Saying yes

This has been the most incredibly busy month that I can remember. It's not over yet, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I've had three freelance web design projects go live this month, plus the usual small updates. I've been working at work all day, then going home and working a couple of hours at night, plus working several hours on the weekends. It will be good for the bank account, of course, but I would prefer to be just a little less busy. I try never to turn down or discourage business, because that just always seems like a bad idea.

For instance, I have a policy of always picking up money that I see in the street, even if it's just a penny, because if the universe is going to offer you rewards, you shouldn't refuse them. When you start saying "no" to money, even if it's just a penny dropped in the street, then, in my view, you're closing yourself off from larger rewards. I don't know, that's probably silly, but it seems to me to be a good policy.

That's not to say that I've never turned down business. I can remember a couple of times when, for whatever reason, an offered job just didn't seem right to me, and I declined. But for the most part, I try not to say no, because to me it just seems to set a bad precedent.

Anyway, once the third site goes live this weekend, I'll link to them.

Being so busy this month has kind of worked out well, though, actually, because Bob has been out of town a lot. I feel guilty about spending so much time on the computer when he's home, and I'm also more easily distracted.

He was gone last weekend, fishing with his friends at the lake, and this weekend he's at Disney World with his dad. I'm not completely sure what prompted the trip, I think it was just the cheap airfare, basically. It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing.

They left this morning, and will come back on Monday. I'm off tomorrow--it's my company's fourth anniversary on May 1, so we're closing on Friday--so I've got a nice, long weekend ahead of me. I plan to go out and see my parents on Sunday, but that's really the only plan I have so far. Probably go to the nursery, and the library, and a few things like that. And if it's warm enough, plant some flowers, maybe. I bought some geraniums last weekend, but it's been too cold to put them out. The Farmer's Almanac said the last frost was a few days ago, but I'm not sure whether to trust it or not.

Bob just called and said it was about 85 degrees in Florida. Sounds perfect. He's called me several times today--I told him to please call me a LOT, so I can live vicariously through him. He called me from the tram, and from the train, and while they were watching the parade, and just now, while he was waiting in line to ride Space Mountain. Oh, and once from the airport here, and twice from the airport in Orlando--once to let me know they arrived safely, and once to tell me that he'd lost his paperwork with all the confirmation numbers and things.

I don't think any of it was really necessary, but I'm obsessive about being sure I have copies of the hotel confirmation and rental confirmation and airline e-ticket confirmation. I had given him copies of everything, but at some point, probably when he was giving his dad his boarding pass (which we had printed out at home at midnight last night), he lost track of it. I imagine he was panic-stricken for a moment--I would have been--but it's probably not a bad thing, really, to prove that all of that is basically unnecessary.

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Poppies

It's my annual poppy entry! I know I write about them every year, but every year I'm just thrilled that they've come up, and I'm always surprised by it. As I pulled out of the driveway yesterday I noticed that I had one bloom, but I was running late, as usual, and didn't have time to run back into the house to get the camera.

This morning when I pulled out, I saw that there were two, and I was early, so I went back in and got the camera and took a couple of pictures. Aren't they the most gorgeous color?

Oh, and when I went back in the house to get the camera, I apparently surprised Dinah and Pyewacket:

See, what I think is, they really like each other, but don't want us to know it. They act like they just barely tolerate each other when we're home, but when they're by themselves, well:

That's what I saw when I came home last night, and I grabbed the camera and took a shot before Pyewacket jumped off the cat tree. It's fairly obvious what happened -- Dinah was sitting there, and Pye decided she wanted to sit there, but for whatever reason, Dinah stood her ground and wouldn't get off, thus Pyewacket crouching on the edge.

Of course, I guess in the top two pictures they aren't necessarily playing with each other, and maybe Dinah's hiding because Pye was going to thump her, but it looked more like playing. No one's back was up, there wasn't any hissing or growling going on. I prefer to believe they were playing. Of course, they can't seem to do that very long before it escalates into hissing and growling, but it's nice to see them at least coexisting peacefully. ("Sure, everything's fine until somebody puts their eye out . . .")

Dinah has started trying to get out the front door again every time we open it, so we've had to become more vigilant any time we go out. She got out night before last when Bob went out to get something out of the van, and since it was already dark, I was afraid we wouldn't be able to find her, but she stopped to eat some grass and I snuck up on her and scooped her up.

Bob would probably be just as happy to let her run out, he's said more than once we ought to try it and see what she does, and he's sort of kidding.

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Feed the Birds

Here's the second shrine, which turned out to be more of a decorative object, possibly, and less of an interactive one, since I've decided to give it to my mother for Mother's Day next month.

Clicking on the pictures will show a close-up image.

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Happy Birthday, Cello!

Cello's 40th birthday is Sunday, and we had a little party for him today. It was really difficult, because he's away from the office so much. We wanted to surprise him, so we didn't want to tell him, but he kept calling and saying he had another stop to make, or someone else he had to see, and we kept waiting and waiting for him to get back. He finally showed up at about 3:00.

We had all dressed in black, and Dave and John had decorated his office with black balloons and crepe paper, and put black streamers in the doorways, including the elevator door. It was pretty impressive.

Later in the afternoon, there was a chocolate cheesecake. Oh, and leis! A sparkly tinsel one for Cello, and black ones for the rest of us. Dave really went all out. Cello said he's saving the stuff to use this summer when Dave turns 40 . . .

I had kind of an adventure this afternoon after I left work. I had ordered some tea from Stash Tea, and had it delivered to the office. I guess I had gotten complacent with Adagio, who uses FedEx to deliver. I expected Stash to use FedEx, or, more likely, UPS, but they used the post office.

The postman tried to deliver the package yesterday morning, apparently. Although I'm sure there was something there at the office when he tried, the elevator was probably turned off--it opens right into our office, so it usually doesn't get turned on until either I or Cello get in in the morning--and he assumed that the office was closed rather than climbing the stairs. Understandable, I guess.

I had had it shipped to the office because I thought it would be easier, of course, but it ended up meaning that I had to go to the downtown post office to pick it up, which was the adventure.

I hadn't realized it, but I actually drive very close to the post office on my way home every night, so while I'd never been there, I thought it would be a piece of cake. As it turned out, they had moved, for one thing. And for another, it was, of course, tax day. And then once I'd found the new location, parked, and stood in line, I was told that I couldn't pick up packages there, I had to get back in the car, drive a couple of blocks, drive underground into the parking garage, and pick up the package in a different building. Or, who knows, maybe it was the same building--by the time I got there I was so turned around that I couldn't tell.

But it all worked out in the end. I got my Stash.

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More

After I posted the pictures last night, I got busy doing something else, and then was too tired to write anything about them. It was kind of fun to let them stand for themselves, though, maybe. My camera isn't the greatest for taking close-up shots, but at least it gives an idea.

The outside (top and sides) is covered with wide printed ribbon, then lightly varnished. The hearts on the doors are glued-on wooden pieces, and there are various pieces of paper collage both inside and out. There's a little mirror on the top shelf, and silver metal beads spelling out "WISHES." On the inside of one door is a tiny spring clothespin holding a miniature tarot card of The Sun (the card isn't glued in, so the clothespin could hold anything--a fortune cookie fortune, maybe?); the word inside the other door is "BOUNTEOUS," which dictionary.com says means "Generously and copiously given."

There's an image of an old key glued to the floor symbolizing hidden secrets. The key and the mirror are both important, I think--the mirror, in addition to being a reflective surface to bring light in, also reminds anyone looking in that ultimately, we are responsible for fulfilling our own wishes and dreams, and that we have the ability to do that inside ourselves.

I worked on a second one tonight. This one is painted green, lightly distressed and antiqued, with sort of a "garden" theme--it has a tiny pile of terra cotta pots, and a birdhouse, and a little chair . . . I varnished it tonight, and can put in the ornaments tomorrow. I'm trying not to overdo it, to leave plenty of room for personal treasures. They're sort of like "interactive" art, maybe. Sort of whimsical, yet it has a use, it's not just decorative.

I haven't decided what's going to happen with them yet. It's a really interesting process to me. It's very difficult for me to allow myself to make art that isn't structured, to allow myself to just do something, anything, without being attached to the outcome. To allow myself to make mistakes. Although, in general, that's where the exciting stuff happens. You have to get to the point where you're not afraid that you're going to ruin it, and that's very hard. But if you only color inside the lines, you never figure out what else you might be able to do.

So anyway, I'm finding it very liberating and exciting. Photos of the new one tomorrow, hopefully.

Someone wrote tonight and asked me if I had been inspired by Joseph Cornell. I had never heard of him, but oh! What wonderful stuff! I Googled his name and found the WebMuseum link above. Really amazing stuff. Kind of like Nick Bantock's work, but three dimensional.

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