There's a couple of apps that swept Facebook over the past couple of weeks purporting to show the highlights of your year, or your year in review. Both were basically just pulling up the most "Liked" photos everyone had posted over the past year. I played with the apps, but didn't post the results. My most "Liked" photos were almost all either photos I'd tagged Beth (seedsower) in, or photos from the many Wine & Canvas nights I attended in 2015. I painted at least six pictures at Wine & Canvas last year... maybe more; I'm too lazy to go in the next room and count the canvases stacked against the wall (and then adding the one in the living room and the two I gave away). I had great fun and am proud of most of the paintings. They're not great art, but they're some of the best art this art-impaired person has ever done. As much as I enjoyed all those Wine & Canvas nights, though, the painting I like best is not a product of Wine & Canvas. It's a mixed media painting I did on a fun evening with my cousins on Washington Island in Wisconsin.

 

The artist who taught the class was Cindy Wunsch-Bowen. The method is easier for me than trying to make recognizable images with paint and brushes. We were each given a cup of clear glue and access to a bin filled with scraps of fabric and lace. There were also drawers filled with stickers and beads and other accessories. After gluing what we wanted onto the canvas, we brushed glue over the top, dried the canvas with a blow dryer, and began painting it. Cindy's art leans heavily toward large, fantastical birds and flowers, or abstract designs. I didn't know what to paint, so I pulled up a photo I'd taken the morning before on my cell phone and used it as the basis of my painting. We left our paintings at the studio and Cindy later coated them with clear resin. This is the only painting I've done so far that I like well enough to hang in our living room.

I enjoyed the process of creating this painting so much that I decided it would be fun to try it on my own someday. I committed myself to it by purchasing a few canvases, several tubes of acrylic paint and a fistful of brushes in various sizes. With this background information, you will understand why I was so happy to unwrap a couple of odd Christmas gifts - a gallon of clear glue and some clear epoxy resin. There were also sponges, brushes, canvases, brush cleaner, a tabletop easel and an art box that makes me think of Mad Eye Moody's trunk in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Along with all of these gifts was the promise to convert the room off our living room (which has at various times been an office, a library, a music room and a bedroom) into a miniature art studio.

Today, Brett began making good on that promise by purchasing a worktable and a stool. He found exactly what I wanted - a stool that swivels, is high enough for me to easily use the tabletop easel, and has a back (because my back is always killing me at the end of a Wine & Canvas night).

My little studio will be done by the end of January. I have to go in and clear out some stuff, pack away a bunch of piano music and empty a dresser. I've needed to do that for a long time; the table and stool are my motivation to finally get it done. For my first solo attempt at a mixed media painting, I am going to try this scene:

I'm looking forward to playing with this type of art. I'm actually looking forward to what this year will bring. I haven't felt optimistic about a new year for a very long time, but I think there will be some fun and interesting times in store for us in 2016.

What are you looking forward to in the next year?

Boo went to the groomer today. He looks so much better! He smells so much better! But whenever he goes to the groomer in December, she does this to him...

 

He's been trying to shake off that frou-frou bow since the moment I picked him up. Whenever the groomer puts a bow on him, his reaction reminds me of this...

I promised him he'd only have to wear it until Brett gets home and has a chance to appreciate it.

Poor Boo!

This is a picture of two naughty dogs on an extended timeout. On the table in the foreground are a few of the ornaments I picked up off the floor. Not shown is the angel from the top of the tree. Here's what happened:

1. Krysten's apartment building is having insulation installed today so I went over to check on Jack. He was pretty freaked out so I brought him home with me.

2. I sat on the couch to repair a toy Boo and Jack like to play with.

3. The UPS truck pulled up in front of our house.

4. Boo and Jack ran to the front window to bark at the evil brown truck.

5. Jack is taller than Boo.

6. The tree fell over into my lap.

7. I was stuck under the tree for awhile as the dogs were running amok between the front window and the backdoor where the package was left in the rain.

8. I eventually made it off the couch, pushed the tree back up, picked up the ornaments and confined the dogs to the kitchen where they can bloody well stay.

9. I finished mending the toy and tossed it into the kitchen because I'm not completely heartless.

We haven't been very big on Christmas spirit at my house this year. Most of the reason is probably because I'm still not feeling well. I haven't recovered from surgery as I should have. The incision healed just fine, but there have been residual problems that are keeping me fatigued and earned me a referral to a gastroenterologist. Yay. We'll just add that appointment onto the last few weeks of 2015, along with my yearly physical, mammogram, eye exam, multiple blood draws, etc. I just can't want all this! I was supposed to start feeling better after the surgery... better than I've felt in years! I would laugh if I weren't so irritated.

We finally got our tree up last night. I say "we" but all I did was sit on the couch and watch while Brett hauled the box out of the basement and into the living room saying, "Well, you hounded me until I finally did it." Which made me laugh because while he was pushing the box into the living room, I was thinking, "Crap! Now I have to dust!" But I didn't have to dust last night because all Brett did was put the tree together and string some lights on it. We decided we'd decorate the tree and the rest of the living room later. Here's Brett looking so excited to be putting up the Christmas tree.

See that look on Boo's face? That is the usual cranky expression he pulls out whenever he sees me holding a camera. I have hundreds of photos of Boo with his cranky face on.

  

 

The other day I made a special toy for when Jack is visiting. Jack and Boo don't play very well together, but if Brett gets on the floor and starts a game of three-way tug-of-war, they love that! The toy they were using for it is about worn out, so I made a Y-shaped toy just for three-way tug-of-war. They were pulling at it and growling and having fun and I decided to try to get an action shot of the three of them. What do you think my obnoxious hound did? He dropped the toy, stepped back and for the first time in the seven years we've had him, he smiled for the camera. Boo, the grumpiest dog in the world, is feeling the Christmas spirit.

 

Last night I had to get the living room door ready for Christmas cards. We've already received more than a dozen cards and it's past time for me to start displaying them on the door. The reason it's taken me so long is because for the first time since I started using that door as a year-round art project, I completely filled it up! Or I should say, my friends and family filled it up! In fact, it was so full, I had to start a second door and it's nearly half-full of cards, notes, postcards and pictures.

 .

The first door is now empty. Later today or tomorrow or whenever I get around to it, I'll start putting the Christmas cards on it.

In other news, it's December 13 and the windows are open. It's about 62 degrees outside today. I thought about blaming the weather for our lack of Christmas spirit, but the weather is actually making me more cheerful than I've felt in a while, so I'm pretty sure it's not that.

Interesting side note: I looked back on my blog to see what the weather was like a year ago, and it was exactly one year ago today that I spent the night sitting up with Krysten in the emergency room. I remember the weather that day; cold but not snowy. And I was worried about getting the tree up then, too. I guess we have a pattern established of somebody being sick and the tree not being up yet on December 13. I'll have to try to remember that next year.

Well, I'm still alive. Still slowly recovering from the aftereffects of surgery, but a little better every day except yesterday. Yesterday I woke up with a migraine. I was lying in bed thinking, "Damn! My head hurts!" and I opened my eyes to the lovely aura. Usually when I get a migraine, I take some Tylenol or something and lie in bed with the curtains closed and the lights off until the aura subsides. Once the aura is gone, the headache usually goes away in an hour or two. Not yesterday. The aura went away, the pain stayed, the aura came back, the pain stayed, the aura went away... just keep repeating that line a few times and you've described my entire day. I was in bed with the lights off by 10:30 last night, feeling depressed because today is the Messiah Sing Along in Kalamazoo and I was determined to be well enough to do it, but I hadn't counted on a migraine putting me down for the count. Good news! I woke up this morning and my head doesn't hurt unless I cough or sneeze. So now all I have to worry about is finding some pants I can stand to wear for a few hours, sitting in an uncomfortable pew for a couple of hours, and being jammed in (because they never reserve enough pews for the alto section) and having somebody's elbow jab my still achy side. Those were all the things I was going to be worried about anyway, so it's all good.

I am typing this on my early Christmas present from Bookmark61. He saw a sale at Staples yesterday, did a little comparing with Best Buy and amazon.com, and decided the price was too good to pass up so he bought me a new laptop. Hopefully I won't constantly have the urge to toss this one out the window. I haven't transferred my document and photo files over yet because my head was hurting too bad yesterday to do much. Eventually, I'll get all my stuff on this one and Brett will scrub my old one and set it up for himself.

We had a nice Thanksgiving. We ate our meal at noon, as is our custom. Instead of going to a movie, we rested in the afternoon and went down to murisopsis' house in the evening for pie and games. Val had made a pumpkin pie and a cranberry apple pie, and I brought a German chocolate pecan pie and a Captain Morgan spiced pear pie.

There were several family members at Val's house and nine or ten of us gathered around the table to play The Great Dalmuti. It's a crazy card game involving social structure and silly hats.

 

I only made it through a couple of hands before I pooped out and had to go home, but I moved UP the table, from Last Merchant to Second Merchant, instead of down the table to the Peon seats. Last time I played, I spent most of the evening wearing a sombrero and doing the bidding of the Great Dalmuti (who sits at the head of the table wearing the fancy hat and the bling). Speaking of peons, who is that wearing a sombrero in the second photo? It's joyouswind! She moved from First Merchant to Greater Peon. Ouch!

I don't want to push my luck staring at this screen for too long, so I'm going to stop now. If you need me, I'll be upstairs trying on pants, looking for a pair that looks nice and feels comfortable on my battered body. I'm not feeling too confident that I'll find anything better than sweat pants or baggy old cargo pants. Enjoy the last day of the Thanksgiving weekend, and the First Sunday of Advent.

It’s been nine days since I underwent outpatient surgery to remove my gallbladder. A few days before the surgery, I posted on Facebook that I was feeling nervous and was treated to a chorus of “It’s nothing!... It’s a piece of cake!... You’ll bounce right back!...” and several variations of the same. I know my friends and family were trying to offer me encouragement, but nobody asked why I was feeling nervous and after all the different versions of, “It’s a nothing surgery,” I felt like my feelings had been dismissed as unfounded so I didn’t mention it again online. It was the same in the real world, with one or two exceptions, but I still found myself hesitant to mention why I was a bit on edge.  So now here I am nine days after surgery, and here’s what me bouncing back from a nothing surgery looks like.

It was not a piece of cake. I did not bounce right back. I do not “have” this. It is, in fact, kicking my butt. Thank you for asking. Here’s the story nobody is interested in. You may as well just stop reading here.

PRE-OPERATIVE

Before the surgery, I was feeling nervous and anxious for all the usual reasons (going under general anesthesia, things that could go wrong, etc.), plus a few intensely personal reasons.

• The date of my surgery was the anniversary of the death of a family member. She was on my heart from the day I scheduled the surgery. Her death was nothing to do with gallbladders or surgery, but it seemed like an unfortunate day to be going under the knife.
• My grandmother died after gallbladder surgery, probably from a blood clot. She was in the process of being released from the hospital when she died.
• I had an unfortunate history with abdominal surgery going into this one, so of course I was thinking about all the things that went wrong with my previous surgery and recovery.
• I knew from my thyroid surgery in 2006 that it takes my body about a month to recover from general anesthesia and the trauma of surgery.

THE DAY OF THE OPERATION

• There were complications during the operation and it took twice as long as anticipated.
• There were complications in the recovery room and I was there twice as long as anticipated.
• There were complications back in the outpatient monitoring room and I was there longer than anticipated.
• We should have been on our way home by around noon. I was finally released somewhere around 4 PM.

POST-OPERATIVE

• While the pain from the surgery itself is fading fairly quickly, I’ve had some severe spasms (think electric shock to your side that keeps jolting you for 20-30 minutes nonstop) that may indicate nerve damage.
• I have a lovely rash below the incision site and another rash higher on my torso.
• Almost every joint in my body aches, along with many muscles and a tendon or two. Even my scalp hurts. These, along with the rashes, may indicate a reaction to the antibiotic I was taking, even though some of them didn’t manifest until after I’d finished the prescription.

I took an inventory of all my aches and pains last night, right after snapping that lovely selfie up there. I needed two columns to list everything, and it went from the top of my head (I don’t know why my scalp hurts, but it does), to the bottom of my left foot and stopped almost everywhere on the way down. In that picture, I am feeling pain in nearly every part of my body.

In addition to the physical pain, I am depressed that I still feel so crappy and I can’t get back to my normal activities, and with all of the pain I’m already feeling, I’m nervous about eating normal foods. I’m getting really sick of applesauce and Jello and toast, but I’m afraid to eat more than one “normal” meal a day until I see how my body is going to handle those foods. So, I’m hungry and I’m cranky because I’m still eating applesauce instead of a sandwich or something. This morning I am going to attempt cereal. I drank a small cup of milk yesterday morning and had no ill effects from it, so today I’ll add the cereal and see what happens. Eating is like a game of Chutes and Ladders; I either climb up to the next level, or slide back to the beginning.

I’m a very impatient patient. I want to get this behind me and get back to normal, but this, unfortunately, IS my normal reaction to surgery. Don’t worry, though; it’s nothing.

 

They say the dead rise from their graves on All Hallows Eve...

... and flames change hue when ghosts are about.

It's shaping up to be a spooky night in The 'Duh.

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook and I'm bored at the moment, so here I am typing a survey on Xanga. It's almost like the good old days!

1. Real name: Melinda
2. Nickname: Vi
3. Favorite color: turquoise/teal/aquamarine
4. Male or female: female
5. Elementary school: Shaw Heights, Juchem, Schanen, Sanders
6. Middle school: Tom Brown, Chastain
7. High school: W.B. Ray, Charleston
8. College: N/A
9. Natural Hair color: brownish-blonde or blondish-brown
10. Tall or short: average
11. Sweats or jeans: jeans
12. Phone or camera: prefer camera, but sometimes the phone is more convenient
13. Health freak: *snort* No
14. Orange or apple: apple
15. Do you have a crush on someone: no
16. Guy friends or girl friends: both
17. Piercings: ears, but the holes have closed
18. Pepsi or coke: either as long as it's Diet
19. Have you been in an airplane: many times
20. Have you been in a relationship: yes
21. Have you been in a car accident: just a fender bender
22. Have you been in a fist fight: no
23. First piercing: ears
24.Best Friend: I have several besties
25. First award: No idea... probably some piano certificate
26. First crush: David Perry in 1st grade
27. First word: no idea
28. Any talent: baking, music
29. Last person you talked to: Brett, last night
30. Last person you texted: Brett, yesterday
31. Last person you watched a movie with: Brett, Sunday
32. Last thing you ate: corn & bacon chowder, sourdough bread, caramel apple cupcake
33. Last movie/ TV show you watched: Movie - Addams Family Values / TV - NCIS
34. Last song you listened to: Land of Canaan (Indigo Girls)
35. Last thing you bought: a pound of extra lean ground beef
36. Last person you hugged: my friend Carol

Favorite:
37. Food: chocolate
38. Drink: water
39. Bottoms: depends what I'm doing... cargo pants for everyday
40. Flower: anthurium... daffodil... tulip... daisy... peace rose... lilac...
41. Animal: dog
42. Color: see #3
43. Movie: Hard to choose. The Princess Bride... The African Queen...
44. Subject: history

Have you ever? (Put an X in the brackets if yes.)
45. [x] fallen in love with someone
46. [x] celebrated Halloween
47. [x] Had your heart broken
48. [] went over the minutes/ texts on your phone
49. [x] had someone like you
50. [x] hated the way someone changed
51. [x] got pregnant
52. [x] had a double date (only if it counts that both couples were already married)
53. [x] did something you regret
54. [x] broken a promise
55. [x] hid a secret
56. [x] pretend to be happy
57. [x] met someone who has changed to your life
58. [x] pretended to be sick
59. [x] left the country
60. [x] tried something you normally wouldn't try and liked it
61. [x] cried over the silliest thing
62. [x] ran a mile (a long, long time ago)
63. [x] gone to the beach with your best friend
64.[] gotten into an argument with your friends (I'm not a confrontational person)
65. [x] disliked someone
66. [x] stayed single for two years since the first time you had a bf/gf or been single forever

Currently:
67. Eating: nothing... last thing was a caramel apple cupcake
68. Drinking: water
69. Listening to: watching an old episode of NCIS
70. Sitting or laying: sitting
71. Plans for today: dust the living room... make bread if my hand stops hurting
72. Waiting for: Tramadol to kick in
73. Want kids: love the one I've got... way past having another
74. Want to get married: been married for 35 years
75. Want to travel: love road trips

What do you look for in a partner? (I'm going with what I HAVE in a partner)
76. Lips or eyes: depends on what we're doing
77. Shorter or taller: taller
78. Younger or older: younger
79. Romantic or spontaneous: both
80. Trouble-maker or hesitant: neither
81. Hook up or relationship: relationship
82. Looks or personality: both

Have you ever:
83. Lost glasses: I'm always losing my sunglasses.
84. Snuck out of the house: I sneak out to walk to the post office while Boo is in the backyard.
85. Held a gun/ knife in self defense: no
86. Killed somebody: only Link... over and over and over again
87. Broke someone's heart: not that I know of
88. Been in love: yes
89. Cried when someone dies: too many times

Do you believe in:
90. Yourself: most of the time
91. Miracles: yes
92. Love at first sight: yes
93. Heaven: yes
94. Santa Claus: the spirit of giving yes, the actual person no
95. Aliens: the possibility yes, that they built the pyramids no
96. Ghosts/ angels: yes

Truthfully?
97. Is there one person you really want to be with right now: my husband
98. Do you know who your real friends are: yes
99. Do you believe in God: yes
100. Post as 100 Truths: okay

Last night was another Wine & Canvas night. I think this was my 6th time there since January, plus I painted a picture on my own, and I attended a multi-media art class in Wisconsin. It's been fun learning how to mix colors and different brush techniques. Last night's painting was called "Fall Drive."

We started out with a very light background on top and slightly darker on the bottom half of the canvas. The two dark lines were just to mark where the road would go.

 

We added some trees and smudges of different shades of green.

 

Next we added leaves to the tall trees on the right.

Finally, we highlighted, "muddied," and shadowed the road and added lots of color to the ground.

Here's a picture of murisopsis taking a picture.

Our group at the end of the night.

 

GAH! I can't get this post to format properly.

 

My friend murisopsis posted that today, October 8, is National Poetry Day and the theme this year is Light. Since I didn't know about this until five minutes ago when I read Val's post, I will post one of my mom's poems instead of trying to come up with one of my own on the spur of the moment. If you enjoy this poem and would like to read more about growing up during the Great Depression, you can order the book I Remember: Poems About Life by Juanita Willodean Daniel Stockton at lulu.com. All proceeds from book sales go to a special fund to help with Mom's care.

PICKING COTTON

Will the sunset never come,

So we can leave the field?

Our backs have ached so long that now

The pain we hardly feel.

 

As long as there’s a ray of sun,

We must pick on and on.

The cotton that we’ve picked today

Seems hardly even gone.

 

The field is endless, so it seems;

We all came with the sun,

And now that it sinks in the west

We’ve barely just begun.

 

Our fingers bleed around the nails

Where cotton bolls have jabbed.

The blister where the strap has rubbed

Is now a softened scab.

 

Our jeans we padded on the knees

With layers of old rags,

Are worn out now from crawling when

Our strength began to sag.

 

We must pick on, for winter food’s

Encased with each handful

Of cotton we can pick, as long

As picksacks we can pull.

 

This is the last work we will have

‘til summer’s here again,

So never mind the mud balls on

The sacks whene’er it rains.

 

Thanksgiving time is just ahead,

But we can’t stop to rest;

It’s just another day to pick

The cotton at it’s best.

 

So grab those bolls and stuff that sack,

Then take it to the scales.

Weigh in and get back to that row

To pick ‘til daylight fails.

 

Be thankful that there’s work to do

To buy cornbread and beans;

It’s not the best, but plenty good

For people of our means.

 

Don’t wish the day away too fast;

Too soon it will be gone.

Sustain yourself, the season’s short

And so we must pick on.