PJ Trader

Last night I took my first Artist’s Date.  Those of you who read Claire Delacroix/Claire Croos/Deborah Cooke’s Alive and Knitting blog will remember she’s a big fan of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way as a method of finding the creativity within us.  Since my day job requires logical thought processes, I often find it hard to go home at see my characters rolicking and romping through their story.  Haven’t seen Prince Charming in a long, long time, as a matter of fact.

So, I’m willing to stretch myself.  I bought the book, promptly lost it for six weeks, then found it again.  This is week 1.  I admit to pretty much failing on morning pages.  (For those unfamilar with morning pages, this exercise asks the participant to write three pages, longhand, every morning.  First thing, before the day has started.)  I can’t seem to leave my warm blankets for a colder house earlier than it takes to get myself to work, which is less than thirty minutes, if I cut a couple of corners.  So getting up early to write morning pages hasn’t happened, except on Sunday.  I tried writing them at work, but I don’t have a private office and if you’re sitting at your desk, you’re fair game for discussions of last night’s football game or <gasp> actually being required to work!  So I gotta work on that.  (I’m going to try doing them last thing at night.  Maybe clearing out the brain then works as well as in the morning?)

The other item for this week that I had to work on (beside some of the other exercises – which I may tell you about another time), was to take myself on an artist’s date.  An hour or so, just me, off doing something that would make me happy.

At first I glommed onto an idea in the book to go bowling.  I love bowling, suck at it, and haven’t gone in years.

Then I thought – I’ll go to the bookstore and look at books NOT in the romance section.

Then I got an email from a friend of mine.  About once a month she holds “stamping parties” where we make greeting cards and things.  I really enjoy playing with the stamps and pretty papers and ribbons and stuff, but I also know I’m lazy.  So when Ms. Nita has a stamping party, she creates the projects, makes a sample, cuts the papers and provides all the accouterments.  All I have to do is bring a nominal fee and make cards.

I made four Christmas cards last night.  (Never mind the fact that I don’t send out Christmas cards or that I could have made five if I’d shown up on time instead of running upstairs to talk to a coworker for thirty minutes. )   

My favorite is the brown one up in the left corner.  It’s simple, with a stamp of four reindeer and “Merry Christmas” on the cover.  The lead reindeer has a glittery red nose. 

One lesson I learned is that I prefer doing the activity if someone else does the prep work first – LOL.  Another one I learned is that every now and then you have to do something just for yourself.  Not a “have-to-do” thing, but a “want-to-but-I-don’t-normally-do-this” kind of thing. 

What kinds of activities would you do – if only?  Let’s keep the cost down below $15 and it only takes a couple of hours?  And you can’t feel guilty about it (like heading off for the best cheesecake in town)!  What ideas can you come up with?

I don’t decorate the house for Halloween.  I don’t do it for Thanksgiving.  But one of my fondest childhood memories was when my Dad would get the Christmas lights out.  I’m still a sucker for driving through neighborhoods and looking at Christmas lights.  I’d rather look at the “regular” people’s decorations – not the Griswold-types.  In my neighborhood, there’s a bunch of us who decorate and it makes for a more cheerful evening when I pull into the subdivision and see the colorful glow.

(However, for the record, I don’t consider all white lights a legitimate decorating scheme.  That’s just lazy.)

The Bob and I have had these great swag lights that were all blue for several years now.  When we first bought them, no one else had swag lights.  We ringed the house with them and basked in their novelty and glow.  Every year I’ve tried to add some new lights or decoration.  Partly to compete with my Griswold-neighbors.   Their front yard is full of cute painted Disney cutouts that Mrs. G made herself.  We know they can’t use their microwave during the holiday season ’cause they pop the circuit breaker with all their lights.

But back to those swags.  They are a royal P-I-T-A to untangle and straighten out every year. Then we carefully lay them outside along the edges of the house and proceed to hang them.  Which then launches our annual tradition of “are you sure this is the way we hung them last year?”

So The Bob and I decided to replace them.  And thus began the dilemma.  I wanted these new kind of lights that have the big C-9 bulbs equivilent to runway lights on top, with the hanging icicles below, all on the same string.  They were new and different and would look cool.  But last week the Yard Nazi’s hung their lights and guess what they put up?  Yup, white and red runway lights with icicles.  The neighbors across the street have red and white too.  We were going to go with multi-colored, but then I was concerned we’d blend in with the Griswold’s next door.  What to do?

After much deliberation, we ended up with new blue icicle lights, which I’ve just seen hanging off a house on the street behind us.  Good thing that’s not all the new decorations we bought!

Doesn’t everyone need a 7 foot tall inflatable palm tree with Santa and a penguin sipping fruity drinks from coconut cups in their yard at Christmas?

I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in women’s handbag fashions lately.  They don’t make the handles shoulder length anymore!

Maybe it’s to save money on a little extra material, but go to the store and study on the styles.  The handles are short, around 13″ long at the most.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d like to see these designers try to sling that bag over the shoulder of a bulky winter coat.

I know they’re cute, but they aren’t very functional.  First of all, any bag worth it’s purchase needs to be able to carry a two pound wallet full of store discount cards, the cell phone, the iPod, coupons for holiday shopping, sixteen pens, four tubes of assorted lipstick and/or chapstick, a crumbled candy bar, twenty-eight pennies, a paperback book in case you’re stuck somewhere and have time to read, sunglasses, headset/earphones for previously mentioned cell phone and iPod, a notepad for writing down story ideas when they strike at the red light, and a roll of open breath mints from which one is always escaping.

Frankly, carrying this much with a purse that refuses to hang on your shoulder is annoying.  I have a purse I’m carrying right now, it’s red and cute and stuff, but the straps are of a really slippery material so it never stays on my shoulder unless I use my other hand to hold it there. 

I’ve tried looking for shoulder bags that actually hang from a 23″ strap, they they’ve almost gone the way of the dinosaur.  What’s worse is that their business companion, the ladies tote and/or briefcases are following the trend of using shorter straps.  Men’s briefcases have long straps so the bag hangs down to their hips, but we women are saddled with gorgeous bags designed to make us look frumpy.  I mean, you try carrying a laptop, speakers, projector, and assorted other peripherals in a bag that wrinkles the shoulder of your suit, pulls your collar askew, and generally makes you look like you’ve just run a marathon with it.

Then, of course, the pics make it look so easy.  Sigh.  Maybe it’s just me.  Do you miss longer straps on your purses and bags?

Normally I enjoy cooking.  I even spent a few months taking culinary courses at the local college after I retired from the military with dreams of becoming a local Rachel Ray.  Once I learned you had to spend twelve hours a day on your feet, I gave up that dream.  I still like new recipes and cooking, but I don’t have a lot of time for it anymore.

This year I’m cheating for Thanksgiving.  I’m buying the meal pre-made by my local grocery store chain.  I’ve heard good things about their holiday meals and Bob and I regularly eat from their deli.  They’re doing the turkey breast, stuffing, green beans and a corn souffle.  I’ll make the pumpkin pie, Waldorf salad, and maybe some mashed potatoes and gravy (or maybe not).  And the egg nog.

I felt guilty about buying dinner for about ninety seconds.  I’m not so rushed that I can’t do it.  I’ve cooked that meal for the last 25 years or so.  We don’t even have guests coming over, so it’s not like I’m doing much more than cooking a regular weekend dinner.

But this year, I’m going to let Dierbergs do most of the work, so I can enjoy the food more.  I won’t be spending six hours fixing food and timing dishes so they’re all hot and done at the same time.  I get annoyed that I went to all this work to have dinner over with in twenty minutes. 

And, if I manage this right, clean up will be easy.

Have you ever bought (or wanted) to buy a holiday dinner instead of cooking one yourself?  What would make you finally do it?