phenomenon

Hello and happy Illustration Friday, where this week's prompt is the open-ended "Phenomenon".

So I tried to get a little abstracty-ish mysterious-ish weirdy-ish and ended up with this-ish (solar eclipsy-ish). But call it whatever you want.

Either way, it's nice to be back into the weekly pattern. I totally missed last week's entry, but I was in the aforementioned throes of work busyness and technical issues with a bit of laziness thrown in. I hope that was just a rare and unnatural phenomenon.

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and another thing...

I mentioned the internet connectivity issues (which are hopefully fixed now - crossin' my fingers) keeping me from regular blog time. The other piece of it is...

I'm a little burnt out on computer time. See, there's the online class that's going on. It's 4 hours/session, 4 sessions/week. Then there's the stressed out online tutor students. That's a lotta computer time for me. And I'm still doing my computer based Spanish... Yo estudio espanol de la computadora!

SO, that means that when I'm not teaching and I'm not learning, and I'm not dealing with Tech Support, it's time to JUST WALK AWAY. In other words, all this responsible behavior is keeping me from my slacker hobby of blogging.

Be clear, however, that it will not last. The class ends this week. Big test this Saturday, so stressed or not, the tutor students are done. And I have little work on the horizon until after the New Year.

In the words of Arnold The Terminator... (right, like I would really say it)
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virtually real

Hey, remember me?

Ack, it's been a week. We're having troubles with our internet service. Really, the troubles aren't THAT bad, if we were just regular subscribers, but they're wreaking havoc on my online classrooming.

So, I've been on the phone lots with tech support. They probably see the caller ID, and think "oh crap, it's her again...", but geesh, who do I gotta sleep with to get a reliable connection around here?!?

Anyway, we're switching providers. I think I've given the current crew - won't mention any names, but rhymes with "BOMB BLAST" - more than three strikes. They're out. New guys' time to shine. The switch happens on Monday. All this in the middle of a 4-week long online class. I've got a 2-hour online tutor session later this afternoon. I'm just hoping the ship holds together for that.

BUT OTHER THAN THAT.... it's been good times as usual around here.
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savor

What? Already Tuesday? I totally missed my Illustration Friday entry for last Friday. But, since that is just a self-imposed rule, I figure it's okay for me to break it... this time.

I was just savoring the Holiday time off with the family, so that's appropriate, right? Since this week's prompt is "savo(u)r"?

Of course, "savor" doesn't just apply to food. It's to "appreciate" or "luxuriate in" well... anything. Still, I chose the food thing, particularly a chef savoring his own food. How many times do we, as "chefs", take the time to savor those things we've mainly created for others' enjoyment?

Go make a sammich.
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Thanksgiving

Yesterday, I came upon this on the fridge "to do" whiteboard:

I guess Chaco felt he needed to put it up there in case I forgot or something. (Note: I added the hatchet as it was missing and I felt that step was important).

Of course, it's not about the turkey, not really. It bothers me when people refer to Thanksgiving as "turkey day". I just want to grab them by the lapels and shout, "It's not about the turkey, you ingrate!", but I don't.

Either way, I am thankful for the turkey who gave its life and is now roasting away in the oven.

But I am most sincerely grateful for friends I've met through this blog. Really, just know that I would gladly take a bullet for any one of you.... but maybe not in the head, but in like an arm or leg or something.

Abby

xoxoxoxo

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inflation

Okay, yesterday I gloated about having all my Thanksgiving fixin's on hand. That wasn't entirely true. I need to do a run for yams and Cool Whip sometime today. Nothing like the grocery store on Thanksgiving eve. Sure to be every woman for herself. I do enjoy cooking, just rarely make it a priority, and the family is usually appreciative when I do.

Maybe along those lines, but not necessarily so, I recently learned about a new-to-me artist: Fernando Botero. Recall that I recommended the movie City Island a few days ago. Have you seen it yet? Why not!?! Oh well, in the movie, there's a side plot that involves Botero. I had no idea who or what this was referring to necessarily. I meant to look it up afterwards out of curiosity, but I guess it wasn't all that important. Nevermind, because in an almost eerie, coincidental, synchronistic way, Chaco educated me.

Chaco had an assignment in his spanish class. He needed to put together a presentation of sorts about an artist. He chose Fernando Botero at random from a list. I came upon him as he'd begun working on the project. He was clearly not a Botero fan.

"This isn't art, it's just a bunch of fat people!" Curious, I went to see what he was talking about, and that's where I learned about Fernando Botero.

"BOTERO!! That's the reference in that movie we just watched! Now I totally get it!"

Surprisingly, Chaco was not as flabbergasted as I was at this amazing coincidence.

I've since learned a bit more about him. In the art world, he's known for these "inflated images", but the non-politically correct, Chaco's "fat people" is pretty much Botero's trademark.

I've come to rather like these plump people. I doubt I would hang them on the walls of my house, those are reserved for my children's masterpieces. But a greeting card or two is not out of the question, provided the plump people are not naked or being tortured.

And maybe it's the odd coincidence of Chaco's assignment with my seeing "City Island". Or maybe it's the humor I find in Chaco's presentation. Or maybe it's that I will be a cooking fool tomorrow.

Either way, I find Botero roundly amusing today.


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I don't want to work

but I don't necessarily want to bang on the drum all day either, so I guess I'll work.

The kids are off of school all week, so there's laziness in the air. I'm not used to this. I'm used to them trudging off to school each morning, only to return HOURS later. But NO, they just keep hanging around!

Actually, I don't really mind it. It's nice to have no set schedule and just relax a bit as fall rolls in. I do have one class going right now, but tonight is our last session for this week, so it's manageable. And, impressing even myself, I got all of my Thanksgiving fixings last week. I don't know what came over me, but I was grocery shopping and just added that stuff to the cart.

And now, I'm pretending to work.

Meego is entertaining two friends. They wanted to play video games. They wanted to play video games on the video game system that is just a few feet away from where I am sitting. Just a few feet away from where I am sitting and currently relishing in the fact that there are no video game noises coming from anywhere near me.

So I told them, "not right now, I'm working", which I'm clearly not doing, but putting on a pretty goood show of. And so they're playing Life.

I may have mentioned here that we never got on the Santa Claus bandwagon with our kids. Just didn't want to lie to them.

This is WAY different.
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