Muddling Through It All

Poppies, 2006, Oil on Panel, 12x12











I know I keep saying how busy I am but this time, really, I am so unbearably busy that I think I may explode. I feel like everything is in a haze and that I am missing things, which I probably am. I really shouldn't be writing a post today because I have so much to do and limited energy with which to do it, but I feel compelled to document my schedule, instead of just floating through things like I usually do. So at the risk of being really boring, here goes.

We are nearing the end of our "birthday season". Starting on the summer solstice, we have a kid's birthday every week for three weeks, obviously due to very poor planning on our part. We have one more to go this week and I feel as if I might vomit if I have to look at another birthday cake, although I suspect that I will manage to choke down at least one more slice. Normally the girls get their own party on alternate years (our son isn't interested in one, too cool, now) but somehow, last year we got off track and they agreed to have a double party this year. We had planned to have it at a local roller skating rink, complete with a spinning mirror ball and the timeless limbo contest on roller skates, but flooding and a low number of rsvp's (because of summer vacation) forced us to scrap that plan. So on Friday we decided to have the party at our house on Saturday. It morphed into a potluck BBQ that included everyone's families, so we had about 35 people here. I spent all day Saturday preparing, cleaning, cooking and putting together some activities for the girls. My son did a fabulous job organizing and setting up a really creative treasure hunt, and the kids then spent the rest of the evening filling about 500 water balloons and having the mother of all water balloon fights. Based on how crabby the kids and we were the next day I think it was a good party.

Sunday morning was spent finishing up the last few things in the henhouse and then getting the chickens into their new home. The fenced yard still needs to be built so they can get outside and the exterior needs to be scraped and painted. But they really needed to get our of their cramped brooders so we went ahead and put them in. Sunday afternoon we left to go to see our first summer concert, Phil Lesh and Friends. It was quite an experience, but it really merits its own post which I will try to get to later this week. Let's just say that if you miss the sixties and you'd like to get a contact high from the college kids in the seats next to you, who are young enough to be your children, all you have to do is go to any concert by any of the former Grateful Dead band members.

Doug and I got home at 2:30am and had to get up at seven to get the kids off to their activities, so both of us are zombie-ish today and of course, today is the worst schedule wise. I didn't have time on Friday to do some underpaintings for this week's work. I can't even remember why I didn't have time, I know I was busy all day, but last Friday seems as if it were weeks ago and I don't specifically remember why I didn't work in the studio. Anyway, I have to do them today or my schedule will really be screwed. I have to pack up a box of paintings to send to Thomas Deans Gallery in Atlanta. I have been trying to send them new work for several months and things keep happening to prevent me from getting to it. I don't have a big enough box or I need to ok the images with the gallery director, etc, etc. But today is the day, however, it may actually end up being Wednesday (here we go again) since I think I need to frame up a couple of the pieces I am sending them AND I DIDN"T HAVE TIME OVER THE WEEKEND BECAUSE OF BIRTHDAY PARTIES, CONCERTS AND CHICKENS. I also have to send off the list of paintings for an auction event in Saratoga Springs, I have been meaning to send that off for a few weeks too but I wanted to add more piece, which I haven't done yet and, um, well I guess I need to do that today too. I have to pick up the kids around three so my workday will either be cut short or interrupted at the very least. Doug is busy too, he has to work on our patio, start building the chicken run and has to go and pick up a gift for our daughter whose birthday is on Wednesday and is thankfully our last birthday until October. Thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God, thank god, thank God.

Tuesday I have to work in the studio and then we have the Paul Simon concert to go to. Wednesday, more studio time, baking a birthday cake and wrapping presents and then a family birthday dinner. Thursday and Friday, more studio time and I also have to start getting the kid's things together for their overnight scout camps next week. In a rare stroke of luck, they will all be off to camp for 6 blissful (for us not them, they will be peeing into holes in the woods and catching their own food) days. But the price I pay for bliss is having to spend days washing clothes, labeling everything and packing up everything neatly, so that on the other end I can get back a duffel bag filled with a pile of wet and moldy clothes, in order to spend a few more days doing laundry. Everything is a trade off, I guess.

On Saturday, I will be running an art activity booth at a local festival (again, this event needs its own post) and on Sunday we have to deliver the kids to their camps.

But starting next Monday, I will get four days of deja vu. I can work all day in the studio and into the night if want (oops, forgot that I am 41 now and probably can't work for 12 hours without slicing off a finger with an exacto or something). Well, anyway, no chauffering, no cooking dinners that no one will eat and I may even sleep past 6am a few times.

Or maybe I'll sit on the porch and just do nothing. I wish.