Inktober 2020 Challenge - Week Two

      Surprise! Made it to week two of the Inktober challenge! It was a bit tougher this week as work was super busy. For some reason we always get busier during the end of the year when everyone is taking vacations for Thanksgiving and Christmas and we're short-handed...but I stuck it out and did my seven inked drawings. So without further ado...here's what I did.

     Day 8 - Prompt was "Teeth" - Had a little fun with this one. I had an idea to do a pumpkin with braces on it's teeth, which I did and I think it's most excellent! 

     Both my children suggested since a lot of rap stars call their teeth their "grill" that I do something with that. So I came up with this little guy that I think is just adorable! I love the way the headlights are his little eyes. I thought about doing gold teeth, but he's fine as he is.

     Day 9 - Prompt "Throw" - This was a head-scratcher. I had not a clue what I should do. I could have drawn someone throwing a ball, but drawing people is not one of my favorite thing. Luckily a little saying my brother Fred would always say to his kids popped into my head "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!" She reminds me a lot of me when I was a kid, and a teenager and me yesterday!

Day 10 - Prompt "Hope" - This one I knew what I wanted to do, but I did not do the picture in my head justice. But they can't all be works of art and the point of this project is to get better and to practice. What is more hopeful that a little flower soldiering through and growing in a crack in the street?

     I'm doing all these drawings on the back of a 3" x 5" index card, so they are not very big and there's not a lot of room.  In retrospect, I could have drawn this one smaller with some buildings in the background...live and learn.

     Day 11 - Prompt - "Disgusting" - Thinking I may ruffle a few feathers with this one, especially is you are a lover of mushrooms...I am not. I think they are gross and disgusting, have an awful texture and smell. But if you love them, then my apologies. They are beautiful to draw though, this one may be my favorite so far.

     Day 12 - Prompt "Slippery" - If I were a better artist I would have drawn a snail or an eel, but I just did my best and soldiered on with something super simple, but it fits the prompt. Hey...they can't all be winners. Poor guy driving, it's so slippery on that road that he seems to be heading off the sign itself!

     Day 13 - Prompt "Dune" - Oh I had fun with this one! Now normally I have a lot of problems with perspective and although the tires are not perfect, they aren't bad at all. A cute little Dune Buggy racing along on sand dunes!

     Day 14 - Prompt "Armor" - Oh wait! This one may be my favorite. I just think he's adorable! Isn't he perfection? 

     So that's it for week two. 

     I actually started this post more than a week ago, but I'm having some home remodeling done and the workers are here putting in a new closet in my bedroom and everything is in disarray and I can't find any of my art supplies and I'm going to have to put this on hold for now. 

     But it has been fun up to now.

Inktober 2020 Challenge - Week One

      This year will be my first time joining the Inktober challenge. Inktober was created by Jake Parker in 2009 as a challenge to improve his inking skills and develop positive drawing habits, now thousands of artists take the challenge each year, you can learn more about it here. 

     Here's a list of the prompts for the month:

Prompts from Inktober website

     The rules are simple:

1. Make a drawing in ink (you can do a pencil under-drawing if you want).

2. Post it - post on any social media account you want or just post it on your refrigerator, the point is to share your art with someone.

3. Hashtag it with #inktober and #inktober2020

4. Repeat the process

     So that's the gist of it. I'm on day 7 which would be one week, so let me show you what I have done so far.

Day 1 - Prompt was "Fish" - I've mentioned that I'm learning the Zentangle process and I had just learned a new tangle called "Harp" and it reminded me of the fins of the Betta Fish or Siamese Fighting Fish, just love those beautiful fish! So here he is, a little fish with attitude!

Day 2 - Prompt was Wisp - This was a tough one for me. I could think of lots of things to draw but didn't trust my drawing skills enough. So this is what I ended up with "wisps of steam" rising out of a coffee cup. 

Day 3 - Prompt was Bulky - As luck would have it, this day I woke up with horrible allergies and my daughter suggested I take a Zyrtec, I did so right about 2pm that afternoon and I didn't wake up until around 11pm, needless to say I did not get one done that day, so I posted this.

Day 4 - Prompt was Radio - The vision of Ralphie and Randy from the movie A Christmas Story instantly came to mind and was the inspiration for this one. I especially love the way the little girls hair turned out.

Day 5 - Prompt was Blade - Again a tough one because I really wanted to draw a sword or a big knife, but I knew everyone would be doing that and I wanted to be unique and different. So I did end up drawing a sword but in the form of the emblem of a local high school. I loved the way the handles on the swords turned out!

Day 6 - Prompt was Rodent - Drawing a rodent was not at all appealing. I could have drawn a dead one in a trap, but that's just sad and wrong, so I decided I wanted to draw a mouse dressed up like a Mariachi, but what I found instead was a a Mariachi with a sugar skull face and that inspired me to draw my little Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Rodent with a Sugar Skull (Calavera) design!

It's not the best rodent ever drawn, but I think it's the most unique!

Day 7 - Prompt was Fancy - So many things came to mind, but utmost in my mind was the song Fancy by Reba McEntire. I love that song and any time I hear it I sing at the top of my lungs, not worried who is listening! 

In the lyrics she sings "We didn't have money for food or rent to say the least, we were hard pressed. Then Mama spent every last penny we had, to buy me a dancin' dress. Mama washed and combed and curled my hair and then she painted my eyes and lips, then I stepped into a satin Dancin' dress that had a split on the side clean up to my hip.

So I drew a Fancy dress! So far this has been fun and I'm looking forward to the next week. 

Here's the link to Reba singing Fancy, it will bring tears to your eyes.

Death of a Tree, Actually Two Trees

 Trees

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast.

A tree that looks at God all day

And lifts her leafy arms to pray.

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair.

Upon whose bosom snow has Lain; 

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me, 

But only God can make a tree.

by Joyce Kilmer

     Love this poem! But I have to beg God's forgiveness in that he is not the only one that can make a tree; my mom and dad were also able to make trees, not only one but four...and this weekend unfortunately I had to witness the death of two of them.

     It's with great sadness that I tell this story, but it had to be done. You see, I'm making several home repairs, maintenance and remodeling. One of the things I am doing is having a new fence installed.

     The old fence had seen better days. It had been built by my mom and dad and the years were showing up on the old gal. Windstorms, weather, rusting hinges and the fact that a car drove through the fence a few years ago were causing it to sag and I was fearful that the next good windstorm would carry it away.

     My fence guys, Bob and Danny showed me how the roots were exposed and had already cracked the existing cement slab the fence rested on and the roots were heading towards the sewer system. The decision was made before they could build the fence for me to contact a tree removal company. 

     Last Saturday, my gardener Ernesto had his crew come out and take down the two trees in question. The other two were a different species that did not grow the same way as the two coming down. They told me the separate names but I didn't write it down, all I know is that all four are non-fruit bearing pistachio trees.

     My dad was a farmer and my mom tells the story of one year at Easter, my dad took us and some friends to a beautiful spot he had found out on the ranch where we could spend the day playing underneath the Pistachio and Almond trees and the adults could hide the eggs. Mom and Dad saw the little trees growing wild near the fields so they brought them home and planted them. That was between 22 to 25 years ago, so you can imagine how big they are now. Last year I had them trimmed so this year they just blossomed. Here's a photo of the trees.

     One tree was growing inside the fence, that's the one at the far right next to the blue shed (which my mom and dad also built themselves and I'm hoping to give it a face-lift as well, stay tuned), the other is growing outside of the fence. You can see how full and lush they are, and that fence is at least 6 feet tall so they had to be at least 36 feet tall!

     This photo is a little grainy, but you can see the concrete underneath already in pieces. This was causing the inside chain link fence to bend and loosen which then loosened the wooded slats, some of the are even missing, as you can see.

     Those trees held so many memories of my dad barbequing for us all and the shade they provided year round, I could feel my dad frowning at me from Heaven, but I'm sure he would have done the same thing. I thought about digging out the parts of the root that were causing the damage but several tree removal services that came out to give me quotes assured me the trees would die. There was no other choice. 

     So my gardener Oscar gave me the lowest quote and he showed up on Saturday and I was shocked to learn that he had not brought a cherry picker or a bucket truck which is how I assumed they would take the trees down, start from the top and cut down. 

     Nope, what they did was to use a chain saw starting at the bottom, letting the trees just crash down onto the street! I don't know how they estimated which way the trees would fall or how they knew they would not hit my neighbors fence across the street, but they brought the trees down successfully. 

     Once the tree was down they quickly cut all the branches off, hurrying as it was blocking the street, then they cut the trunk into pieces that were just barely small enough for them to physically lift! Once all that was done, they use a stump grinder like the one shown below, to remove the the stump and grind the roots. And bing-bang in about 3 hours those trees were gone!

   Here's a picture my sister Lisa took from her car parked across the street. You can see the remaining two trees on the right of the picture and you can see how badly the fence looks from this angle and how badly the house needs to be painted but never fear, that's next on the list!

     Voila! Trees are gone! As sad as I am that the trees had to go it looks so much nicer now! Now I'm just waiting for my fence guys to put up the new fence and I'll share a nice new picture!

     Slowly but sure we are giving this old house a facelift. The house was actually built in 1957 and while it's had some fixes here and there, it's not had any actual major remodeling. Cross your fingers I like the end result.

Dancing Shopper, Health Club Owner, Healthy Eating and Me

Monday I took a vacation day in order to take my mom to a doctors appointment. After her appointment, we had planned to stop by her favorite fabric store, unfortunately they were closed on Mondays! Who does that? Who closes on a Monday?? So instead we went to JoAnns Fabrics and Michaels. 

I also made a stop at WinCo, my favorite grocery store. They make the best chicken strips. I meant to buy only chicken strips, but you know how it is, you end up picking up all kinds of stuff along the way. So my chicken strips cost me $178.43 because that was my total bill! Crazy the way things add up!

I was waiting in line to pay, taking care to stand on the pre-marked  social distancing markers and I was getting a bit irritated because the older gentleman in back of me was breathing down my neck. No matter how much I moved forward, he was right behind me. I know elderly people sometimes forget that we are supposed to socially distance, I know my mom does...so I was trying to be patient but in my head I was super angry and frustrated.

Ahead of me in the line was a young couple and the young man was dancing the sort of dance I remember doing in my youth called The Robot...only he made it look good! So I focused my attention on him and he was awesome and entertaining and the female was so embarrassed and trying to stop him, it was so amusing!

Then I hear the old guy behind me say "I think you almost got that dance move down!" And the young man just burst into laughter and his girlfriend/wife turned red. They then started a  fun conversation and both were so entertaining. The old guy told him to keep moving as it's good for your health and the young guy told him to keep drinking water and remember to stay hydrated and the old guy said "Oh, I know. I've been a health instructor my whole life and in fact I own a health gym and health food store downtown." The young guy said "My bad, I don't need to tell you how to stay healthy then do I?" At the end when the young couple had to leave the young man turned back to the old man and said "Much respect to you sir, it was a pleasure to speak to you." 

It was a pleasure for me to be in the middle of this conversation and I turned and smiled at the old guy and noticed he only had 2 items and my cart was full, so I asked him if he wanted to go ahead of me and he said, "No, that's ok, I got all the time in the world, I just came from a doctors appointment and I live up in the mountains and have a long drive ahead of me and then when I get home all I'm going to do is sit down in front of the TV and rot." I told him that I could hardly wait until the day arrived when I could just sit and rot instead of doing all this grocery shopping. He assured me that I didn't want that day to come and started telling me about his wife that had passed away last year and how much he missed her and how he recently had a hip replacement and he was doing physical therapy and that's why he was in town today.  

I had started to unload my shopping cart and was mortified because it was filled with frozen pizza, chicken strips, ice cream, potato chips, cookies, Little Debbie Snack Cakes, diet Pepsi and beer! The healthiest thing I pulled out of the cart was milk and eggs, at least my milk was 2%! I just felt the old man staring at all my garbage food and looking at those 10-Coronavirus pounds I'd put on and judging me. But honestly I don't think he even noticed, he was so busy telling me the story of his life and I realized that's why he didn't go ahead of me in line, he was looking forward to getting into a conversation with anyone, he was lonely. 

He told me that in 17 years he would be 100, that was a weird way to tell me he was 83. I told him my mom was 82. By then I was done paying for my groceries and he told me, "When you get home young lady, you take one of those beers and you sit down and enjoy it, you've earned it!" I told him I sure would and bagged my groceries and headed out to my car. I could hear him as I left talking to the person behind him, making sure he got in all the conversation he could before he went home to sit and rot. 

There's no moral of the story here, just a reminder to enjoy life even when you're lonely and only have 17 years left before you get to 100. Talk to strangers, make people laugh, make a tired mom feel good by calling her a "young lady" and remember to not become a grumpy old person but continue enjoying life and those around you...ok, maybe there was a moral to this story after all. 

"Life is about moments. Don't wait for them, Create them."

 -Anonymous

Taking Advantage of our New Normal and Money Savings and Home Repair

      Yep, that is a long title. But I'm inspired this morning to write a post about some of the positives of the "new normal" that we are all a part of due to COVID-19.

     Yesterday mom and I were invited along on a 6-foot clearance shopping trip with my sister Lisa, my sister-in-law Connie and my niece Clarissa. Pre-COVID, we would often meet up at one store or another to see each other, shop together and usually have lunch. We had not done that since COVID-19 and we missed it. It's funny how you take things for granted until you can't do them anymore and then you realize how lucky you were to have been able to do those things. 

     So we met up at Hobby Lobby. Mom and Clarissa had one slip up, when Clarissa saw her grandmother she ran up and gave her a hug. I had just enough time to say "Wait, you can't do that" and they let go right away. Sad, sad, sad...when a granddaughter can't hug her beloved grandmother. And sad that I had to be the bad guy in this situation.

     But we had a good time shopping, I left mom alone with Connie & Clarissa knowing they would keep an eye on her. I really didn't need anything from Hobby Lobby so I instead treated myself to something totally unnecessary that I had wanted forever! A Spirograph Cyclex. Do you remember Spirograph? I had the original one that came with a thick piece of cardboard and little pins that you would use to pin down the paper and the round discs to make your design. You can see a little round container with the pins in this photo, pins are red.

     But the one I bought is not your grandmothers Spirograph, check this out. This is all self-contained, you just put that red tool with the 4 large circles and the 1 small circle on your paper and draw away. No fuss, no muss. The only problem is that I got one that had a defective small circle and I had to take it back and there were no more available so I had to get a refund, but at least I had a chance to play with it and create some artwork which I hope to finish today. 

     From there we went to Burlington and Ross and since I don't have to go to the office anymore, at least until the first of the year, I really don't need to buy anything, I mentioned that in a previous post. I'm finding that I have really saved a lot of money. Between not needing to fuel my car, go out to lunch, Starbucks coffee at least 2 or 3 times per week and not needing special clothing I have been able to build a tidy little nest egg so I decided since I'm home and have the money, it's time to start doing some small repairs around the house. 

     I started with the backyard patio. We still have the original one that my mom and dad put up on October 2, 1984. I know the exact date because mom and dad carved their names into the wet cement. I'm glad they did that so I now know that it has been standing for 35 years! Wow!

     Once the patio is finished they will start on a new fence next, can't wait for that as our old one is raggedy and falling apart, especially after the car that ran through it on Halloween in 2013, post here. Once the fence is done I'm going to have all the windows replaced with new double pane windows and then have the house painted. I'm thinking shades of grey and the finally I'm having them install a sprinkler system as right now we're just old schooling it with a water house and single sprinkler and we have a corner lot with a lot of grass, it's exhausting and hard to keep up with getting every single bit of it. We have to find our silver linings where and when we can!

     What silver linings have come your way?

Grocery Shopping, Masks and Fires

      Yesterday mom and I ventured out to hunt and gather...that's pretty much how I think about grocery shopping in this new age of corona virus. 

     We first have to prepare our weapons before we head out. For mom a bottle of water, a mask, her inhaler, her cane and disinfectant wipes. 

     For me I  have to first have to apply my mask (makeup). I have not worn make up on a regular day to day basis since March 18th when we were sent from the office to work at home, there was just no need. So applying makeup when you're used to a fresh face was not much fun. Then gathering up my face mask, extra wipes, hand sanitizer, my phone and ATM card and my mom...we head out. 

     We had not been out of the house other than the front and back yard since the fires in California started. We have seen the news reports and the pictures and video but we were not prepared to the heaviness and thickness of the air and not being able to see any of the mountains surrounding us. 

     Here's a time lapse video from our local news station KGET, I hope you guys are able to see it, I had trouble getting it to show up.




     You can see how horrible the air quality is and it's not getting better anytime soon. Pair that with temperatures over 100 degrees and humidity, and let's not forget that there's an airborne killer disease out there on top of it and a mask...it was brutal. 

     I could have left my mom at home, God knows at her age and with her COPD and her age it was not the best idea for her to be out, but she's also human and I can't keep her locked up in one place forever, she has to get out and go to the store and have the pleasure of buying her little odds and ends and treats.

     She did good, I on the other hand got overheated halfway through our shopping trip and had to sit down and drink some water and catch my breath. But we got through it and now we're stocked up again for at least a month. I hope and pray that the next time we have to head out like that the air will be cleaner and the temperatures cooler. 

A Day of Almost Normal and some Thrift Store Finds

      Yesterday mom and I ventured out for a little trip to Hobby Lobby so she could buy some interfacing. Mom is a wonderful seamstress and she spends the whole year creating one beautiful craft for each of her children, their spouses and her grandchildren. I can't say what she is making this year in case one of the above reads this, but she needs interfacing and she's sewing it...there's your first clue! 

     As we were heading to Hobby Lobby, mom asked if we couldn't maybe stop by The American Cancer Society Discovery Shop aka The Discovery Store. We love this place, it's one of our favorite thrift shops. I had to tell her that while I am ok in going into stores selling new items, I wasn't comfortable taking her someplace where we did not know where the items had been and who had touched them. I know it's probably ok, but I'm not taking a chance with my mom!

     The Discovery Store posts enticing photos on Facebook daily and I thought just for fun I would share some to show you what we are missing, and we truly are missing them, mom and I are huge thrift store shoppers!

     First, I know I would have been in love with this beautiful lampshade. The lamp not so much but I bet you anything that lampshade has a hand-drawn design. And my sister Lisa's birthday is in October and I might have purchased the sailboat painting, isn't it dreamy?

     Then there's this wine holder, love it! Of course I'm down to only 3 bottles of wine and 1 of Champagne, so totally not practical, but at least I would have had a chance to drool over it. I also love the black plate hanger behind it. I have no room in my kitchen for it, but a girl can want right? I guess that's why my mom and sister nicknamed me Iwanna! 

     I am not a Milk Glass collector, but I know a lot of people out there are, so look at this pretty little set for just $20! I'm sure someone will scoop that up right away. I do love the white creamer and sugar holder.

     These black shoes are so my mom! She would have loved them and the little red coin purse behind them. So I showed them to her and I saw the shine in her eye when she saw them, she said "Now those I would have loved!"

     I don't know the brand of those shoes, but check out these! Michael Kors and so pretty. But I know that that they are probably a size 9 and I wear a 6 1/2 so they wouldn't have fit anyway. A little sour grapes always helps!

     In telling mom that we didn't want to touch old things, only new things it dawned on me that there was no reason we could not visit another one of our favorite stores, Ross Dress for Less. We had not been since the shelter in place in March. Mom's face lit up when I told her we could make a quick stop there.

     Masks in place, since they are mandated in California, we walk in to the store. It was nice to be almost normal again. This was one of our typical stops on a Saturday morning. We each grabbed a basket and headed our own way. I has already warned mom about talking to people, she's very friendly and forgets about the distancing and wants to show people what she's buying and offer suggestions on what they are looking at. She promised she would talk to no one, how sad that it has comes to that.

     I headed for the shoes and then realized that I don't need and won't need any pretty summer sandals because I'm working from home for sure until the first of next year and maybe beyond and that's how it went, I would find a pretty blouse and tell myself that I didn't need it, there would be no where to wear it too.  That was the "not normal" part of our shopping trip.

     Also not normal was the distancing. So many people forget or don't care. They wear the masks because they won't be allowed in the store without it, but many feel they can do what they want and no one is going to tell them what to do or where to stand!

     I went into the purse aisle, following the arrows on the floor and this woman came up behind me, breathing down my neck, so I move further along and she was right there again and I moved again and same thing, finally I just left that section of the store altogether. I could have said something but so many people want you to say something so they can get in your face and my fighting in public days are over! Not that I ever fought in public, but I sure wasn't going to start now!

     So I went to find mom and sure enough she's talking to a man about four feet away from her and going against the arrows! I reminded her about the arrows and she said, "Oh, I didn't even notice they had arrows." These arrows were at least 12 inches in length made out of blue duct tape! How could she not notice. But she's 82 and she shouldn't have to notice, other people should stay away from her out of simple courtesy. PEOPLE, if you are out there shopping, look out for the senior citizens, elders, whatever you want to call them. They are the most in danger and the most unaware. Please!

     Since I did not need clothes, shoes or purses I purchased all the cool art supplies I could find. I bought some alcohol markers, some metallic crayons, blending stumps and a pretty little sketchbook that had a lovely cover that says "Fill your life with Imagination and Color." Last night I did just that, I ended my day by playing with my new markers and creating this pretty, colorful little drawing. 

     All in all, mom and I had a fun time. It is always a little stressful for me to be out with mom because I'm constantly watching out for her, but the good thing is that she doesn't realize it's a whole new world out there...for her it was just a normal Saturday shopping trip with her daughter, something we've done for years.

     Seriously people...when you are out there in the world, watch out for the elderly.

Thoughts on my time "Sheltering-in" during the COVID-19 Pandemic

I’ve been working from home since March 18, 2020 due to the “Shelter-In” order from our Governor Gavin Newsom due to the virus COVID-19.

Today is three months that I’ve been working from home and tomorrow I am taking my computer and monitors back to a thoroughly disinfected office for our formal return to the office on Monday, June 22^nd. My feelings are mixed and I wanted to write about them today so I can remember all that went on during these three months.

I was prompted to write about this because I was speaking with my sister about things, we took for granted before COVID-19, things like trips to some place fun for a birthday celebration, which is something we’ve done every year. Lisa is going to be 60 this year and we can’t even plan something special for her. Our friend Lupe’s birthday is this Sunday and we can’t do something special for her either.

Lisa sent both Lupe and I this email this morning, “So funny how your perspective changes. All this time I have been thinking “What’s the big deal – It’s just a birthday. You’ll get another next year”. But now that it is hitting home with Lupe’s birthday and the fact that this year, I will be 60 and I wanted us to go somewhere nice to make a really good memory. Now this SUCKS!!!

This got me to thinking about how you never truly understand things until you put yourself in someone else’s shoes.  I thought it was so stupid that the teachers were doing teacher parades for the kids when they shut down the schools…until they went by my house and I saw how excited they were, waving at me and mom and how they were so happy to be doing something positive. It made me cry, it still makes me tear up when I remember, it’s a memory I will always have that no matter what, there are good people in the world.

So, I came home, I’ve never worked from home, but I figured I would be here for a few weeks, a month at the most so I set up shop in my living room. Not the best idea I’ve ever had! There was constant activity, mom going from the kitchen or laundry room to her room or the bathroom. My son and daughter doing the same, all day long, all of them with different schedules. Mom would forget I was working and just start talking to me and I didn’t want to be mean and tell her “Mom, I’m working!”

After a few weeks of this when they told us we would not be coming back for at least another month I set up my office in my “art studio” (a little corner of my bedroom where I had a small art desk and ten million art supplies.) This was much better, there were still interruptions but for the most part I could shut my door and have privacy. As I get older, I realize I need to focus more on what I’m doing and interruptions could cause me to make a costly error, luckily that has not happened.

Now it’s time to go back and to be honest, I don’t want to. I’ve enjoyed my time at home, there have been some rough times, times when I called my sister Lisa just to vent, but for the most part it’s been nice being here.

 

And now we are going back and I’m trying to wrap my head around the idea that we are not going back to the same world as before…get used to that idea Alicia! We are going back to a workplace of fear, fear of our co-worker infecting us, fear that we went back too soon, fear that they may let clients return to our office too soon, fear that we may get sick using the communal bathrooms in our building. We’ll have to wear masks when we speak to each other, stay six feet apart, if not more! We’ll have to wear our masks when we go to the bathroom, when we use the elevator, when we use the stairs. We’ll have to take lunch in shifts so we aren’t all in the kitchen at the same time, we’ll have to clean and disinfect after we prepare our lunch so the next person will have a clean space to make their lunch. We’ll have plexi-glass shields in our reception area and hand sanitizers stations are being installed. We won’t be able to go to lunch together and I’ll have to take my own lunch everyday as I’m still not secure in eating food prepared in restaurants for pick up and take out.

 

Just received this email from management and it’s bittersweet:

I wanted to catch you all, before you shut down your systems for the night and might not turn them on again, until Monday Morning.

1.       For those of you with an office, please keep your door closed at all times.  If you come out of your office, put your mask up over your nose and mouth (mask will be provided)

2.       Wash your hands regularly.  We have touchless soap dispensers in each of the bathrooms and one in the kitchen.

3.       Sanitize your hands regularly.  We have Sanitizer systems in each suite, by each bathroom, near kitchen entrance and one outside the conference room.

4.       Practice Social Distance.  We measured that seven people can be in the kitchen at once (four sitting at tables and one at each the coffee, refrigerator and microwave). 

5.       Plexiglass Screens are located at each Lobby and in front of the receptionist.

 We obviously have a lot to learn, how this is all going to work. I encourage you to come to me, with ANY concerns.  If I don’t know the answer right away, I will figure it out and we’ll make sure you’re comfortable.

I can’t wait to see all of you tomorrow.

Welcome back!!!!

Even though I appreciate all the extra care and attention they have given to our safety, I’m still scared. Not so much for me, but scared to pick up the virus and bring it home to my mom.

It’s been an interesting three months and I don’t know that life will ever be the same again. I don’t know if I will ever take things for granted again, a shopping trip for milk without getting suited up in a HazMat suit, trips with my friends, going to a movie, eating in a restaurant….heck, I’m even scared to go get my blood drawn or go get an eye exam.

The one positive I can take from all of this is that my employer cares about us. They did not hesitate to send us home, they didn’t worry that we were taking home expensive computers and monitors, they didn’t worry that maybe we would sleep all day on their dime and not be productive, they just wanted to make sure that we were safe and I will never forget that. 

They could have laid us all off and shut down all the offices for good, but they didn’t, they wanted to make sure that through all of this our clients were being taken care of and we were earning the paycheck we need to keep our homes, keep our families fed and pay our bills. Did they do it because bottom line they wanted to keep their source of income coming in as well? Maybe…but it doesn’t matter because in this I think we were all together. I helped them stay in business and they helped me keep my job and I for that I am grateful.

Jack of All Trades....Master of None

One recurrent theme on my blog is the quote, "Jack of Trades, Master of None." I've always loved this quote and feels it applies perfectly to me and the life I've led. 

The complete original quote is, "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one." Being the Master of One just doesn't suit me.  

My blog has never been about one thing. It's not a cooking blog, even though I have pages and pages of recipes posted. I've done table-scaping posts, book review posts, low-carb lifestyle posts, Iwanna Wednesday posts and writing prompts. I've just dabble in a little of this and a little of that.

Am I just easy bored and restless and fly from flower to flower taking the best of each one? Or am I more interested in learning many things rather than specialize in just one? Hmm, I don't know. I think I would say that I am just evolving. 

At one time this blog was the love of my life, what I looked forward to the most. I love words and writing, always have, always will. It's what I come back to time and again, whether it's writing on this blog or writing in a journal, which I've come to do more and more.

But back on May 3, 2016 I found a new passion in ART. I attended a Wine and Paint class as part of a group celebrating the birthday of a friends daughter. While the wine was fantastic, it was my own artwork that amazed me. You can read that post here. 

Here's a photo of me with my first true artistic creation. Look at the smile on my face...you would think I had just painted The Mona Lisa!

Since then I've been creating art of some type. But true to my nature, I'm a Jack of All Trades and Master of None. 

I started with sketching.

Ballet Shoes

I've done Impasto Art with a palette knife.

I've painted on canvas with Acrylics.

I've done Art Journaling.

Staying true to form I'm moved on to something new that I want to share and  archive on my blog for my son and daughter to look back on someday when I'm old and feeble and just want to sit in my wheelchair and yell at the politicians on TV. Then they can remember that their mother was an Artist, a Writer, A Jack of All Trades, Master of none but she had passion.

Zentangle is my latest passion. For those that have never heard of Zentangle (I know I had never heard of it), Zentangle is an easy-to-learn, relaxing and fun way to create beautiful art by drawing structure patterns called tangles. Tangles are created using a combination of dots, lines, simple curves, S-curves and orbs. You can find more information about Zentangle here. 

My life was turned upside down on March 18, 2020 when the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-33-20 which directed all individuals living in the State of California to "shelter-in" and stay home except as needed to maintain continuity of operations of federal critical infrastructure sectors. Our world as we knew it descended into something we had only seen in movies or read about in books. 

The management team for the company I work for told us at 2 pm that day to shut down our computers, pack them into our cars and take our little butts home to begin sheltering-in and working from home, until further notice. That's what we did and that's what I've been doing since that date. In a few weeks it will have been four months since I have been working from home, venturing out into the world only to purchase essential items such as food and home keeping supplies. 

Needless to say all of this weighed heavy on my heart and mind because I am the Head of Household. My mother lives with me, my son and daughter both still live at home and while they don't realize it, I feel as though they were looking to me to keep them safe and fed and sheltered. 

Thank goodness I own my home and don't have a mortgage, I kept my job and my pay exactly as before so my lifestyle didn't really change except for the fact that I had/have no life. I work at home, I eat at home, I sleep at home...I don't leave home. If I do venture out or if any of my people venture out I've had to make sure that we all wore masks and gloves and use hand sanitizer and wipe everything down with disinfectant wipes. 

How did we get from being a Jack of All Trades and Zentangle to talking about COVID-19 aka the Corona Virus? Well I found that I lost my will to be creative because I was so stressed out. I really had nothing concrete to worry about but yet I had everything in the world to worry about. I would see on the news where elderly people were dying alone in hospitals without their family by their sides because they were in quarantine and I feared that happening to my own mother. I couldn't let her get sick and die alone, no-how, no-way! 

Everyday was something new. At first I was comforted by the fact that the virus was by-passing young people, but then all of a sudden there would be a report that it was killing young people. Some days you would hear the virus is on surfaces, then next day it was only airborne. You couldn't count on anything so you had to take ALL the precautions and this was super stressful. 

Luckily one day I stumbled on a new a "Stay at Home Zentangle Class" by a YouTube artist Hannah Geddes. Here's the first video:

I was amazed how something that looked so complicated and beautiful could be so easy and I has hooked, I had to learn Zentangle and I started Hannah's classes. 

I just started and didn't really research anything about tangling or Zentangle, but I learned as I went along. I learned from Hannah to slow down, to concentrate on the lines and to breathe and I found that even though the world was still in chaos, I was able to calm my mind and help myself to be more at peace and to sleep through the night again. I've been doing Zentangle ever since, soaking up all the different patterns and watching several other CZT's or Certified Zentangle Teachers. I've been having a great time.

I watch her do each design and then I have been using Index Cards that I've cut down to 2 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches. Once I make them and get used to the tangle, I've been gluing them into a simple composition book that I've been using as an art journal, writing journal and tangle journal when COVID-19 began. Here's some of my earlier ones from weeks 1, 2 and 3. Each Tangle has a name given to it by it's creator.

DIVA DANCE

NZEPPEL

ENNIES

EMINGLE

MEER

Here's a few that I did today. These were just for fun, not part of Hannah's class.

MESHMERIZE

DIDN'T WRITE DOWN NAME OF THIS ONE...SORRY

THIS HAS SEVERAL DIFFERENT TANGLES

So anyway, this has gotten to be a rather long post and it's almost time for me to prepare for bed and work again in the morning. We are supposed to be back in the office on June 22nd, barring any further drama and chaos...wish me luck!