Animal Wednesday - Birdie

When I was in Florida and mom was laying in bed moaning about being sick, and generally sleeping, I had time to do a watercolor.  Mom had tons of calenders around because she loves the animal or nature pictures.  I picked one and tried it. Mom loved it so much that I left it with her, propped up where she could see if from her bed.

I had to take a picture with my cell phone, her scanner is goofy and wouldn't work for me.

I had trouble with the background, and will ask my watercolor teacher about that and oh yeah, his tail feathers are a bit crooked but we figure he was moving or something when the pic was taken or else maybe it was me putting them in a bit odd.

Glad mom liked the painting, it was fun to do.

HA HA HA

I leave home and leave this behind. 

And come home to this!!! 

Twinkie addicted fish - what is this world coming to.

No Good Deed goes unpunished.

Happy thanksgiving all!  My Thanksgiving was very different than I had planned.

My plan was to go to Florida and go to a party with mom, visit her friend on the east coast, drive back to Sarasota and hang out - just us two girls, no pesky men bothering us.  It started out great, I got to the party a bit late but saw people, visited with her friend, drove back home. We had a good day on Monday, got her ear things adjusted so she can hear better, did some Christmas shopping and went to the movies (Argo, I really liked it - brought back the memories of that time)

The next day we did some banking in the morning, and then stopped at home to use the bathroom - and mom suddenly got an awful stomach ache, and was so tired she had to go to bed.  I let her sleep, did a few things and came home to a sick mom, with a high fever and - to put it nicely -  digestive problems.  Poor thing was throwing up and on the pot - which was plugged up by this time - and totally miserable.  Got her cleaned up and got the pot unplugged, and did laundry and washed the sink and fed her cold water and aspirin.   Oh well, there went our day together, and the next day also. But I was a good daughter, I took good care of her, and she rallied very quickly.   She was sitting up by the next day (wednesday) and feeling much better.

Since she was better, I followed my original plan to go home early Thursday morning and have thanksgiving at home. I'd shopped before I left, DH picked me up at the airport and things looked good.  He went out for a walk when I got home and I suddenly got very cold, and decided to take a nap and yes....boom!  it hit me!  I was sick as a dog, high fever everything.  No thanksgiving turkey for this gal! DH ended up eating turkey meatballs that I had made. I ate nothing.

But I am counting my blessings.
1) I didn't get sick on the plane - how awful would that have been!
2) my almost 90 year old mom was able to shake off a stomach bug so quickly, she went out with family for Thanksgiving dinner
3) I'm thankful that I have a machine that cleans carpets cause I needed it here today
4) I'm thankful that I didn't have huge plans with friends for the holiday cause I would have had to cancel.
5) I'm thankful for my DH making me toast with jam when I got hungry.

All I can say is Happy Thanksgiving to you all - I hope everyone had a great celebration - despite this crazy week, I feel very blessed.

Animal Wednesday on Saturday

I'm either late or early - take your pick.

I'm heading down to Mom's for a few days, so I'm sure I'll get some Scruffy pics - haven't seen the little guy in a long time!

So, this fish was started a few years ago, and I just found it the other day.  It was pretty awful looking barely looked like a fish, I wish I had a picture to show you how awful it was.  So I took it to Watercolor class and worked and worked and worked, and now I think it looks like a fish.  It needs it's spots, but I have to take time to do that - mucho time to mask off the area that I don't want spattered with spots.

So happy slimy fishy animal week....how's that?

Some Arty stuff

Not only have I been absent from blogging, I've been absent from doing much art and it is making me cranky.  So last week, in desperation to get SOMETHING created - I remembered an old mirror that I had hanging around waiting for decoration.

The mirror had a plain frame, sort of barn board looking and very unattractive - nope...no before picture.

I painted it with paint that we had around the house, decorated it with vintage Betty and Veronica comics, painted more with paint from around the house, and sealed it up.  The mirror has yet to be reinserted, but I love the frame and am going to hang it up somewhere and laugh every time I see it.

You probably can "enbiggen" to see more details, and while it shows up sort of blue here, the background is really a greener color.  

It felt good good good to create something.  I have to remember that.

I also am working on "The Adventures of Box Boy" for my comic class, a bit outside the norm for me, but actually cute and funny.  I'll show it here when inked in.

iPad art - done while watching NYC flood on CNN while in Germany

Back and Forth, Up and Down

I've spent the last three weeks at the upper level of stress, and while I knew it, I also knew that I couldn't evade any of the situations - so I just gritted my teeth and got thru it.

It all started out when hubby had a reaction to the flu shot and was sick from Tuesday night to Friday am, at which point I took him to the hospital where they determined that he had pneumonia.  Followed by 4 days in the hospital on strong antibiotics.   Got him home to find out a few days later that the antibiotics had caused a problem in his gut, and he needed a change in medication.  Did that and at the same time realized that this enormous hurricane was coming.    I was supposed to be leaving for Germany on Monday night, and the hurricane was expected to hit on Monday night.   So I changed my plans and left a day early, basically ruining my Sunday.

The surprise day was Monday, when I got to Germany, checked into my hotel and had a lovely nap. Then I spent the day in my Jammie's and sweater (it was COLD there) working on my presentations.  Met some people for a lovely dinner, complete with locally made German beer - I have to admit, it was an amazingly relaxing day.

I worked at our German office on Tuesday, and Wednesday our meetings began.  Two full days with presentations, discussions in one of the three languages that were native to the attendees.   I was running the meeting, making presentations, keeping everyone on track and basically responsible for the whole thing coming off well.  There were a few moments when I put my head in my hands, but in general, we did OK and got thru it all.  

Friday was a long 7 hour trip home, complete with uncomfortable airline seats and crying babies.

I think you can find interesting experiences even in the most stressful conditions - and I found something that is an interesting topic of conversation regarding identity awareness.  

I will preface this by saying that I have only been to Germany once before - and that I found the people there totally friendly and engaging, and a heck of a lot of fun.   But because I have blond hair and blue eyes, I was identified as German - even by the hotel staff, and airline staff and basically everyone that I didn't speak English to.

In the hotel everyone spoke to me in German - expecting that I would understand.  At first I thought they did that with everyone but nope - some of my colleagues are Asian looking, some have Lebanese extraction and the hotel people spoke to them directly in English. I have never experience this sort of physical acceptance before, having usually traveled in Italy or France. In Italy and France I am too blond and not continental enough - but I seemed to fit in in Germany.   DH and I had a long talk about this when I got home, is it sort of a reverse discrimination, or simply an acceptance of someone who resembles you.

I'd be interested in any one's feedback on this phenomenon - I think it's a topic worth a good think.  Do we unconsciously accept those who look like us?  or do we discriminate, or pull back from, people who  don't look like us.

It was a great trip but I am SO glad to be home.  11 hours sleep in my own bed and I'm a happy woman.