2011 Review

My friend was extolling the virtues of drinking cider vinegar. He drinks it every day with raw honey. It is supposed to lower your cholesterol, in addition to many other virtues. So, I had some cider vinegar in my pantry and I decided to try it. Do not do this! You need organic raw cider vinegar that contains Mother of Vinegar. Within a day I had such bad heartburn that I could feel all the way to the back of my shoulder blade and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I went out with my friends yesterday afternoon and evening and I felt terrible, but I figured if I did have a heart attack, they would be there to take me to the emergency room. I am finally feeling a bit better.

I am sure that my friend told me I should drink raw vinegar, but I was preoccupied with the distilled vinegar that I had in the pantry already. A good goal for me for 2012 might be to try to be a better listener.

Here is a link for organic cider vinegar that talks about some of the benefits,
http://www.bragg.com/products/bragg-organic-apple-cider-vinegar.html

When I was in So Cal, I went by and took a look at my old house in Simi Valley. It looked exactly the same, all the way down to the broken gate. They had replaced the front picture window, which really needed it. I hesitated to drive by it, my biggest fear is that they will have chopped down my carefully chosen and planted trees and roses, but all my trees and flowers were still there, although January is not their best month. If you remember what the kitchen looked like most of the time I lived there, here is what it looked like when I sold it,




If you don't remember what it looked like, imagine dark wood cabinets with missing doors and drawers and an odd sink with an elevated back that held the faucet. I made amends for destroying it by fixing it up while the house was for sale, and I also coped with the pain of selling it by throwing myself into home improvement. I put in those Pella windows right after I moved in, I loved those windows.

Here is the front entrance (in spring when I lived there) with the Australian peppermint and the Japanese Maple behind it,


You can see I like a messy garden.

Last Friday I finished up this painting,


It is a slightly larger version of a study and I still did not get the design and color of the light and dark grass that I was looking for. I also worked on it in bits of time, which seems to end up in a tighter painting. If I start and finish a painting in the same day, like I do my studies, I end up with something that looks more spontaneous, not so labored.

For my review of 2011, I took a look at the paintings I finished. I finished 21 paintings, including 12 studies and counting the cat studies as one study. Here are my favorites in order from January to December,










When I looked at all of the paintings I did in 2011, I was surprised that I did Glenn's Ferry in January, when I was so cold and tired of gray and worried about work. I went up and down in spurts, with the most work done in March, which was when I did that commission painting, July, and October, and nothing in April, September, or December. Oh, and then there is the rock, that took up November, so 21 paintings and 1 rock. I would say I got better during the year, except that my favorite is still Glenn's Ferry, which I did at the beginning of the year. The paintings I did not really like were interspersed during the year, almost every third painting.

I lost some energy in December 2010 when I was not finding a job and financial fear set in and that energy has not fully returned. By February I finally took some steps that led to a job in May and now I cannot believe I survived that stretch, but then I did not have much choice. In order to get that job, I did things that they always tell you to do, like follow up calls when you do not get the job asking how you can improve, that no one really does. There seems to be this weird mix of learning both humility and that I have value in that time, and that lesson carries through into the new job and dealing with the terrible boss. Tomorrow I start the same job, but through a temp agency with a decent raise. I suppose that is progress. The new boss is definitely progress. Once I got the job, the rest of the year seems to have been about keeping it, although there were a few important events about being of service and sharing my experience and there were a few times when I felt spiritually connected to someone in a way I have never experienced. Then there was getting fired by my sponsor, that was weird. I am glad to be starting 2012 with a new one.

Nothing like a bit of a review to make me feel empowered again. How did I manage to get here and live the smaller, quieter life that I wanted in a cute little house with nice neighbors and happy cats and a little vegetable garden? I remember taking all of the steps, but it is still amazing how it worked out.

Do not watch the film Tree of Life, unless you are a pretentious kind of person who likes arty films with no storyline that are acclaimed at film festivals even though no one knows what they mean so they over-analyze every detail reading what they want into it. I expect as much from Sean Penn, but not Brad Pitt. A waste of two hours.