Sharing My World 69

 Early morning sunshine and shadow which prompted W to ask me what the hell I’m taking a picture of now.  

Share Your World May 1, 2017

Would you rather live where it is always hot or always cold?

No.  I would rather not live in either one of those places.  I would complain about the heat and people would tell me to move somewhere not so hot.  Then I would complain about the cold and people would suggest I shut up about it or move to a warmer climate.  People are weird that way.  Not sure why they can’t figure out I just like to complain.

I would prefer to live in a temperate zone with the occasional heavy rain, cold wind, hot day, chilly evening, dense morning fog.  But mostly blue skies and sunshine with those other things thrown in to offset the boredom and make me less complacent and more apt to appreciate the fair weather.  However,  no earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.  Or tornadoes.  Or mud.  A lot of mud would be a real deal breaker.

Do you prefer long hair or short hair for yourself?

Long straight hippie hair was great when I had the face to go with it.  Medium length was great when I had the time and ambition to style it every day and turn up for work looking presentable and sort of half-assed put together.  Now hair that’s too long just drags my face down.  It’s already droopy enough on its own without help, so short and sweet is my preference these days.  I just don’t see the point in going through a lot of fussing about with it anymore.  Tell that to my high school self who spent five years of her life going to bed with rollers the size of frozen orange juice cans in her hair and then trying not to smile too much the next day because it would cause wrinkles. She probably wouldn’t laugh, but I sure am.

What is your favorite month of the year?

May is nice.  It has Mother’s Day and my birthday in it.  I’m also quite fond of July and August.  As long as there’s no volcanic eruptions or earthquakes or monsoons and the bugs leave me alone.

What is the easiest way for you to learn something new? By reading, by seeing and doing, in a classroom?

Definitely by seeing and doing.  I watched a towel folding video three times before attempting to make a bear shaped creation on my own.  I had no idea I was so dense and my towels were so incredibly stupid.  But I got it done.  That sucker is never going to be unfolded again while I live and breathe.

Optional Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful it appears to be spring-like again after all the weather shenanigans we have dealt with this April.  W did spring cleanup of the lawn for a couple of days and then we watched the snow fall for many days and many nights after that.  We became reluctant to draw the curtains in the morning never knowing whether we would be facing a lawn mower or a snow blower day.  Typical April for us really, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it or not gripe about it.

I am looking forward to finding out if my Tiger Lily bulbs will survive a brutal uprooting and transplant from the back yard to the front flower bed where nothing grows except a big wild-looking thorny thing.  It might be some kind of berry bush, I can’t remember, but it’s very hardy and persistent and refuses to die so I quite like it.    The Tiger Lily bed was annoying to manoeuvre the lawn mower around so I got rid of it.  Yep.  Does not take much to piss me off.

And that is also the reason why I have had to wean myself gently away from the daily news.  Life is just too short to spend so many hours in a day wondering why about so many things.  SO MANY BIZARRE THINGS.  Where do you even start.  And how do you stop once you get started.

The good news is, there has been a marriage in our family!  I don’t know if I’m supposed to make that announcement because it’s not my story to tell, so I’ll just leave you all hanging about the details.  Except to say I’m very happy about it, so there you go. Don’t ask me any questions.  You know what happened to that flower bed.

I found it on Facebook.  Source of all good and worthwhile stuff.

Art du Jour 43

life is meant to be
mostly
about sunshine and happiness and light
but when something bad happens
to someone you care about
you feel their pain
and then you wonder
why the sun came up at all

Art du Jour 33

My inspiration for this composition came from a Pinterest pin. There’s no end to the ideas there, and I’ve pinned many.  I’d have quite a collection of my own art work if I sat down more often and used them.

I’m loving the colours here.  In my idea of a perfect world there would be predominantly reds and yellows during the day, and pinks and purples at night, with all other colours merely accents.

We are enjoying the most incredible weather for January today.  Well above freezing and snow melting everywhere.  W looked out the front window this morning and mused that perhaps winter was over.  That was a pretty delusional observation.  I’ll remind him of it when we’re in the middle of a blizzard in May.

But for now, time to bask in the sunshine.

Good Morning Sunshine

The latest incarnation of the paint room aka art studio, in which I have spent hours moving things around and minutes actually working on stuff.

There isn’t a lot of sunshine yet today, but that’s okay.  We’re having gorgeous autumn weather into the last ten days of September.  Six work shifts to go.  I know countdowns are bad, and a form of wishing your life away while you wait for something to end or begin or happen but I’m doing it anyway.  Anticipation is half the fun, right?

On my second last working Wednesday, all alone between six and eight with no appointments and no customers and no real ambition, I decided to write down all the things I will miss about work when I’m finally done with it on the last day of this month.  I took a sheet of paper out of the printer, got one of my three erasable pens out of my pocket (there must always be three) and sat down to write a list.  Things I will miss.  Ten minutes crawled by.  Everything I thought of was something I actually wouldn’t miss at all.  In fact I knew I would be beside myself with relief and happiness to never have to deal with that shit again.  So then I divided the paper in two and on the second half started a list of things I will NOT miss.  I filled up that side and the entire back with such a pile of work related crap it put me in a totally pissy mood.  I should not be left alone on Wednesday nights.  I’ve always said that, but no one listens.

While this process was all very cathartic, I won’t be sharing my list of negativity from hell.  Going over it once was enough.  Indisputable proof that it’s time to walk away.

W is coming home today.  He’s been in Ontario at the island closing things up for the winter.  He’s bringing my water-color paint supplies home with him.  I can’t remember why I thought it was a good idea to leave them there, but now I’ll have fewer excuses for stifling my creative urges as I amass all my tools and gather ideas and look up art classes.  Plan projects, get organized, have another cup of coffee, read some blogs, play some candy crush, make a pot of soup…..

Is it a little sad that procrastination is my favourite thing in the world?   (Except for reading for hours and watching bizarre things on Netflix.  I never put those things off.)   If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, I’ve been headed in that direction forever.  I do entire blog posts in my head in the middle of the night on my brilliant blog where I discuss brilliant things.  Then dawn breaks and work looms and Netflix sends me a notice that some dumb thing I’ve been watching has new episodes.  So the brilliance is put on hold.  Or forgotten.

Well, it’s an interesting theory/excuse, hey?

No, I’m not really buying it either.  But my point is (YES!  I have a POINT!) work will no longer loom.  Huge chunks of stress will dissolve right before my eyes.  I will have to find something completely different to get all pissy about.  I will answer more prompts and accept more challenges.  Or at the very least, drum up the courage to share my artistic creative genius.  You people are all really nice and will humor me on that one, right?  Thank you, I knew I could count on you.

Ten days.  Six shifts.  Gorgeous fall weather.  Paint supplies en route to home.  Oh yeah, and W too.

Life is good and about to get better.

Just Jazzy 282

Jazzy Does 100 Days of Happiness 69

Happiness is looking out the window and saying, hey, it’s a monkeys wedding out there! (simultaneous sunshine and rain) Even more fun if you don’t explain.

Just Jazzy 228

Jazzy Does 100 Days of Happiness 15

Happiness is having sparkling clean windows everywhere in your house, letting the sun shine in.

Rainy Days and Mondays

This picture was taken a couple of days ago when the sun was shining, the sky was a beautiful blue filled with fluffy clouds, and I thought W would like to see what the neighbors new fence looks like.  For which we owe him half of whatever it cost.  W is off to his island again for most of the summer, sending me texts and drinking rum.  And fishing.  Let’s not forget all that fishing.

Today the sun is shining somewhere else.  The sky is a thick grey blanket.  It’s spitting rain.  It’s Monday.  I have to go to work.  Talk about your double-double whammy.  For now I don’t have Mondays off anymore.  My schedule has always been at the whim of circumstance and a boss who schedules our lives like it’s some kind of random crap shoot.  Sundays, Thursdays and Fridays are now my days off.  Now that I’ve put that in writing it’s likely to change completely before the month is over.

Do you ever feel like the only reason you can live through something is because you know it will eventually end?  That it won’t last forever? Must be the gloomy day talking.  I have about a hundred and thirteen days to go before retirement.  Give or take ninety if I decide to work until my license expires on December 31st.  I am old and tired and would like to have EVERY day of the week off.  I read three posts the other day by three different bloggers who all used the tag ‘aging’.  It’s nice to know I’m not alone in my feelings about this process.  I don’t like knowing there are things I just can’t do anymore.  I thought I would age gracefully but often I’m just cranky and sad about it all.

So it’s time to bring Jazzy back and live vicariously through her eternal optimism and snark.  Maybe some of it will rub off on me.  Yes, I’m being completely weird because she can’t say anything if I don’t make her say it.  Poor thing.  I love this thing going around Facebook where people do 100 days of Happiness and write some happy thing every day.  What a great way to be grateful and recognize the good things in your life.

Stay tuned for “Jazzy Does Happiness” from whenever I start until the day I kiss work goodbye.  It’s looking like the end of September.  I can stay happy until then or die trying.  God, I hope I don’t die trying.

In Real Time

Kamari Hotel, Mykonos, Greece

This is one of the views from where I’m sitting right now on our last day of four in Mykonos.  What an incredible place.  I’m going to try to bring some of this sunshine home with me.  They seem to have plenty to go around.  It’s our first truly lazing around doing nothing day, so I’ll get back at it.

Drift and Dream

Just Jazzy 157

“She decided to free herself, dance into the wind, create a new language. And birds fluttered around her, writing “yes” in the sky.”  (Monique Duval)

These little musicians teach us that if we can weather the storm, we will soon be singing again in the sunshine.