Check-in - Chapter 10

I've been dragging my feet on checking in for 2 weeks now and can't quite tell you why. I read Chapter 9, but had a hard time getting into doing the exercises. And I'm anal-retentive enough I guess that I couldn't seem to allow myself to check-in on Chapter 10 until I had checked in on Chapter 9. Hilda finally convinced me to let Chapter 9 go for now and move on. I did read it, I'll try to go back and work on some of the exercises when I can and try to address why I was resistant to them. Partially I think it is that I feel like I'm compelled to sit down and write out my answers to the exercises and tasks, not just review it in my head and move on. So until I've done that, I don't feel like I've finished the chapter - even though I've read the tasks and thought about them - although I don't feel like perhaps I thought about Chapter 9 enough. Ah well, later. . .

Chapter 10 made a more immediate impression on me. I don't think I am a workaholic. I don't work late, bring work home with me, work on weekends, etc., except on the most rare of occasions. On the Workaholism Quiz, my answers were usually seldom or never, particularly as they related to my day job. I think I take fairly frequent vacations -- usually at least a couple of week-long trips during the course of the year -- okay admittedly one of those is to go back to Illinois to visit my family but that's just something I need to do and it does give me an opportunity to hit Hancock's of Paducah at least once a year. But I also do a number of long weekends - retreats or with friends - that all feed my quilting habit. I don't think I ever have free time between projects really (does that question relate to work or creative life though - I have too many UFOs around to be truly able to ever consider myself between projects) and I do procrastinate on finishing up the loose ends - sometimes even on aspects of the project way before the loose ends! And I don't prioritize my day to allow at least an hour of creative time each day -- something I decided this week I would try to change. The two postcards pictured are my first attempts at that. I started beading the top card awhile ago - birthday card for my friend Iris - so yesterday morning I finished it up. It bumped morning pages to evening pages, but I still managed to do them. Then last night I made the bottom postcard in the picture - a "Congratulations on your new job" for my boss - I'll mail it on my way to work this morning. A small start, but at least I've done something. Now my main task is to bump the commissioned quilt for my boss' son to the top of my list and actually get myself moving on it - the fabric is purchased and washed, I'm procrastinating on getting started - but I can't expect him to wait forever on this, so I need to get moving. News at 10:00 on how that's coming - LOL!

My favored block was a no-brainer when I read that section of the chapter. It's that glass of wine that I feel like I'm entitled to at the end of the day. It's rarely ever more than 2 glasses in an evening, but I worked for it, I enjoy it, it relaxes me and I'm entitled to it, damn it! LOL! I won't start a diet that doesn't allow it. I frequently say that I'd have to quit my job if I couldn't have it. There are evenings where I don't have a glass of wine, but I'd say I often, almost always (?) have a glass or two of wine in the evening when I get home from work. Then a lot of times I just don't get moving on the creative project of the moment -- so I need to think about getting past that. I'll try more often during the week to skip the wine altogether and sew -- or have only one glass and make sure I still sew, instead of deciding to just read instead. I do enjoy it, it does relax me -- I probably would have to quit my day job if I couldn't have it!! -- but I'm aware of the issue now and will try to push myself past it.

My artist's date this week was a trip to Quiltz, to pick up some fabrics for my February journal quilt and some batiks for a swap with Teresa on the delphi forum -- fun. Quiltz has a huge selection of batiks so I had a good time picking pairs of fabrics for FQs for her swap. The shopping trips don't always seem like what Julia had in mind as an artist date though. Seems like it was meant to be something more structured. As I drove to work on Monday morning though, they announced on the radio that Bonnie Raitt will be here in concert at the Dodge Theatre on February 16. Guess she has a new cd out and the tour is to promote it. When I got to work, I went online and ordered myself a ticket. I haven't been downtown for anything in a long time and I've never been to the Dodge Theatre - so it will be a new experience in a lot ways and I'll get to hear some great music. It feels more like what the book suggested an artist's date should be, at least to me -- next I'll have to think about some trips to museums, etc. to fill the well.