Driving myself Crazy Relaxing!

I've never been good at pacing myself, nor making time to relax. The motto of the household where I grew up was "We play when the work is done". Well, the work was never done, so we never played. I've made so many attempts to change the order of this dynamic...but never succeeded for very long. But when hampered by pain, I can't just work through it, like my Father still does. This time around, I think I am finally to the point where I can do so little, that all I WANT to do is relax. This past week-end, I sent Hubby off on a golf retreat, and I did just that...relaxed. I read, I slept, I watched t.v., slept some more. Of course, all this was under the influence of pain pills. After 3 days I was ready to scream! Because I wanted to actually DO something.

But I did finish The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. This is huge for me, because I almost never read novels. The reason being, when I start one, I want to read it straight through, and ignore all else. Ha Ha...reminds me of when I was a kid and my Mom would tell me to watch the pot and not let the potatoes boil over. I would sit right there next to the stove with my book and let the potatoes boil dry and scorch. I have never learned to read the way most people do, a bit here and there. Or like Hubby does...He reads two or three books at a time, and always reads 20 minutes or so before going to sleep at night.

So, I sat in Hub's leather chair by the window, in the sun, read, drank iced coffee, an occasional chai, took a break to check e-mail, watched Sundance channel, read some more, slept. Once in awhile I remembered to eat. This was my little what they now call a "stay-cation" I guess.

No Art Work, Just Work

I haven't had a moment to spare the past few days, as it was time again for our neighborhood fall garage sale. I've been sorting and cleaning closets, trying to get rid of as much stuff as possible. Where did all this crap come from? YIKES. Trouble is, most of it is mine, and most of it is unused art supplies, or "possibilities" as I see them. Will it ever be possible that I will have enough time to use all this stuff? Unfortunately, most of it is not the kind of stuff you can sell at a garage sale, nor is it anything I want to part with. Anyhow, Saturday dawned and with the help of the Hubster, got it all out, and at least it didn't start raining until about 10:30, and what we had left we managed to get back into the garage and sit there until noon, drinking coffee and visiting with neighbors. With the heavy rains predicted, there was not much of a turn-out, but we did manage to sell several of the larger items we had been storing, and got rid of more than I had expected. The rest goes to donation.

It did wear me out though,and I hurt my shoulder and back moving stuff around. I just loafed the rest of the day, sorted some more art supplies, took a nap, nice rainy day activities. And rain it did, heavy and hard. The rest of the day, and again last night, and again this morning. It has been a nice restful week-end, Hubster and I have just relaxed for a change. Today we met some pals at Starbucks, and tried out their sampling of the new VIA instant coffee, read the Sunday paper, watched a little football, listened to Prairie Home Companion, took a nap, a little more football, and the man is going to cook us up some dinner here in a little while. Then maybe a movie this evening. I have to say, that will be about all the relaxing I will be able to handle. I am getting cabin fever just a little bit and anxious to get some artwork done. I have a couple of projects that need finishing that I will start on first thing tomorrow.

Still Basking in the Glow

We have been home almost a week, but I am doing my best to stay in vacation mode. Sorting through the 600 plus photos I took is helping. We stayed in a little boutique hotel that has only 23 rooms, so it was cozy and not at all like the hustle and bustle of a big hotel. The city was small with lots of boutiques and quaint little shops. Hubby went off to work and I just played.

Front view of hotel


Our room


View out the side window, nice houses on the hill


One end of the hotel lobby



I walked miles and miles every day, the weather was so nice and cool. This is one of the benches I sat on for a rest every morning, getting some sun and watching the commuters run to catch the ferry for the daily trip into the city. I met a lot of friendly people who walked their dogs twice a day. I had to practice relaxing the first day, but by the end of the second day, I had it down pretty well. I did a little journaling, but mostly just walked a lot and took a lot of photos.



I think tomorrow I will show you the photos I took of all the pretty shop windows.