BLOGAHOMA

In the month of December before the year was out, we had appliances and electronic equipment breakdown. It all happened within a couple of weeks. Where it began I can’t tell you. It may have been my new smart phone. It just stopped working. I went into my Verizon store and the salesperson (after trying several things) agreed with me I had a defective battery.  Next our printer, not new by any standard, gave out in the middle of our Christmas card printing. We replaced it with a Canon Pixma MG8120.   We did have to wait for it as I ordered it online to get the best price. Some of our recipients got their Christmas card a little late or maybe we should just call it a New Year’s card.  No sooner was that problem solved then refrigerator fan, that had made questionable noises for a long time, gave out in the refrigerator shut down, forcing us to move its contents to our neighbors freezer and our refrigerator items to the screened in porch. Over the next 3 days the repair man, a congenial guy from Mr. Appliance, had to make 3 calls to get  everything working again. Meanwhile my MacBook trackpad decided to stop, altogether, this meant a trip down to Wichita Falls about an hour from us, and several hours waiting. We decided to make the most of our time while were waiting in Wichita Falls lunching at Casa Mañana. Arriving home  we believed,  it was all fixed, but no! The 1st time I tried to export an image via Bluetooth from my smart phone to my computer, I was informed that Bluetooth was not installed! Not that I wanted to see  Wichita Falls again so soon, but we had no choice but to go back. The  Bluetooth in fact had not been connected correctly by the tech (its complicated). It is said that bad luck comes in threes, our breakdowns numbered four. So let’s knock on wood or metal or plastic and welcome in the new year!

At any one time it is not surprising to have peaks and valleys in your life. It is the balance that you come to expect but some years are remarkable for the change that they bring about. One of those years  was 1977. After eleven years in Humorous Planning Department at American Greetings Corp and creating thousands of greeting cards I was ask to draw a ragdoll character, it was to be later to be called Strawberry Shortcake. In 1978 I moved to TCFC (Those Characters from Cleveland) where I no longer drew greeting cards but created toys. We boarded a train that year and took a trip to see the King Tut exhibit in Chicago. My husband followed crafting unique Egyptian themed pieces of jewelry.  It was the year we traveled outside the continent, we flew to England. We became aware of how old mankind was as we visited continuously inhabited places from 12th century, no longer continent bound. In 1977 after a my promotion we moved from a house in Lakewood, OH a suburb I had lived in since 1953 to Fairview Park, a place we would raise our children. That same year our future daughter would be born in Akron, OH. She came to live with us in 1981 when we adopted her.

“You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast”

Forward to 2010. The year Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma came rudely barging in on our life. My husband diagnosed in the summer of the year. Followed by six months of chemo. And now in 2011 struggling with after tremors he is trying to get his feet back under him.

“The carpet too is moving under you”

In 2010 the year my daughter left her teaching position. In 2011, after a year of here and there and helping her dad and helping herself she is actively looking again. She will be landing in a new place with a refreshed sense of self worth.

“Strike another match, go start anew”.

2010 found our son’s thirteen year marriage floundering leading to a separation in 2011. What will follow will assuredly be a changed world for him.

“The lover who just walked out your door,
has taken all her blankets from the floor”

In 2010 my doctor stopped her practice and I moved on to a new doctor. One who prescribed meds to keep my asthma in check. I am back walking in the Park my husband walking along with me. The inclines are harder now but the reason to continue, an insatiable curiosity, still exists.

“Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you”

Note: Lyrics,  Bob Dylan’s It’s All Over Now Baby Blue

Disclaimer: After a 6 month chemo-rama for Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma we’ve learned a few things not gleaned from outside sources these are personal findings. Some are universal other, like I said, are more of who we are.

Chemo-Sabe: I didn’t know what it was going to be like. Was I going to be there for every one of the 24 treatments, 6 reviews with the doctor and 3 scans? As it turned out…. yes. How was I useful? … In an emotional, stand-by-your-man way that counted and and as an extra voice and ear to ask as well as listen.

Friends + Family + Facebook : It turns out that the those that said “we will be there for you” really were, practically for getting us to and from on heavy chemo days but also to ask how things were going and warmly listening. Empathy, prayers, prayer blankets, laughs, good thoughts all counted.

Nurses and Staff at The Leah Fitch Cancer Center of Lawton, OK: Skilled, positive, responsive and caring.

Self Education: Learning all we could about Non Hodgekins Lymphoma, the chemo drugs & their side effects, the blood work and nutrition.

Nook Color eReader: My husband, Michael, got his for Christmas. He is mega reader so he could throw several books on it to read. If he got tired of reading there was crossword puzzles that we completed together, magazine to leaf through on it, or a movie he could watch on it. Note: they do have cable TV in every cubicle but that soon lost its appeal for us.

A Sketch Pad: That was for me. I found I could get lost in drawing and then at the end have something that I could give someone including the nurses on staff.

Fishing Therapy: Monday (and sometimes Tuesday) chemo, Tuesday and Wednesday side effects, by Thursday or Friday Michael went fishing.

Friday night at the Park Tavern: Not for drinking but for socialization.

Rewards: A lunch once and a while, a Medicine Park event, a Marauder shoot out, a cultural trip to OKC for an art show or two.

Not ever losing sight of who we are.

“Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it.”
Robert Motherwell

A side benefit of being an artist is knowing and being friends of other artists. It is a source of joy for me. Artists are brimming with ideas of the plausible, the possible and the impossible. They can be in the midst of fright/ delight, frustrated, frustrating but very rarely bored or boring. It is always show and tell with artist. What is inspiring them, their new direction and what they think you should tackle next. My artist friends need to be reassured that what they are doing is at least good and appreciated. That’s right, an artist may seem to have a healthy ego but under the top coat there is some level of self doubt. The art is the easy part for most of them, the marketing the most difficult. In return they never mock my ideas or ever let on that they think I’m whacky. In my circle of art friends I never have to explain myself.

Stapler Jam

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
Scott Adams

I have all manner of artist for friends, sculptors, draftsmen, graphic artists, naturalists, photographers, assemblage artists, painters, craftsmen, ceramicists and performance artists. I try to applaud and encourage honestly as often as possible when I am not being held captive by my own art. The last show I attended was the reception for Debby Kaspari and her “Drawing the Motmot” exhibit at the Sam Noble Natural History Museum in Norman, OK. Not just a walk through once exhibit for each rainforest painting or drawing was accompanied with beautifully penned journal entry. The show “glowed” thats all I’ll say. “Drawing the Motmot” will be up into January 2010, so go. Then there is Marilyn Artus in Oklahoma City who heads up “Dr. Sketchy” a life drawing extravaganza night out and the “Girlie Show” a showcase for Oklahoma craftswomen as well as finding time creating her own brand of collage images. Her vitality screams “I am Artist hear me roar”.

I have held creative positions in three corporations and have picked up creative friends in every job. And then I have left but thanks to Facebook and Twitter I am still connected to them because of our shared artistic vision, drive, whims and qualms.

Some of my best artist friends are family. A husband Michael who finds the beauty of the surrounding Wichita formations in his oil paintings and gets lost in the clouds in others. Son, Colin Fahrion, whose witty art is visual, written, performing and organized as well. His wife Nifer felts her wooly way with uncommon critters.  Daughter Kim in Tulsa captures places and people through the camera lens, while sister Susan Trentel ambidextrously schemes and seams.

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
Thomas Merton

A lot of my artist friends are on Facebook so I can see what they’re doing on in their art life. I am there to peek at the amazing undercurrents of creativity some of which make it to create great waves of art.

“Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art”
Konstantin Stanislavsky

Quotes from ThinkExist.com

June 3, 1997 began my stint at ebay. It was very early in the game actually before Meg Whitman started! I’m not sure how I found the site but it was quite intriguing. I remembering someone selling a bar of soap with Jesus’ face on it. It sold but not to me. My first purchase was a Rubber Baby Buddha designed by Rose O’Neill of Kewpie fame. A squeaky toy that I learned later was named “Happy Ho Ho” created in 1940.  I payed the starting price of $9 (I was the only bidder) its now worth around $60. Pretty happy with my purchase I decided to sell. We had an old Camel cigarette can from the 30’s that someone had left in our first home, a 1906 late Victorian. We kept pennies in it for years but I photographed it, scanned in the photo (before digitals were affordable) and put it up starting at a penny for the fun of it. It ended at $51. Amazed I asked the guy he would pay that much and he said he would have payed $80. I knew then that this was my game. Part time of course. It also allowed me to buy things, as I haunted the antique shops, that I did not collect but liked enough to sell.

I am not, by the traditional sense of the word, a gambler but ebay is gambling and not for the faint of heart. It’s more than just chance however. To do it right it takes an eye, knowledge and research, decent photographic skills, marketing and follow-up (my husband handles the after sales including shipping). Selling at first was a whim and then it became an income when I was laid off my job. It helped buy the house I live in, helped pay for my daughter’s education, and buy the groceries for a while. Now after thousands of transactions I don’t need to sell but I am back for the fun of it trading out collections for the fun of it. We’ve sold estates and remainders of a closed pawn shop auctioning only antiques, collectibles and art. Hankies, guitars, Kiowa paintings, pottery, furniture and vintage cars have left from here to points where they are appreciated most the time in the US and Canada but also to Europe as well.

So when I buy a photo album for $35 and sell one of the pictures for $400, buy a hanky for $50 and sell it for $140, a tin pail for $70 and sell it for $400 it’s all worth it. Sometimes is not the high price that it goes for it is the thrill of someone receiving it on the other end who’s been looking for IT for a long time.  Oh, our rating, well it’s 100%.

Times Up on Ebay