Never A Day In May

Whew. I never thought we'd get through that Everyday in May theme, did you? You can't imagine how difficult if was for me to go for an entire month without drawing.

What ... you mean I got it backwards? We were supposed TO DRAW every day in May? Oh dear.

Okay, so I did say to some of you at the end of April that I was looking forward to the Everyday in May challenge. And I really was! But you know how it goes -- the minute you say something like that, THAT is when Murphy walks through the door.

Here's what's going on in my world:

RuPaw the cat is still around, but has more bad days than good days. We are giving him subcutaneous fluids, which makes our house look at bit like a kitty hospital. Some days he will eat regular cat food, other days we have to resort to baby food (turkey is his favorite); tonight he nearly fell over with excitement about a few bits of leftover orange roughy grilled with teriyaki sauce, which made Doug and I feel a bit guilty about not leaving him more leftovers! At his lowest point he wasn't eating anything and I accidentally discovered a mixture that perked him up considerably -- Karo syrup mixed with a big spoonful of mayonnaise and evaporated milk. Yep. Nasty sounding, isn't it! But he lapped it right up. Every now and then I will still give him a spoonful of mayo, just because he likes it so. Still, I don't think we have too much longer with our buddy, and I don't think I'm going to put him through any more doctors.

Sadly, my sister lost her most excellent of cats last weekend after a long bout with kidney disease, too. Mackenzie had been Kathy's cat since she was a kitten and from the time Kathy was in her first apartment in a city all by herself. She was a great cat.

I never talk much about work, but anyone who works in the nursing home and rehab fields will know what a big deal it is that we had our annual state survey a couple of weeks ago. Lots of disruptions, but work still had to be done, so it meant a lot of late evenings for me. The very next week, we had a major corporate audit that had been scheduled, but that we didn't get much notice for. At the same time, I had two new staff members start -- one the week before the state survey, and one the week after -- so I was knee deep in orientation and training! What did I really do Everyday in the month of May? Work. That's what I did. Work. Lucky for me, I really love my work, and it feels like it is finally getting back to an even keel. (Who is that knocking on the door? -- please, not Murphy again!)

Around the house we've really been working on the yard this year. The landscaping is showing the effects of the drought we've had here the past few years. I lost at least one huge rhododendron, and probably will lose a second. Several small flowering bushes and trees didn't make it through the winter, and even the day lilies look worse for the wear so far this year. We cleared out several very big shrubs and small trees, and pruned the rest down more than we normally do to give things a fighting chance to recover. I also started a bit of a vegetable garden along the back of the house between the stumps of glory holly. If it goes well, we'll dig the stumps out. If it doesn't, we'll let the shrubs come back! Ahhh... but the hardest part of the summer yard work is DONE, and we can just enjoy it now.

Art-wise, I submitted a couple of pieces to a juried show, and both were accepted. Miss Vanilla Cupcake went in (finally finished, matted, and framed!) along with an acrylic painting of a cloud on the beach in Destin. Diahn submitted three pieces and all three of hers were accepted, also. We had a big laugh about how calm we were this year compared to last year, when it was our very first juried show!

My art class also did a collaborative project, making a shoe shaped book, with everyone submitting an original watercolor page. One of the guys in class teaches bookbinding, so he put the whole thing together just beautifully. We were featured in the local newspaper, and the book was auctioned off this weekend with the proceeds going to benefit the art center. I just heard this afternoon that the book went for $400 -- a nice donation to the center!

Now. I'm not going to promise a drawing every day in June. Not even close. But I hope I'll be doing a bit more than I did in May! And, while the month was BUSY with unexpected events, most turned out okay -- so I'm not complaining! Me and Murphy get along just fine in the end ... :-)

Murphy's Law Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law

http://www.murphys-laws.com/ (Offering all of Murphy's Laws in one place)

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_Law (from the "content free encyclopedia" -- whatever that means!)

Painting at top -- 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" watercolor on 300# HP paper -- "Seaside, Florida -- Spring Break, The Postcard Series, #1 (Beach Houses)"