“I’m going to live in San Francisco when I grow up”
“Cool, can I come too?”
“Yes, if you aren’t dead”

—

I have reconsidered this chapter verse metaphor in titling journal posts. It more like this is the third book in a series that is my life. Book 1 was childhood & college, Book 2 was corporate employee life, now book 3 is starting. Where will it lead? How will it end??

I’m NOT going to go back and re-title earlier posts. But moving forward, this will be Book 3, chapter 1.

On to this week’s verse : it is a dull one.

I’ve been getting less done than I envisioned a few weeks ago when this book started. I’m still very much in vacation mode, recharge mode. Plus the kid was homesick from preschool 2 days that interrupted some plans.

I did join Instagram as _tinkeress_

I do have an art project list – these will eventually become posts, God willing (and the creek don’t rise):

• BigBall
• LED light wall
• Pennsic garb
• SuperDragon
• Affirmation Collection station
• the subsequent Affirmation cage

And the less interesting adulting list: do my taxes/networking/signing&returning termination papers/bathroom remodel/Garden control/Ceiling repairs.

I had an interesting evening yesterday. I was a DuPont scholar at University of Delaware when I went 1988-91. And the university holds a yearly reception for former distinguished scholars and current seniors. I got to mingle with these clever people, most of which are just starting the second book of their lives. Interesting small talk.

And then dinner with a friend I had from my college days. It has been some years since we sat down together, so we reconnected over much more in-depth real life talk.

And finally, a friend had invited me to his 2 day house party. More interesting types there – young art sorts – some great conversations on the Philadelphia art scene. But it was late and I was winding down, my conversation reserves well tapped. I got home just in time to see the clock change to 3AM.

*I've started up a new blog tinkeress.com - double posting here and there for a while

A weekend ago I was at a rave. There I met a fortuneteller. She read the cards for me. "You will find a worthwhile undertaking," she read, "It will likely bring you fortune."

"You will find true love, a sole mate" she continued, "It won't be just 'some guy', but the real thing, a deeper relationship that you've ever had before."

"But first," she said, "First you must visualize with your third(?) charka these things, and what you really truly want."

But she didn't promise me many bambinos to go with the fortune and love, as that gypsy had 23 years ago. Times change.

*I'm starting up a new blog tinkeress.com So for a while I'll be double posting, there and here.

*I'm starting up a new blog tinkeress.com So for a while I'll be double posting, there and here.

KID: “Whats that in the trash?”

ME: “Bones from the chicken stock.”

KID: “Did you save me the wishbone? I want to wish for us to be mermaids. Except on Tuesday, when we are fairies.”

—  —  —  —  —

MAKING/MADE: Kid’s nightstand, chicken stock, BigBall

READING: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

PLANNING: Vacation Trip to Los Angeles (April), Wickerman Burn (June), Pennsic Wars (August)

I’m still trying to find the rhythm of life now that I’ve downshifted from the daily corporate grind. I’m attempting to move forward on some project every day. Or at least on most days – I give myself the permission to have do-nothing days.

Anyway, Monday, and I want to look back on the week.

• Monday: Snow day – entertained kid, built legos
• Tuesday: Sick day (me, not the kid)
• Wednesday: Polyurethaned the nightstand, and touch-ups; Pennsic garb research
• Thursday: Polyurethaned the nightstand – calling it done; Submitted BigBall art grant request
• Friday: Chicken Stock; Kid was sick, so a lot of quiet nothing time
• Saturday: Do nothing Recovery day!
• Sunday: Sugar Cookies (with Kid); Recruiting help for BigBall from friends

<fin>

It's a cold Tuesday in January that feels like a Monday.  On Monday, a holiday, I cleaned the garage enough to fit my car in. Cause I'd rather clean the garage than scrape morning ice/snow from the car, now that winter has finally decided to make an appearance. 

To get the car in the garage, I need to move my ex's truck. Which I borrowed 6+ weeks ago to get a Christmas tree and never got around to returning. (I have an comfortable relationship with my ex, so things like borrowing his truck are no big deal.) Except it won't start.

So, a cold Tuesday morning in January, I get to jumpstart his truck. Which I do, and think back to a lifetime ago, 1993(?) when I jumpstarted a friends Volvo in Pittsburgh. I was 23, she was thirty something. She remarked on how cool it was that we- two women - could jump a car without help of a man. True then, true now. One woman even.

Car is now in the garage. Yay me.  Though I did manage to lose my keys somehow in the operation. And it is too damn cold to keep looking for them. They'll turn up, and I am an adult, I have a spare. And a way to get into my house without a key. 

Also, 2 weekends ago, I made this, with some help from friends.

I'd hoped to find my parachute to cover it when I cleaned the garage, but no luck. Not sure what I want to do next with it, and I'm out of poles. Though I do still have a truck that runs now, so I can pop over to Lowes/Home Depot anytime to get more.

Cream of wheat (since I made it upon request then the kid decided she wasn't hungry for breakfast) , coffee, coffee ... OoooOh, then fresh cherries from my pseudo-csa (I.e, I give my retired neighbor $15-20 to hit the local farmers market for me, since he goes anyway) What, pseudo csa included a pie ?!!? We talked about this yesterday!! Only fruits & veges! I'm dieting! I'm at my "scary" weight! Le sigh.

I felt like a cad returning the pie to him, my friendly neighbor. 

Leftover tortellini, handful of sunflower seeds. Iced Tea. Hot Tea (Fighting a head cold)

Fresh Corn on the cob! , leftover 1/2 a porkchop. Cherries, cherries cherries! And 2 fresh strawberries as I chopped up the delivered pint.

also, 1.1 miles on treadmill. And ate a few more cherries

hungry, and the interwebs keep showing me food posts tonight. Going to bed early.

In all earnest, this tee is not at all an inappropriate gift from my ex. Yes, it is a funny funny life I lead. 

So, it was Easter. And I have a 4 year old, the only kid in our extended family. So of course we plan an Easter egg hunt for her enjoyment. All told about 2 dozen hard-boiled eggs were colored and about a dozen plastic eggs were filled with treats.

After the kid went to sleep, and before my brother Thomas and I got too far into our evening drinking (he was working on a case of Millerlite, I was working through a bottle and a half of pinot grigio), we decided to put out the eggs. Thomas put out the eggs - all 30+ of them, making a nice looping path around my backyard.

I live in the part of suburbia that has sprawling parklike backyards, btw.

Come morning, the family gathered to watch my kid hunt Easter eggs. And she found one. Then two or three. But they were few and far between. At which point it dawned on us that perhaps leaving the eggs out overnight was not the wisest idea. She did find all the plastic eggs, which almost all still had treats inside. But only 5 of the 24 hardboiled eggs made it through the night.

Ah, wildlife. Don't know if it was squirrels or foxes or groundhogs or what, but I imagine they are fat and happy critters now. Love my home.

Anne Mollo recently posted an entry including the "What Taking My Daughter to a Comic Book Store Taught Me" link, and the ensuing snottiness of person B. And it's also popping up in my feed in that other social media site. (Aside: I sometimes think comments are the bane of all happiness. Still I read them, even when I know better.)

And it has me thinking - in the shower of course, where I do my best work - I see a lot of stuff lately about girls needing more female role models/heroes they can identify with. And across the years, posts on <insert socio-ethnic-racial group here> needing more <insert socio-ethnic-racial group here> role models/heroes they can identify with. 

And I think to myself: do I want my kid picking only female role models/heroes? And only nominally white ones at that? No, I don't. What am I missing here?

Ideally, I want a pantheon of role models available, representative of all the cultures, creeds, orientations, for kids to choose. I don't want the kid pigeoned holed into choosing only ones that are most-like-her. But life isn't ideal. We work to make it better, but we play the cards we're dealt. Possibly I have this mindset because I didn't have any Half-Paki, Half-German Female Engineer role models in my life?

My shower musing turns to: there is usually an incumbent (cue dissertation on privilege). Railing at that fact doesn't do much to bring more light. Denying that fact is generally ignorance or assholery.  Adding more options, that is a path I support. Meanwhile, I will tend my own garden. 

“There is a concatenation of all events in the best of possible worlds; for, in short,

• had you not been kicked out of a fine castle for the love of Miss Cunegund;
• had you not been put into the Inquisition;
• had you not travelled over America on foot;
• had you not run the baron through the body;
• and had you not lost all your sheep, which you brought from the good country of El Dorado,

you would not have been here to eat preserved citrons and pistachio nuts.” “Excellently observed,” answered Candide; “but let us take care of our garden" -- Voltaire (bullets added by me for readability)

Day 13, rest day.  Check!

day 14 is suppose to be 90 secs. I put it off all day. Finially, full on ice cream and shoeless just before bed, i gave it a go. And gave up at 64 secs. 

Day 14 again - this time I blew it off completely. 

Day 14 again - first thing in the morning (shoeless again, but at least an empty stomach), I made it to 80sec. And wow, that hard. I'll keep at it.

while I wasn't working or planking, I was painting this:

10 - 60 sec plank before bed on the hard cold hotel floor

X - well I had one of those too damn busy days again - from oversleeping and rushing out of my hotel to catch a ride to work at 7am to walking in the door at 11pm I literally had no time/place to plank. I guess I could have found a spot in the airport, but it was pretty crazy. At by 11pm Planking was not a priority. Collapsing into bed was all I was up to.

10a - repeated 60s of day 10. My feet seriously objected.

11 - another 60 seconds, this time at the local park's playground - yes it is near freezing out, but kids gotta play. So we went out for some running around time. And I planked on one of the flat areas. And hey, with shoes on, it doesn't hurt the feet! Doh. 

12  - so I put it off all day. Afraid of the 90 seconds. I got me excuses - too full, no shoes on, gotta make swords, and armor. But yay! Just finished my first 90 second plank! Woot! I think I'll reward myself with my first beer of the year.