Just Jot It January - 2019

Well, I'm here to testify that the last few weeks have been pretty crazy. January started off fairly quietly with my husband and my daughter out of the house and me having the place to myself.  I should have been smart enough to try to get ahead by prepping some posts so that when the month really got going I'd be ahead of the game but you know I'm kinda slow on the uptake sometimes.

I've written that I am juggling lots of transcription work right now and that's a good thing because we just got word that the dirty (relatively speaking) part of the construction is going to start on our shed.  They are scheduled to come out tomorrow to do the foundation forming and laying the concrete.  Of course, right now it is raining so if they are still able to do it, muddy might be a better word.

The whole reason for the shed is that our son will be moving back home for a while.  It is so difficulty to live on your own nowadays, especially where we live.  He has been living with some friends for about 2-1/2 years now and I know that coming home is going to be a transition for him - the whole, "our house, our rules" kinda thing.  I'm sure he wishes he could live in the shed but that would have required a different set of permits and a much higher cost so that's why I'm moving my craft room out there.  I think I'm going to have a bit more room than this.  Maybe I'll need to get more stuff to fill it - LOL not!

My one-liner is: 

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it and join the dance."  Alan W. Watts

Mr. Watts sounds like a smart guy.  To help keep me dancing through it all, during the month of February I'm going to be taking a class with Jamie Ridler called Awakening.  Awakening is a way to bring dance into your daily life.  Jamie is such a great creative coach and I have taken a lot of her offerings, like the Vision Cards I make at the beginning of each year.  She is always coming up with new and fun things to do.

The last prompt for #JusJoJan is to share your favorite part of last month or last year.  I'm taking that to mean the month of January, not December.  My favorite part of last month is that my picture was the first entry into Jamie's Winter Bulletin Board Art Invitational and so it gets to be in her video every Tuesday and Friday:

The theme is neighborhood and this is what I see when I look out our front window - minus the snow.  I made it using stamps and coloring them in and some stickers.  The train above the houses is really what I see since they elevated the platform a few years ago.  You can see that in the video I shared about the holiday train.

And that's the end of Just Jot It January.  I know I cheated a bit with the last two posts by cramming more than one prompt in but overall I think I made it work.  I know that February is going to bring a few new experiences and you know I'll share!

Thanks to Linda G. Hill for hosting all month.  She's had some trials of her own going on.






 

Just Jot It January - 2019 The Missing Days

Wow!  It's been a whole week since I posted.  Can you hear the echo in the silence?   I know your curiosity is piqued because I had been posting every day since the beginning of January as part of the Just Jot It group.  What could possibly be taking me away from the blogosphere?

I even had the best quote for One-Liner Wednesday - "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...it's about learning to Dance in the rain.

But no, instead of being able to post daily and play along with all of you, I'm doing the zoomie dance trying to keep a balance between a transcription job in an actual office and keeping up with my regular transcription work that I do from home.  This office job is very hush-hush.  It is dealing with medical issues so there is a lot of privacy protection going on.  I am in a locked room that only two other people have access to and I am there doing my work from about 10 to 2:30 or 3 every day.  In addition to the part about actually having to get dressed to go into an office to work, I am also having to learn to work ON A PC!  I am a Mac person for a reason and there was definitely a learning curve for me.  Word should be Word no matter what but it isn't.  Saving a file should be saving a file but it isn't.  Yikes!!  Plus, there is no internet access on this computer either.  They don't want me to be able to connect with the outside and reveal medical information.  I had to have a background check and sign confidentiality agreements before I even started.  I would say it's like working for the government but...

I came home from work the first couple of days so exhausted that all I could do was sit on the couch and color while I watched mind numbing TV.  The Escapist Coloring Club will be so proud!

My husband has been really great at getting dinner going and keeping up with the dishes and such.  Fortunately we have the Home Chef deliveries to help.  I just keep thinking about this:

and how nice it is going to look here:

Jim, our guest host for the #SLS game has given us a few prompts in advance so that made it a little easier to get this done in time.  Today's prompt is "No" and I've gone with a song from Steve Perry's new CD, Traces, called "No Erasin'."  The songs on this album are not like the ones you are used to hearing him sing with Journey or even his solo albums.  This is one of my favorites.

No Erasin'

Steve Perry

I know it's been a long time comin'
Since I saw your face
It's been so long since we're together
In the back seat of your car

Ooh, oh
You used to be my girl
Hold me close 'cause I remember
How could I forget

No erasin'
I've felt this once before
No erasin'
No runnin' anymore
My soul's burnin'
Just like it was before
No erasin'
Our love just won't let go
Oh

Summer nights in sweet surrender
Underneath the stars
One more time we're here together
In the back seat of your car

You used to be my girl
Hold me close 'cause I remember
How could I forget

No erasin'
I've felt this once before
No erasin'
No runnin' anymore
My soul's burnin'
Just like it was before
No erasin'
Our love just won't let go
Oh

Told you of my love today
Rain comin' down
You laughed with me and sheltered me and
(Turned me on)
You won't see me, you won't see how
(You done me wrong)
You done me wrong, and you won't try

No erasin'
I felt this once before
No erasin'
No runnin' anymore
My soul's burnin'
Just like it was before
No erasin'
This love won't let go

I told you of my love today
Rain comin' down
You laughed with me and sheltered me and
Turned me on

Songwriters: Steve Perry / David Spreng

No Erasin' lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

The story Steve shares is that he had a brief but intense relationship with a woman who died from cancer.  She made him promise not to give up his singing after she died.  Most of the songs on the CD sound like songs written to her and/or about her and their love.  A few are a little too intense for me but knowing that he would probably sing some of his earlier hits, I would see him in concert for sure if he decides to tour.

Oh, and I was really sad that I missed the eclipse - it was too cloudy and I forgot anyway - but I did manage to catch the full moon on Monday:

This is what it looked like the next morning!

Well, that felt really cathartic!  Yes, I did just use today's prompt from Enthralling Journey for the Just Jot It January gang.  I managed to get every prompt from the week of challenges in one post.  Now, I know that technically posting like that is not really "following the rules" because I'm supposed to be jotting every day but after spending so much time at the computer during the day, I have to step away for a while.  I'm not even getting any crafting done!  It is almost February and I haven't made anything new to sell on the Etsy site! Here is a cute Love Coupon box I made last year:




What have you been up to?  Did you miss me?  Even notice I wasn't around?  I did try to read some of my blogging friends' posts but most of them I was just able to "like" not comment on.  Sorry!  I'm going to do my best to finish out the month on time.  I do kind of like John's idea.  He wonders why they didn't take a day from January and a day from March and give it to February so they would all have 30 days?  Brilliant!

Just Jot It January - 2019 - Song Lyric Sunday

Today's prompt from Mary by way of Jim, covering for Helen in the Song Lyric Sunday experience is Crying/sadness.

Decided to go with this from Prince.  I know there was a lot of crying and sadness when he passed.

When Doves Cry

Prince, The Revolution

Dig if you will the picture
Of you and I engaged in a kiss
The sweat of your body covers me
Can you my darling
Can you picture this?

Dream, if you can, a courtyard
An ocean of violets in bloom
Animals strike curious poses
They feel the heat
The heat between me and you

How can you just leave me standing?
Alone in a world that's so cold (so cold)
Maybe I'm just too demanding
Maybe I'm just like my father, too bold
Maybe you're just like my mother
She's never satisfied (she's never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other?
This is what it sounds like 
When doves cry

Touch if you will my stomach
Feel how it trembles inside
You've got the butterflies all tied up
Don't make me chase you
Even doves have pride

How could you just leave me standing?
Alone in a world so cold? (world so cold)
Maybe I'm just too demanding
Maybe I'm just like my father, too bold
Maybe you're just like my mother
She's never satisfied (she's never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other?
This is what it sounds like 
When doves cry

How can you just leave me standing?
Alone in a world that's so cold? (a world that's so cold)
Maybe I'm just too demanding (maybe, maybe I'm like my father)
Maybe I'm just like my father too bold (you know he's too bold)
Maybe you're just like my mother (maybe you're just like my mother)
She's never satisfied (she's never, never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other? (why do we scream, why)
This is what it sounds like 
When doves cry
When doves cry (doves cry, doves cry)
When doves cry (doves cry, doves cry)

Don't cry (don't cry)

Songwriters: Prince Rogers Nelson

When Doves Cry lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management

I've mentioned that we were able to see Prince once and it was a serendipitous event because I just happened to see that he was coming to a venue near us and was able to grab some tickets even though it was only two or three days away.  I've heard that sometimes he did things that way, not announcing where he was going to be performing until the last minute.  At any rate, now that he is gone, I am really glad we went. 

They told us as we went into the show that ABSOLUTELY NO PICTURES were going to be allowed but I managed to sneak a few.  Yes, this is the only time I am known to be "breaking the law," when I sneak pictures.  I am not obnoxious about it and truthfully some of the pictures aren't even that good but there are a few that I consider special:

And a couple of the scrapbook pages I made about it:

 


Loved the movie Purple Rain.  I watched it while I was at home recuperating from jaw surgery.  Here's the video:

Glad that I managed to combine both prompts today. Love when it is serendipitous that way!  Serendipitous is the word suggested by Jill to Linda for #JusJoJan.   


Happy Sunday folks!

Just Jot It January - 2019 Stream of Consciousness Saturday - Television

Our prompt today is "Television." 

I remember when I was young being able to stay at my girlfriend's house on a Sunday night and watching Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color because they had a color TV and we didn't. 

It was a big deal to me because Liz and I would sit and watch those great shows and then I'd get to walk home by myself, just like a grown up.  I was about 9 or 10.  Those were the good old days!  I wrote another post about it here.   Happy Saturday!

Just Jot It January - 2019 - Inch

Thanks to John at the Sound of One Hand Typing our prompt today for #JusJoJan is "Inch."  Leave it to him to pick something to do with measurement or numbers.  The first thing that came to my mind is the old classic routine, "Slowly I turned.  Step by step.  Inch by Inch"  Abbott and Costello do it but I like the Lucy one.

Come to think of it, John is so good with his vintage commercials and old television shows, he may pick this too.  If he does, great minds think alike, huh?

I am trying to keep afloat this week literally because it is raining cats and dogs right now with really gale winds AND because this week I started a temporary transcription job working outside my home in an actual office!  I haven't stopped doing any of my regular typing either so it is early mornings and late nights for me.  The thing that is keeping me going is the vision of my shed that will be built in the backyard as soon as we get the permit and the rain stops!  Happy Thursday!

Just Jot It January - 2019 and One-Liner Wednesday

Today is One-Liner Wednesday in #JusJoJan and I'm keeping with my dancing theme.


We can't always choose the music life plays for us, but we can choose how we dance to it. 





Looks a little like me, doesn't she?  Happy Wednesday!

Just Jot It January - 2019 - Reflection

Today's #JusJoJan prompt is "Reflection" as suggested by the lovely Janet...wait, that's ME!  I almost forgot about it and then I started seeing all these pingbacks in my emails.  Yikes!

Reflection can be taken many ways and even I wasn't sure where I was going with it but then I remembered this art journaling project I did last year.  The exercise was called "The Face In The Mirror.    

I'd been going through some of those "I wish I was still in my twenties" feelings and I happened to come across this picture.  

It was taken at a Western Themed party we had given and I was a saloon girl. Those were my wild and crazy days.  I am about 26 or so.  

To make me "feel better" I tried to recreate the image in the present day.  That didn't really make me feel all that better.

I realize it is kind of impossible to look like that anymore because I've had surgery on my mouth to correct a TMJ problem, I'm 30 years older give or take and have had three kids.  I decided to take a multiple reflection photo and when I looked at the picture that came out, it seemed to me that the deeper in the mirror the reflection went, the younger I looked!

Here's the journal page I wrote about it.  

I reflected on the fact that even though the younger version of me looks happy, I had just gone through a divorce and was wondering if I would ever really find my Mr. Right.  The older version has a happy marriage and 3 great kids, so "looks" can be deceiving.   

Coincidentally, we were visiting my daughter and in the backyard of the house she was renting while at college there was this rose.  I think it looks just like the one in my hair. 

Thanks to all who played along with my prompt today.  It has been fun reading what every one else did with the word.  

Just Jot It January - 2019 and Song Lyric Sunday

Today's #JusJoJan is "Undiscovered" suggested by Theresa.  Thanks!  For the #SLS prompt, we have "Laughing."  suggested by Paula Light. Thanks to Jim for another guest hosting week.  Helen, hope you are getting better!

I really have been enjoying the Song Lyric Sundays because I have found some previously by me "undiscovered" music, whether it be songs, singers or groups that I had not heard of before.  Some I could do without but some have prompted me to make visits to our local library so that I can get CDs to download to my iTunes collection. 

For my entry this week I've chosen a song by Bill Withers:

The Same Love That Made Me Laugh

The Same Love That Made Me Laugh

Bill Withers

Your love is like a a chunk of gold
Hard to gain, and hard to hold

Like a rose that's soft to touch
Love has gone, and it hurts so much

Well and Why
Must the same love that made me laugh
Make me cry?

Well now you think of love as sitting on a mountain
Think of it as being a great big rock
Won't you think before you started to roll it down
Because once you start it, you can't make it stop

I've given all I have to give
And if you don't want me
I don't want to live

Well and Why
Must the same love that made me laugh
Why you want to make me cry? 
Why you want to make me cry?
Why you want to make me cry?
Why you want to make me cry?
Why you want to make me cry?

Why you want to make me lay in my pillow
Just cryin' like a weeping willow

Why you want to make me cry? 
Why you want to make me cry?
Why you want to make me cry?
Why you want to make me cry?

Why you want to make me mess in my pillow
I'm just cryin' like a weeping willow

Why you want to make me cry? 
Why you want to make me cry?
Why you want to make me cry?

Songwriters: Bill Withers

The Same Love That Made Me Laugh lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Love the beat and of course love does make us laugh and cry, doesn't it? 

All caught up!  Hope you are having  great weekend.  We are a bit sad because the Dallas Cowboys lost in the playoffs yesterday but that's just another example of love making us cry, right?  (Well, love might be an intense word to use describing a football team but you get my drift).  Is your team still in it? 

Just Jot It January - 2019 #SoCS - Art

Now I am 2 days behind so there may be a flurry of posts from me!  I missed the #JusJoJan for Thursday, which was "flew/flu/flue.  I started a new temporary job where I actually have to go to an office and work rather than doing the work from home.  The day "flew" by and it made me realize that I am going to have to figure out a new routine if I want to get everything done.

It is a medical transcription job and because of the confidentiality issues, I am in a locked room all by myself.  When I got there, the temperature in the room was sub-freezing (or seemed that way) and the coordinator I am working with had gotten a space heater for the floor beside my desk.  I was slightly prepared since the last time I had been in this office it was cold so I wore warm clothes and a scarf but I had to keep putting my hands down in front of the heater in order to be able to type.  I hope I don't get the "flu" from working there.

Sadly, the house we bought has no chimney so I have no "flue."  We did when I was growing up and in the house we rented before this one.  I loved a good fire on a wintery day.

Saturday's Just Jot It January and Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt is "Art."  We have some pictures on our wall but not very much "art."  My favorite piece is the caricature that my husband and I had done on the occasion of our 30th anniversary:

My husband thinks his face is too fat.  I think I look just like my depiction.  The kids say it doesn't look like him because he is smiling - LOL.  He is my knight in shining armor.

What I'd really like to talk about though is Art Journaling.  A few years ago I took a class from Sara Naumann called "Kick Start Art Journaling" and had a lot of fun with the different exercises.  Here are some of them:

The first one was to pick an imaginary mentor.  I chose Stevie Nicks.

Another on was to find your favorite book and pick some words and then do word associations.  I chose the book "Little Women."

With the end of the exercise to make a poem with the words.  My poem: 



Almost always pleasant reveries
of jolly days gone by...
yet once in a while
a sad lament
for jolly days gone by.   

I've taken other Art Journaling classes as well with Liz Lamoreux and I always am amazed at the things I discover just by putting some words and pictures together.  

I still have a two lessons to finish.  The next one is music and since Dance is my word for this year, I'm going to try to make time to get that one done too. 

What do you think of my poem?  Ever try Art Journaling?  These classes are great ones to get started with if it interests you.