This is what's been showing up in my music list lately. Share yours? :D

This is what is appearing on my current list:

My Little Basiquiat- Cowboy Junkies
Lost- Vast
We Can't Make It Here- James McMurtry
Let Me Live- Queen (yeah, baby)
Miracles- Jefferson Starship (yes, really. It's kinda secksy. In a 70's sort of way)
Clear To You- Innocence Mission
Diablo Rojo- Rodrigo Y Gabriela
Change- Patti griffin
This Love- Kim Richey
If You Knew- Neko Case
Home- Marc Broussard (and omg, this song will make me drive off the road due to the dancing in my seat factor)
Come On, Come Out- A Fine Frenzy (my new absolutely fav indie group out of Austin)
Close Your Eyes- Grey Eye Glances
Be Here Now- Ray LaMontagne
Endless Reverie- Azam Ali
The Underdog- The Spoons
Wire- Minnie Driver (yes, THAT Minnie Driver)
Rangers- A Fine Frenzy
Who Will Take My Place- The Duhks
Special- Garbage
Give Me Strength- Over The Rhine

Yeah, I have nothing of real import to say tonight except that I'm in a MOOD, baby!

I wish I had new fic to post, but I don't. I do, however, have a loving, heartfelt, warm and LONG fucking overdue hello to my dear friend, hspaiens, whom I love like whoa. Also, I have been reading Rhiannon's amazing new QAF fics and have to admit that they have me pining for Brian and Justin like I haven't done in years! Also, my really amazing kiddo, vibrant_daphne, has finished her finals for her 1st semester of  junior year of college and I'm so proud that I'm sorta exploding all over the house, so that's kinda messy and, yeah...

Haiwhutsupwitjoo? ZOMGpleasetellmeifustillevenliveonLJ!

[ETA: I sold two more paintings today!]

When our kids are little we often say that they're, "going though a growth spurt," but we never use that term in relation to ourselves- as if the ideal of a period of rapid growth should be reserved for the sanctity of childhood.


I go through growth spurts now and then (not nearly as often as I'd like, but often enough to keep me on my toes). Like now.

I started getting fuck-it-all bored with my art and felt like I wasn't really learning anything new. I certainly wasn't creating anything new, or even worth showing to anyone. Most of what I've done in the last 6 months has ended up in the trash (and rightly so, trust me on this). Finally, I got sick of my inertia and with a stubbornness borne of a deep fear of stagnation, I started looking for art classes that I could take both online and in person.

Since I live in a tiny little town, and the Houston commute means 2 or more hours in the car, simply enrolling in a local university wasn't really a viable option. Thank god for the internet. With it I was able to find Joggles, an online retail outlet for fibers, doll-making supplies and various other hand crafts. Now, I don't do dolls and I can't sew and I don't quilt, but their online classes fascinated me, so I signed up for the "wet felting" class and tonight I made my very first tiny little deeply flawed piece of felt fabric. I had a ball. More importantly, I feel bigger, somehow, like I've (guess what?) grown a little.

In my search for more growth opportunities, I also (with deep gratitude) found a school in NC called The John C. Campbell Folk School, an adult campus retreat school that offers both week-long and weekend classes in hundreds of fascinating arts and crafts fields. The courses vary from beginner to expert and cover the range of nearly every art form I've ever wanted to learn about (and quite a few I haven't). So next year, along with my mother from whom I learned my love of hand-crafted arts, I am taking a weekend class. We don't know yet which one to choose, but even so, I can feel a serious growth spurt coming on!

I've made a deal with my husband that goes something like this: If I like this school, I'm going to go back at least once a year, if not more often, to take as many classes as I can before I die and in return, I won't claw his eyes out in boredom when the artistic muse abandons me to tan on a beach in Florida.

I told hsapiens recently about a quote that I felt had shifted the ground under my feet. The quote reads: "She knew that it was time to exceed herself." And it is.

Do I look taller to you?

YAY!!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20071012/nobel-peace/

Look what I found while prowling my HD! I don't even remember writing this, but thought I'd share it, anyway. It takes place after part 5 of The Night Walks With Us.

( the continuing adventures of two dead boys... )

.. and I'm not above feeling deep gratitude for all of it.

The speeding tickets were a pain in the ass- but I'm a better driver now.

The pool sprang a leak and cost a fortune to fix, but a very nice man with a small pool company in Houston who didn't have the time to deal with it dropped EVERYTHING he was doing to rush down to us to fix it- and did an amazing job of it.

My MIL missed half of our Caribbean vacation and I fell and did seriously fucked-up damage to my knee, but even still we had the vacation of a lifetime and to this day, we miss the warmth and generosity of the Bahamians, the beauty of the beaches and the serenity of a place blessed with both. And we forced a full afternoon out of our time in NJ to go over to PA and see my dad, where we had so much fun that we've already promised him we'll be back in the spring to take him to his favorite place- Atlantic City- to play the slots. I can't wait!

My knees are healing and I can walk. That alone is a blessing.

Megan is a resilient and resourceful young lady who is a tremendous comfort to me and her daddy, even though she's going through something no one her age shoudl have to face. She starts her junior year of college on Monday morning. Go, Megan!!

And the creepazoid who is peeping in our windows will find it more difficult because everyone on this end of the street has banded together to light the place up like a fucking Christmas tree. He'll never sneak up on us again without risking having every minute feature on his ugly face seen and reported in detail to the police.

Beyond all that, this is also what I did on my summer vacation-

- Sold three paintings in an art show set up for me by my sweetheart friend, .
- Paid for both junior and senior years of college for my daughter by the amazing timing of a single stock sale.
- Made a pact with my mother to never assume again that we're too busy to spend time with each other.
- Prepared a piece of art that I'm going to submit on spec to the magazine Cloth Paper Scissors.
- Spent a lot of time soul-searching, which can be neither a bad thing, nor a waste of time.
- Remembered once again how much I love my husband, and how lucky I am to have such an amazing kid.
- Relied upon, and been bolstered and loved by, a congregation of LJ friends who care despite the fact that we may never meet in person.

THANK YOU, EVERYONE!

Have you ever read a piece of fanfiction and thought, "Why?!? Why would you bother to even write this??"?

Ummmm... I have.