trapped

So there is a decent amount of snow outside. I could continue to rant about the strange phenomenon that is Massachusetts preparing for and reacting to (rumors of) storms, but instead, here is how I've reacted to being trapped inside. With the help of some of my best TV friends.

I've basically bounced between these stages for the past 36 or so hours:

1) Defiance:

2) Mopiness:

(Dont' worry...no food poisoning for me...but Chris's face and Ben dialing the phone with his nose sum up the agony of stage #2)

3) Acceptance (or something like it):

this year new years' day is february 4th

Hi! So I'm playing hooky sick today. Really, I'm not feeling well. But it's the kind of sick where I want to wear sweats and not be too far from a bathroom, not the kind where I'm quarantining myself out of concern for other people.
(Keep reading...I promise there's no more TMI in this post).

Anyway, I've been meaning to create this post summing up last year ever since, you know, January 1st. So today I'm seizing the opportunity. About 13 months ago I set 14 goals on New Years Eve. I accomplished 7 of them. I know 50% is technically failing, but a) some of the other 7 were sort of impossible to do in one year (to the effect of "find my purpose"), and b) Look at what I did accomplish:

1) Move out of Provo

Good-bye....

Hello!

Thanks Google Earth...I can always count on you to be creepy, and also make my old house look like it was in the middle of a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland.

2) Travel somewhere new

Since I took a cross-country road trip AND moved, I overaccomplished this goal in terms of seeing the U.S. That makes up for some of the 7 I didn't accomplish, right?

3) Give yoga another try

Hot yoga, even. Goal for 2013: hold standing poses for more than three seconds without falling over.

4)  Read at least 3 books

Yeah, that was kind of a “shoot for the trees” goal…

    

I may have read others, but January-March of 2012 is kind of a blur. Actually, the whole year is somewhat blurry. If anyone wants to remind me of other books I read, feel free.

5)  Live by myself or be working toward that

6) Write a blog (Oh, hello blog. Nice to see you again)

7) Volunteer

And while I'm already tooting my own horn focusing on the positive, here are some 

other things I accomplished:

I painted this...

(Goal for 2013...buy a decent camera)

I crocheted this...

I installed one of these all by myself...

(You know, after breaking it off on another car and proceeding to run over it a few times). 

I did achieve some success careerwise, but my job in 2012 is a thing unto itself and might be addressed somewhere else some other time. Like in a therapist's office. 

Haha, I joke.

I also made steps toward becoming a real adult, by doing things like getting my own health insurance, renting a car, and buying a Christmas tree.

Conclusion: Overall, I'm marking it down as a pretty successful year. Of course there are some things I wish I'd done differently, but perhaps 2012 set me up for a spectacular 2013. At least, I'll try my best to make it spectacular. Febrary-December 2013, here I come!

all this has happened before ...

This is what I came up with this week in my quest to regain my identity as "artist":

If it looks like nothing, that's because it kind of is. It's not done yet. Or maybe will be when leave it behind as I begin something new "new." *

 I came back to it after letting it sit for a while, and it occurred to me that I just have to slap a garbage can on there and suddenly it's 2008 again.

(

)


Except less interesting and more...you know...orange.


* ... and all this will happen again. End of line.

this is what i do

The Ugly:
I stubbed my toe today at Target. In a nail-tearing blood-gushing kind of way. I didn't really know what to do, so I just pretended like the blood wasn't pooling on my flip flop and carried on.

The Sorta Good:
To my credit, I decided to check out right away and buy dish soap another time.

The Really Ugly:
I was too lazy to fix it up when I got home, so I waited for it to dry and figured I'd deal with it when I shower next. In the morning, tomorrow.

The Good:
I was wearing this shirt, recently sent as a gift from my adorable family.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/97412592/keep-calm-and-pull-the-lever-kronk-t

Also, I found a $22 pair of athletic shoes.

The Bad:
Yes, I was in the shoe section, trying on shoes, when this foot-blood-gushing incident commenced.
And I think that t-shirt is somehow the best possible description of my current mental state.

a face!

I made art today. If you haven't been following my life lately, this is unusual. My sweet little brother, who is on a mission in Brazil, remembered that I like painting pictures of statuary in cemeteries, so he sent me some pictures of just that. I thought the face on this one was beautiful, so I did a quick study of it.

 It's not much, but it's better than nothing. There might even be more to come, stay tuned.

oppressive--an outsider's perspective

Here's something new:

 

(If you're from a place like I am, where measurements of humidity only appear with images of Smokey the Bear...

. 

...this article is a nice summary of what "dew point" means). 


I love how the highest and lowest ratings are named subjectively. "Humid" and "Very Humid" conjure up factual, scientific references, but "Oppressive" makes it sound like we're making bricks without straw. Which, actually, I'd prefer to walking around with the dew point above 70. 

And as far as "Comfortable"...maybe knock that 60 down 1 or 20 degrees, and we can talk.

talent

Wanna know something I'm good at? Ruminating. If there were a regional ruminating competition, I bet I'd win at least an honorable mention. I'm so good at ruminating that I ruminate about ruminating.

I'd quit, but if that competition ever rolls into town, I hear the prizes are anxiety, weight gain, hair loss, and general regression. Who wouldn't want to win all of that? I'd better keep practicing.