So, Becky, being part cheeky and part helpful, pointed out that if I wanted to send her an anniversary card that hers is coming up next week. Heck, I don't even send my parents anniversary cards. However, I have had in mind the idea to send a card to my step-father and the stock I planned to use is a two-per-page stock instead of one.
Let me back up. No, I did not donate any of the folded card stock that I have in my office supplies. And, to be transparent and completely honest, in a strange sort of happenstance, the very day I mentioned my long-time desire of getting a color printer, I finally found the very one I have been looking for over several years. My criteria: a single function color laser printer that automatically duplex prints. And, frankly, I'm an HP kind of girl. Too many years serving as deficit office IT proved to me that when all is said and done, HP printers have the best drivers and when it comes to printing from myriad sources, it's all about the drivers. Also, and of course this is key, I've wanted to spend exactly half the cost of any color laser printer I spec-ed out over my rather lengthy search. It was a maddening search. Now that I found the very printer I dreamed of, temptation abounds. The old Myrtle would have used making a card for my stepfather as an excuse to just pluck down the money and worry about how everything would work out later. The new Myrtle has started trying to figure out just where it is that I can squeeze out $232.
The card for my stepfather ... he retired last Friday. Actually, I missed the window of when I wanted the card to arrive out west, but I think that anyone who gets a card from me should 1) give me brownie points for getting my scattered brain together long enough to make it, write, address it, stamp it, and get it out to the mail box and 2) remember that I have a scattered brain.
Anyhow, my stepfather does not do change well. He still holds the record for the fastest Ph.D. in his rather difficult field at Ohio State. He has published many articles. And he has many patents. He's spent his career traveling the world and wowing folk. I am most certain than anyone he's ever worked with or for or taught or interacted with in any professional fashion would swear than I am lying when I say that change leaves that brilliant, highly accomplished man quivering in his boots, trying to hold the little bits and pieces of his fragile, scared self together.
Now, I have come to rather strongly believe that folk need to accept the frailties of others. So he doesn't do change well. No matter. He ultimately gets through it and plunges into the next phase of his life. So he doesn't do change well. We all ... every last one of us ... have things we just don't do well. Some of us, ahem, have an entire laundry list of things we don't do well. But whether it be one or two frailties or an entire cargo ship of them, we really need to be kinder and gentler and more accepting. Period.
So, I got in my mind of actually making and sending a card.
I have dreams, unattainable dreams, of being that artsy, crafty, scrapbooking kind of card maker. I am not. I also have dreams of one day become adept at graphics design, moving beyond my beginner capabilities. I never will. Still, I want that darned color printer so I can use my meager skills and approximately 200 blank cards for the computer to make cards that say what I mean them to say, rather what card companies tell me what I should think or feel.
My parents are off to Ireland, so the card will be even later than I would like. Still, I finished it off late last night and put it out for the mail man. The mail man, who, incidentally, keeps delivering mail from another street to me. At least he/she picks up what I leave out. How can I get that delivery problem corrected???
I would like to wait to mail Becky and Gary's card until it is closer to being next week, but if I lay it out to mail later, it will be late or late late or late late late. So, they are both outside waiting to be collected, sorted, and sent on their way.
Don't get me wrong. These are still dweeby cards. For my stepfather's card, I used the veins of a leaf as a background, thinking I would make the image transparent and color them, blending the colors of the lifecycle of a leaf. My attempt at coloring was so embarrassing that I actually burned it in the fireplace. On top was the word change, designed to look like a scrap of paper torn out from something. I feathered the word into transparency, so that by the end of the word you were focusing on the leaf.
The life of a leaf is a life of change. Having spent a lifetime as a writer absolutely despairing over my utter dearth of figurative language, I was pretty darned proud of myself for coming up with a metaphor. I wonder ... will he get the metaphor?
Inside, I found this great graphic that stated: "Change is a process, not an event." The background is footprints being washed away by the tide coming in on the beach. Just perfect for him. I wanted to shout: It's okay to struggle with change! I think I did.
Becky and Gary's card is more dweeby, but it's the thought that counts, eh??????? I did dig up an ancient photo of the two of them that I just love and use it in my design. IF I had that color printer, Becky would have been most happy because one of the graphics I used was in ORANGE, her favorite color. Maybe when it comes she can see it as orange, will it to be so to her eyes.
Amos, well, he was not pleased with me. Having gone to my appointment, having had the audacity to abandon him, I should have given him my full attention all night long. His passive-aggressive canine self spent the whole time I was working on the cards trying to drape his snoring self atop me whilst I was sitting up. Silly puppy dog.
"Myrtle, why did to stay up so late working on the cards when you could have just done them today?"
"I would have forgotten."
I did remember to take a photo of the first honeysuckle buds. I just cannot wait until they bloom!! Funny, isn't it, that the focal point in the photo is the veins of the leaf when I used the veins of a leaf as a metaphor on my card? For that reason, I feel no photographic shame for the missed focal point. After all, I'm an imperfect person.
I did, however, manage to be very, very, very firm with myself and not paint today. I rested. Doing nothing. Zilch. Nada. Well ... I did take some photos of the weighted blanket that Becky wanted and I mailed some shark teeth to her son. But on a Myrtle labor scale of 1-10, I still consider that a big fat ZERO.
To be honest, mostly the resting is because last night I rolled over in bed, but my left foot did not. Yes, I sprained it lying down. SIGH. When I am really, really, really tired, my joints become too lose. Good thing that when I did all that downsizing, I kept my drawer full of braces (wrists, knees, and ankles), my sling, and my walking cast.
But. But I prefer to give myself credit for exercising the will power not to paint on this first cool day after days and days of STINKING HOT weather. We are back to Spring, having dipped our toes into the dog days of high Summer.
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