More on the art show

Sunday: Yoga 15 minutes, weights 20 minutes, walk 1.2 miles

I forgot to post the picture of my art show table:

I feel so much better today; I slept a normal amount and woke up a normal human. I’m going to assume yesterday’s exhaustion was mostly about the stress of getting this all together and then spending so many hours talking to people.

And I REALLY want to do this again. I’m going to try to figure out how to be a little more professional—like how to finish and frame things so that people can actually hang them up. (The few that are framed were ones where I ripped out ancient family photos and replaced them with painted paper.) Everything you see here was propped up with bookends and/or rocks, so honestly my first task is to buy some display easels. M.H. needs them for his book-selling events anyway.

Art show!

Tuesday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk 1.2 miles
Wednesday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk 1 mile
Thursday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk ??
Friday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk ??
Saturday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk 1.2 miles

Yesterday was Art Walk, where I had a table among about 20 other artists with a bunch of my abstract acrylic paintings. I was thrilled; I sold two of them for actual money and traded one to another artist for something cool. But I am also EXHAUSTED—I don’t know if it was from the stress of getting everything ready and named and set up, the physical exertion of doing all that, or just the fact of having to spend four hours straight talking to people.

At any rate I was in bed by 9 and slept until almost 8 a.m., and still I’m tired to a degree that I wonder if I’m coming down with something or maybe just have reached an age of irreversible decline and infirmity.

Being part of the “art community” in town has been really rewarding, and I learned a lot yesterday. For one thing, I found out that there are a few other annual shows that I could participate in if I wanted. To do that I think it would be good to improve my presentation somewhat and be a lot more deliberate in trying to make quality pieces. On the other hand, there’s really nothing stopping me from just continuing to slap paint around on things and then trying to sell them.

October’s challenge

Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Walk 1 mile
Monday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk 1.2 miles

Welcome to the Month of Achilles Healing! (It’s October 2, but I just decided.) My plan resolution challenge is that every day for the next 30 days, I will:

• Use the Thumper on my Achilles
• Go for a short walk
• Stretch
• Use infrared light on my Achilles
• Stretch with the brace my sister sent me

(It looks like this.)

I’m still chasing the high of that glorious day several weeks ago when my feet just didn’t hurt. 

Some temporary chaos

Saturday: So much yardwork
Sunday: Yoga 30 minutes, so much yardwork
Monday: So much yardwork
Tuesday: So much yardwork
Wednesday: So much yardwork
Thursday: So much yardwork
Friday: Yoga 20 minutes

I am happy our landscaping project has started, but right now it’s messing up my life a bit.

Mud.

It’s so stressful to have loud noises and constant beeping coming from the back yard, I don’t know how to oversee what’s going on and make sure it’s all OK without making a nuisance of myself, I’m putting in a lot of time “helping” with the cleanup and waste disposal but not actually seeming to achieve all that much, I’m worried about throwing out my back from picking so much stuff up off the ground, and I’ve been skipping most of my other exercise. Oh, and I put “free rock” on Facebook Marketplace, which means I’ve also been juggling dozens of daily interruptions from people messaging me and ringing the doorbell. (Yet the rock never seems to totally go away.)

My Achilles have been particularly painful lately, and I don’t know if it’s from not taking my short morning walks, not stretching as much, eating a bit worse than usual, or some combination of that. Actually I’ve been surprised at how much regular walking seemed to make things better and not worse—that should probably be the priority. I just keep spending my entire morning in the yard and then forgetting to ever go outside again.

Interruptus

Friday: Walk 1.2 miles
Saturday: Yoga 35 minutes, walk 2.1 miles
Sunday: Weights 20 minutes
Monday: Yoga 35 minutes
Tuesday: Walk 1.5 miles

I just decided to write out a to-do list for today, and when I grabbed my scratch paper, there sat yesterday’s list with NOTHING crossed off. So that will also do for today. Sigh.

The problem is that I am trying to give away the TONS of river rocks in my back yard in preparation for landscaping. This entails having Facebook open almost constantly and managing literally dozens of people messaging me, plus random people knocking on the front door. It’s going to save us quite a bit of money in the end because the rocks won’t have to be hauled to the dump, so it is worth it. 

But on the other hand, I am so very easily distracted. Every ding and interruption derails me for 5 to 60 minutes, which you can imagine is not conducive to working at my desk. Adding “Don’t get sidetracked” to the list as we speak.

It’s happening

Monday: Walk 1.2 miles, walk 1.5 miles
Tuesday: Yoga 25 minutes, meditate 10 minutes 
Wednesday: Weights 20 minutes, meditate 10 minutes, walk 1.5 miles
Thursday: Walk 1.5 miles

We met with our landscaper yesterday, and the lawn overhaul is beginning as soon as Monday! I’m so excited; there’s going to be a greenhouse and a ton of garden space, and everything else is going to be sustainable. I have so much to learn about gardening between now and next spring—or maybe next winter, since…greenhouse! 

I’m pleased with my headstand bench—I have been wanting to do inversions again, and this is a nice intermediate step toward “real” headstands and handstands.

Weekend fun

Thursday: Walk 1 mile
Friday: Walk 1.5 miles
Saturday: Walk 1.5 miles, hike 2.5 miles
Sunday: Rest

I ended my “Whole30” on Friday after 10 days, but in a way it’s all part of the plan: Eat according to the plan at home and resist eating out for reasons of laziness, but when something fun comes up, don’t worry about it too much.

This weekend’s fun involved a hike, a waterfall, a Shakespeare in the Parks performance, seeing Dexter, a burrito, a sub sandwich, and many snacks. No regrets, although I actually do feel like crap this morning. According to SnoreLab (and my memories, and my throat), I snored with my mouth open all night and woke up like eight times. Now I feel tired and dehydrated and like fall allergies just reared their ugly heads. I tried doing a little yoga this morning but gave up within five minutes.

I’m on the verge of embarking on an editing project that will mean 20 additional hours of work each week. This is technically doable, and I want to do it, but it’s basically taking me all the way to full time for about six to ten months (or more, depending on my other clients). I’ve been thinking through how that’s going to fit into my life—what needs to go and what needs to stay. Somehow I need to doing the food and exercise that is actually starting to make me better…