I just finished and posted another one of the ocean paintings.  They are very time consuming, but I'm pretty happy with the outcome.  I've always loved the ocean.  I'm amazed I can paint it; absolutely amazed.

I think I look for meaning where there might not be any, but.....

Since I moved to Portland and joined Facebook, I have had ample opportunities to walk through my long ago past.  First my friend Jacque came to town and I got together with her, Judy and Gaylene.  Jacque had seen my picture in the book, The Far Out Story of Vortex I.  This sort of started the topic of rock festival behavior.  I have forgotten most all of that stuff and, try as I might, I can't get the memories back.  This led to her sharing the memories she had and us digging through old pictures.  It was really fun and it seemed like no time had gone by at all.  It didn't take much to remember why we were all such great friends. 

For the last two months I have gotten together for dinner with old classmates.  Last dinner there was discussions of who had observed me naked at rock festivals.  Thank you, but I don't remember that either.  It was kind of embarrassing.  No, actually it was a lot embarrassing, but at 21 I looked pretty good naked.  Now days?  Not so much.

Then I had another classmate, from Virginia, call when he was in town.  We met for coffee and it was pretty enlightening.  Not only do I not remember much, but I have no idea what other people thought of me.  Interestingly enough, what they thought of me has very little to do with what I felt in those days.  I think that's probably a good thing because their opinions of me seem to be better than mine. 

As for painting...  I think I've finally run out of distractions that have kept me out of the studio.  I'm working on another ocean scene.  So far, it isn't as good as the first one, but that' pretty typical of my changes in subject matter.  The first in a series is always the best.  Maybe that's why I keep changing.  I will post it if I ever get it done. 

This morning I got another call from a real estate agent who wanted to list my house.  (I had put my house on the market briefly before I left for Ireland and evidently the listing had expired.)  I really dislike these people.  Most likely it's from my own experience, but I haven't forgotten the idiot who called my friend Megan, 2 days after her husband died, to find out if she might want him to list her house.  Then there was the guy who listed this house, who backed up everyone of his client's lies about the water in the basement.  The woman this morning, when I commented how annoyed I was by her call, told me that I would want someone really aggressive to sell my house.

Did someone give these people permission to be horribly rude and dishonest when they recieved their licenses?   They must have a class called, "How to be really rude and annoying and call it aggressive and successful".  Maybe there's a class called "Lying is OK if it helps your client sell their house".  Ugh!

I can be rude and annoying without their help so I'm going to list the house on my own....

I've finally taken some pictures of my two most recent paintings.  I put The Wave on the front page of the site and added the second version of Winter Garden right above the old one. 

The pictures didn't turn out too well because, as of yet, I don't have a very good place to take them.  I decided to stay here for, at least, 10 more months.  It's difficult to find the motivation to organize a place you don't love nor intend to stay in.  I have some ideas for my future place of residence, but don't want to jinx the process. 

Last night I had dinner with some high school classmates.  It's interesting because we don't really know each other and, although we have some history, it's like meeting new people all over again.  On that note, as usual, I spent the rest of the evening analyzing every stupid thing I said.  I guess I'm not very good at letting people know who I really am.  That's probably why I only feel truly confident when I'm painting.  Guess I better get to it. 

I'm off to Ireland and the UK!