FOUND! Artist Date, Week 4

This week I bought myself a FOUND magazine. I've wanted one ever since a fellow improviser had one at a rehearsal about 4 years ago. I could hardly focus on the work at hand, I wanted to delve into that mag so badly!

The plan: wait for nice weather and enjoy it on the patio with 500 mile chai tea in this chaiwallah, a housewarming present that Emily brought me from her last trip to Portland. I really liked the idea of connecting with the thought of her during my Artist Date because we had our Week 3 meeting by phone and frankly it kind of sucked. We need to meet in person!

It was AMAZING... I can't even describe it, but just think back to the last time you were doing something you REALLY enjoyed JUST BECAUSE YOU WANTED TO. That's what it was like.

O'Malley was out in his new collar, exploring and occasionally checking in sweetly... "you still here, mom? could you maybe pat me? but don't pick me up, okay? somebody might see you!"

We had our first encounter with a local squirrel who was chattering angrily at O'Malley for about 10 minutes while I watched bemused from the patio. This squirrel was seriously bawling out my cat. I was torn between not wanting to miss it and wanting to run inside and grab my phone so I could get some video footage. After a couple of minutes it became clear that I was not really in danger of missing it because this squirrel had a major beef with O'Malley!

Actually, the squirrel has good reason to be upset because yesterday, tree removers took down the pine tree that used to block our kitchen window. It was dying, but I loved to watch the squirrels use it as transportation from the creek to our roof... and maybe some of them were living in it. I wish I'd been home when they cut it down, because maybe I could have looked for squirrel nests and... what? Saved all the unhatched squirrel eggs, of course! ;)

After about an hour, I decided to follow up on some gardening. I repotted the rose bushes I got from Emily's husband Tim last week. I mixed my potting soil with coffee grounds and fertilizer before gently separating one bush from the other. I wanted to apologize to them as I heard their tiny, tender roots ripping apart. I wanted to speak the language of roses so I could explain that it was for the best, and that they would really thrive on having more room to grow.

I know there's probably a million gardening blogs by master green thumbs with way better allegories for how gardening is like life, but I couldn't help reflecting on how change, no matter how painful, almost always make way for growth into something new and better!

RIP Tree. I wish I had a better picture, but we hardly knew ye!