My daily habit

Of course there are lots of things I do each day. Fiddle. Pick at my nails. Drink hot tea, drink Crystal Light (seriously, I'm obsessed). Pop my neck, check Facebook, check email, check other email. Blog. Make more tea. Glance over conspiracy theories, but only sometimes (more on this later). These habits usually happen in the mornings, when I'm working and/or bored, when I'm staring off wondering exactly how I will tackle a given problem, whether work-related or not.

One thing that I particularly like to do is to check a photography and culture site my writer friend the other AB suggested a while back: American Suburban X. Some of the photographs are haunting, disturbing, telling, and sometimes just plain weird. I just like how photography - and art in general - reflect more about our current lives than we even comprehend. Here are just a few.

Robert Frank

Larry Sultan

Ralph Eugene Meatyard

William Eggelston

David Goldblatt

Ch-ch-ch-changes: Artist Date #1

Yesterday was a Monday but I didn't have to work and the weather was incredible - the sky was brilliant and the air fresh, almost sweet smelling - it finally felt like spring was coming.  I sat out at the picnic table and watched my dog chase squirrels. I thought about changes, how I finally felt ok, possibly even happy, for the first time in months.
There haven't been any significant changes, really. I didn't come into a large sum of money, I didn't get a nicer, newer car. If anything, these past couple of weeks have been packed with more changes and jostling extremes than the weeks prior. But there have been a lot of small changes, ones that are actually starting to make a difference.
One thing that I've been trying to do is to weed out the negative energies from my life, and another, one that I think has had a huge impact on me is to get back in touch with creativity. Just having some way to channel all the emotions, whether good or bad, has helped in a way that is hard for me to even comprehend. I fell in love with Julia Cameron some time back and I try to tell everyone about her. If you haven't checked her out, you need to. She has tons of books about creativity, the artistic pursuit, blocks and how to unblock yourself, spirituality and creativity combined, etc.
I'm currently reading her book, The Artist's Way, a 12-week "course" on creativity. This course is self-imposed, so instead of taking 12 weeks it will probably take me the rest of the year. (I've been on week two for about a month now.) Anywho! Week one teaches you to get back in touch with your inner artist, and in doing so you do several tasks, one of which is the Artist's Date, where you basically hang out with yourself and do something that will tickle your creative fancy.
For my first week of going on artist dates, I took my dog up to the lake on a lovely, lazy Sunday. The sun was warm and the afternoon long. My friends were busy - a new baby had been born - so I was alone and found myself on this date without necessarily intending it. There is a thrift store, one that is huge and nice, just north of the lake, and soon enough I was there. Here is what followed.

 The drive.

 Love the sun.

 My overloaded cart ;-)

 A travel set and a child's microscope case, circa 1950s.

 After a day of happiness.

Vintage flower brooch available on Etsy.

And the Case of the Empty Email

There is a situation in my life that makes me incredibly frustrated. I don't want to handle it, and don't know HOW to handle it, so I bitch and moan and let it get to me often. I know that these passive aggressive tendencies are not healthy or helpful so I started writing about it in my journal, once I started writing in my journal again after following Julia Cameron's advice. And it helped. Then I started working out and that helped too, but I can't make it to the gym every day and that frustration just keeps building up. So I started writing emails - emails without a To address, ones that I will never send. Empty emails, if you will. On these emails I can actually say what I want. I can place blame even where it's not due. I can fire off insults, I can explain disappointment and dread and all the things that I really can't say, all the things that don't need to be said, really, because it's not you, it's never you, it's me. No, it's not me. I was just saying that to be cliche. It's the situation. And it's you. And it's me. Hell!

The empty emails really do help; it's like sucking poison from a wound. There's a lot of poison in this wound though, and it only festers when life gets stressful and eventful.

So here are some other stress-relieving tips from me and from the good ol' interwebs. A list, if you will. Brief, informative, delightful.

1. Shadow boxing
2. High kicking
3. Breathing
4. Amigurumi-ing
5. Walking, even aimlessly

And, of course, my favorite: cursing. And the creative ways to incorporate bad words into your life.

Hollow Book Secret Safe available on Etsy.
The F Word Cross Stitch available on Etsy.