Thank you for following my descent into madness journey forward to a simpler, more authentic, fun life.

Recently I was filling out a questionnaire that asked me where I saw myself five years from now. I see myself right here, doing what I’m doing now, except hopefully with more skill and joy. My life ain’t perfect, but I’m pretty content with it. I’m identifying the things that I want to do, and I’m pursuing them. That’s more than a lot of people can say.

Except that I can’t stop thinking about my precious. I wants it, I wants it, give me my precious. Serious, serious envy.

As far as this blog goes, I may not be writing on it as often, but it will probably get bigger page-wise. Once I get past this busy season of work and class, I plan to consolidate jazzcatproductions.com into it. I rarely update jp except to add art links so there’s little point in keeping it out there separately anymore just because I paid for the domain name for so long.

I printed my first edition of woodblock prints yesterday. Hopefully I’ll be able to post one next week (after it’s dry!) Last week was just awful on all fronts. I felt old, I felt crippled, I felt crazy, I felt completely scatter-brained, I felt ugly and frazzled. On Monday, I spent the day in bed. On Tuesday, I let go of the fear and approached my art work with mindfulness and I accomplished a lot. I had to decide to give myself permission to screw up from time to time. That is the hardest thing for me. My first critique is Tuesday and I’m ready. I’m not thrilled about being the old lady in the class but I’d better get used to it. Maybe I’d fit in if I texted on my cell phone under the table the whole class time.

Anyway, there still is a lot of chaos in my house from Sandy’s reflooring project and I have to finish the weaving on my tapestry box bottom to catch up with the students that I’m teaching on Wednesday night. I hope that despite the forecast of dismal weather this weekend that my good mood will continue!

Spring is not so far away!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/business/20crop.html

Crop Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research
By ANDREW POLLACK
Published: February 20, 2009
University agricultural scientists are protesting what they say are unreasonable restrictions on the industry’s genetically modified crops.

I know that you all are at the edge of your seats waiting to hear about my doctor’s visit, so here’s the short version. I like her. She thinks that it is bursitis and is referring me to physical therapy. I have yet to call for an appointment because I’m being, well, me.

Now back to your regular programming.

(I plan to attend this)

GROWING IN COMMUNITY
Gardening to Nourish Self and Neighbor
Saturday 2/28/09
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

1:00–2:15 Keynote: “Gardening to Nourish Self and Neighbor”

Bryan Building, Room 128
Key Note: Mr. Michael Schut, Environmental Program Manager, Seattle Tilth, Economic and Environmental Affairs Officer, Episcopal Church, USA, and author of Food and Faith: Justice, Joy, and Daily Bread

2:15-2:30 Refreshments Break

2:30-3:45 “Making Your Sustainable Garden Grow: A Step by Step Overview”

Bryan Building, Room 128
Presenter: Dr. Charlie Headington, Permaculture Designer and Head of Greensboro Montessori Gardening Program

3:50—4:50 Round Table Discussions and Brainstorming

“Starting an Edible School Yard”
“Starting a Neighborhood Community Garden”
“Starting a Faith Community Garden”
“Growing Your Own Food at Home”
“Growing Food at Your University”
“Knowing Your Farmers and Understanding Their Needs”

5:00-5:30 Round Table Reports and Concluding Discussion

Open and free to the public
Pre-Registration Required

Sponsored by the Warren Ashby Dialogue Program, College of Arts and Sciences, UNCG, and Grogan College Learning Communities Program, UNCG

For more information, and to register, please contact John R. Sopper, Grogan College Program, UNCG 334-5898, jrsopper@uncg.edu

Ah, I am happy that it is the weekend. I woke up this morning after way too much sleep, blearily wondering what to wear to work today.

This week was a mixed bag for me. I felt a lot better on Tuesday, so I walked a lot and generally behaved like a normal person through Wednesday night, and woke up on Thursday barely able to walk. By Friday, I was fine again. I fell asleep very early last night and slept for 12, count ‘em TWELVE, hours! Sheesh! I made a doctor’s appointment for Monday. And found out that the new doctor who I liked so much has moved to Indiana. I hope that the woman who I will see on Monday was the one that Sandy saw for his gall bladder, because I liked her too.

I started seeds last Sunday, and I have a tray with many baby seedlings coming up now. That is such a kick for me! Here’s the list (tomatoes and peppers will be started soon):

Broccoli de Ciccio
Broccoli mystery mix
Mild mustard mix
Tatsoi
Tuscan (black) kale
Red Sails lettuce
Black seeded Simpson lettuce
Red Oak lettuce
Rough d’Hiver lettuce
Buttercrunch bibb lettuce
Ruby chard
Golden chard
Parsley
Spinach

The only ones that I don’t see any action on is the parsley, spinach, and red oak lettuce. Parsley takes longer to germinate. The old saying is that you must curse the parsley. Spinach, for some reason, is one of those iffy vegetables for me, but the seed is old. Most of this seed is old, for that matter. I didn’t order any new seed this year!

I find myself with no fresh parsley in the garden this winter, a real bummer. Once you get used to popping out the back door whenever you like to snip some for a soup or sauce, you never want to go back to having to buy it. I think that a combination of a colder than usual January and the new bunny got it. This year I’ll freeze some in cubes like I do for basil as a back-up.

Gardening will be difficult this year if I can’t get this hip healed up. This blog may end up being about gardening for the disabled! Maybe if I can avoid squatting…

On the art front, I carved my first woodcut this week. Next week (or maybe this weekend in my studio if I can’t wait) I’ll print my first proofs. It turned out that I didn’t use any of the photos that I posted here - instead it is from a color study painting that I did of a turnip a few years ago. I’m very pleased with it and enjoyed doing it immensely.

At the used bookstore, I bought a wonderful book about art journals by Lynne Perella. Oh, how I love Ed McKay’s. Wednesday night was a particularly good night for the free shelf too. One score was an 1895 book on musical forms that was in excellent shape. My idea is to use it as an altered book, but it will be difficult to make myself cut into it and paint it. Also a good book on weaving baskets from several different Native American traditions, and a couple of novels. I am often surprised at the good stuff I can pick up for free. There are some nights when it’s all old computer books and church stuff and uninteresting old paperbacks, but when you look at it as fodder for collage, a whole world opens up.

Another place that I mine regularly for copyright free images is Ebay. I don’t buy, but I look at the books for sale and save images of interesting illustrations and pages to my hard drive. Sometimes if there are many images of a book’s pages I’ll set up a folder in my “Virtual Library” and save them to that. I did that recently with an old copy of Peter Pan and Wendy, but usually I look at woodcuts, maps, prints, and books from the 16th-19th centuries. I’m learning a lot about the history of bookbinding and illustration from just looking at Ebay!

Rule number one: no BUYING from Ebay. That would be a slippery slope indeed.

I’m happy today because yesterday I met with Nikki and Regula and I am now officially NOT the web master of Slow Food Piedmont Triad! Yay! Sandy and I went out and celebrated at McCoul’s, where I had one Smithwick’s too many and was hungover by midnight. Then my hip hurt so bad during the night that I had a hard time sleeping. But I am still happy. I feel like a huge weight has fallen away.

I talked to an old friend from high school for nearly two hours last night for the first time in about 20 years. For years I have avoided people that knew me in high school and during my early college years because I was such a mess. At Thanksgiving I saw another good friend from those days. It is interesting hearing how they remember me and comparing it to how I thought of myself. Made me feel a lot better, but also made me realize how much I hid my inner demons from a lot of people. There were a couple of people who knew me warts and all, though. We don’t communicate anymore.

So, today I’m going to try to get the things that I planned to do yesterday done. Ha! That makes for a short post.

Strategies, schmategies. :-pppppppp:::::

I didn’t get any extra exercise this week, although I do feel better this morning and might give it a whirl. I don’t know if the cold is an influence on my pain but I’ve been a hurtin’ woman this week. Walking to work and back was about as much as I could take. I did take my fish oil and do my stretching exercises but I ran out of ibuprofen and will start that back up, and probably up the dose, this weekend.

It’s already shaping up for beautiful weather this weekend. I’m going to run a few errands and then meet with a couple of women who have volunteered to take over the web site for Slow Food. Hallelujah! One more thing off my plate.

I still have a lot of art work and building tools that needs to be done this weekend. If I can break myself away from watching Grey’s Anatomy on DVD I might actually accomplish something.

I cooked a lot last night - cleaned out the refrigerator by making a pot of soup and a big stir-fry. I put fake chicken in the stir-fry, which is a soy-based local product that I’d tried at a potluck and liked. Well, this was edible because I tarted it up with lots of sauces and spices but I hated the texture. Chopping it up into itty bitty pieces saved the dish but I probably won’t buy it again. Tempeh and tofu are so much better. I think that many times a perfectly good product is ruined by trying to disguise it as alternative meat. Boba House has pretty good fake chicken, but I’d be totally happy if they’d call it what it is.

I really need to get serious about getting my LDL and triglycerides down. I’ve been able to get by because my HDL levels are so high. I don’t want to get in a struggle with my new doctor about taking medication, because I like her. Speaking of which, I’m considering having her take a look at my hip. I have a long unpleasant history with my hip and various doctors which I won’t go into, but it has made me very distrustful of doctors. The chiropractric treatment wasn’t working and I seem to be in alignment. I’m thinking that I should get it Xrayed and if it looks okay maybe try some acupuncture.

Oh well, I didn’t mean to write about my health problems, but that’s first and foremost on my mind these days.

I never started those seeds last weekend, so I think that I’ll do it today or tomorrow. It’s a good outdoor project and I haven’t used the gazebo since it’s gotten so cold.

The main thing I need to do is prepare some drawings for woodcuts to show my professor on Tuesday. I scanned a couple of small paintings and printed them - a purple onion and a turnip!Looks like I might be working on a food theme, but if my hands hold up with the carving, I’m going to do as many prints as I can and take advantage of having the use of the studio. Hopefully that means the Italy photos AND some Back Forty inspired cuts.

I just love Groundhog Day. It is at the top of my favorite movie list. Bill Murray rocks.

On this Groundhog Day, I went to see a new friend of mine who is going to Duke to be certified as an Integrative Health Coach. She is practicing on Sandy and me (separately) and I hope that working with her will both help her and help me get on and stay on track with exercising and losing weight. The main goal is to heal the tendinitis in my hip, and everything is interrelated, as so much of life is.

Sandy bought me a MP3 player this weekend so that I can listen to audiobooks and podcasts when I walk. Walking is pretty much all the aerobic exercise open to me, as far as what I can handle physically and financially. I could swim, but I hate swimming in chlorine.

I’m going to buy a pedometer and some new walking shoes, and my initial goal is to walk an additional thirty minutes a day, five days a week. Plus remember to stretch and take ibuprofen and vitamins and fish oil twice a day, and to drink lots of water.