An Invisible Ocean

….of to do lists. I don’t know where the day went. There’s so much to do.

All of your comments are so supportive about our move. Thank you so much for that. I feel like you are right there with me. I’m starting to look cross country and imagine our possible stops along the way once we embark on that journey. I definitely want to make it up to Lindsborgh, KS and see the old house my grandfather grew up in again. And then Graceland. And I love tourist traps. I’ll never forget when my family was visiting Scotland around 1997 and my dad drove right past the Loch Ness Monster Museum because he and my sister were late for a tee time.  Who doesn’t stop for the “Nessie” museum?  Now I have to go all the way back to Scotland one day.

Speaking of large creatures, I watched Water for Elephants the other night.  I cry through 2 scenes every time:  when Rosie moves the stake to get to the lemonade, and when they figure out that Rosie doesn’t speak English.  As big as Rosie is, she reminds me of Diesel. He’s always looking at me like something has been lost in translatino. <—-that was supposed to say “translation” but translatino is so much better so I’ll leave it. Poor Diesel is getting so old. He will be 13 this year. One day he’ll be acting like a puppy but then he’ll sleep the next few days away. I’ve been worrying about him. We baby him a lot these days:

And then he goes and attacks the poor mail lady.

I shared this on Facebook last week:

Today our mail lady came and as she was leaving I just had this feeling I needed to give her our last Random Acts of Kindness painting. She gave me a hug and had tears in her eyes.

“Thank you. My father-in-law just died. I’ve known him since I was 5. That’s why I haven’t been here for the last few days. It’s been really hard being back today.”

At work no one acknowledged her loss, even though they knew why she had been gone. They did manage to acknowledge that she would not be getting paid for the days she was gone because her paper work wasn’t filled out. Ugh. She’s the nicest woman. Sometimes when I’m not home the first time around, she’ll double check on her route back to see if I have a pickup. Today she asked if everything had been okay mail-wise while she was gone. She takes so much pride in her job. It’s really refreshing and I try to recognize it whenever I get the chance.

I guess I just needed to share that story, maybe just as a reminder that you never know what someone else is going through.

Trying to remember this every day as I run around like a chicken with its head cut off, to make sure I am attentive to others.

I’ve been trying to slowly pull out items to sell to go towards our move.  I never realized how much “stuff” we had with the business.  We are finishing up orders but then I need to get rid of all the equipment too. Each of the machines weighs between 200 and 250 pounds. And I have so many things I’ve collected over the years….because I just like strange and odd finds. Then I need to go through all of Boo’s dresses too.  I was thinking about just putting all the artwork on eBay one day.  I never thought I could part with something like the Mona Lisa but now I’m just ready to let it all go.  It gets a little easier. I find myself sorting piles and then suddenly I pause for a second and then just throw the whole pile out.  I told my friend Megan I should sell the big chicken feeder that sits in our living room “because I’d always be able to find another one, right?”  But she said “you never know, what if there’s a run on chicken feeders one day?” Omg. What if there is run on chicken feeders?

We had a realtor over this afternoon to talk about listing the house. Up until now it’s been for sale by owner. I guess Boo was bored because I saw this note that she had been passing to Brett.

I love the pick-how-many-minutes-until-she-leaves:

In April I’m heading to the SNAP Conference in Utah to teach a sewing class. So excited about that. I’m sharing a room with Dana, Delia and Katy. What if I snore or something?  I feel like I need some cute PJs for such a slumber party…instead of my yoga pants I sleep in every night.  Maybe I should sleep in my contacts so I don’t look so nerdy in my glasses?!  This will be good for me….I’m usually such a hermit at conferences after the sessions are over.  Dana is so outgoing and fun…I can ask her all about her new house. And excited to meet Delia and Katy for the first time. I’ll bring snacks. That’s always good.

The last time I went to SNAP was in 2012 when I was on a business panel.  This was right when I was finishing up chemo.

I’ll never forget when I gave my friend Shari a Choose Joy bracelet at the conference and instead of Choose Joy it read: Plead for the Widow.  Random.  Shari runs an amazing art gallery in Jackson Hole, WY….she gets to see Warhols, Picasso’s, etc….every day.  I sent her Sea Monkeys as a gift recently, because who wouldn’t want Sea Monkeys?  Turns out she’s scared of them. Sorry Shari.

My Sea Monkeys died:

Rest in peace little Sea Monkeys.
You were loyal, selfless, tiny, fearless somethings.
You rose from a packet. You fought hard against the tiny current.
You will not be forgotten.

Oh, I’m working on revamping the website and making it easier to navigate going forward!  That’s a little daunting and way over due. I’ve let my WordPress go stale and nothing is quite working right anymore.  I’ve been putting it off forever.  So you will probably start to see some changes soon. Hopefully for the better.  It will help me stay on top of my newsletter better ….have you seen my RSS feed email lately? Yes it’s pretty lame and all the photos are wonky. Sorry about that. Anything you find annoying about blogs that I need to stay away from?

So much needs to be done and yet I’m not anxious about it all.  Just a little impatient at times. And trying to keep lists of really important things like health insurance, mail forwarding etc. Even trying to figure out the best way to get high speed Internet at the Inn.

Thursday I’m taking a plein-air class.  An all-day workshop up the mountain.  Outside with an easel, painting the landscape.  Something I’ve always wanted to do but never got around to.  I’ll take a bunch of photos too.