It’s early Saturday morning and I found myself laying in bed thinking about the past week. Might as well get up and capture my thoughts in my blog rather than have them lift off into the ethers, I figured. So here I sit, with a cup of tea, ready to recall the week.
The week started off great as I had been inspired by a lovely hike Mark and I had taken on Sunday at the Marin Headlands. The weather was perfect: sunshine, blue sky, mid 60’s temps. As we hiked up the switchbacks, we’d catch incredible views of the City, Bay and Golden Gate Bridge then would be back focused on the hill above us, see wildflowers and eventually came to a valley where we sat for awhile (I sketched). I was so happy to be outside on a hike (it had been awhile) that I happily touched all sorts of things…flowers, plants, trees. Mark commented that I better be careful, I wouldn’t want to get Poison Oak again. “I won’t get that”. Famous last words. I woke up Tuesday morning scratching my left eye, ear and nose. Couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me till later in the day when I recalled the blistering and oozing was reminiscent of the Poison Oak I had contracted over a year ago after a hike. This time, thankfully, I had a Dr. I could call. By Weds midday I had a shot in my arm and prescriptions called into Walgreens. I’m still a bit itchy (almost looks like bitchy!) but ever so grateful for “better living through drugs” or some such quote that Rob Karp would say!
I’ve been lucky enough to work with Charles Spencer of the San Francisco Small Business Development Center. He’s a consultant and assists people in writing (crafting) their business plans. It is a process. Though I’ve been “in business” in that I’m printing cards and selling them, I want to be in a “healthy” business that can sustain itself financially as well as grow to the huge vision I hold for it. As I told Charles yesterday, I need to get focused because I continue to have all sorts of ideas of what I want to do (licensing my work, finding people to partner with, creating different product etc..) not to mention the more practical aspects of marketing (develop mailing campaign targeting the COVR and Hospital mailing lists) and just entering orders and shipping them out. Last week in our meeting, Charles asked me how much I was painting. A simple question. The answer however was not much. It had been a few weeks since I’d even picked up my brushes and lifted the lid on my watercolor palette, I confessed. Charles suggested that I should be painting 2 hours a day (gulp). I countered with I knew I needed to get painting in my day but had yet to do that. I also commented that I’ve always had a commitment to exercise and even considered that it was interesting that I still work out consistently 5-6 times per week but I don’t make painting the same priority?!? Monday morning found me at my kitchen table painting instead of at yoga. I was pretty pea-picken proud of myself for sitting down to paint at least 3 days out of the 5, once for 2 hours, the others an hour apiece. It was also easier to choose painting rather than working out because of the poison oak situation. I’ll be itching to get out there and run when the rain stops as my mental health needs the exercise as much as my body. At least I was much more conscious of my time management (or lack thereof) this past week. I’m going to try and keep time management front and center in my daily practice of work. Thanks Charles!
The accomplishing stuff came about because of my awareness of time management. I did accomplish some tasks I had been putting off but needed to attend to. I’ve got a few more of those on my list and hope to cross them off by end of week next week.
The week ended with an incredible evening of jazz. Mark and I went to see Paula West at the Rrazz Room last night. Nothing better than listening to musicians who put their heart and soul into their music. I love capturing the feeling in my sketchbook.
Attached photos from the hike that led to the poison oak!