02.26.10

1. A lazy morning.
2. My free facial at Aveda: nice anyway, but they shortened the time and gave us $25 gift cards too. That's almost two free haircuts' worth!
3. Metallic DMC floss. I just decided to buy pretty much every color.
4. I managed to cook sausage, make Creole seasoning, get my red beans cooking, wash up most of the mess from doing that so quickly and then get showered and dressed in less than an hour.
5. Rich and Regan Golden's artist talk at Bethel. The best of the three I saw this week.
6. A nice chat with Raina after the talk.
7. Kramarczuk andouille sausage.
8. Finishing "Risk" at 12:30 AM.
9. Repulsion (the Polanski film). Still not done it, though I realized I'd seen it before... it is SO strange. Catherine Deneuve really played a lot of bizarre roles when she was young.
10. Sleeping till 8:30 this morning! Going to bed at 2:45 will do that to you.
Wait, 11. Jerry is here! I love having visitors. It happens so rarely here, not like when I lived in DC and NOLA...

02.25.10

1. A pumpernickel bagel, my current favorite breakfast.
2. A third cup of Yorkshire tea. I needed the extra caffeine for a long work day!
3. Fresh Air podcasts.
4. Car Talk podcasts.
5. Finishing a few minutes early on all three jobs today.
6. My lovely client Heather, for dropping off my iPod dock that I left at her house.
7. Being able to go to so many artist talks and events this week; even the less fascinating ones are good things.
8. A good solid ninety minutes of embroidering. I certainly picked a slow technique to work on... at least it doesn't require a lot of set up time!
9. Delving through a crazy ziploc of old bags of spices in search of ones for my red beans, and deciding to just get rid of all of the unidentifiable ones. Sorting and trashing can feel good.
10. A documentary about Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader made me think fondly of two artists I visited in Amsterdam years ago, Jan Voss (from Iceland) and Hettie Van Egten (German). Their sensibilities seemed to fit with his somehow.

02.24.10

1. Tea, delicious tea!
2. Working quickly and efficiently. If I can get done a little early I almost feel like I'm getting paid better per hour.
3. A good DBT class.
4. Learning from a mistake.
5. Learning which things are mistakes and which are not (Thanks, Alex!).
6. A fat Vogue to read on the treadmill at the Y.
7. A feeling of satisfaction from putting away piles of CDs and papers and other crap.
8. A Lift Bridge Farm Girl Saison.
9. My lunch sandwich for dinner instead.
10. Getting sleepy reading "The Space Between Buildings."

02.24.101.

02.23.10

1. Still loving my morning mug of Yorkshire tea.
2. And my turkey-havarti-granny smith sandwich for lunch.
3. And ginger chews.
4. The days are noticeably longer.
5. An oddly shaped partial moon hanging at a strange angle in the early afternoon sky.
6. A nice chat with Tyson about Macbeth.
7. Fresh asparagus.
8. Netflix.
9. Traction.
10. An odd sense of relief as I lay awake last night, like the past few weeks of struggling in my mind had come to an end.

02.24.10

1. A good night's sleep Sunday and a decent one last night; I almost feel caught up.
2. I turned a near-disaster to my Two Bettys schedule for the day into an unexpected studio afternoon.
3. The "i" is almost done.
4. A good walk and mini yoga session at the Y.
5. Good people watching and schmoozing at Andrea's talk at Chambers.
6. A pleasant chat with Cara's son Drew. What a nice kid (no surprise).
7. I'm going to show my embroideries to Diane Mullin soon for possible inclusion in an upcoming Weisman Museum show. I'd planned to ask for a studio visit just for feedback, but this is even better!
8. A lovely dinner of spring rolls and tea at Jasmine 26.
9. Nice conversation there with Pam, Allen, Roxanne and Chris.
10. Another hot bath to make me chill out. It works.

02.21.10

1.I actually went out in the cold morning air and photographed graffiti with a "real" (not point and shoot) camera.
2. The awkwardness and frustration of that camera makes me more and more sure that this project should be shot digitally.
3. Neal's room is empty and ready for guests, junk sorting (for teh planedd excavation of my stuffio) and someday... a new housemate.
4. The "R" is done.
5. A lovely sunny afternoon walk.
6. A snack of Mexican Japanese peanuts, chocolate chip cookies and tea.
7. Seeing Macbeth with Rich and learning a bit more from a chat afterwards about what makes for good theater, though I still think I've never seen any, really.
8. A long hot lavender bath.
9. My traction machine.
10. An early and long night's sleep: one good thing about insomnia is the easy sleep the following night!

02.20.10

1. Linda B.
2. Laura M.
3. Linda G.
4. Kristine H.
5. Lori E.
6. Vivienne M.
7. Nancy J.
8. Terry G.
9. Cate V.
10. Keri P.

02.19.10

1. Digging myself out of some really bad morning terrors pretty quickly.
2. My Anoka-Ramsey job interview went well (I think!).
3. My second visit with Maren was productive.
4. Decision made after much dawdling: the next embroidery will be "Risk" on teal silk with silver metallic in chain stitch.
5. I finished the transfer tracing for the above.
6. An impromptu get-together with Lynette.
6. The yummy dinner I whipped up from leftovers and Mercado items, which she just loved.
7. Watching the Winter Olympics and knitting for a couple hours at Lynette's.
8. A lovely late visit with Rich.
9. Learning how iTunes DJ works.
10. Falling asleep with no drugs, herbs, nada.

02.18.10

1. This list needed a header: things I am good at, because I haven't been thinking of enough of them lately. So: embroidery!
2. Photography.
3. Remembering, mixing and combining colors.
4. Writing.
5. Talking!!!
6. Connecting people with one another and with resources and information.
7. Organizing parties and events.
8. Gardening.
9. Mix tapes!
10. Promoting an organization or cause I believe in.

02.17.10

1. The low vibration of Max's purr: a sound that you can really feel.
2. The sweet/bitter flavor of strong black tea with sugar.
3. The cool smooth whiteness of porcelain.
4. An intense, purply blue cloudless sky.
5. Creamy spicy coconut curry.
6. More sweet/bitter: A Surly Furious. Tastes like flowers, I still say.
7. The enveloping sensation of live music.
8. The movement of bodies lightly dancing near me.
9. A tiny bit of sweat from holding hands.
10. A wet slippery kiss.

02.16.10

1. 90 posts! Plus about a month's worth that went out in emails and such. A lot of good.
2. High marks from the sleep doctor for my past three weeks.
3. Apparently the occasional night of no sleep like last night is not unusual; I had a pretty decent day in spite of it.
4. Eve's house is easy to clean.
5. An excellent acupuncture session.
6. A good but emotional Cara session.
7. MP3s of "New Toy," "Pump Up the Volume" and "World Destruction" from Alex.
8. Seeing Dorothy for the first time in months and months.
9. Linda Gammell's interesting and meandering talk at MPC.
10. A helpful chat with Morgan.

02.15.10

1. Noticeably more sunlight!
2. Two new roommate inquiries.
3. My client Tara.
4. A good yoga class.
5. A long walk on the treadmill with an old Vogue magazine to read.
6. A nice letter from Tracy. She loved my birthday gifts.
7. Peanuts in the shell.
8. A pleasant short chat with Alex.
9. Max curling up next to me right now.
10. Calming down enough from a big upset to try to go to sleep, right now.

02.14.10

1. Enjoying a slow morning at Eliot and Kelly's.
2. Getting Eva to drink some hot tea for her cough.
3. Lots of new music from Eliot.
5. Disco dancing with Eva.
5. An easy drive across I-80 to Ames.
6. Seeing Ivon for the first time in 15 years and feeling really natural catching up just a teeny bit.
7. Super yummy bacon on a BLT.
8. Almost forgetting it was Valentine's Day.
9. The iPod. How did I take road trips without it?
10. Getting home safely after some pretty treacherous driving on I-35. Dozens of cars "in the ditch."

02.13.10

1. Helping Eliot take Eva to the doctor. Apparently she behaved well with the extra motivation of my company.
2. A delicious salt bagel with cream cheese.
3. A relaxing, lazy afternoon.
4. Showing Eva photos of pink cows and poodles and clowns.
5. I managed to tie in all the loose ends of the scarf I've been knitting for months. It's almost ready to felt.
6. Peanuts in the shell.
7. Hanging out with Eliot and Jerry listening to weird old music and looking at the titles of porn TV shows on the digital TV. Our favorite: "Horat."
8. Laughing so hard I nearly cried. This happens often with Eliot.
9. Gabbing with Eliot until 2 AM.
10. Falling asleep easily and only waking up once.

02.12.10

1. Getting out the door and out of town without much fuss.
2. Deciding spur of the moment to stop and see the John Gossage show at Rochester Art Center.
3. Chatting with Kris Douglas and hearing stories about Gossage, the project, and the newspaper-insert catalogue (which I then bought, of course!).
4. The expanse of snowy flatness across northern Iowa.
5. The way the sun looks like a yellow white disc through low winter clouds.
6. Traveling down Highway 63 and enjoying remembering landmarks from driving that route years ago.
7. The old empty house I photographed in about 1998 in Lourdes, Iowa, which is still standing.
8. Pizza and a Grain Belt for dinner with Eliot, Kelly and Eva.
9. Watching bizarre music videos and downloading disco songs with Eliot.
10. Falling asleep easily.

02.11.10

1. A pumpernickel bagel, my current favorite.
2. My iHome speakers.
3. Feeling one day closer to the end of Bettying.
4. An especially delicious Pink Lady apple.
5. A relaxing walk and stretch at the Y.
6. A pleasant chat with Daven Odegaard (who did remember me from 12+ years ago... I usually think people won't do that) when I went to pick up tix at Roadrunner.
7. A delicious grilled cheese sandwich for dinner.
8. More late night dance music searching and playing.
9. Alex's excitement about Lene Lovich, whom he had never heard or heard of.
10. Packing for Iowa City in about ten minutes.

02.10.10

1. Pull Up to the Bumper.
2. No. 13 Baby.
3. Brick House.
4. 16th & Valencia, Roxy Music.
5. Shake Your Thang.
6. Got To Give It Up.
7. What Goes On.
8. Feel Good Inc.
9. Secret Agent Man.
10. The Book I Read.

02.09.10

1. Getting more busywork done in the morning.
2. Neal shoveled, as he said he would. I hope not to have to do it again this winter.
3. Adding internet access to my phone. It mostly works. I'm not sure that's all good, though.
4. Surviving another day of Bettying, without much back pain, or drama.
5. It looks like I'll get an interview for the Anoka-Ramsey job.
6. A good workout at the Y.
7. Same dinner as last night. Just as tasty.
8. Wasting time listening to go go music and watching brass band videos online, and sharing them with Alex.
9. Alex is going to give me 15 of his eMusic songs this month to make NOLA and dance mixes for the Mardi Gras party.
10. Falling asleep watching a DVD, again. Two weeks drug-free!

02.08.10

1. I was able to reschedule both clients for tomorrow and rest away my sore throat this morning.
2. Getting lots of silly busy work taken care of.
3. Carrot ginger soup out of the freezer for lunch.
4. A likely freelance photo stylist gig!
5. The quilt block: embroidery floss two blocks from home.
6. American Army & Navy Surplus store.
7. A nice chat with Kerry Morgan about textile work after the McKnight meeting.
8. Super yummy dinner: black beans, roasted red pepper, avocado, hardboiled egg and a sweet corn tamale.
9. A helpful call from Rachel.
10. The last episode of "Curb," season five.

02.07.10

1. Feeling happy when I woke up.
2. Freshly baked bread with butter and jam.
3. "Bad Girls of Film Noir," now in my Netflix queue.
4. A lovely show at the Southern Theater by James Sewell Ballet.
5. Talking to Penny after the performance.
6. Fish and chips and mushy peas at the Anchor.
7. A good talk with Morgan and Joann when I picked up my car.
8. The Superbowl = an empty YWCA.
9. Throat coat tea.
10. A DVD on the laptop in bed.

02.06.10

1. Oatmeal with Granny Smith apples, brown sugar, bananas and pecans.
2. Finishing Koko.
3. Being almost ready to start my new embroidery. Too many possibilities!
4. A delicious dinner at NE Social.
5. Running into a former coworker from Pearson who waits tables there.
6. Lots of lovely art at BirdXBird.
7. And lots of nice people to watch and chat with.
8. Allen and I are going to discuss doing an MAEP proposal together.
9. Chatting with Tim about photography and trading artwork.
10. Celebrating Rich's birthday at Red Stag with him and his friends.

02.05.10

1. A great meeting with Meighan about making contacts for film work.
2. Handing in "Pupped" at the MIA.
3. Overcoming my stage/on-camera fright and my anxiety about how grubby I looked and doing a short video interview for their website.
4. Going to openings with Rich.
5. Walker Evans' "Child's Grave," Stephen Shore's tiny c-print of a red building covered with white stars and a beautiful Isabel Bishop ink drawing at the Weisman.
6. Wing Young Huie's show at Macalester.
7. Nice talks with Paul Shambroom and Linda Brooks at the opening.
8. Seeing some of Rich's students' work around the art building there.
9. A Surly Furious (and a half) at the Craftsman.
10. Falling asleep on the sofa watching a movie; it seems like my sleep onset insomnia is not such a big problem anymore (now to deal with the 3 AM and 6 AM stuff...).

02.04.10

1. Sleeping, or at least resting, till 7:45 AM.
2. Pretty Abyssinian cats.
3. More good "All Songs Considered" podcasts.
4. Getting done 15 minutes early at my afternoon client.
5. Spending the extra time doing stretching and yoga.
6. An impromptu slice and pint with James.
7. Rachel B. sent me info about a possible photo job.
8. Seeing her beautiful stenciled drawings at Conduit.
9. Yummy German chocolate.
10. "Curb."

02.03.10

1. Good friends
2. Regular interchanges of conversation, ideas, observations, and emotions with people
3. A comfortable, beautiful and welcoming place to live
4. The opportunity to travel, to see new things and to revisit favorite places
5. Intelligence
6. An off-kilter sense of humor
7. Kindness
8. Creativity
9. Generosity
10. Realizing that a bunch of things on the list I'm doing for Cara of what I value in people and what things give meaning to life are already mine.

02.02.10

1. Max purring right next to my ear.
2. Hot Yorkshire tea with sugar.
3. The super nice guy at TC Moulding.
4. My client Eve, who is an amazing stitcher, loved my embroideries.
5. Chiropractic.
6. Skating at Powderhorn Park at dusk.
7. Asparagus. First fresh veggie in five days!
8. iTunes.
9. Zotz.
10. Seeing the light at the end of the long "Koko" tunnel.

02.01.10

1. Good training (and chatting and kvetching) with Saumer at my new clients' house.
2. They have a bunch of gorgeous Steidl books. I think I'll budget extra time to look at them next time.
3. My doctor referred me for physical therapy for my back.
4. Hearing "Message in a Bottle" at the auto parts store.
5. A good yoga class at the Y.
6. Gabbing with Cate after class.
7. Being able to actually eat dinner for the first time since I got sick Friday. Angel hair pasta with red sauce. Yum!
8. Rereading the first chapter of Camera Lucida during dinner.
8. I finished the second K on "Koko." Just one more O to go.
10. Someone else shoveled. I didn't even have to ask.