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Intense Conversations

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Over the last few weeks I've had several intense conversations with old friends, the oldest sort, from before high school, people I've grown up with and who know me perhaps better than anyone else ever could. There is no remaking of my story with them, they know my awkward stage, the pain of senior year and the weirdness of my life, but also the joys and happiness I've had. These conversations took place over IM. Formerly I was of the thought that truly intense conversations needed to take place in person and that IM was a poor substitute for a conversation piece. I've always been a fan of going for coffee (for real coffee and not pretend coffee as I've been asked out for) and chatting for hours into the night until the night switches to morning and what you really need is sleep.

So yes, without IM these conversations could never have occurred. One of my friends is serving is 2nd tour in Afghanistan, his 3rd in the Middle East and we usually chat once per tour. The rest of the time its when he's home. The other friend is back in rural Maine. Again, the chat would never have occurred without IM. I hate the phone and avoid it at all costs but I'll tell you now this chat was amazing. We asked questions of one another we may never have if we were in person.

Sure IM sterilizes conversations and sometimes you go to places you may not go if you were not on IM and sometimes, that is a good thing. I realize, without thinking, without qualms that I miss these people in my life. I realize that even in my youth I was a good judge of character and surrounded myself with people whom I shared common themes and joys. We shared much happiness these 2 and I. Never together, but separately together with me we shared good times.

Just when I can't remember anything but bad from high school (Port boys tossing me into lockers, calling me names and my former friend outing me to the school*) something like this occurs and I remember some of those moments of joy and happiness and I"m able to point out that those 4 years I so commonly refer to as "4 Years of Hell" were not all bad and more often than not were full of happiness and joy.

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March is here!

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This past weekend smelled of spring here. Sixty degrees, sun shining and no need for the fireplace, it was a damn near perfect weekend. I even dragged my lazy butt out the door and took the dogs for a short brisk walk. It was great.

I also journaled for the March Art Journal Challenge. The idea is to journal every day for the month, not to finish a page or spread but to journal in some manner everyday. So far so good. I haven't completed a page a day but I have been working in my journal and its pretty good to step back and NOT finish a page, or feel pressure to do so.

I made a journal just for this challenge with just over 30 spreads in it but it looks like it's going to take me longer to fill it than normal. I used stonehenge paper and while I like it for larger work or watercolor it's a little more difficult to use with pen and ink. I may switch to a different media for the rest of the journal, or gesso the pages, or seal them somehow. I like the journal a lot though.

I have not been making many journals lately. I've been focusing mostly on art, journaling, ning and getting ready for grad school. Part of it is a trade off but part of it is also burn out. I used to make a lot of journals, it was a large part of my income. Now it's much less so and I'm okay with that. I've still got a ton of journals up on artfire,if you are interested, and I'm going to continue to make them but less of them. Last night I had an idea for making some larger one of a kind books using mostly recycled materials. I made a test book, it's rough but if I like how it turns out I'll make a few more. They will be pricey but hopefully worth the cost. What I've got so far in this one is neat. I'll post some pics tonight or tomorrow. I realized that I also like working on pages that are not white. There is a whole thread on artjournaling.ning.com about junk journals and much of the discussion is about working on pages that are not blank.

The Challenge is going really well, lots of discussion and sharing of images in the group. Anyone can join, it's a free workshop and there is plenty of room. It's a no pressure kind of group, few rules other than cracking open that journal everyday. head on over!