Still Falling

The prompt for DOCUMENTED LIFE (DLP) this week was "Incorporate Leaves Onto Your Page In A Creative Way" and here's what I came up with:

Ta-Da!

Has October went by at a ridiculous rate of speed to anyone else?  I feel like we should be two days in, three tops, and here it is the 29th already?  What is up with that???

Fall always goes by too fast for me anyway...but this year, it's apparently jet fueled...

"How happy I am to have fall in my life."

I suppose I should just enjoy it while I can...the leaves have been very colorful so far this year, especially in comparison to the last 3 or 4 years...a bit of a muck fest they were...

But this year, they are not disappointing me!  I've been enjoying them quite a bit on my evening/after work walks with my friend Gayle.  Today's the first day we missed walking since we started last week...because grocery shopping had to be done...and it makes me sad that this weekend with end our walks because of the time change.  We can deal with pitch black at the end, but not starting off in it!  Hopefully we will be able to find an indoor place to meander about...if not, it's already been promised that we'll start back up in the spring!  

I don't want to stop walking; it's been really awesome to have something to do after work besides just going home, so I've got a bit of a pouty face happening at the moment!  I've even started to wonder how much it would cost to join a gym that's somewhere convenient to us...a scary idea, let me just say, as I've always considered myself forcefully opposed to exercise in all it's forms...now my view of myself is being called into question!  FREAKY!

"I'm in the middle and I can't stop loving you." -Nancy Wilson

I have to say, the colors on this spread are not my usual fare...I was noticing it more and more as I've been typing...I can't decide if I like it or if they look mucky...perhaps they are that grunge thing that I've seen other people do... Grunge sounds much better than muck, as it has some good musical connotations...  So I'm going with grunge...

Speaking of good music, the lyrics on the page above are from this song that I stumbled on this morning before work:

Just adorable, right?  I think I must have the weirdest taste in music ever...because I like so many things and they're all at such opposite ends of the spectrum.  I know so many people who claim to 'love everything' and then follow it up with "except this, this and that..." and they're naming off entire genres of music...  I always want to say, "Oh, so you don't like everything then?"  But it would probably be rude and so I can't say it...  There are songs I don't like and certain singers I'm not a fan of, but I can't categorically wipe out an entire music genre!  That would be pure insanity!

At any rate, I'm happy to have crossed paths with Miss Nancy this morning, who could possibly have been related to me, because my maiden name was Wilson...and I don't know a lot of my relatives, so there's a possibility in there somewhere, right?  

Well, now I'm off to bask in the glory of this cool fall evening and possibly throttle some kittens who have decided that my studio is exclusively their playground and who keep jumping on my desk and typing all sorts of crazy things into the computer...I swear, one distracts me while the other one tries to type his own blog post!  I see a squirt bottle in these kittens future if they don't stay off my desk!

Freaking Magic

Let me just warn you now, there may be some ridiculous self-back patting in this post...if you're looking for humility, run...RUN...run far in the opposite direction of this post...because you will not find any of that nonsense here today!

I thoroughly blame Chelle over at JOURNAL 52, because this week's "Magic" prompt led me to create something I would probably never have done if it weren't part of my self-imposed goal to complete two year long projects (J52 and DLP)!  Here she is in all her glory:

"The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper." -W.B.Yeats

*Angels singing, birds dressing me in the morning, sunshine rays from heaven, etc.*

My husband that my husband keeps calling her Tinkerbell.  My fairy is NOT a Tinkerbell kind of girl.  She looks nothing like Tinkerbell!  Tinkerbell has nothing on my fairy!  Tinkerbell (and, by extension, my ridiculous husband) can bite me!  Tinkerbell!  TINKERBELL!!!  I never...

I suppose I can't be too mad, because Tinkerbell is probably the most famous fairy...I mean, come on, name another one...  But the fact that my awesome fairy got thrown in with the Disney lot was just too much for me to handle.

I mean, Tinkerbell's image is so white bread.  My fairy clearly...CLEARLY is anything but that.  I mean, she  completely rebels against fairy world standards by listening to punk rock and and restoring classic cars and having more than half a brain cell, giving her the ability to fully form human words, not just running around making twinkle noises and shaking her butt dust on children so that they can 'fly'...which, in my opinion, is just a metaphor for getting high...you know, you start out on fairy dust and then move on to hard drugs and before you know it, Wendy, John and poor little Michael are living in a cardboard box in an ally stealing car radios to support their habits!  And while my fairy listens to punk rock and supes up hot rods in her spare time, she's got morals and she would never be a butt dust dealer, despite the fact that she could be making bank and finally buy all those carburetors and vintage shifter knobs that she needs!  My fairy may have dirty fingernails and be able to quote Sex Pistols lyrics at the drop of a hat, but she would never sell smack to your kids.  And isn't that what we're all looking for in a good fairy?

Can you tell I'm a little excited by this page...what with the maniacally defensive rant due to my husband's besmirching?  

I can't help it...I love her so much.  I think she fully deserves to be maniacally defended...

Like I said before the rant, there's no way I would ever have drawn a fairy if it weren't for the J52 prompt, but now that she's drawn, I kind of what to put fairies on every single thing I ever do from now on...well, not just any fairy, but this fairy specifically.  *Sigh.*  She's just great...  And she's green...fantastically green...  And bright other colors...  *double sigh*  I really do enjoy her thoroughly.

Forgetting my (fabulous) fairy (for now), in my eyes, this time of year is the real magic in my world.  

I love fall, what with the leaves turning color and the crispness of it...and the way the light changes and makes everything seem a little better...  Maybe I've just accidentally breathed in some of that fairy butt dust...who knows...

All I know is that it's starting to get colder here and today as I drove around town, I suddenly wanted a gas station coffee, which should ONLY be drunk when it's cold outside.  I do love it when it's cold enough for gas station coffee...  It makes me happy and nostalgic...thinking of all the happy falls I've had thus far in life, and hoping that there will be many more extremely pleasant gas station coffee seasons to come...

What about you?  At the risk of sounding all hippy dippy, throw caution to the wind and tell me: what's magic in your world today?  

Falling

Oh my dear...what a funk I got myself into yesterday!  And it started off so well!  First thing in the morning, I saw this beefy muscle-laden guy at the gas station who was very easy on the eyeballs...and beefy muscle-laden guys are not my usual pick...I enjoy scrawny little guys!  I want a guy that, if push comes to shove, I can take in a fight!  And this guy had freakishly large muscles...but I didn't see them in the stomach-turning, vomit-inducing way I normally would...OH NO!  This guy was making my morning as he bought his beef jerky (or whatever it is that people with arm canons like his buy at gas stations) and I got to nonchalantly peek at his cute booty...I thought this was gonna be an awesome day!  But, alas, after the gas station Incredible Hulk, it seemed to all go downhill...

The part that is really annoying about the downward spiral of my day is that there was no real reason why it took that turn.  I don't mind feeling angry or sad or upset if there's a reason...ok, that's not true, I never like to feel that way...but I dislike those feelings EVEN MORE when they're inexplicable!  And yesterday, I had no good reason to feel all grumpy and blue like I did!  

Ok...maybe one reason...summer.  Summer is my least favorite season.  I know that's a little weird...or at least I am constantly told by co-workers and friends that it's strange.  But it's true.  I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate summer...but...let's just say I don't like it near as much as any of the other seasons.  Sure it has it's good moments, but they just don't make up for the bad parts.

I stay hot all the time...boiling lava hot...like what hot flashes have been described to me as...THAT kind of hot.  When you yourself are boiling lava hot, and the ambient temperature is also boiling lava hot, you combine with it...this is how spontaneous human combustion happens!  All summer long, I live in fear that I am just going to suddenly burst into flame!  And I hate it!  I'm hot and sweaty and grumpy and I get headaches from being to hot...summer can be just miserable!  Sure you can do things to alleviate some of the heat, but having to be out amid people means that I can only take off so many articles of clothing without being obscene...or, more importantly, without being arrested.  

Worst of all, summer comes directly before fall.  Fall is my absolute favorite season, hands down, no question...FALL IS THE GREATEST SEASON OF ALL THE SEASONS!!!  So the fact that I hate to be sweaty and hot combined with my yearly eager anticipation of fall makes summer the pits for me.  

And now that its starting to be cool in the mornings, my anticipation for fall is getting more urgent!  I'm like a kid who knows they're going to an amusement park and is marking the days off the calendar...the closer it gets, the more excited I am...then I'm all over-stimulated from excitement and I start acting up!  It's not my fault...I'm just excited!

So, last night, instead of thinking about how a decent day went downhill faster than a Jamaican bobsled team, I did a little page in Gregg:

"Autumn is like a second spring when every leaf is a flower." - Albert Camus

Accentuate the positive, right?  Sure my day may have been a little blah, but soon enough it will be fall and then everything will be right in the world...the weather will be cooler, shadows will be longer, food will taste better, sleep will come more easily, blankets will be curled under, breath will be visible again, and I will once again smell the delicious smell of burning wood coming out of my neighbor's chimney...  I could make a list a mile long detailing the things I love about fall...

This morning, things are cheerfully rose-colored again.  Working on Gregg must have lifted my spirits back into a happy place.  Despite the fact that I have to go to work, I am going to stay in a positive frame of mind, even if it kills me...because autumn really is just around the corner and that's more than enough to keep me up and running...