It's decided, I shall be an artist!

Some days things go just as they should. The weather doesn't do what the weatherman says it will but school still gets cancelled. The Dow falls, then pops up as if to say "peek-a-boo!" and you run across a piece of advice that will save your life, or at least make you happy.

Father Guido Sarducci, bless you, wherever you are.

Old bird gone wild

The other day I told my husband that if I didn’t have him in my life, I would ditch my job, this house, and find as much land as I could afford and put a single wide on it to live there with all my animals and only work enough to feed us.

He considered this for a moment and said, “Am I cramping your style?” I love this man. He totally gets me.

I guess what I was trying to say is that I really can’t do the sitting at a desk all day thing ANY MORE. I think I want to be more like Mrs. Weasley. She stays home, takes care of her family and gets to actually not sit all day. She cooks, does laundry, gardens, manages her flock of chickens (which presumably provide food for the family) and participates in a subversive resistance movement. I could probably substitute freelance writing and illustration for the latter. An equally dangerous choice, many would say.

But that’s just the thing. Listening to what other people say (especially the volunteers) is the problem. You should only do that if you want to live other people’s lives. I don’t recommend it.

The Bird is back!

It took a long while to recover from a bout of low confidence, but I think I’m better now. While waiting to recover, or possibly because of it, I learned to paint with oils, told my boss that I’m going ¾ time as soon as the cutbacks hit our departments and got a free rooster off of Craigslist. Some people drink. I get a rooster. His name is Ollie.

The neighbor lady at the back has been slinking around our little cul de sac in the middle of cow country to ask the neighbors if the crowing is bothering them. I don’t know what everyone else said, but my friend next door sent the woman away with a flea in her ear. I like my friend very much. She’s the one with the enormous garden and the eight green thumbs.

We live in the country so I’m not too worried about the county animal control officer showing up. Lots of people have chickens, ducks, goats, sheep, llamas, cows, horses, you name it. The other day I was even sure I’d seen an emu but it turned out to be a scarecrow in the mist. Anyone could have made that mistake. Anyone with birds on the brain anyway.

So Ollie will continue to crow and remind me what is possible even in the darkest hours. Light eventually comes, all you have to do is wait.