August 4-6 2009 Rochester, NY

On the way to Rochester I blew a tire. This is the second time my car has had issues on the way there. I wrote in my journal that the next time I go there I am taking the bus, but that was before I realized that the train goes right there, so maybe I'll take the train instead. What i do know is that driving to Rochester is a risky proposition for my car.
I still managed to make it out for a later than expected lunch with my friend Matt. He was helpful in cheering me up after I had been all over trying to get my car taken car of.


When I got to Rochester I was greeted by my favorite 3 year old in the world who was very excited to see me, and even more excited the read the mini books I brought her a million times.




Her mom was just glad to have company I think. I love my Chele belle.


Then there was Miss Emma, the birthday girl. She was a little more tenative, but she hasn't seen me much of me so that was to be expected.



Rounding out the family is Jeff, and Macy the puppy.
Macy is very energetic, and I'm sorry to say this, not my favorite dog. somehow she doens't pull off cute and bumbling big dog, and is just kind of annoying. She also gets yelled at a lot for the naughty things she does, and fights with the cat. Hopefully she will grow out of naughty.



It was a great couple of days.
My favorite 3 year old has really taken to art and books, so she and I get to do creative things and read stories together which I love.
I made her family a new mandala, and she made messy art.





We (Chele, Emma, Anna and I) went to the park one of the days and played around and rode the merry go round there.





At the end of the night after the kids went to bed Chele and Jeff and I played a little guitar hero and goofed around dancing in the living room. It was very cool


The next day I gave Emmie her Birthday present. She had warmed to me over the visit, and there was this one moment on the couch that i wish we had a picture of cause she kind of nestled into my lap and looked so contented while I was just talking with her mom.
She loved the pounding toy i got her for her birthday.


Chele was just glad for the company in her crazy mom life I think,

and Anna did not want to see me go.

(and she might possibly have thrown a temper tantrum the day i was leaving, but we won't hold that against her because at the time she was my favorite 3 year old in the world (the only reason she's not now is cause she's 4 and my favorite 4 year old in the world)
I had a good and uneventful drive back, and I liked it that way.

near & far sighted focus. (Liz along the way)

It's been 5 months since I updated this blog. It is officially a year behind in the things i want to add to it.
I haven't taken as many dramatic trips places. Most of my travels have been short relatively local ones. I haven't really left the northeast. However those little adventures certainly add up.
I've been really good about knowing what I'm doing and what I'm up to in the short run, but it's taken a year to be ready to look at the full picture of what was occurring in my life.
I am good record keeper though. I have CD playlists from each month that tell me where my head was at, and I've been posting my adventures on facebook. In some ways this is even more helpful because I have friends who are better with cameras than I am.
I think the gestalt of what was going on was a little hard for me to comprehend, so it's fitting that the mandala I'm drawing was started a long time ago. I don't actually remember when, but I took it out again and added to it when I went to Jamaica plain to hear two of my friends play in the basement of a bookstore, I think sometime in April, and I'm finishing it today.

My life has been pretty in-the-moment busy. My focus has been very much near sighted. At the same time around February I started writing poetry, a lot of which was very much an examination of my own personal history and goes back pretty far
Somehow in the middle of having a very near sighted focus on what was occurring, and
a very far sighted retrospective focus on what had happened in my life I wasn't really able to focus on the past year and what it meant.

There was lots of procrastinating, and let me tell you there is always something to distract yourself with. Today however I am diving into this. I don't know how much I will get caught up, but I'd like to get up to the next Liz along the way post before I stop. We shall see. I think it is time to zoom in on this level of focus, and see what i can draw from writing this.

Last week I was in a discussion with people who were reluctant to claim themselves as artists because of fears as to how others would judge the quality of their work, or how they themselves judge the quality of their work.
I said "I think it is okay for people to call themselves artists as long as they are engaging in the practice of making art."
This is me putting my money(time) where my mouth is, and finishing a mandala drawing for myself, and putting in the writing practice to be able to speak about my life.

The drawing for this one is an eye, because before I can change the world, I need to have a vision that focuses on the right places at the right times.