I’ve taken the last couple of days off of work. The first day was for a long overdue dental appointment (yuck) and the second was to deal with the publishing of the zine. Publishing went far smoother than I had expected so I decided I was going to congratulate myself on a job well done by taking a walk to a coffee shop. I had to decide if I wanted the familiar hipster din of Atomic or the relative anonymity of Starbucks. I decide to go to Atomic because I could walk in less traffic and go to the bank without going out of my way, and uh, way better coffee, local business blah blah blah, yay for killing 4 birds with one stone.

In accordance with my new health goal, inspired by Paula, Journal Fodder Junkies, and goaded by my Doctor, I walked, briskly to both the bank and Atomic. I walked in and instead of the typical hipster din I was greated by 3 fiddles and an acoustic guitar! What a pleasant surprise. I’d planned on working on my fountain pen class and another class I’ve got in the works. I couldn’t help myself, I got out my new Uniball needle tipped pens and started to sketch the fiddlers and the guitarist. My coffee came up and I decided to really just sketch, forget the working, I can catch up on that tomorrow! After all, laundry can wait!

Normally when I’m sketching at the coffee shop I fill one page or so in an hour and I get bored then leave. Tonight I sat and sipped my Americano (black) and sketched for nearly 2 hours. I filled 8 pages, 2 were kind of duds that I added color to and salvaged when I got home. The sketches were done on location from life and I added the watercolor later.

I had nearly forgotten how uplifting it is to see some talented people make great music together. Apparently these fiddlers and the guitarist get together and jam at Atomic Cafe every other Friday night. I know I’ll be going again! (I've taken to calling it Fiddle Jam.)