For Susan

In September 2019, I met a lovely woman named Susan. She was the leader of the U.S. Street Team for Poets of the Fall, and their biggest fan in the western hemisphere. We were friends online at first, and then met in person at Prog Power in Atlanta when we saw the band perform live. At the time, she gave several others and me three bracelets each that glowed in the dark, red, white, and blue to wear as a way of welcoming the band to the U.S. The blue one burst, which gave my black t-shirt quite a fancy look, but these two made it through both the concert and the Atlanta airport and have been on my bedpost ever since.

Susan and I kept in touch through the pandemic, and made plans to go to Poland in 2022 to see the band, but alas, that trip didn’t happen because cancer barged in on Susan’s life. Yet a year later, just last September, she had the strength to go, and so we met in Warsaw for an amazing weekend of music and friends old and new.

How grateful I am that we had that time together, for last night Susan passed away.

My friend lived such a rich life, filled with love, friends, pets, travel, music, laughter, and adventure. I remember telling her, and her agreeing, that she was lucky to have found her true love so young, and to have such a great family. We didn’t always agree on ideology or things in the news–in many ways we were polar opposites–but what we had in common made us friends, and that’s what mattered most. The first time I saw Poets and the last time she saw Poets, we were there together, and that will always be dear to me. True to her favorite song, she was, and will remain, cradled in love.

I’ll miss you, Suz!

Adios, 2023!

Here we are, the last day of 2023 and the last day of Holidailies. I won’t rehash the year again because it was just too terrible, but instead will look forward to 2024. I hope to keep this blog going, but only a couple of times a week.

And now, my resolutions for 2024:

Attend every appointment of cardiac rehab. It will be three times a week for 12 weeks, an hour at a pop. If it snows, I will reschedule, rather than write it off.

Pursue, find, and settle into career fulfillment. (She said vaguely. But if you know, you know.)

Continue exercising after cardiac rehab. I walk a lot, anyway, but I mean on top of that. I doubt I will ever go back to cardio-kickboxing, but low-impact step aerobics would work, and we do have a few treadmills in my building that I can use during inclement weather. This won’t be a challenge. I like to dance my butt off. I like to move it move it. (Woman! Physically fit, physically fit, physically, physically, physically. Woman! Physically fit, physically fit, physically, physically, physically… You’re welcome.)

Drop 20 pounds. Yes, I know. Me and 100 million other Americans. But I kind of have to, for my heart’s sake. Plus, ya know, I just want to. I feel better thinner—lighter on my feet and healthier overall—and my clothes look better.

Resume my tarot practice. I’ve gotten away from it and I miss it. Who knows? Maybe I’ll start a separate blog or socials about that. I’m not sure I’ll ever read for people I don’t already know personally, but it might be fun to join a few groups online to exchange readings.

I think these are all reasonable goals. I would add journaling on paper to the list but I know myself well enough to know that aside from a tarot journal, I’m terrible at sticking to paper journals. I have so many of them, too. At this point, they may very well end up being decorative items for a bookcase, heh.

And with that, I wish all of you a happy, healthy, and safe 2024. Now let’s give 2023 the boot!

A Christmas ornament in the shape of a boot.

At Random

If you have a Christmas tree, does it have a random ornament? My tree does. I’m not sure when I got it—perhaps when I was married. I’m not sure exactly where I got it, either, although something tells me it was somewhere in the Pentagon City Mall. Years ago there used to be a shop called The Christmas Store there, so maybe I got it there. It was Christmas year round in that store, although they did sell ornaments commemorating other holidays. Or perhaps I got it at The Nature Company, which was later converted into a Discovery Channel Store, which later closed. It may have been part of a series of ornaments that fit a Nativity scene, but knowing me, I would have gotten any accompanying sheep, too, although nothing else having to do with the Nativity because that’s just never been my thing. So I really can’t tell you why I have this, only that I’m glad I do because it’s just so random in a tree filled with birds, Snoopy, snowmen, angels, and traditional round ornaments, and I like random things.

So here it is: Two dromedaries.

A Christmas ornament featuring two dromedaries.

Also, I don’t think I posted this anywhere last year but it has been sitting on my phone since December 12, 2022, so I’ll post it now. The image is from a Jade Summer coloring book called Intricate Patterns and I colored it using Tombow brush pens.

A mandala.

It took me something like eight hours spread out over three days, as it was the first time I used those brush pens–which also explains what a hot mess it is because Tombow brush pens are kind of big and I had no idea what I was doing or how to use them. I’m not an artist by a long shot.

In fact, I never expected them to be what they are. I had been using a set of no-name dual-tip brush/fine-point markers that I picked up at Barnes & Nobles in 2017 with a gift card from a former boss. I was new to using anything other than Prismacolor pencils and enjoyed using the no-name brand brush markers, which are about the size of a ball-point pen but thinner and more delicate, so when I saw the Tombow set of 96 on sale for half-off on Amazon, I grabbed it, thinking they might be similar. Well, they are a just a wee little bit bigger than the no-name brand. Just a tiny bit. Just a smidge.

Two brush pens, one larger than the other.

In fact, they’re 7.5 inches, which means no man will ever be able to lie to me about that.

And on that tacky note, I will now post the penultimate entry for this year’s Holidailies, heh.