I've started making an effort to update the artwork on my website. Two main reasons: First, I've rediscovered my love of oil pastels in the last few months. Second, I'm inspired by looking at Bill Count's Picture of the Week. ("The Hall" was just pure inspiration. I was moved). I have had some personal success with Kilz, but otherwise, the art of painting has always seemed just beyond my grasp. Oil pastels, on the other hand, offer immediate gratification for minimal effort.

Less and Less Weird

A few years back I took an online test (http://www.innergeek.us/geek-test.html). I scored less than 14% which put me in the category of "Geekish Tendencies". I only took the test because I seemed to have an increasing number of geeky friends, and was curious if maybe I had an "inner geek" waiting to get out. I was happy with the results and thought myself safe.

So, then...I married Phillip and he's slowly been rubbing off on me. I bring this up, because last night we went out together on a little date. Were did we go? To the midnight event at EB Games where we picked up our pre-ordered copies of the World of Warcraft Expansion "The Burning Crusade". Yes, not only did we pre-order our copies to be sure to get them, but we also picked them up the moment they became officially available - at 12:01 on January 16th. What has he done to me?!

The store was crowded with people standing in line and staff members trying to upsell WoW t-shirts and patches. (where would you put one?) There were 150 orders at this little store, and they were talking about another store down in Murfreesboro that had 500. Almost everyone there fit the "gamer" stereotype, talking intently about the impending changes to WoW. Will the servers all crash? What's going to happen to the big raiding guilds? And the ever-present question: "Horde or Alliance?" We tried to avoid making eye contact, but Phillip still ended up in some oddly serious conversations. The strange thing was, it all made perfect sense to me. I mean, I did have the irresistible desire to giggle at the absurdities of grown men (and a few women) waiting so anxiously in the middle of the night for a game where cow-like characters slay dragons, but honestly I could relate to almost everything they said.

So, anyway, here's a picture of my WoW avatar, Elemi, the undead priestess. I still don't see myself as a geek, really, but I'm trying to be more comfortable admitting I have "tendencies". I think coming out of a traumatic junior and high school experience, I worked so hard for so many years to be someone that you couldn't laugh at, that sometimes I have a hard time being real about who I am. I have a hard time laughing at myself and my own absurdities. So, here it is. The full truth. Phillip and I are taking a 3-day weekend just to play this game. Am I proud? Not exactly. Did I buy a t-shirt to wear around town? No way! But I am looking forward to spending time with my husband doing something we both enjoy.

LAST CHANCE FOR SOCKS

Last night I finished what seemed an impossible task. I got all of the clothes in the apartment clean at the same time. (Other than what we were wearing, of course.) This probably doesn't seem like a big deal, but Phillip and I are both slobs, and we've been working full time and traveling most weekends lately. Inspired as I was by this accomplishment, I decided to do something even more thrilling: tackle the sock drawer.

I had three drawers of socks. Single, un-mated socks. I should have done something years ago about the socks, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it for several reasons. One reason is, of course, I can't always mate the socks because they aren't all clean. Another reason is actually an important flaw in my personality. I don't begin tasks that seem impossible or are unlikely to have the ideal outcome. I'm a perfectionist despite my slovenly ways. If I can't do something right, I often just don't do it. This is true of artistic projects as well. My idea of cleaning up the house is often starting in the back of a closet to reorganize it. Its very self-defeating.

Over the last few years I have tried to change the goals to be more reasonable and achievable. Smaller goals seemed to help, but I was still struggling. Finally, I decided to abandon my goals altogether. Sometime last year, I really started living without goals. Its complete freedom. I have already accomplished so much because I have no expectations for what I should accomplish! I sit down to do some sketches without having to first mentally berate myself because I don't sketch enough. I wash three dishes in the sink because I feel like it at the moment, without being discouraged about the moldy food in the fridge. It isn't perfect yet, but it is an enormous improvement.

So, the socks. I never wanted to face the socks because I knew that so many of them had been with me for so many years yet had no mates, and it was a senseless, sad thing. It was a failure of sorts. I know its a common problem, but I really had a difficult time with it. Last night, I piled all of the clean socks on the bed after looking under the couch, under the bed, in every drawer and corner of our living space. I gave them one shot to find a mate. Then I moved on.

Our Anniversary

New Year's Eve is our anniversary, so to celebrate, we're trying to go somewhere new and beautiful every year. We spent our first one at the Grand Canyon, but this year we were on a budget, so we opted for Ruby Falls in Lookout Mountain, GA. Kinda silly and touristy (okay, no "kinda" about it) but we had fun anyway. I decided to do a quick and easy slide show in flash for the few photos that turned out.