HAPPY, HURT, AND HARRIED

Could be the names of three of the seven dwarfs, couldn't it?

Anywhooooo, I finally finished this painting of my daughter. Yes, I am happy with it for the most part. I do not like doing portraits using acrylics, however. I was utterly clueless how to go about it (lessons in acrylics should be on a to-do list for me), because the paint dries way too quickly. I took the photograph of my daughter from which I based this painting last summer, and I had always wanted to paint it. TA-DA! Goal achieved. Best part of it all is that she likes it very much. She smiles when she looks at it. And that makes me very happy.

I began a new painting right afterward, and it is entirely different from any type of painting I have previously done. Egads, I keep trying new stuff without having seen the techniques performed in person. Relying on step-by-step photographs is just not the same as actually watching someone wield the brushes and paint. This promises to be a challenge, but I am already liking some aspects about this new style. The painting sucks in a huge way. The nice part is I can wash it all off and begin anew. (::grin:: I have already done that three times!)

My heart got a hurt put on it Friday. ::nodnod:: No Band-Aid can fix it. Those are for minor boo-boos anyway. This is a pretty large wound. The best thing to do to heal it is to push it out of my thoughts as best as I can. Sometimes I am very good at that. Other times, I cannot at all. I do not know which way it will be this time, but I am hopeful I can wrestle it from my thoughts. Honestly, I have to wonder just how many little chunks of my heart are missing from the various injuries it has been subjected to. God help me if there would ever come a time when I would grow cold because one too many pieces had been plucked from that vital organ of mine.

Harried. Mmhmm. I am getting more and more frantic by the hour. We are leaving for our trip to Chicago Thursday morning, and I have a list out the wazoo of things to do. Leave it to now for my dog's diabetes to start acting up. I inject her twice daily with insulin, yet I can see signs that perhaps she needs an increased dose. The poor thing is aging, and it is sad to see her slow decline. Her blindness is an ongoing source of pain to me. I hate that she has become more timid and hesitant and nervous since losing her sight. Her weight is dropping, but her appetite remains hearty. That and her constant thirst scream to me that her insulin needs adjusted. So, I take her to the vet on Tuesday for a checkup.

Yessss, I am getting my hair done on Tuesday, too. I chopped off a good four or five inches the other day. It had grown way too long. Let's see if my stylist thinks I did a good job of hacking at it. ::laugh::

Joy of joys, I chipped my front tooth. No one can tell, because it is the back of the tooth I chipped. This is ALL the fault of Mark Jacobs who was my elementary school honey. Yes, one summer nite long ago at the pool as I was leaving and had just begun to step into the encased steel turnstile that led the way out of the facility, Mark jumped in with me. Only one person was supposed to be in each section, and when he slipped inside with me, it jerked back the bar. And hit my mouth. What a horrifying treat to see tiny bits of white enamel on my black towel. Ugh. I suppose I was lucky it was not knocked out or broken in half, but geeeeez! The dentist will be getting a phone call from me on Monday with a plea to do something to fix it. I cannot imagine how unsettling it would be for it to pose a problem for me while in Chicago.

And that's another thing. My son is vacationing in Maine right now. We cannot get through to him to coordinate the time we are to pick him up at the airport in Chicago. He is flying straight from Maine and meeting us there. Well, he is if we know when the heck his flight arrives. ::smile:: I am sure he will call before we leave. Okay, I am almost sure he will think to do that!

Mom has had one heckuva tough time since she went into the hospital. She ultimately had to have her heart shocked twice, because the first time only kept her heart in rhythm for less than a day. The new medication she was sent home with caused her to feel like she was experiencing congestive heart failure. Fortunately, the doc halved the dose, and she is making a slow comeback. I was ready to take her to the emergency room at one point. I worry, worry, worry about her. I also am feeling a bit guilty leaving for my little getaway. One of my sisters is already in Spain and Italy on a trip. Another one is leaving early in the week for a destination I cannot even remember. That leaves only one sister here to look after Mom. ::sad face:: At least I will not be too far away should I need to get back home quickly. And Mom is adamant that I take this vacation. I love that pushy dame. (Okay, so I am the pushy dame...she's just cute as a button and no bigger than a minute!)

All of the little things to do before going anywhere are making me frantic. I doubt that I will be posting again in this journal before I leave Thursday. 'Tis possible I will do the self-portrait challenge on Tuesday, but that is a quick entry...if I can get around to taking the type of photograph designated for the month of August challenge. Right now, it is low on my list of things to do.

I soooo want and need this little trip to my beloved Chicago. Oddly enough and very much unlike when I am at home, I sleep like a baby when I am in a nice hotel. Go figure!

And that is that for now. A happy week to all of you.

"A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you've been taking." ~Earl Wilson