November Red
November Red - Portland, Oregon - November 5, 2013
Today I had hoped to sleep in and rest some, but my brain woke up making it impossible to sleep longer. I find myself very tired at the end of a long day. Yesterday felt like a flurry of first-day-of-my-break excitement energy. Today I was tired and a little blue at times.
A little before lunch CK was able to take a break and run a couple of errands with me, including grabbing some lunch together at the market. I made dinner early for us, ahead of a class we started tonight. I also followed up on some leads. It just somehow felt like I was behind on things all day long; a kind of low-volume static of anxiety.
This evening CK and I took our first class in a series we signed up for on the Fundamentals of Photography. It is at a small studio in SE Portland that CK found out about and suggested we sign up for the class together. The setting is a bare, poorly light, little classroom with desks that take me back to high school. Which is to say, really uncomfortable. The last 45 minutes of class I was having a hard time focusing because I was hurting.
Aside from that, I left feeling like I know more about the Nikon DSLR I've been using and that's after just a couple of hours. We're encouraged to keep our cameras fully in manual mode for the 5-week duration of the class. I'm really looking forward to improving as a photographer and eventually being able to use my own photographs as part of other mixed-media artwork.
Meanwhile, the last of the leaves still cling to the pair of red maples in the backyard. Mostly there are leaves everywhere, our yard is in need of some maintenance, but still some leaves cling to the branches.
Pause
After a lot of thinking and talking, and frankly quite a lot of reassuring by CK, I've decided to take off most of November to recover somewhat from the past nearly 18 months of unrelenting yak-shaving, missed lunches, canceled yoga class, and late nights at work. The Project from Hell lurches ever onward, only it will do so without me for a little pause.
CK has been calling it my sabbatical. Her goal is that I start to sleep more regularly, more often, and get some rest from the intensity that took off in January 2011 with all the Mom Drama and has really not let up since. I'm also on hand to coordinate meetings, visits, etc. for Mom to transition to a different living environment.
I hope I might actually make a little art. Another casualty of the past months is art as a kind of practice. I've joined the Portland Collage Artists Guild group which meets once a month to learn about techniques and work on projects. The December meeting includes a blind gift exchange of personally made artwork. So I have a goal and a deadline for that!
I'm going to try and write about each day.
Today I woke up a bit later than I normally would and took care of the morning routine without the usual rush of needing to get out to my office. I then went over to the Southwest Community Center for a deep water exercise class. I've not done one of these in well over a year and in the year+ we've lived in our new neighborhood, I hadn't been the community center. I was careful and very mindful of my shoulders and neck, which felt a little sore by 3pm. My lower back felt better immediately.
I've ran an errand and did several chores around the house. In the evening I went to a concert with a friend. We went to see Richard Thompson opening up for Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. I somehow thought "doors at 7" meant the seating doors, and rushed to get to the venue before 6:45. My friend had just arrived too. We then realized the error and reminded ourselves that this show had assigned seats and went next door for a cocktail.
Gorge Tumbler - Portland, Oregon - November 4, 2013
Although there's really nothing on the menu I can eat at the Heathman Hotel, aside from olives and nuts, one of the sections of the hotel is this posh, grand old lounge with comfy chairs. I first went there in my early 20s and really was charmed. CK took me there for pre-birthday-dinner cocktails a few years ago and I was reminded how lovely and elegant I find it. Getting to pop in unplanned was a nice treat; we toasted my month of respite.
The whole show was very good. Richard Thompson, who we both really went to see, was fantastic. I left wishing the whole show had been just his music. I've been a fan since college but have never seen him perform live. Next time he's in town, as the headline, I'm going to make sure I don't miss getting tickets like I did earlier this year.