DISPATCHED FROM THE CROSSROADS, AT THE INTERSECTION OF yesterday & tomorrow
mad in pursuit journal
12.31.07: YEAR IN REVIEW
The year was more inward, more reflective. 4 years post-ratrace, I'm less worried about building up that second-career identity than I am about leading a good life.
Stewardship & Sales
Because of travel, my Ebay store suffered months of inactivity. But I did spend more time trying to organize collections for sale off-Ebay. Put the most work into selling Jim's public health book collection. Sold a few to a dealer of Americana in Rhode Island, then sent the rest on consignment to a dealer in LA.
Next up is to concentrate on sales related to photography. I got as far as doing a broad inventory of collections in that area. Overwhelming.
Passions
Once again, I reopened work on my Pandora animation project -- the story of one woman's well-intentioned demise at her workplace. Disciplined myself to write a screenplay to go with all my drawings. It looks pretty complete... maybe one of those things I'll get back to now and then. (Jan-Feb)
Class Offerings DVDs, National Technical Institute for the Deaf Theater Dept: annual work-for-hire job. Not "artistic" but demands plunging myself into details of video editing and DVD production. Good practice. (Feb)
"Fish Tales from the Towpath." The opportunity to write a fishing column for the Canal Times inspired a burst of writing and study of how to do short-shorts. I submitted about 6 columns -- gave me a buzz. (Started in March)
"Brilliance & Belonging." Between our arrival home from Ireland and the family picnic in September, I threw myself into compiling a new version of the Price and Dunne family histories (requiring me to learn Adobe InDesign).
Joined the strategy team for Lesley Paiva's Integratis Inc. Developed a "look" for her website, did some fun drawings, and learned a ton about best practices in web page design. (Oct - Nov)
Index card art (since October)
"Great Dames Take Naps" -- my statement about women of a certain age, in process. Lots of drawing.
Travels & Friendships
Big trip: Ireland
Trips to St. Louis in June (Ellen's 50th), September (Price family picnic, upper Midwest road trip), and December (Christmas).
Trip to Richmond VA in November for the Integratis strategy pow-wow.
Friendships: Win some, lose some. Started
out the year with a Margarita Resurrection party
for all my women friends -- mostly from the Institution where I worked
for so long -- but as the year wore on, my worries about maintaining those
old friendships seemed to fade. Because of some memoir-writing, I had a
intense burst of online interaction with fellow travellers in the Green
Valley world. Anny & Terry came to visit --
great fun renewing those friendships. And Pat D and
I reconnected as the Sleeping Giants, giving a strategy boost to her daughter's
business and having fabulous fun along the way.
Higher Self
The thread that tied the year together was a religious/philosophical exploration. It started this year with reading David Lynch's book on meditation and deciding to try it. This led me to Robert Thurman and his audio lectures on Tibetan Buddhism. Then I swung back around to study the history of doubt and the belief systems of early/Celtic Christianity. Ricocheted back to Buddhism via Thomas Merton, joined the Zen Center and became more disciplined in my meditations. By fall, I decided to stop intellectualizing about it and to try to express more through my writing and drawing.
Health & Wellbeing
Lost about 12 lbs this year -- finally bought some clothes in a smaller size. Yay. Gradually stopped my Hormone Replacement Therapy, so now I'm declaring myself done with menopause. A couple more gold crowns on my teeth are further reminders of age. Got rid of my red hair but certainly not ready to go gray.
Thumbs Up if you liked this entry.