Two Summer of Woodstock ideas done...

...I did them tonight...with Justin...with coloured pencils! It was fun...I finished two of the three entries that I'm allowed to do.

I'm taking photos of them tomorrow so I can post them here by Friday or Saturday and get your 'votes' as to which ones rock and which ones don't. It takes a lot of creativity to come up with something that A - I haven't done before and B- may not materialize into anything anyways, so why not forge ahead?

I feel good that I've completed something way ahead of the deadline for submission (March), but this will keep me on my artistic toes, so to speak. Of course, my cousins will want to see these drafts and vote on which ones are cool, and of course, Jenn-Irene will want to choose her favorites too. As we all know, I can't decide, so I need help already.

Here's a question - IF Woodstock is a boy bird, can I do a 'girl' version of him? I mean, why not? Woodstock is always blathering away at Snoopy anyways and complaining, so I think it's a girl bird sometimes. Snoopy is a boy, there's no doubt about that.

IF you were to do a statue of Woodstock sitting in his nest on a log stump, what would YOU make him? Nothing too elaborate, just in case I really have to do it in real life. Drawing is one thing, doing it is simply another altogether.

Still feeling crappy, whole family is sick and my boss is sick too. I was home at 1pm-ish today with the world spinning around me. Ugh!

Oh, and pray for the Russian Grandpa guy - they found that the tumor they removed was cancerous. No word on if there are more, or what the situation is for him. We're assuming he's healthy again, he says he feels like a million bucks and doesn't mind if he catches my family's virus. Uh, yeah, that's why they invented phones, for situations like this. I'm not going to be the death of him, thanks.

I'm still alive, really!

Hi Issac and everyone who is saying "where the heck are you?" - I'm alive, but the family and I are still battling all these viruses that keep cropping up.

Here at the Urgent Care centers they say it takes a year to buff up your immunity, but I think it's more JP's friends giving him their viruses, he gets it, brings it home, gets well and CP and I are sicker than dogs.

The good part is that I'm having a spectacular hair day. A lot of good that does for me now.

Anyhow, I'm mentally preparing for painting season (Fairs, showings, selling) due to it being the proper time of year AND I'm getting a lot of interest as of late from co-workers and the like. I've ordered a crap load of prints of my art and Jenn-Irene's stuff that I'm gonna frame and display (for sale) at my work locations and see if I can't get a showing at the main hospital for us as well. I'd better drum up some sales, these prints are costing me a fortune and Irene needs a new camera!

THEN, there's the March deadline for the Woodstock statue submissions that I'm totally freaking out about. I'll do my drawings, scan them and post them for you guys to vote on. I'm not sure what I'll turn in, but if there's no fear involved - I won't do it. Kinda like when I was a journalist and needed a DEADLINE to get the freaking story done. Sick and wrong, I know. I'm sure somewhere there's a psych name for my condition, but no drug to cure it.

I'm one of those procrastinators - need a fire under my butt in order to produce the good stuff. It's sad, but that's me.

I still am in love with my job, and wish I wasn't so darn sick while doing it. Love my boss, she rocks, and we're in the middle of buying a ton of stuff for our department - just hate the process they make you go through although it's nothing like the HP way and their crappy SAP system that was invented by Germans to infuriate normal people. Trust me, you don't want to know.

I need Spring to spring like NOW. Enough of this rain. I need to be healthy. I need to paint.

And, yes, I'm cranky, but at least I'm still here.

New board to check out...and to laugh at!

http://p097.ezboard.com/fthefrontporch74819frm10

Click on this to see the crazy polls that I've posted already on this thing. LOL! I'm crazy!

Finally, some photos of us!

(left) It's me with my new favorite Christmas thing - the Nutcracker. Justin is my personal photographer, by the way.

() (above right) Chris and Justin at Christmas Dinner - very handsome!

(above center) Justin on December 24th at some ungodly hour in the morning opening Auntie Jenn-Irene's presents from Chicago (see how proud he is wearing his jersey?) -- notice the 'no pants' thing still going on in our house. Sigh!




My lovely cousins and auntie at Christmas time...aren't they beautiful???

I'm finally back -- and writing again!

Happy New Year everyone and so sorry I've been totally out of commission over here - totally taken out by that awful virus that has been going around here in this area anyways. Hope everyone else is OKAY.

Before I rant, please visit this site to read about the great Mr. Wilson Pickett. My sister and I met him in Memphis, TN, and took us out to dinner with his lovely family. He had no clue who we were, just knew that we were some silly Elvis Contest winners flown into the state with hardly any money. He fed us and showed us a great time. Wilson and his wife were like a king and queen in Memphis - not to mention that they dressed like it. These folks had manners and when they walked into a room, they turned heads, literally. They treated us like family and showed us a great time, ordering us pretty much anything on the menu to show us some 'Southern Food and Hospitality' -- the likes of, well, nobody has reached since then.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/01/19/entertainment/e142102S18.DTL

Memory Eternal to this wonderful, warm and beautiful man who gave us some awesome songs in his day. 'Mustang Sally' and 'The Midnight Hour' forever!!!

Okay, back to life as I know it. We're trying not be sick in our house, got rid of the Christmas tree finally - and oh yes, our landlord thought it would be a GREAT time to paint our house in the dead middle of Winter. While it was wet and rainy and the state was flooded.

Not sure if the house is dry yet. Hoping it is and staying away from the exterior walls for now.

Work is AWESOME and I love it - the honeymoon ain't over. Sometimes I get a bit stressed out, but it's more of these Monday holidays that mess me up. I hear we have two more in February. UGH! I love the time off, but the work does pile up a bit.

However, the stress is NOTHING compared to any other job I've ever had in my life. It's a workable stress, a good stress. Well, that and I can go to Mass if I want during my lunch hour in the chapel. That does wonders for someone's stress level.

I am so very thankful for the full health coverage that I have for my whole family...just makes me that much more LESS stressed. I can't live without knowing my family is covered. And not just KINDA covered. I need full coverage for my boys. I think I sleep better at night knowing it's taken care of. Thank God for this.

JP did his first dental appointment this week and I'm proud to report that his 'big boy' teeth will be straight like mommy's...that's what the Xrays showed, per the doctor. Of course, I had an overbite that is sometimes noticeable, but who cares? As long at the front teeth are straight, I'm happy. Thankful for this too. His teeth have been well taken care of and the dentist said that JP probably has such strong teeth due to my breastfeeding him for like - EVER!!! Remember, he was still drinking that 'milk-milk' as we called it, til like 2.5 years old.

God, it was a struggle, but so worth it. I'd do it again with him in a second.

And no, I'm not having any more kids. I'm hoping my friends do so I can knit fun things for them, but I'm happy with my normal body the way it is - finally the way it was in 1999 only better thanks to the surgeries I've had up til now.

Speaking of surgeries - pray for Konstantine on the 26th, he's having surgery. He's older and may not be as healthy as he thinks he is. I'm worried and I'm the one taking him home and making sure he's okay. Pray for me too.

Well, that's the update for now, more to come soon...stay healthy!!!

Sorry I haven't been posting - I'm battling the virus of the year...

...oh, and last year. LOL!

Us children of the 70's are paying for the overdoing it of antibiotics when we were wee sprouts and now whenever we get an infection/virus/cold combo, we're told by TODAY's docs to 'hang in there and let nature take it's course'.

Give me a pill darn it! I'm suffering here!!! I can't think, my hormones are in flux (due to the virus in my thyroid and glands) and I'm not eating. Oh, and it's been going on for much too long for my tastes.

Can someone give me a fast forward button?

Yes, we all think that the lady whineth too much...yeah, I know but I feel like crap and falling behind at work and home stuff. I hate that.

IN happier news, my name day is on Saturday - the great St. Nino who, I'm sure, NEVER whined about anything. Okay, she doubted the Theotokos a few times, but after that, NEVER EVER!!!

That's why I love her - she LEARNED from her doubting. Now, for my lesson of this life...

I pray that everyone else is well...please pray for me, JP and my Russian Grandfather, Konstantine who has internal bleeding and a cyst (in his words - no big deal!). Surgery to come for him soon as well as my own boss, TD, who will be doing surgery next Friday.

Thanks, everyone for praying for me. Throw in a rosary or two for me if you have time but only do the 'pleasant mysteries'!!! LOL!!!

And now for something totally random...hey, isn't that the point of this blog anyways? Or most blogs in general???

Here's a thought. And you know that it's one of my random ones, kinda like the towel thing. Always in the back of my strange brain whirling about...along with the art ideas and the loopy ideas that come out once a day, or hour.

Okay, you have heard of the teen who, before Christmas, jumped on a plane with his gift money and decided to do some immersion journalism in, oh, Baghdad for an assignment at his prep school. He returned home to Florida yesterday or today and his mother has been reported as saying she'll never let him out of the house again...that story?

Well, I've been thinking about that. First of being that horrified mother (I agree with her but wonder how she didn't KNOW that her kid was going to travel INTERNATIONALLY??? "Uh, Mom, where's my Passport? I need it?"), then hearing about the kid's teacher who was trying to let them in on 'immersion journalism' but certainly didn't ask the kids to do what THIS kid did...in fact, the teacher wasn't happy about a former assignment where the kid in question went 'too far'...then there's the kid himself...the born journalist, the new Studs Terkel if you will.

Yes, I'm horrified that he did what he did and glad to hear that he didn't get his American English speaking self shot or taken hostage while trying to get into that part of the world during this time of weirdness and war...but there's also a part of me that's about his age that says 'that does sound interesting' and wonder if I would have done something like that. Perhaps if I were a boy I'd be more apt to jump into something that crazy - as it was, I was a pretty independent little teenager as a girl but knew where my boundaries were. Well, that and being more concerned about where I was going to LIVE the next week was more of a priority for me at the time.

I too had a really super engaging, unspeakably good English/Journalism teacher in high school who really got the kids involved in the projects that he came up with - and my teacher was really into teaching us the immersion journalism way of reporting. He was a Buddist new agey kind of guy, bearded, bespectacled, almost geeky looking, but so sharp and so intelligent that he could ignite the learning fire in pretty much any child that walked into his class - even accidentally, as I did one day.

Being a slightly tortured little soul I was a bit restless in high school (shocker, I know), and occasionally I would skip a boring class (math or science) and join one of my more artsy friends in a jaunt to the 'cool' classes around campus that my parents would NEVER sign me up for. I learned so much doing those little jaunts - met so many new people and had so much fun.

Anyhow, one day I walked into Mr. Kepner's Journalism class and fell in love with journalism. My art, which was my passion up til then, took a backseat to this newfound love. The day I walked into the class he was going on and on about immersion journalism and the writings of Terkel, and how to report the spirit of the story along with the story itself. It was magic.

A week later, and again living with my best friend's family, with the help and blessing of my class counselor and my vice principal, I changed my classes to all things journalism and humanities. Kepner was the teacher for all of those classes and I thrived in that enriching environment.

I learned how to write a story, how to edit, how to input a newsworthy and printable story on a MAC, learned about pre-press, learned about deadlines (my drug of choice), learned about how to deal with all kinds of people - peers, adults and the outer community.

I soon joined the Yearbook staff and had the best year of my life at school in my Senior year. Most kids stuck around Kepner's huge classroom because of the welcoming feel to it, the interaction between kids who knew what mattered - it felt like you were a part of a larger family - and there were NO popular or unpopular people inside those rooms. Everyone was an adult. It was grand - I still look back on this year of my life and smile.

Immersion journalism is addicting. Literally. We were encouraged to do this type of work for all of our articles, and boy, was it fun. I found that I had a talent for it, and my mentor/teacher told me to run with it. It was a great escape for me at the time and gave me a sense of belonging, purpose and pride in seeing those stories run week after week in the school paper and in the local paper the year after. I kept going with my little obsession for many years after high school and did pretty well for someone with NO college degree. Even my well published high school teacher was impressed with me and had me come back to the school to talk to his new group of soon to be journalists from time to time.

I can tell you that I was idealistic and stupid at 17, 18, 19 and 20 and would have done just what this American kid did in December. What an opportunity! What a way to write THE holy grail of stories!!! ...oh yeah, and get myself killed...ooops!

The Gulf War started after I graduated from HS, and not a day went by when I wasn't wishing myself in the 'action' doing this 'immersion journalism'. I remember telling my journalism classmates this in college and getting the most awful looks from them. They would say that 'it's just a war and not worth reporting' - and I saw it as the ultimate immersion journalism story!

See, it was a type of drug, an obsession for a while with me. I had done all kinds of other stories - especially stories that I didn't fully understand, just for the challenge of doing the immersion journalism and making some sense out of it. That was FUN and interesting for me. Yes, I'm a geek, I admit it. LOL!

I would tell people about doing this kind of journalism and get laughed at. "Oh, you're so young and stupid" they would say. I guess they were right, but didn't have to worry about me taking Mommy and Daddy's money to fly to some war zone. They knew that I wasn't THAT stupid. After all, the mall had some really fashionable clothes that particular season...and don't get me started on the cute makeup colours!!!

So, I read the story about this kid with great interest and see myself in him. Stupid, brilliant, almost got himself killed and his mother will probably finish the job when he gets home (LOL!).

God forbid my son gets into journalism. I'm praying that he does something a bit safer...but watch, he'll go into something that will horrify me a bit as a mother, just like this kid did recently. Sigh!

Too smart for their own good these kids nowadays!!!

...and hey, isn't this kind of thought rambling what blogs are really for? :o)