Showing posts with label scotch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scotch. Show all posts

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Dark days, but good

Once again, I should apologize to the four or so people who read my posts; I've been lax about writing about what's going on in my life. But I have been spending a lot of time living it, so I know you'll understand. Here's a summary of the last few weeks.

I've finished the current quarter of teaching at SVC, and have decided that in January, when classes start again, I'll be a student for a while and not a teacher. I want to hone some of my design skills; I'm starting to think it's something I can grow into, and I have a lot of amazing people at work that I can learn from.

Brett had a good trip to Dutch Harbor last week, for his job, leaving me and the dog and two cats to fend for ourselves. We did fine, though. I know that Mina will scare the crap out of anyone that comes near the front door, and I feel safe when I'm walking her, since she does growl to warn off what she thinks are dangerous-looking people. The cats, on the other hand, continue to be merely ornamental. I'm not sure they even noticed Brett was gone. He brought me a Dutch Harbor baseball cap to wear on dog walks. Never thought of myself as a baseball-cap person, but age and practicality have won out over vanity.


A week ago we went to a pleasant scotch tasting event at the Rainier Club. I tried to take some photos with my iPhone, but it was too dark to get much detail. We tasted some very fancy scotches; it's no surprise, I guess, that the older and more expensive ones turned out to be the ones I liked best. My recent discovery that scotch is not the most vile liquid on earth (you just add some water to it! Why didn't anyone tell me?!) probably both amuses and worries Brett, though I haven't raided his stash just yet.

We've been walking a lot, of course, and I have gotten to really look forward to our after-work dog walks, even in the dark and the rain. It's been pretty nice out for the last few days, though; this weekend we made a couple of trips to the park for as much frisbee-throwing as the dog could take, and took plenty of long walks in the fresh air. I know it's going to change soon, and I know I really should be out there doing yard work or something, but all I want to do is walk with the dog. The yard is ok. This spring I plan to re-do a lot of it, but in the meantime, nature can have its way and things can grow as they see fit.

Another nice thing that happened just recently was re-uniting with a friend I'd been very close to in my 20s, but hadn't seen in many years. It was great to find that even after this long, we still have a lot in common, and get along really well. We've both grown and changed, but the girls we were are still there.

I haven't been drawing as much as I'd have liked, though I did some sketches for a project at work. My concepts weren't picked, sadly, so here's one in an early stage. It was an idea for a Fall tumbler. I thought it was nice, but they went for something more graphic and design-y. That's ok, and as I said, I'll be taking some classes soon so I can keep up a little better with design trends, and hopefully still use drawing and painting in my work.

That's it; certainly nothing earth-shattering going on, but it's been a pretty good fall so far, economy and work stress aside. Life goes on, as it always has, and hopefully will continue to do. Someone is going to have to walk that dog, after all.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Happy '08!

This is a large part of how we spent New Years' eve; plenty of good food, good friends, and good beverages. Here you see cheese, bread, eclairs...and scotch! Brett and Aaron had a scotch tasting for all who were interested, and I challenged one and all to no-rules ping pong! It was a fun evening, and great to see several good friends. At midnight, we switched on the TV in time to see zombie Dick Clark announcing the new year (to the horror and amusement of all present. What happened to him??).

So now it's the next year; another arbitrary date has passed and the winter celebrations are over. I'm looking forward to the days getting longer, and hopefully fewer of the torrential downpours that seem to be the standard winter weather in this climate-changing world. The coming year should be a good one, with any luck. I'm still taking classes towards my degree, and will also be teaching an Introduction to Photoshop class at SVC in January.

Resolutions? Same as always, I guess: make more time for creative endeavors; take care of myself, my family and my home; keep on living the happiest life I can and perhaps make a difference in a few other lives. I don't like to make specific, sweeping resolutions (losing x number of pounds, that kind of thing) because inevitably they lose momentum in a month or so. I don't mind taking a look at my life in general, seeing what I could be doing better, and so on, but that shouldn't be confined just to the new year.

Anyway, I'm happy to be alive in 2008, happy the holidays are over, and thankful for my husband, my job, and my friends. Life is pretty darn good; I hope it is for everyone else, all year long!