Jogging to "Journey"

I was relaxing amidst a huge pile o'Christmas items.....ornaments, candles, garlands, ribbons, bits and pieces of my decorating scheme....reading my emails on my new computer and sipping on a cup of tea, when I chanced upon a very perky message in the ArtJournalz group that stated she'd sent off her pages and was looking forward to seeing the completed journal. Bells rang, softly, in the far, far reaches of my tiny pea brain. Hmmmmm....had I signed up for this JOURNEY journal with Gina et al? A search of my emails proved that I had. And the pages were due now. I mean, NOW. Panic. How many pages? Documenting my journey? Had I made a journey? Am I on a journey? How do I journal that? How do I journal that now? I rooted about in my hugely messy spare bedroom, also known as the Art Stuff Storage Area, and pulled out a bunch of items and paper and floundered about on the computer looking for some old photos I could print up and use for the story of my journey---where ever it was from and headed to I know not where. I began to frantically start layering things onto the six x six-inch base that Gina had asked for and was not unpleased with the result. It took several hours and a lovely trip down memory lane looking through my Tibet photo album, but I came up with a page that I think nicely documents my journey, such as it has been. It was even quite fun, although I should have been doing a lot of packing up of Christmas stuff, but I got to make another huge mess on the dining room table, and play with my art supplies, and print out old photos, and tear up pieces of paper and glue stuff. It was fun.

I even got the pages the mail today, so it should be with Gina by the deadline. This set of pages are very different from my usual style, but I rather liked them and the process was wonderful. I am, after all, all about process! Process over product, that's my motto.

I went off to the hardware store today and got the last of the items I need for the class at the Gage next week. Anna called again from Big Sur today. She has a
terrible cold and sounds truly awful. Too bad! The timing is really bad as she had taken the week off to go down to Esalen. I know she was really looking forward to her time there but I now understand that she's been sick the entire week. I hope she feels better by next week. I can't imagine the strain of attending such a high pressure class (two paintings a day, after all!) and feeling bad at the same time. Makes me want to go lie down just thinking of it. This message that I photographed on the beach at the Dungeness Spit is most timely. Get well soon, Anna!