But finished at last!
I’ll be sealing the Dock and the Lighthouse tomorrow and setting up new Diamond Paintings. It’s too hot for anything else.
Try to keep cool everyone!
Category: Diamond Painting
So the groove is coming back!
But…
Remember how Linda had the coloring prompt? It kind of faded for a lot of us. I still want to, but find the setting up and needing a place to comfortably color difficult. Instead, my husband got into the coloring apps. He even found an app that does surprise pictures. There is no outline of shapes in the picture. You just tap the number of the corresponding color. Eventually, there’s a picture. It’s funny/cute when he and I are coloring together. Retirement has it’s surprises!โค๏ธ
After I tire of a game or two, while listening to my audiobook,ย I start coloring. I started the above last night. My eyes got tired so I finished this morning even before coffee. ‘Masquerade’ from Phantom of the Opera played in my head as I finished.
Though I’ve not done much knitting, I did manage 45 minutes on the stationary bike then played a couple pieces on the piano. Yay!
The groove still sits empty. No bike, no walk, once with recorders–maybe when I finish writing this. A couple nights with the new Enya Ukulele. No piano. Haven’t straightened or sealed Dock Diamond Painting.
New slipper socks are moving along.
So maybe this blog of self-awareness is keeping me honest to myself.
ADHD plays a part here. Flitting from idea to idea gets nothing done. Before I left the obsessive side was helping to get things done. And the arthritis side kept me from getting to the point of being crippled from any one hobby.
The only obsession this week has been finishing my old Sudoku book and reaching
On the other hand, it’s been nice to hang out with my husband this week.
Okay now time for Enya.
Yay! The dock is finished. It still needs to be straightened and sealed. Soon, it will see its new owner.
Having a timeline for my hobbies is hard for my ADD brain and arthritic fingers. I find having a lot of variety helps me get things done. Too much focus when it hurts, or I’m distracted makes me give up.
An example was sometime this week when I sat to play piano, people distracted me. Even my thoughts distracted me. I couldn’t find my hyper-fun focus. So I quit for the day. Also, my shoulder was hurting, and my neck seemed stiff. Hmmm. Was that there before or after the attempt? So, with the tension of the next few days, I don’t see a lot of playtime at the piano. But while on my trip, I am sure I will have alone time to think about music. As they often tell us about Olypian contestants, sometimes picturing the job can pay off nearly as much as jumping in full-bodied.
Because the next few days are house-cleaning and packing for the trip. I may have very few piano sessions.
I might take my roll-up to run scales daily. I don’t have to have sound on to do that. I’m also taking my practice fingerboards for the ukulele and guitar. I downloaded music to play around with. I won’t be able to hear the instrument, but I will practice moving chords.
I have an old recorder that will be good for pretending to play. The sound isn’t great, but it’ll be okay to keep up fingering work. If I lose it or give it away, no problem. Again, I’ve downloaded music to my phone to play around with. I just don’t want to lose the habit of music.
My other habit I’ve been happy about is the stationary bike and door exercises. I’m assuming that the trip itself will offer walking and moving around. I don’t know how I am going to feel like I’m keeping that up while on a completely different schedule.
Oh, and blogging. I’m going to try. I know I can share a bit on my phone. I’ll try to get the book reviews done before I leave, as they need the laptop. But saying “hi!” daily may be easy. Same with Duo. Five minutes can be done. I probably won’t be able to hit all the languages. I may just stick with Italian, as it is the easiest for me right now.
Okay, back to finished. I did finish a pile of stuff that needed to be tackled. I have so much more to do, but I have to give me a pat on my back.
Yay! I can actually report one finished project.
My other socks took a sideline as I finished the slippers. So I’ll take pics next week.
I feel better about my piano. We have love/hate moments. I do learn a lot with each sit down. I play not practice. I do work on problem areas. I work on my concentration. I see my playing as meditation. Here’s a thought. Check. Don’t dive in. A slight thought given attention can bring about a mistake tornado. Distraction of any kind can throw off the fun.
Take for instance, today I wanted to analyze the few pieces I shared last week. By thinking about key signatures my fingers lost their groove.
I’m much happier about the ukulele now. Being able to sing while playing makes this instrument far more fun than piano or recorders.
Recorders seem to be helping my breath control. Note recognition between the soprano and the alto instruments is getting better. I still have goals of playing duets with myself. I need to learn how to record like that.
That’s about it for now. Time to get to Duo, and the recorders and uke.
Remember way back when I mentioned I might start a podcast? I can’t remember what I thought I’d call it, but a new title comes to mind as I started day # 3 of piano reawakening. “Warts and All”
We are so used to seeing the end result of endless practice. That makes sitting in front or with your art impossible. “I’ll never be that good. Why try?” So many negative things we tell ourselves, and because of that, we will never know what enjoyment we might bring ourselves or others while waiting for perfection. Follow your passions. God, muses, whatever you may call it, gets the credit for your curiosity drive. Do we dare let our defeatism lead the way? So I’m taking you on the ride. I took piano lessons since I was 5. I rebelled my way out around 16. After marriage at 21, I had to wait a while to get my old piano. My second son was teething when I got my piano back. I was rusty but could still enjoy the below pieces and much more, nearly totally memorized. I would play so hyperfocused that that piano had teething marks as the poor baby begged for my attention. So, I had to keep the practice to light bits.
When we moved to my first desert, Antelope Valley, the house was so small I had to keep the piano in a chicken coop. It was an old upright grand. It looked quite at home there. I would get up and go out in my heavy coat and gloves, scarf, and cap. As I did the scales and warm-ups, layers were released. I was starting to fall in love with my kidnapper. Stockholm Syndrome? There was a lot of angst from the psychological damage that practicing piano imposed on me.
A few decades later, after letting myself enjoy other music, singing, playing the recorder, and playing the ukulele, I felt like I wanted to try to bring it all back. Three days ago, I figured out a time of the day I could schedule my piano time. My first day was a lot of cleaning my baby. We get a lot of dust out here. And the darned mice. Lots of cleaning. But hey, that old piano in the chicken coop was pretty bad, too. And I love this piano. How I got it is another story. So cleaning it was, is now, a work of love. I did start playing that day for a few minutes. It went well. I kept it to 15 minutes. For some reason, yesterday’s practice made me want to cry. Today I decided to start recording myself and sharing the mess and progress with you. You are not required to listen to these as if they were elevator music. It is merely how it is when you try.
Enough of music. I’ll share the uke and recorder progress later.
Passion is imperfect.
So these are the things in the making here. Hope you had a marvelous Monday.
There are a few more projects. I just ran out of writing energy. I did finish “Leave the World Behind.” The review hits Sunday.
Darswords 
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