Monday, May 16, 2011

The Luxury of Being Creative

Let me say first of all that I really like my job.  The work itself is challenging enough that I don't get bored and the pay is decent if not extravagant.  I enjoy the company of my residents--their stories of when they were younger and their views of the world now.  I really like most of my co-workers and a few have even become friends.  Sure, there's always one that just sets your teeth on edge, but we learn to cope, right?  Avoidance works well....  Occasionally being deaf, dumb, and blind (or catatonic) would be a gift--not going on that rant today.

But I really LOVE to create--whether it's quilting or embroidery or sewing or beading or whatever.  I love using color and pattern and shape to make something new and different or to recreate something vintage.  I love handwork!  It is just so relaxing and seeing a nicely stitched finished piece is very rewarding.  And I enjoy filling my home with one of a kind "artwork".

I love gardening, even the weeding.  There's something very satisfying about looking at a clean row of vegetables or flower bed and tossing the weeds in the dumpster.  I love watching plants grow.  You go home and wham, the next day things have popped up six inches or blossomed!  Amazing....  Best of all, we love eating vegetables that are truly fresh.

I like solving puzzles--logic puzzles, crosswords, the ones that make you think!  I love geocaching--it's just one huge series of puzzles waiting to be solved.  You have to think outside the box to meet challenges set by other geocachers, the highway system, and Mother Nature.  I'm directionally challenged (drive around the block in a figure eight and I can't tell you which way is north anymore...) and learning to use a compass has been "interesting".  Picture me holding a compass, turning around in a circle to find north, and then pointing in another direction before heading off that way.

SO WHY DO I SPEND SO LITTLE TIME DOING CREATIVE THINGS???  Lately, it seems that anything creative or thought provoking is a LUXURY.  Even reading the blogs that I like to follow!  I come home and once again, the house has exploded and spewed out dirty dishes and dirty clothes and who-knows-what on the floor.  If I want a day off to stitch or garden or geocache or read blogs, it has to be time stolen from all those other chores that should be getting done--and aren't. 

The girls and I played hooky after I got off work yesterday.  We found one cache, played in the park, ate at MickeyDoo's, and crashed when we got home.   Today I'm paying for it--poor me--enough of the rant--off to the salt mines again....