So here I am.
Sitting at a coffee shop, which is one of my favorite occupations--I write, I paint, I meditate. I recently overcame my dread of watercolors by buying a cute little set--who could be afraid of that!--and some scraps of French cover stock from a letterpress in West Asheville and sitting down at the Dripolator on Biltmore. I went from abject terror to love in a few hours. (You really don't have to do it right the first time, especially if you're playing around on scraps of French cover stock!) So I guess it makes sense that my fear of blogging was overinflated and just needed a friendly poke--or a friend to physically take my laptop from me and set it up on the spot. (Hi Bill.)
(Random addendum: my laptop was sipping cyber from another Laurel's hotspot. She was one of the first 35 bloggers in the entire country. I am such a Luddite compared to her.)
I didn't die after my first post, or suddenly get sucked into cyberspace. At least I don't think I was sucked into cyberspace. I suppose Dunn Brother's South in Rochester, Minnesota, could be a virtual figment of my electromagnetic imagination...
I've got another week of my northern trip. So far I've had an art/enlightenment class (Point Zero painting workshop at the Crossings Gallery in Zumbrota) and a science fiction convention (Minicon). I've done some dogsitting for my exhusband's girlfriend and visited with my ex-in-laws who just happened to be in town from Montana while I was. I've hung out with lots of friends and my ex and his girlfriend and my son Zach and his girlfriend Jessica and various of their friends. Zach does stuff to cars, which may include making them fly, I'm pretty sure. His del Sol's performance parts have performance parts. Upcoming is a Toastmaster's meeting and the opening reception of the Poet/Artist Collaboration show at the Crossings Gallery (I have a poem in the show and so love the painting that accompanies it that I've bought it.) and the League of Minnesota Poets spring conference in Mankato. A busy couple weeks.
While I was here I found out that I did get the condo I wanted in downtown Asheville (to be built) and the gallery there I want to exhibit in is going to jury prospective members next week--before I get back, unless I really rush. So I guess I'll ship some paintings and an artist's resume (which doesn't exist yet) to one of my Asheville friends. Otherwise I'll have to skip or severely curtail a visit with my son Nick in Oberlin on my way back. (Couldn't visit him on the way up, because he was in Scotland.)
Okay, off to the world outside the coffee shop. Remember to breathe. And to love yourself. (That's really the only commandment: Love Thyself. Not in the way that you'd say you love yourself but you'd talk about you behind your back or treat yourself badly. If you really love yourself, you've got no problem loving the neighbors. Plenty to go around. But always start with you.)
