Crystal

For my birthday, I went to see a psychic!—I wanted my palm read, primarily. Maybe tarot cards read.

I was hoping for a dark and creepy experience. I'd had my palm read twice before, and my tarot cards read once. It's fun!

You may recall, I'm a bit embracing of death. I mean, it's going to happen, right? So, I didn't tell this to Crystal, but my main objective, aside from the creepy experience, was to chat about death.

As soon as she said, "I work with the light, not the darkness," I knew I was in for disappointment. She told me I'd live a long life and and moved on—that was the last mention of death! 

She focused and career and money (yawn) and relationships. I told her I was meant to be alone. She nearly cried at that, and told me I had a soul mate, and wanted to help me find him. She asked me if I had any dreams, and I started telling her about my recurring nightmares, and she wasn't interested. In hindsight, I think she was asking about the hope sort of dreams not sleeping dreams. 

Without even telling her I mostly wanted to talk about death, she declared, "you're so negative."

What a dull experience. Thanks, Yelp!

Surf's up—RIP Annette

Sad news about Annette last month. 

The most popular original Mouseketeer, she was re-invented as a pop music star when her fans demanded it. Then re-invented as an unlikely beach babe for the Beach Party films when Disney Studios didn't know what to do with her. Then retired from acting when she was pregnant with her first child...all by age 24. 

I am a fan of the way she carried herself in Hollywood (not all former Mouseketeers have such class, eh Brit?), but particularly as someone who lived with MS for many years. For those of you who know my family, you know why.

I took my time drawing this and adding color. You know I haven't been drawing much lately due to my newfound hobby of DIY. Yesterday I spent the day designing and building a cabinet, but had to bail for now until I figure out how to make the door. Anyway, I converted the line color of Annette in P-shop, then colored the sand and towel using the chalk function in Painter, and then sky and water using the watercolor function (never tried that before!), then back to P-shop to add the color to Annette and the beach ball.  Considering how rusty I am, not too shabby.

Rest in peace, Annette.

Boys of Spring

Backslide

Finally home from North Carolina, and after a challenging week at work, our office team traveled by bus to Ithaca for a conference hosted by Cornell University.

Despite being days away from "spring", a massive blizzard was moving through upstate New York, into New England. So, whether we left when we did or later, we'd have been slammed.

Ithaca is a lovely, quaint, and nature-wise stunning town. But, it is really isolated, accessible from smaller state roads. Part of the charm.

But, in a blizzard, not terribly easy. At one point, in the village of Triangle, our bus got stuck on a hill surrounded by gorges. The driver had to back down the hill, with the aid of a utility truck driver.

The volunteer firefighters of Triangle hosted us for an hour or so, they were really nice. 

Many of my colleagues were terrified. One gal clung to the arm of Brett, which probably terrified him.

As you know, I'm really into the concept of my death (I mean, it's going to happen no matter what, right?), so I was pretty gleeful in the face of sliding into a gorge. The rest of the trip was eventful in other ways, but that's another story altogether. Ask me after a few margaritas. Hell, who am I kidding?—ask me after a half a margarita.

One More, Please

The  day I left Winston, a storm was hitting Boston. On the plus side, I didn't have to sit through a snowstorm with a foot of accumulation.

However, I was stick in Philly.

Despite being slammed by hundreds of stranded travelers, I was able to secure a room at the Philly Marriott. But, wow, it was depressing.

The River Grill—the hotel's restaurant—was under renovation, so  a makeshift cafe was set up in the lobby-area. The food was bad, and the waitress who was working the busy dinner crowd solo was grimly chipper. Just go with it.

I couldn't get a flight to Boston for a few days, but fortunately, I was able to fly into Manchester, NH the next morning. This actually worked out better for me since my folks picked me up with my dog, and brought me back to town...saving me a drive to NH. It was very nice of them.

But, altogether, from the warm weather, to the fun cafes in downtown Winston, to the lower hotel rates, I wish I had just stayed the extra night in NC. To say nothing of Michael.

Hutch & Harris part 2

I couldn't have written anything sweeter than my interaction with the restaurant manager, Michael.

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Welcome to Winston

After I left DC, I was on to the business portion of my trip: a week in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. 

I was warned by my friend Steve that the city had gone through a bit of a revitalization in the past decade, with an artsy cute, downtown with good restaurants.

Check, check, and check.

Not saying I'd like to live there, but indeed, it surpassed expectations.

Criticism time: it's not the type of place that you can buy a postcard of. Which I really love doing. Ok, mostly I like to RECEIVE postcards (and, I have every postcard ever sent to me since I was a teenager. I love cheesy "greetings from—" postcards best of all!) but in order to encourage the receipt of them, I send out many.

The conference I attended was hosted by Wake Forest University. At the campus bookshop, I found postcards of the university, but it seemed like they were printed on the shop's inkjet on barely cardstock. But that's the best I could find, so there we go.

I was in town for the whole business week, so got to sample a good variety of the place. And spent some quality time with people I've known for years, but see just once or twice a year. That's always fun, despite the perma-hang-over.

Definitely enjoyed my time in "Winston," as Michael referred to it.