Being Rude, Free Time and Art

I got a phone call from the Breast Cancer people soliciting funds this morning. I am already on the Do Not Call list but I know this kind of call is exempt. I really don’t know why I picked up the phone once I saw what it was but I did. I said "Hello" and she identified herself and then started on her statement. I interrupted her saying I knew it was a good cause but… I was going to say I don’t contribute to any charity that calls me, but at that point, damned if she didn’t pick up the words "good cause" and continue right over what I was saying starting with "This is a good cause…. I HATE that so I cut her off without even a word. So I started the day all irritable because I was Well Brought Up and know I was being rude!

I miss seeing physical therapy on my calendar but I am thrilled with how many free days I have! There are two appointments I have to put on there once I make them: one is to reschedule with the ophthalmologist and the other is to schedule with one of the local massage therapist on my list. I cancelled the appointment with the ophthalmologist when physical therapy got so intense that I felt I had to give it all my attention. And my plan for massages is to schedule a new one once a month until I find one that I am totally happy with and then I will go back to my once every fortnight schedule.

Yesterday, I sent an email to the person who runs the art class that I attended a month or so ago. It was on making art journals you might remember. I enjoyed the class but it was not anything I leaped on with shrieks of joy and immediate scheduled another class! Anyway, remembering what I enjoyed in the classes I attended in Burlington, I wrote to T. asking if she had ever considered offering Open Studio classes. These were use of the space {and the acrylic paints if you needed them–I didn’t because I brought my own better-quality paints} and an instructor there to help if you needed one.

I found the atmosphere of we-are-all-doing-our-own-thing-together very inspiring and I noticed all the group, like me, took breaks to walk around and see what everyone else was doing. Since the Burlington instructor and I had excellent rapport, I trusted her and learned from her comments as she wandered by. Other students came for specific instructions in techniques. Each of these sessions covered two hours for six weeks and we bought a book of six tickets which could be used one each for the whole one day a week for six weeks or occasionally as we could fit the sessions in. Anyway, the local instructor thought it was a great idea and said she would talk to her husband –also an artist– about it. So, we shall see.

OK, since  yesterday was a day where I did the physical therapy exercise, that means today I am recovering! Time to empty the dishwasher and put the dishes away, gather up recyclables–the bag of non-recyclables is waiting by the door– and continue with my day!

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier. It is not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson