100 Days toward a healthier life - Day 31

Breakfast:  Nothing
Lunch #1:  Taco place, medium-sized burrito, water
Lunch #2:  Wendy's BLT salad, half dressing, 4 french fries, diet cola
Lunch #3:  Nachos, big serving, made from real and mostly scratch ingredients, amazing chips, grilled flank steak, queso fresco, avocado, onions, tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro, water, diet cola
Dinner:  Nothing yet, but will likely have microwave popcorn and a Snapple or two, the no-sugar ones.  Note:  Added to say that I had a Snapple, did not make popcorn, but did broil a small steak that was about to go bad.  Whew...waste averted.

So, anyway, no breakfast because I knew that there would be at least two lunches today.

Meeting, mentoring, meeting.  All three were between 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.  Yikes!

I was really hungry for lunch #1, so I had a smallish burrito, not the huge ones they sell there.  I was feeling not too bad about it, at least it had beans, lettuce and tomatoes.

Lunch #2 was with my mentee.  Today was our last session of the school year.  She made a card and envelope for her mother's birthday and I gave her a pen, a click-able ball point, and asked her what other gift could come along with a pen.  She guessed paper and a book, and she was correct.  Both of those things were in the scrap-booking box that contained enough art materials to see her through the summer vacation.  She really, really liked it, but she did not like it even half as much as I enjoyed sharing and giving it to her.

The third lunch was with a gallery owner who wants me to exhibit at her place.  I am not doing that any more.  It is a long and boring story, but another gallery fucked me over in February and I do not seem to be making any forward movement in getting over it.  You know, it is difficult for anyone, engaged in any kind of work that is meaningful to them, when it, their work, is not appreciated.

It is a universal human experience.  We do what is important to us.  Yeah, we do it for the money, but if we are lucky, we also get to do it for love of the work, or at the very least, find a way to wrestle some decent experience out of a less fabulous job.

I am not saying, nor do I even believe, that art is any different from other work.  They are all the same.  We do good work, we appreciate being appreciated, we expect a fair wage/payment/fee.  It is as simple as that.  Well, no, it is as complicated at that!

So, when someone who is like, oh, the boss or supervisor or manager or gallery person, when they screw you every way possible and then expect you to thank them for it, it does not matter if you are plucking chickens, selling books or exhibiting your art.

Like I said, I no longer exhibit.  But, I did have those wonderful nachos.  She wanted to meet at her gallery and it was so hot here today, that we went to the mall where she had something fixed at Radio Shack and we ate at one of the food places, run by a family and using their own recipes.  If you want fast food, this is not where you will find it.

And, that is how I came to have three lunches in four hours in one day.

I am going to spend Sunday with my daughter, where we will go to her church, send the boys off to a car show, and then go off to do womanly things together...lunch and a gun show.  They do not let you shoot any, although it is being held in a community center and they could easily set aside a couple of the bowling lanes with targets, just saying.  Anyway, on-site shooting aside, I am looking forward to trying out a wider variety of product than I can find in a shop.  As a child I was a member of the national association, long before Charleston Heston messed them up, although, in the interest of truth, he did not do it alone.  I shot skeet as a young adult, shotguns, 22 rifles and pistols.  I kind of miss it.  I have to share, though, that I have had my eye on an awfully nice Sig Sauer, even though it might be out of my price range.

And, I am watching again, right now, Jane Goodall's When animals talk, and it is at the part where they are showing how giant, pouched rats (about the size of a house cat and very placid) are trained to scent out all the left-over land mines (more than 40 million from decades of conflict) in Africa.  I love rats and had forgotten how endearing this big rats are.  Is it selfish of me to want one?  I mean, I really, really want one.  Sigh.

All in all, a good day.

My daughter said that I sounded close to healthy today, which I am feeling and hope that this keeps moving in that direction.

I had three lunches!

No one tried to mess with me.

I am running out of stockpiled GPs, so here is another angel.  I saw one of those wooden shapes that you can paint or color of tart up any way you like.  I am not buying much these days, save for travel, but I liked the shape and so I drew my own, more suited to July, but here it is: If you feel patriotic and you know it, clap your hands.