Unplugged?

Today John wants to go to the Strawberry Festival in Long Grove. Long Grove's an historic village less than a hour northwest (I guess, I'm kind of bad with directions) of Chicago. It has nice little shops (shopping!) and some quaint restaurants. Also appearing at the Fest today is-- surprise-- 7th Heaven (I picked a really good band to crush on... it seems they're performing at almost EVERY local fest, so they'll be where we are without much effort on our part).

However, I jumped on their website and noticed that this particular show is going to be unplugged. Unplugged? Not sure I'm going to like that. To me, "unplugged" brings back memories of second grade, sitting in a circle while the teacher with the shag haircut gently strummed "Puff the Magic Dragon." No. I don't want my concerts to be gentle. Although I usually shun excess noise in all its forms, concerts are different. They're supposed to be loud. Boisterous. High energy. Not musical Ambien. I expect to leave with a headache, a throat raw from screaming and possibly a sunburn.

The jury's out on this one. And I don't know what to wear (but that's a whole other crisis).

Meet Bock

I really like chickens. It all started several years ago. At work, we were between directors. While it was nice not having anyone micromanaging your every move, it was equally frustrating to not have a "higher power" to go to for authoritative decisions. So one day I *bought* us a boss-- meet Bock Bock, Chief Marketing Chicken. Bock does a lot for our department-- he appears at meetings, he tests the online registration form for our seminars, he has an official bio -- went to Purdue University (of course). One of Bock's key functions is a symbolic and morale boosting one; he is responsible for enhancing birthday celebrations within the Marketing Department. On the day of a birthday, with much fanfare Bock dons his festive birthday hat and spends the day at the desk of the lucky birthday celebrant. It's a huge and greatly anticipated honor. On Thursday, we celebrated Joe's birthday. Bock played his role as expected and was duly returned to his "office" at my desk at the end of the day. There are no words to describe the visual of the serious-minded Director of Marketing walking down the hall carrying a stuffed chicken in a party hat. It was, as they say, priceless.

Any progress is some progress...

Spent about 3 hours with the painting today. I learned my lesson with 10 p.m. (see link to my online gallery) so I decided to deal with the negative space BEFORE the actual images are finished. I always come into the painting with a preconceived notion for the negative space-- it's kind of intuitive. For this one, I chose Permanent Green Light right out of the tube (I use Golden Acrylics). I rarely use raw color, but this just felt right. The slight color shift towards the three figures on the left was an impulse, though. Nothing's ever too "precious" for me to experiment with, especially at this stage of the game. Sometimes it pays off. Sometimes it doesn't.

I was taking a break... just staring at it while listening to some Van Halen when I decided to go for it. Mixed the PGL with Hansa Yellow Medium. It's subtle, probably too subtle. Not sure if I like it. And the green's nowhere near flat enough yet. I'll live with it for a while before reaching a final conclusion-- I can always take it back to the original color. But at least with the background established, I'll understand more about the proper tonality for the figures. I fixed some of the bad contours with the green paint, while I made some of it worse. I do plan on grounding them, too, at the end. In all, it's nice to take a few steps forward.

Talkin' hockey (or not) with the book club ladies

Last night after work, I went to book club. We eat first at Jury's on Lincoln. At dinner, someone noted that I had rejoined society after the Penguins' Stanley Cup win (snaps, girls, for actually knowing WHO won the Cup). I was about to enthusiastically launch into a recap of the 2009 playoffs when I realized that these folks really did not want to explore the wonders of Evgeni Malkin with me. Where are the people who *do* want to go there?!?! :(

The book discussion was lively, as usual. We talked about Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh. The general consensus was that gangs are bad and poverty sucks. Of course, we were much more erudite than that; these are smart women I hang with. The highlight may have been someone's observation (perhaps Jackie's?) that the brutal infighting among gang members is very similar to what goes on among women who sell Mary Kay Cosmetics. That's priceless. That's why I like these folks so much.

It was also fabulous to see Suellen. She's going through some challenges and is handling them with her usual wisdom and wit. We could all learn a lot from Suellen's "grace under pressure." And her iPod playlist completely blows me away-- love ya, sjm!!

312, singing, dancing and running

Today was Summerfest in Lincoln Park. Yep, I slid into groupie mode once again and had another foray into 7th Heaven. Today's count-- two band members spoke directly to me during the show and one looked at me. Right as the concert was starting, lead singer Keith Semple said something like, "your only job this afternoon is to smile the whole time... like YOU are!" and he pointed at me. Yep, I was grinnin' from ear to ear because I was having a supremely good time. I like dark-haired musical little Irish boys a whole lot. Yesindeedydo.

Later Nick Cox said to me, "oh,YOU know this one!" after I screamed when he started singing The Outfield's "Your Love." I have absolutely no musical ability at all, but I understand that it's very hard for most guys to sing the high notes, so I appreciate that talent when I see and hear it. Wowzie. And I love that song.

Finally, during another song, the blond surfer-looking guy with the really cut muscles (I think his name is Mark) caught me looking at him and grinned. This groupie stuff is a lot of fun!! Maybe next time we see them, I can summon the courage to actually go up to them after the show and talk to them. Maybe. John thinks my whole regression to age 15 is the ultimate in hilariousness. Whatever!!!! :)

Food at the Fest was kind of disappointing... not a whole lot there. But they had cold 312s to drink, so I had a couple of them. Saw another fun band-- The Breakfast Club-- who did 80's covers, complete with punk hair and animal-print costumes. Singing and dancing for almost 3 hours straight was a lot of work, and I'm nearly deaf from being so close to the speakers, but it was a blast! We walked thru the zoo a bit, too.

Came home and felt really, really guilty for not running all weekend, so I jumped on the treadmill for a 5K. Blah.... drinking, singing, dancing does NOT make for a good run. I felt every bit of my 45 years and then some. But at least I did it. I'll take that for now. After 4 weeks of very mediocre runs, I'm feeling a bit disappointed in my efforts, so I need to somehow reinvigorate that portion of my life. I think I need to sign up for a race.

Tattoo me, part 2

So we're there and back. How do you like?? Ha-- fake!! It's not real; it's just a sleeve. But it fooled two of the tattoo artists at the show. And it almost fooled John. The first thing he said to me when he saw me was "that better be a henna thing that washes off...." We had a blast. The other picture above is of our new friend Reverend Goat, a tattoo artist from Colorado who did some beautiful work. Other highlights included watching a man get his nipple pierced and a guy getting his cheek (right under his eye) pierced. We also saw a man with three gauges in each ear, and another guy with nails going from his eyebrow to his upper cheekbone (essentially "caging" his eyes-- his trips to the optometrist must be very interesting). Both Veronica and I really, really wanted more tattoos, but we resisted. I know what I want for my second tattoo and I'm 99% sure of where I want it, so it'll most likely happen some time this summer. Stay tuned...

Tattoo me?

Today Veronica and I are going to the Tattoo and Body Art Expo at Navy Pier. Mom, Dawn and Mary all jumped down my throat with horror.... "are you going to get a TATTOO?!?!" Ummm, I already have one (see above). I got it at Jade Dragon after I ran the marathon in 2006. I also have a diamond stud in my left nostril (no, it didn't hurt... but the tattoo did-- immensely). C'mon, pleeeeze... this stuff is so mainstream nowadays. I do want another tattoo, but probably not this weekend. Our intention is merely sightseeing. Freaks and weirdos-- may there be lots of them.

My social life is really taking a toll on my running this week. Lately I can't focus on more than one thing at a time. I remember in grad school at IUP I saw an art film called Koyaanisqatsi. That's a Hopi word that, loosely translated, means "life out of balance." That's how I feel now. And I'm a libra-- we're supposed to be completely balanced. Sheesh. Must fix.

Haven't worked on the painting in a few days, either (see June 16 post below), but I have a remedy in mind for the crappy underdrawing. I'm going to thin some gesso and essentially white it out, then redraw it with pastel. Take my time this time. Follow the principals of detail that jazz me so much.

So... not really running much, not really painting much... but having lots of good times with good friends. Looking at it that way, it's not a bad thing, is it? I'll work through the balance.

When Mothra came to my house

Moths are super scary. I don't know why. Yesterday, as I was approaching my front door after a long day at work (and a ride home on the CTA with the usual cast of crazies), I noticed a moth the size of my hand (okay, slight exaggeration) trapped between the security door and the front door. The mail slot was ajar from the postman trying to shove too many sales flyers through at one time, so I'm guessing that's how it got in. It stopped me dead in my tracks as I considered... what to do? Should I go next door and get our neighbor Gary to de-moth for me? Something told me he'd probably laugh at me.

So I just stood there for a while. Thinking maybe I could just wait it out. Let it do whatever it needed to do and then fly on home. I didn't know what it was capable of or what its intentions were. I yelled at it in my best outdoor voice, "go away." Apparently it cannot obey simple commands; must be a male. Oh wait, Mothra speaks Japanese, right? So it's a language barrier issue. Next I swung my purse at the door to maybe startle it. Nothing.

I stood there a while longer before coming to the ultimate conclusion that sooner or later I'd have to open the door. So I put the hood of my jacket up (they fly into your hair, or is that bats?), placed the key into the lock and opened the door while turning my body sideways and closing my eyes very tightly. Then I looked. It was gone.

Betcha my heart rate was faster for that encounter than it ever gets during a 5K race.

Kindness and struggle

We have a "situation" at work. Nothing serious, just something that-- too often-- causes my Annoyance Alert System to be elevated to red. Today was such a day. But then in the midst of it all, I got an e-mail from a friend with some really sweet "you're appreciated" sentiments. At that particular moment in time, I really needed it... and was moved almost to tears by his kind words (which, given how emotional I am, isn't *that* hard to do). It got me thinking, though, about how rarely we let those who matter KNOW they matter. And how an offhand remark which seems so insignificant can have the power to turn a bad day completely on its head. I'm going to try to "pay it forward" and wear my heart on my sleeve more often... it will probably look good there.

That's today's kindness. Today's struggle is the painting. I've come to the conclusion that I really rushed the underdrawing and it has some major flaws. I won't point them out because they're fixable with paint-- hopefully. I should be able to pull it off, but it's distracting me. This one's definitely not giving me that shiny, happy feeling. The next project lurking in my creative offstage is tantalizing me, but I WILL NOT start it until this is finished. Hopefully that'll serve as a motivational tool.

I'm a slacker girl...

This is the start of my latest painting. It has looked this way for, oh, probably a year. It's based on a photo of a group of random people I took at the start of a race a while ago and I just sort of lost interest. John often tells me that I have the attention span of a gnat. I kind of do sometimes. So I dragged out my easel in the hopes that it'll guilt me into finishing it. I'm taking out my paints RIGHT NOW (well, as soon as I grab something to eat). Feel free to nag me about how/if I'm progressing on it.

So, this is today's run "in heaven"

Three miles on the treadmill in 30:59. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm slow, but it's *kinda* fast for me. I recently bought a Garmin Forerunner 205, which makes me run outside more (I'm not always a huge fan of nature), but today's run was inside, at home, on the treadmill. It was raining and my creature comfort trumped gadget geekness. Plus, my usual neighborhood running route goes right by my chiropractor's office... since I cancelled my appointment tonight, I didn't want to risk "being sighted."

I have a portable DVD player set up on the shelf by my treadmill and it is a godsend! Today's viewing enjoyment was a concert DVD of the local indie band "7th Heaven." They're my recent obsession. John and I went to Wells Street Art Festival on Sunday, and they played there. We saw them at Festa Italiana last year and really liked them, and I liked them even more this time. We followed the crowd and at lead singer Keith Semple's request, got right smack up in front of the stage (I coulda touched them if I wanted to... and I kinda did want to... but I was a lady and kept my hands to myself). I fear I may turn into a groupie. All of the guys in this group are beyond gorgeous!! During one of the songs-- gasp-- the lead singer locked eyes with me!!!! Yes, I'm old enough to have been his babysitter... and I know enough about marketing to know they get paid to engage the audience... Still, it was H-O-T!!! And they helped me get thru my run tonight. So thank you, 7th Heaven. Here's their website if you want to check them out (and you should): http://7thheavenband.com/

Why am I doing this?

Hockey season is over and I'm bored. It's that simple. I can do what I usually do when I have too much time on my hands-- watch bad tv (dive into Bravo and don't emerge til September)-- but this summer is going to be different. I am going to attempt to take the things I used to do a lot more of-- creative writing and painting-- and recommit to them. Thank you, Bonnie, for inspiring me to go back to writing. Thank you, mom, Susie and Mary for encouraging me to pick up the paintbushes again. So here goes nothing... not sure exactly what I'm going to write about, but I'll figure that out as I go along. Come along for the ride... I'll try to make it at least mildly entertaining.