Solstice 2019

It’s been a minute since I’ve written here.

I’ve had a good pattern of devoting my creative energy to my daily drawings. Writing has taken a backseat unless it’s calligraphy.

But since it’s the Solstice, it’s a nice time to reflect and preview events.

The school semester has gone by so quickly. Things have been going well enough. Chemistry feels dry, and I think the kids are feeling that too. I’ve been trying to find engaging ways to teach the standards, but it’s been hard. We’ll have more labs in the upcoming quarters so I think that will help. The first time you teach any class, you figure out the rough spots.

For Biology, I wish my students would focus more on Biology than on their phones, socializing, and/or messing around. Some work really hard, but a lot of them choose distractions and it’s hard to wrangle all of that all of the time. I also have this wish for Chemistry, but it’s generally not so bad in those classes.

I’ve been feeling pretty balanced. There were a lot of days last quarter that I brought work home, but I didn’t do it. I just didn’t feel like it, and it didn’t happen. Yet the job got done just the same. Students just had to wait a bit to get their work back, and often that work was late anyway.

I’ve been doing a daily art challenge since the beginning of October. That’s an 82-day streak for those who are counting!

It’s been satisfying to keep that up. I finished a sketchbook, and I’ve been including my drawings from that book with my Solstice cards. I’m sure some folks will think it’s weird to get a picture of a pineapple (or whatever) with their HAND CALLIGRAPHIED (!) Solstice card. But I’m sending them just the same. I’ve been trying to choose drawings I think the recipient will like.

Oh, I decided to hand calligraphy my Solstice cards this year. That’s been an undertaking. Seriously, if someone charges $5 for a hand-crafted greeting card, pay it. You are getting a hella deal. There’s so much that goes into making that! Penciling in guidelines to keep the text straight. The actual calligraphy work. Praying to the gods that you don’t accidentally catch a fuzzy or hair (which will cause the ink to blob) while doing it. (It only happened a few times.) Paying attention every moment, so you don’t make a “typo.” (There ain’t no backspace for a calligraphy typo once it’s in ink.)

After creating so many cards, my lettering is getting more even. I’m pretty proud of them and hope the recipients appreciate them. Even thinking about broadening out and making my services available to earn some extra cash!

The last day of school was yesterday, so I’m officially on break. The main thing on my mind for the next few weeks is a bike tour from Key West to Fort Lauderdale. Planning the logistics of this has been interesting. Apparently we should have started planning 6 months ago, because things are packed down there. We were going to take the Key West Express, but I waited too long to get the tickets, so it booked up. Now we’re taking a rental car instead. I’m hoping we don’t run out of gas, since we’re going to do a red-eye drive down there to beat the holiday traffic. People have warned me that not all of the gas stations are 24 hours. Hopefully we can find enough that are…

It will be an adventure! After we get to Key West, we’ll explore for a day and then start riding northeast. We’ll ride for five days, camping at state parks along the way. We’ll end up in Ft. Lauderdale on New Year’s Eve if all goes well, and hang with my mom and uncle. We’ll chill on New Year’s Day and then take the Amtrak back on 01/02/2020.

I’m disappointed we missed the opportunity to take the ferry. It would have been cool to travel via ferry, bike, and train. Not meant to be, I guess.

So the next few days will be getting ready for the trip and relaxing. I might sneak a little work in there, but honestly, it’s not looking very likely.

Oh, some work friends got me into rock climbing. I got a free two-week membership to the rock climbing gym along with my belay class, so I’ve been trying to get my money’s worth out of that. I really enjoy it! It’s challenging. It will definitely help me increase the strength in my arms, since they get left behind when I’m cycling. It definitely challenges my comfort zone, though it’s not as scary as I first might have thought. Bouldering (climbing rocks with no harness or anything) is super intimidating to me. I did a really easy one yesterday, but haven’t tried much else yet with that. But I’m excited to challenge myself with this.

I’m looking forward to 2020. I’ve even decided on my theme! But I’ll save that for another post.

Happy Solstice! Tomorrow the day will be a little longer than it was today. May that light bring love, joy, and service into your life!