The Week in Review

A full week resets itself today.

Monday, Dave and I had dinner with my mother since we couldn't get together on her birthday on Tuesday. We went to Mimi's Cafe and had some good food (served by the most incompetent but well-meaning, sincere waitress). It also snowed, believe it or not. Our first snow of the year (I think), and it was all gone by the next morning.

I had a harrowing therapy session on Wednesday. I'm digging deep with this particular therapist and thankfully she's not responding with the awful, surface-scratching, feel-good, easy-fix garbage that a few of the other therapists I've been to have offered up. My stuff is not an easy fix and it's nice to have an acknowledgment of that. There's still a lot of work to be done.

After therapy, I was a washed out, jumbled mess, so I called Dave to ask him to pick me up on his way home from work because I wasn't up to driving myself home even. We ended up going out to dinner, BBQ from Rudy's, then we ran a few errands before doubling back to get the car from the therapist's office.

Thursday I skipped class and stayed in bed. This was unfortunate as it was an exam day (I knew ahead of time), so I had emailed my instructor to ask about a makeup exam (which I'll take on Tuesday). I think it's perfectly fair to take mental health issues as seriously as physical health issues, so I decided that a day of rest was in order.

Friday we went out to dinner with one of Dave's old co-workers, Glen, and Glen's wife Kathleen. They're fun and interesting to talk to. Glen is a guitarist of the serious hobbyist sort, and he told us a story about buying (or not buying) bass guitars that I like very much. The story was: He was looking for a very special bass and found one, a handmade thing that was going to cost thousands. Since it was such a one-of-a-kind guitar and expensive, Glen was doing his due diligence and he looked online for its history to find out more. What he found was that the shop he was buying from had taken the guitar on commission from a man who was under indictment for rape or attempted rape of a child, so Glen immediately called the shop and backed out of the sale. The shop owner was kind of pissed off since Glen's interest had been so intense and at least initially Glen offered him no reason for backing out of the potential sale.  Finally Glen, when pressed repeated for a reason, told the shop owner that he wouldn't buy the guitar because he didn't want to bring that kind of energy into his music or into his home or life.

How amazing! I really respect that actually.  A lot of people wouldn't think that that matters, but it does.

Saturday we went out and did a few things, including lunch at our favorite Japanese restaurant followed by sitting in a coffee shop and studying for awhile (which I'll have to do more of this afternoon). We also went by the book store. Dave wanted to pick up volumes two and three of a trilogy he'd just finished book one of and I bought Joanna Lumley's autobiography, a book of photographs of burlesque dancers from the 40s and 50s to use as models for calavera sculptures, and a copy of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (since I've been doing a lot of drawing and sketching recently). We also went to the art supply store so that I could buy a bag full of more acrylic paints (Kelly's gift of art supplies sparked a bigger fire), inks, and blank sketch and multimedia books.

I'm working in four art journals and sketch books right now. I have one that is strictly for drawing with pencil and conte crayon. I have an art journal that is mostly paint and collage and writing. I have a magazine journal (a National Geographic magazine turned into a palimpsestic journal with paint and collage). I have a third "desk" journal that is scraps that don't fit into other journals and leftover bits of paint that gets squeezed out but not used in other places. That's a fun one.

In among all that, I've been working steadily at SuperBetter.com, doing the daily tasks there to help alleviate depression.

Today's plan is lunch followed by more study, errand running (we need food and a stockpot to prepare for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday) and, in the evening, some art journaling. A full day!