. Nothing has been diagnosed and they are still in the "testing" phases. I am praying and sending healing energy their way and hoping that they will turn out to be well and this will be "just a scare" that will pass. It is weighing heavily on my mind.

While I was in the shower, the phone rang and it was a former client of mine asking me to do some bookkeeping for her. I was happy about that as every penny helps.

With all this on my mind, I headed off to my own Drs. appt. and tried to refocus so that I would remember which questions to ask of him. It was my first appt. with a new primary physician and, even with all of the cancer stuff, there are still other things I need to attend to in order to keep a healthy body. He read my file, pronounced me healthy - good cholesterol, good blood pressure, good heartbeat. We then discussed the details of the cholesterol and TSH tests and some various skin issues. He referred me to a dermatologist who I will be seeing next week and also ordered a new set of in-depth blood tests to be done in 4 months along with a follow-up visit with him. I must say that I have never had such a thorough first visit with a primary. It was refreshing.

I grabbed a mocha coffee and stopped by to see my sister-in-law for some R&R before heading home. When I got home, there was an e-mail from Bachelor #3 (the most promising). He had been in a motorcycle accident on the weekend and just gotten out of the hospital yesterday morning. That was why I hadn't heard from him - poor guy. I felt awful for him. Needless to say, our date for this evening is delayed for the time being. Sometimes I wonder if I am just bad luck to those around me. Why is this all happening? But then I remember that it happens to everyone at one point or another. Anyway, he seems like a nice guy so I do hope we can get together when he feels better.

And.....I had an email wishing me Happy Valentine's Day from Bachelor #1 (Mr. Speedy) who I had written off as not interested. The email brought a little giggle to my lips, because, although it was really nice and he did sign it "kisses", I suspect that it is actually a group mail and that he has a list of girls that he sends the same thing to. It was a little impersonal. That is my theory anyway. I could be wrong........

Happy Valentine's Day from the two cutest little angels.

Here is hoping for a calmer week. I have had my quota of exciting.