Mousseline Monday

mousseline ~ very fine glassware

Thursday was a really good day for me last week. First of all, I scored a couple of extra shirts at Tai Chi. When you sign up you get a plain, navy blue shirt with the Taoist Tai Chi logo on it and it’s pretty boring. Even more so when you’re surrounded by people who’ve been doing it for years and they have a variety of “pretty” shirts.

It used to be you could just buy more shirts, but because the Taoist Tai Chi is a charitable organization and the tax laws have since changed, you can’t do that any more. At least not in Canada. If you want a new shirt you pretty much have to go to Florida to buy one.

However, one of the other newbies and I were whining begging asking one of the instructors about new shirts and she just happened to come into possession of several gently used shirts and offered them to us. They weren’t exactly my colours (I took a pale green one and a bright orange one) but beggars can’t be choosers. Squeaky wheel gets the grease! Or in my case the shirt.

The other notable event on Thursday was my poetry reading. One thing I discovered with selecting (and rejecting) poems for the reading is that I have a lot of poetry. I really need to start doing something with it.

The reading went well; I stuck with forms, which is what I do best. And I ended with my favourite form, the parody, just to leave ‘em laughing. Several people came up to me to make positive comments, and the guest poet even told me he’d never heard of several of the forms I used. Go me!

The only other excitement for the week was the trip hubby and I made to Costco on Wednesday. This also included a trip to Chapters where he spent more money than I did (a LOT more) and a quick trip through the mall. We finished it off with dinner at the Keg, using the gift card the grand baby gave us for Christmas.

It’s just a thrill a minute around here, I tell you what. :-D

Miniaceous Monday

miniaceous ~ colour of reddish lead

I’m still waiting for the super cold, super snowy winter the weatherman promised in the fall. We’ve had a couple of really cold days (like Friday when we had extreme cold warnings in effect), but they usually warm right up again the next day. And while Newfoundland has been hit hard with the snow this year apparently they prefer to keep it all to themselves. We haven’t even had enough for a proper snow day.

*sigh*

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve been going to Tai Chi twice a week and I’m finally starting to feel if not like I almost know what I’m doing, then at least less klutzy as I go about it. For the most part it’s a friendly group to be part of, and during one of the breaks I was talking to a couple of ladies about stitchery crafts and next thing I know they invited me to check out their group.

I don’t usually do all that great in new, social situations, but I sucked it up and went to their next meeting. I have to say, I’m glad I did. If I thought the Tai Chi group was friendly, they have nothing on the stitchery group. And talented! Boy howdy those ladies have mad stitching skills.

They were also pretty chatty, and through the course of the morning as they talked about the various other groups they were part of made me realize how insular I’ve become. I didn’t even know most of these other groups existed!

That’s not to say I’m going to run out and join them all, but I will be joining this one. They only meet twice a month and it’ll be a fun way to while away the time. For sure it’s revived my interest in my crafts. I’m not sure when or why I got away from them, but it’ll be nice to use up some of those supplies just gathering dust.

This week I’ve also got a poetry reading to prepare for. I spent Sunday morning struggling over a bio to send the MC. I wish her luck. Compared to most of the other poets who’ve done readings, I’m pretty boring – I’ve lived in the same place all my life and haven’t really done a whole lot. No awards or recognition, just piles of unpublished poems.

Maculose Monday

maculose ~ spotted

You know how some people binge watch a series on Netflix? Well I kind of did the same thing during my unintended absence, only with me it was binge reading. And when I say binge reading, I mean it. I did very little except read since my last blog post.

I bought myself a book late in the fall to save as my reward for completing the National Novel Writing challenge in November. While I did complete the challenge, I didn’t really have a lot of time to read, seeing as how Christmas was looming over me. But after the Christmas madness was over, I pretty much sat down and did nothing but read my new book.

Then I decided I didn’t want the story to end, so I started reading the entire series from the beginning. All thirty of them. It was the Lynsay Sands Argeneau series, in case anyone is curious. And then I started in on several of the Nora Roberts trilogies, most of which I had to buy first. Indigo/Chapters loves me right now. :-)

So . . . what brought on this bout of reading madness? Might have been burn out from the holidays, might have been a symptom of my annual New Year’s depression, might have been my way of escaping the world. Probably a bit of all three. To be honest, I’m not going to worry about it too much seeing as it seems to be passing now.

In any case, that is my explanation for my rather lengthy absence.

Needless to say, the world kept spinning but it was pretty much spinning without me, so I really don’t have much more to say. I’ve go to Tai Chi twice a week, grocery shop once a week, and make family dinner on Sundays. For a brief time I thought about getting a companion cat for Dante (my remaining cat), but I talked myself out of it. Probably for the best.

I don’t really see anything new or exciting on the horizon, so the blog posts may be a little spotty still. I’ve been doing this blog for 12 years now. Could it be I’m finally running out of things to say?