Who goes there? Please leave comments so (An Aries Knows)!
…write and juggle.
With apologies to Shakespeare.
Here’s today’s playlist: the melodious and talented songwriter and perennial “Saturday Night Live” crowd pleaser Paul Simon, with Graceland; Songs From The Capeman; and The Essential Paul Simon, a two-CD set.
…when one can get over a hump? Time will tell.
The “Be Positive” coloring and writing journal that Lynne gave me–May of 22?–that I use for coloring and speculating about what I’m writing or should be writing and the inspirations and challenges involved. Today, after I wrote next to the page I’d colored, I closed the book and laughed at that name…be positive. Gotta say what I wrote today in the journal is maybe one of the least positive things I think/feel. The words I almost never say out loud because they would likely be misunderstood or else prompt advice or guidance that I’m not looking for. That’s not my Aries resistance to being directed or told what to do. It’s only that this Aries knows herself–myself–too well to pretend I’m looking for answers from outside when the answers within have been hard won.
On the other hand, the drawing I colored is pretty and untroubled.
Plus I have written today, and every bit of writing nourishes the Muse who in turn nourishes my creative drive.
While writing, I listened to really good music all the way around, meaning of course, music I like/enjoy/admire/feel.
Kicked off with Brighter: A Duncan Sheik Collection from Duncan Sheik, and great liner notes from James Hunter (from Rolling Stone magazine). Certain parts of Hunter’s notes resonate with me, and the music is good to listen to, write to, think to.
Tom and I were on a road trip many years ago when we stopped somewhere and bought a bunch of CDs so we could hear music we didn’t know, and that’s when we got Shinedown’s The Sound of Madness. I used to hear it a lot because I uploaded it to my iTunes library, but after my main iTunes computer stopped working early in the pandemic, the only songs that will play on my iTunes are ones I’ve actually purchased from Apple. We still need to either get that Mac fixed or figure out what we can grab from its backup drive. That task has been “on the list” since the world reopened in 2021.
Finally, The Best of Simon & Garfunkel. No explanation needed, right? WAY BACK when I was given my first record player, a Simon & Garfunkel album was one of the first three I received, probably for a birthday. They never get old, and their song “The Boxer” still does battle with Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” as my favorite song of all time. There’s a nod to the duo in the first novel in the Neverending Saga.
Shared before but always happy to show Becky’s First Record Player. There were times it felt like the only thing teenage Becky could count on. In the current novel in progress, a character has just received her first record player and a collection of 45s. Lucky little nine-year-old. I was a few years older when I got mine.
Three tiny books for action, thought, and fun.
Couple Riding
oil on canvas, 1906
Wassily Kandinsky, Russia
Colored a coloring page yesterday, but I’m only putting a tiny snap of it here because it’s copyrighted and I’m already being too bold. The coloring page and today’s Kandinsky art are both connected to the character I’m working on in one way or another.
Here’s the music I enjoyed while I worked. Doesn’t go with the novel, maybe doesn’t go with the time period or setting, but it does go with my mood.
[Carlos] Santana: Supernatural, 1999, and Shaman, 2002.
What’s your mood this Monday?
Today is Old Rock Day, which as you can read at that link, isn’t about old rock stars (though I’m equally willing to celebrate those, too). It is, as they point out, “the day that geologists and amateur rock enthusiasts take it upon themselves to show their appreciation of all things fossilized and stony.”
Here are some stones, rocks, and crystals that stay close to me every day. The pendulum at the bottom is Smoky (once nicknamed “Stony” by Jim). Smoky helps me with all my smudging and space clearing work.
Above, on the right, is a beautiful incense burner Tim gave me at Christmas. Right now, I’m burning Nag Champa (the original), and he also gave me a variety of new-to-me scents to try. So far, they’re all wonderful.
Sometimes, I also like to use Heritage Store’s Aura Smudge™ spray. I think I haven’t been doing enough of these energy rituals. Though I don’t make resolutions every year, I do try to list things I hope to work on, and as I always say, to do better, be better.
Speaking of those other rock stars, though, so that I don’t neglect them: These are the CDs that played during my recent writing efforts and reflections. Even some Stones in the mix. =)
Zero Church by Suzzy and Maggie Roche, of the Roches, which consists of songs they created from prayers; 11:11, a collection of acoustic guitar duets by Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero; The Rolling Stones, Voodoo Lounge and Stripped, the latter including some of my favorite Rolling Stones recordings; and The Very Best of the Ronettes, full of great songs.
Living In the USA; Prisoner in Disguise; Feels Like Home; ‘Round Midnight; Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind; and Greatest Hits I and II, all from the incomparable Linda Ronstadt, who I first got to see live when I was in high school and my brother took me to a Neil Young concert in Birmingham. Linda opened for Neil. I saw her again in Tuscaloosa on one of her solo tours. It’s heartbreaking that her health issues have robbed her of her beautiful voice. I haven’t replaced all of her albums that I lost in the Harvey flood, though I started by buying a couple of these used, but they aren’t in pristine shape. Sooner or later, I’ll have all that music again. She is a MUST SING ALONG for me.
I don’t have cats, but in solidarity with those who do, I thought I’d dedicate part of today’s post to cats. Mainly because Debby gave me this cool Haunted Cat Tarot deck for Christmas. Any particular card you’d like to see?
When I took her to an appointment earlier in the week, I took this coloring book with me.
I’d already torn a page out of it at some point, and I decided to color that one. But I wasn’t sure how to color it, so I looked up various wild cats and found this one to inspire me.
Here’s how it turned out.
What I do have is dogs. The other day, after a frantic round of digging, which she isn’t supposed to do, Delta apparently found somebody’s last marble.
It’s all cleaned up and put with the other marbles now.
Meanwhile, Anime had dental surgery yesterday morning, and she’s had a miserable two days. She started drinking water again sometime around noon today, and this evening, she took some meatballs (canned dog food rolled around her regular meds and her pain med). She’s finally stopped dripping blood from her mouth and is overall a lot more comfortable tonight. Through it all, she’s been very sweet and stoic, so clearly it wasn’t her last marble Delta found.
The tree has been stripped and all the ornaments and decorations have been put away.
Except we have to find the bin that has the box that my vintage Holt Howard angel goes in. Meanwhile, I posed her with an appropriate old Southern novel that I haven’t read in decades and probably should read again.
Sometimes when I get really busy, I forget to eat. When tonight’s light meal of a BLT, half an apple, and some potato chips seemed ridiculously good, it occurred to me that I’d only eaten yogurt with the water and coffee I drank today. It was a good sandwich, though.
On January 4, one sixth grader was killed, seven students and staff members were injured, and the 17-year-old shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a high school in Perry, Iowa. The high school and middle schools in Perry share a building and are connected by a hallway adjacent to the cafeteria, where the shooting occurred. The cafeteria hosts a breakfast program for all middle and high school students before school.
The shooter’s weapons were a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun. Later, police found and disarmed a homemade bomb in his belongings found at the school.
ETA: It was just reported that the high school principal, Dan Marburger, who was shot in this event, died today, Sunday, January 14, as announced by his widow Elizabeth on a fundraising page created for her husband. The article I read also included this:
In a Facebook post on the night of the shooting, the principal’s daughter, Claire Marburger, called her father a “gentle giant” and said it wasn’t surprising that her father tried to protect his students.
“As I heard of a gunman, I instantly had a feeling my Dad would be a victim as he would put himself in harm’s way for the benefit of the kids and his staff,” his daughter wrote. “That’s just Dad.”
Marburger had been principal since 1995.
“That’s just Dad.” I haven’t stopped crying since reading this. I know my own father, who was both a high school teacher and an assistant principal after he retired from the Army, would have done what so many others on school administrations and staffs have done: sacrificed their own lives to try to save the lives of kids.
This is just not the way it should be, and I don’t understand how everyone in the country isn’t screaming for gun reform. Every country has criminals. Every country has psychologically and emotionally compromised individuals. But not every country has gun violence on this scale because they don’t have the number of guns in circulation, and certainly not the complete lack of regulation and oversight, that we have in the U.S.
Current Photo Friday theme: Spiral
This was a timely theme, as everything is off of our Christmas tree but the most fragile ornaments, including this one. The spiral tree glass ornament is one of my particular favorites. I can remember that I got several at Pier One–sometime between 2005 and 2010–and sent the extras to friends.
The second week of August, I recorded some intentions in my “Inspire” Journal and posted them here.
A couple of weeks ago, I remembered and decided to revisit those. First off, I stared at the list and wondered, What is TC craft? What is TC song? What was I talking about? I don’t write songs. I have characters who write songs, but… Then I realized. Something happens with one of those songwriter characters in Topanga Canyon in the third or fourth book of the Neverending Saga. “TC” unlocked!
To update:
1. I did finish this craft piece based on the novel and gave it to Lynne when she was here in September. I think it’s hanging in her house.
2. I haven’t written the song, because I haven’t written in that character’s voice in a while. I’ll get to it maybe in the seventh book, or when the time is right.
3. The MagPo box is restored. More about that in a minute.
4. I’m not using the inspiration journal (different from the “Inspire” journal) to plot the seventh book because I’m using a big yellow sketch book Lynne gave me that I’ve been using since… 2019? to tape photos and jot thoughts and ideas for the series. Currently, it’s staying next to me when I write.
5. Schedule physical (routine annual exam). Completed in December.
6. Schedule fall vaccines. Done and received in September.
It feels good to know I completed almost all these goals I set for fall.
About the Magnetic Poetry box. It took water during the Harvey flood and subsequently began to rust.
I knew Tom was taking vacation time the week between Christmas and New Year’s and asked if he thought some Rust-Oleum® would help if he had time to work on the box. I explained that I wasn’t looking for perfection. I didn’t care if it was obvious the box had been restored. In fact, imperfections are part of its history. I just wanted the rust to become a thing of the past.
And so it has.
It made me happy enough that I pulled out my Healing Words MagPo kit to create a poem, a reminder to myself that it’s great to set goals; the challenge is in the work. (Sometimes, even if it’s asking the person who’s right for the job.)
Had another bout of insomnia last night but still woke up early. I took a nap later, and this always interferes with any plans I might have made for the day that require focus. Did a little more toward Christmas un-decorating, spent time outside with the dogs and cleaning their “gifts” out of the backyard (tomorrow being trash day), and then I decided to try to identify the other three new-to-me dolls that came via Lynne.
Don’t know if it’s my tired brain, but I can’t say I’m confident about who the dolls are. I have some queries out to other doll collectors on Flickr, but in the meantime, here’s a fun photo I shot of them.
Ken has what’s often called the “Alan face mold,” it having been used first for friend doll Alan, maybe in 1990, and later used for around twenty-six Ken dolls (several of which I own). Then a modified version was used for another nineteen dolls (and yep, I own some of them, too).
The doll’s head doesn’t fit comfortably on the articulated body, and if this hadn’t come from a child’s collection, I’d think it was a collector-modified doll. However, there was in fact a doll that both had this head mold and posable arms and legs, and that’s the 1994 Hot Skatin’ Ken. The year fits, so I’ll accept Hot Skatin’ Ken for him. I kind of wish I had his original outfit. I’ve dressed him in some nice jeans, a pair of white sneakers, and a shirt I made. Looks like he and his friends are going to a block party where he’ll be forced to play guitar. I wonder if he plays as well as he skates.
Right now, my best guesses on these two are (white earrings) 1996 Valentine Fun Barbie or 1997 Shopping Time Walmart Special Barbie, and (red earrings) 1996 Valentine Romance Barbie. I cleaned up their hair disasters with a shampoo and conditioner, took the hair shears to some of the frizz and messy ends, and, as shown in the top photo, found clothes for them from the Doll Closet. Those are Mattel 1962 Fashion Pak gathered skirts. I guess the Barbies wanted to go a little retro. Then they sassed up their looks with a couple of midriff-baring tops and cute heels. They’re taking little dog Chicago with them so he can sing along with Skatin’ Ken.
What a party!