Almost Melted Away

I know, it's been a while since I last wrote anything. I could use the excuse that I'm too busy, or that it's been too hot, or that I've had to deal with the IRS. All these things are true, but the real reason is that I've been depressed and have not wanted to do much of anything.

Right now, I'm pulling myself up and trying to get back into the swing of things. Eventually, I'll get all the emails answered, and I'll get back to listing on eBay, and I'll get working on my newsletter, and.... Hold it -- that's why I got depressed in the first place. first I get exhausted from trying to do everything, then I get frustrated at not doing it all, and then finally I get depressed.

So, I'm going to try to do some fun, non-art stuff every day. If that means I do less art per day, then fine, because I think in the long run I'll produce more because I won't be taking whole weeks off. Besides, while I do art, I have lots of other interests. When I only do art, I feel lop-sided. If I do some other things, I feel more in balance.

And just in case anyone is curious, here's a short list of my other interests:

• gardening -- I really need to clear off dead brush (for fire protection). Once that is done, I want to plant some fruit trees, maybe a small vegie garden, and a nice flower bed by the patio.
• cooking -- Rather than make my supper a bowl of cereal, I'm going to try to cook balanced meals. It's hard when I'm cooking for just myself and when it's 106 degrees outside, but I do feel better when I spend the time to prepare a nice meal. And if it cools off some, I might even make some jelly or pickles.
• quilting -- While it's hard to think about quilting when it's over 100 outside, I do have 3 large quilts and 2 smaller projects in various stages of completion. I'm not sure what I will do with them when I'm done, but since I do the piecing and quilting all by hand, it will be a long time before I really have to face that question!
• reading -- I'm going to pick out two books -- a fiction and a non-fiction book -- and then read them. (Normally I try to read 4+ books at once and get no where.) The books I'm working on now are The Sophisticate's Primer on Relativity by P.W. Bridgman and Mysterious Cat Stories edited by John Richard Stephens and Kim Smith.
• mathematics -- I like doing math, but I haven't done much for about 10 years now. So, I got out the old calculus book and I'm slowly relearning it. While I can justify this because I might be substitute teaching this fall, the real reason is because I like to do it. And some day I will make my way thru partial differential equations!