No posts for the next week as I’ll be traveling. If you miss me, you can follow me on Twitter. There might even be a trip to Disneyland! I’m even coming up with a drinking game for it.
And that was the first and last cartwheel I ever tried to do.
I hate talking on the phone. It’s not the phone itself I hate, just the act of talking on it. Getting a missed call is the worst. It’s like a chore that you can’t even bribe someone else to do for you.
Pretty much the only call I’ll answer is if it’s a relative, and that’s only because blood is thicker than my perpetual stream of annoyances.
The real problem is both my husband and I hate talking on the phone.
You would think that technology would make taking phone calls easier, but things like Skype and FaceTime have actually made them even worse. You used to be able to look your worst and still be in bed, but now there’s an expectation that you’re supposed to look nice on the call too. At least I still have text messaging.
I wanted to do a tribute to Maurice Sendak, who passed away yesterday. His illustrations and stories carried me through my childhood and his views and honesty on life have always been something that have stuck with me. It didn’t turn out as good as I pictured or hoped (that’s why I draw stick figures), but I spent quite awhile on it so I figured I’d put it up anyway.
“I believe there is no part of our lives, our adult as well as child life, when we’re not fantasizing, but we prefer to relegate fantasy to children, as though it were some tomfoolery only fit for the immature minds of the young. Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do.” -Maurice Sendak, 1928-2012
I really just wanted an excuse to draw my cat and a lemur.
A lot of people get attached to inanimate objects, but I have a thing with getting attached to pieces of landscape. The last apartment I lived in sat on top of a hill and every morning I would cross the street and wait for the bus. While I waited for the bus I sat and looked at the house across the street, and just behind it was an amazing tree.
Since we were on a hill, the tree actually had a clear sky behind it, which was a stark contrast from the regular city view. Without even thinking about it, I became really possessive of it.
My tree and I had a bond. Everyday I would watch it, and I felt strangely proud of it.
Then, one day I went out to wait for the bus like normal, only something was different.
Out of nowhere, my tree just disappeared. I thought I would have felt it leaving, but there was no warning. It was gone.
Every day when I waited for the bus I would get angry. I developed a hatred for the owners of the house that obviously cut down my tree.
Not too long after this though, I moved. This time, I was sure to get attached to something I would be less likely to lose.
Unfortunately, I live on a large fault line, but at least I won’t have to blame my neighbors if they go missing.
At some point in high school, I got suckered into working a kids’ fair at a local elementary school. I thought this would be fun, until I remembered that I don’t really like children. Everyone was given a random assignment, and I somehow got placed at the face painting table. It at least seemed better than having to serve food or something and it gave me an excuse to yell tell the kids to not to move or talk.
I figured no one would actually want their face painted, but somehow I ended up with a kid right away. He wanted a dragon, and being impressed with his taste, I tried to make one up. I figured it would be awful and prevent any kid from wanting anything from me ever again.
Surprisingly though, it was kind of good. So good, I heard parents whisper about the mysterious dragon painter. Soon, more kids wanted the same thing. Except for one problem, I can never do the same thing twice.
Most people get better with practice, but for me every dragon after the first one was exceedingly worse. So I now just quit after my first attempt, which probably explains a lot about the quality of my drawings on this blog. And the cleanliness of my house. And my chances of winning the lottery.
