It has been an interesting day. I’ve actually gotten a lot more accomplished than I thought I would. I didn’t have any plans. I have the house to myself for a while during the day, now that my Mom, Dad, and brother have all gone out of town. Thankfully a very kind friend has offered to stay with me every night so I won’t have to be all alone. But, during the day, it’s all mine, I can do what I please, and I don’t have to justify it to anyone.
All that said, what have I done today? I slept in big time. :) I didn’t mean to sleep in as late as I did – I slept through my alarm. I got out of bed at one o’clock in the afternoon. I know, it’s horrible, but I really needed it. I haven’t been sleeping well at all. It takes me hours to get to sleep, so by that point it’s usually two or three in the morning. And then, I have to wake up at a civilized time, because Mom thinks that will get me back on a more normal schedule. And yet, it still hasn’t changed the fact that I end up laying in bed for hours, locked up in my own thoughts. Waking up earlier day after day only makes me more tired. So I slept. I meant to wake up a bit earlier than 1:00pm, but oh well. When I woke up I automatically felt better. Not quite as sick, not quite so glum. I think I may sleep in tomorrow, I think it’s helping.
After I got out of bed, I took a shower, and got all dressed. I played online for a little while. Then, I got bored with that. I wanted to do something. I went downstairs, watched ‘Due South’ on the big screen, and worked on recreating my baby book. After several hours of sorting through photos I got quite tired of that. I ate a sandwich, went back online, and got bored again. I decided I wanted cookies. I burned a CD full of happy-cooking-music, went downstairs, and started pulling out ingredients. Until I realized I didn’t have any unsalted butter, which the recipe called for. I was very disappointed – I had made a CD and everything!
That’s when I realized something very important – Mom’s not around. I can make a mess. I don’t have to justify it. I don’t have to ask. I can just do it! :) What have I been wanting to do, but just haven’t gotten around to doing it yet? Make a grand mess painting!
I pushed the table in the breakfast nook over to the side of the room, took all the chairs out of the way, clearing a huge patch of floor. I put a big drop-cloth down, covering the entire surface. I got all of my paints out of the basement, and lined them up on the drop-cloth next to two blank canvases.
The first canvas I did entirely by hand. Literally. I didn’t start out with any particular image or subject in mind, I just started dipping my fingers into shades of yellow to red paint, and smearing it all over the canvas. Moving and smudging pigments, I eventually ended up with something that looked strongly like a landscape with a sun in between two hills. It looked pretty cool, for coming out of nowhere. I was quite pleased.
After finger-painting and making a great mess of my hands, I decided I didn’t want to mess with paint brushes. I wanted to do something else interesting. That’s when I remembered: Jackson Pollock! He painted with turkey basters, and I’ve always wanted to try that. So I admit, I took the turkey baster out of the kitchen cupboard and started spraying paint all over the canvas! My ode to Jackson Pollock. It turned out a lot better than I thought it ever would. I’ve never been a really great fan of Jackson Pollock, I thought anybody could create what he did. And I still think that, but I have a greater respect for him now – painting like that is SO fun! I spent an hour and a half squirting paint all over that canvas, with big blobs, fuzzy sprays, cool swirls of color. It was fantastic! I love it, I think I want to do another one tomorrow.
When I was half-way through with my Jackson Pollock, my friend came over who was going to spend the night here – Lis. She and I ended up laughing until 10:45 at night, analyzing the painting, trying to figure out if any of the paint blobs looked like anything. It was hilarious!
Then I mentioned that I was going to make cookies, but didn’t have any unsalted butter. Lis gave me a funny look and said, “Which recipe were you following?” So at 11:00 at night, she and I started making cookies with salted butter. Ooooo, were they good! I was very happy – I *really* wanted cookies.
Lis had to go to bed, since she has to wake up for work in the morning. But obviously, I’m still awake. Not surprisingly, I am so not tired. :) I’ve been watching Star Trek episodes from the season seven DVD set that my Dad bought a few weeks ago. Not really paying attention, though.
I don’t know what I’ll do tomorrow. After today, I’m not so worried. I’m sure I’ll find something to do. I might end up going to the movies with Lis, her brother and sister, and a few other friends as well. Or they might just come over here to watch a movie and eat pizza. We’ll see.
