Toyed with the idea of saying "Sweet F.A." (Love and Rockets joke) and driving to NYC tonight to see Poptone play. I hate turning the big 50 next month knee deep in school work and doing nothing fun to celebrate. The idea of a party makes me uncomfortable as I am not the most social of butterflies, but doing something fun would be good. This morning though, as sweet Til rolled over, yawned, untangled himself from the blankies long enough to get a belly rub, and Toby sat up on the bed and seemed to not really know where he was or what time it was (imagine...no light, no dark, no sound, no sight) -- I just couldn't do it. Canine elderhostel needs routine and care, not chaos. Having these three canine knuckleheads here together is precious, and increasingly I think it is on borrowed time (especially with the Tobster.)
I keep making jokes about "When Toby's gone I will..." -- and it involves deep cleaning and replacing many things in my home -- but know that I will miss the old smelly lug terribly and want to make sure he is as happy and secure as he can be at this difficult stage of his life. Just watching him go down the flight of stairs from my bedroom every morning is a testament to bravery and resilience, and I now understand why he arrived on this planet with a willfulness, stubbornness, and persistence to thrive despite so many physical obstacles. Yesterday he stayed upstairs sleeping on my bed for about an hour all by himself. He NEVER would have done that when he wasn't deaf and blind. He is definitely slowing down. Adapting, but slowing down. I won't leave him alone now as it would really stress him out. He's be looking for me at the usual times and...not good. Sigh. Motherhood.
The Poptone show will be fabulous, though. It's been 35 years since I've seen most of this music played live. 35 years. Get your head around that. If I'm anxious about hitting 50, I can remember that Daniel Ash just turned 60 and is still rocking. The artistic icons of my youth are still inspiring greatness!
On the artistic note, had a wonderful week with a great group of middle school kids working in sketchbooks and trying out lots of creative drawing ideas. What a blast! I'd love to do more middle school small group classes. Maybe two week Saturday sessions on specific topics might be fun. It is rejuvenating and fun to work with kids, and adds to the excitement for the upcoming school year.
Artistically I have still so many things to complete to reach my summer goals, but I'm getting there. I want to start a series of collage canvases, too, that I've "seen" in my mind's eye, that are begging to be created. It is nice to balance the "quick" process of collage on canvas with the labor intensive and persnickety nature of textiles. If only there was more time...the RA bus hit me for the past three days and put a damper on things, so hoping today is better. Game on! With Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, and Tones on Tail as the soundtrack. In vinyl! Cheers.