Day One

As much of a dodge as it sounds like, I probably picked the wrong day to start. Lunch with an old high school friend uptown, eldest of the kids in surgery, three extra folks in the house, at least one of two visiting unpoodles busily demolishing living room flora while everyone was at the hospital, and kids to pick up from the high school, each with a different ultimate destination. I also talked to my boss and picked up 45 minutes worth of work I'll need to get done before about lunchtime tomorrow. I've been interrupted twice just trying to finish this paragraph.

But I tried. I've begun with the handwriting exercises. "First you train, then you practice." Considering how poorly I picked it up the first time through, I'm trying to be patient. That said, I've switched to a new (probably temporary) pen and a new (probably permanent) grip. But even with those minor changes, unless I try to write with balls-to-the-wall speed, my handwriting is now legible--perhaps only barely--to folks who couldn't decipher it before. Tested and confirmed, I promise.

I should have read further this past weekend in Drawing. The last version I worked with required only a pad, a #2 pencil, and pencil maintenance accessories. Now I need the same things but also an 8x10 glass or clear plastic panel, a couple of viewfinders I'll have to make, and some other things including "a nonpermanent black felt-tip marker". I don't even know what that last one is. Nonpermanent on what surface? Can I use a dry erase marker? And why it gotta be black?

Today was a good day. The surgery went fine and the peripatetic teenagers cleaned up the plant mess in the living room before getting to where they needed to go. It just wasn't as good a day for what I'd planned as I'd hoped it would be.

Tomorrow will actually be at the office, so the interruptions will be different, but probably with less impact. I think I'm going to decide the calculus book is just too big to carry into the office with all my other junk, but I think I can get started on the drawing and continue with the handwriting. And tomorrow's a gym day, so I'll have PE at the least.