C: Do you know how Flo Rida got his name?
B: No, how?
C: He used to be a dental rapper!
B: ?
C: Flouride.
~*~
C: What would Garfield’s name be if he was a paper?
B: A paper? I don’t know.
C: Garfold.
Got Jokes?
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Self Portrait Saturday: Brave
I think I mentioned a while ago that I was having my photographer friend, Erin take some photos of me. She did a fabulous job for me, and while the main impetus for the pictures was an art project I’m working on, she took some great photos that turned out even better than I’d expected.
So, in the interest of my journey toward self acceptance and confidence through self portrait, I am going to share them here.
In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that some of these have been photoshopped just the tiniest bit. And I only mention it because I am adamant that while photoshop is a wonderful tool, I think it is highly abused in the media. To the point that I think it’s criminal. But that is a rant for another day. So here is the original for the top one, which has the most changes. They are not over done and I love the pictures.
Six Word Friday: Hold
We hold each other’s hearts tenderly
to shelter us against undo weathering
cupped gently against the bitter wind
hold my heart, call me friend
nestled carefully with softness and feathering
no key needed, we’re flocked together
buffering each other against the elements
forming covalent bonds with simple elegance
offering stabilizing support; energy to lend
carefully tending to our shared experiment
more than chemistry, in the end
science plus love= a friendship blend
On Dancing With Mistakes
”The seed of your next art work lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece. Such imperfections (or mistakes, if you’re feeling particularly depressed about them today) are your guides — valuable, reliable, objective, non-judgmental guides — to matters you need to reconsider or develop further.”
– David Bayles and Ted Orland, Art and Fear.
My dance teacher had a saying, “There are no mistakes, only variations. Some intentional, some not.”
Edison is credited with saying, “I didn’t fail 1000 times, I found 1000 ways that didn’t work.” (paraphrased)
In my art and art history classes we often talk about Action Painting. Where the artist isn’t trying to use the painting to create an illusion, but the painting is evidence of the action taken. If I move my arm in this manner, the paint falls in this way and the canvas takes record of it.
In this same manner, I think that mistakes, failures, and detours are evidence of our having taken action. If you are moving forward, acting to make progress, trying and doing, then not everything will go according to plan. But it will go how it is supposed to go and you will get where you need to be, even if you take the long way to get there.
Six word Fridays: Return
I wish that you could return.
These crumbs left behind? No feast.
For the entire cake, I yearn.
My finger’s burned……
…….The lessons learned.
I wish that you could return.
Portrait of an Awesome 9 Year Old
Scene 1:
I pick the kid up from the after school program one day. He points out some thing on the wall.
“That girl likes me.”
“Do you like her?”
He runs ahead and gets a drink of water. He looks up and grins.
“I’m being hard to get!”
“Well, that’s a good thing to be.”
“Hogan (his friend-same age) says to never make eye contact.”
“Hmm…”
Scene 2:
He is starting to really get into music and often will listen to Pandora Radio on my phone. Using headphones generally. We were meeting Daddy somewhere that I was just going to hang out in the car for a few minutes.
“Okay, leave my phone here with me.”
“I know.”
Unplugs headphones, but leaves them around his neck.
“I’m going to wear these like this because they make me look awesome!”
Scene 3:
…the following morning we’re getting ready for school. He grabs the headphones on the way out the door.
“I need these.”
“What for?”
“To wear.” (The “Duh” here is implied.)
(Also, he lasted half the day before someone told him they weren’t allowed to have those at school. She may not have known that they weren’t attached to anything, though. HIS teacher was fine with it.)
Scene 4:
Telling me some story about school goings on…
“Josh is the weirdest kid in my class. I’m second weirdest. Well, I’m tied for second place with Hogan.” Looks up and raises his arm valiantly. “I want to be weirdest!”
Scene 5:
Regarding the girl in scene 1…
“You know the girl who likes me?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, Andrew likes her. And he asked me “How do you make Maggie like you?” and I told him, “I act frickin’ awesome!”"
“Well, that is how to get people to like you, by acting awesome.”
“But she doesn’t like me anymore.”
“No?”
“Yeah, today we went in the tower and I told her that I didn’t like her and she said she didn’t anymore either. So I’m letting Andrew have her.”
*Daddy was here for this one.*
“You are, huh? That’s nice of you,” he said dryly.
“Just stepping aside?” I asked.
[Whew! Dangerous love triangle averted!]
Scene 6:
Waiting at the bus stop this morning…
“Hogan and I made a pledge. and Cayden too, but he didn’t really because he didn’t raise his right hand but I get to raise my left hand because that’s my good hand. That we wouldn’t like girls until 5th grade.”
Curtain closes on Act I
This is a test.
This is a test of the Emergency Alert System. This is only a test.
Had this been an actual emergency, this alert would have been followed by information.
Not information like the information we’re giving you now about the emergency alert system’s information, but actual information about the actual emergency that we would have actually been alerting you about.
Which we aren’t. Because this is only a test.
But if it hadn’t been, we would have been giving you actual, factual, useful information to use in the case of the actual emergency that we would have been alerting you to.
But we aren’t.
So we’re giving you this other information in the interim in the interest of informing you of the information you’d be getting if this were an actual emergency.
It isn’t.
This will have only been a test.
New Year
I’ve decided to move (most of) my celebration of the New Year to March.
January doesn’t really feel like the beginning of anything. It’s still right in the middle of the deep cold and, in fact, the worst of winter is still yet to come. (Usually!) I appreciate the need for a festival of lights at that time of year. But I feel like it’s more of a celebration of having crossed the halfway mark, than of the end or beginning of anything.
But March.
March feels more like a time to get things started. Just ask the plants and animals. Babies are being born, seeds are sprouting, the weather begins to show improvement. I start to feel the itchiness of the possibility of things to do. Spring fever sets in.
It doesn’t really help that my birthday is in March. This is for me, time to start a new year.
For my birthday yesterday we went out for typical Irish fare at Rancher’O. Doesn’t everyone eat fajitas for St. Patty’s Day? It was nice. Although we wussed out and were home by 10:00pm.
Happy 36th New Year!
