Maggie in the Afternoon, 24" x 36" Acrylic on Canvas by Tammy Vitale

What’s the opposite of blue, as in Summertime Blues?  Who knows.  So I used the color wheel and came up with Orange.  Summertime Orange.  Because, gang, I have anything but the Blues.  I have the get up and go do something other than the computer Oranges.  And it feels like part of the creative process even through much of the actual studio time keeps getting relegated to the back burner.

Tama Kieves, in her regular enewsletter this morning talks about being true to you creative self.  She talks about being alone – and goodness knows I spend enough time there and enjoy it a lot.  But right now it’s time to be out and about with Husband – running hither and yon – and dreaming.  Because that, too, is a huge part of creativity.

So Saturday we ran off to the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland to look at houses.  We also ran by Joie de Vivre in Cambridge and dropped off a mask that I think already has a buyer – the one who wanted to buy the raku mask that got broken in the mail.  We looked at two houses, one by plan, one by chance and I love the one by chance the most, and the lovely little communities of  Bivalve (if nothing else, you have to love the name), Whitehaven, Tyaskin and Nanticoke on a little peninsula between the Nanticoke and Wicomico Rivers (Wicomico County I think – but there are a ton of little counties and one keeps crossing county lines so I’m not totally clear on that).  Lots of water as you might imagine on a Peninsula, much like where we live now except much more rural, much more open land and trees.  Many more public "into the water" places and parks.  And at least two recommended restaurants ("where do you eat around here?). We ate at Boonies in Tyaskin (5 minutes or less from one of the houses we looked at) and were suitably impressed, but don’t tell anyone because we would hate for it to change!.   The second recommended restaurant is the Red Roost, same owners.  Salisbury is "downtown" or "the city" for this area, which has Salisbury State University (Daughter’s alma mater) for "high" culture should one be so inclined.  About 20 to 30 minutes away.

The trip over was a bit of cultural shock with moderate traffic on the Bay Bridge but bumper to bumper rolling traffic starting 2 miles west of the Route 50/301 split all the way to Route 404 which takes traffic off toward Delaware’s beaches.  Having not done weekend travel in decades, neither of us anticipated this.  But coming home there wasn’t any traffic and although it was hot, the travel was smooth (we really do have to get a car with air-conditioning!). 

The thing to do now is get the cottage sold.  So on the phone to our wonderful agent, Susan Deck with Long and Foster (go to www.susandeck.com and feed in:  CA6490618, pictures will be up some time this week and you can watch our progress), and even though she is on travel right now, she got everything loaded into the system and by yesterday, Monday, we had a bite already.  Turns out it was "too small" (just exactly how large does one expect 450 square feet to be, I wonder) and they didn’t even come inside – which is the really good part….at least I think so.  It’s darling.  And another agent stopped by to "preview" it too.  That’s more action than we got in 3 months on our house last year, so it is hopeful.  We’ll just have to wait and see.  Anyways, that was about 3 hours yesterday afternoon sprucing up the place to perfection for showing and trimming the phragmites around the dock.  We had a great fast thunderstorm only to drive home 5 minutes up the road and discover not a drop had fallen there!  Such weather. And that did the day in, because….

Sunday was all day at the 9:30 and then all night.  30 Year Reunion for DC Space bands and crew 17 years after it’s last year of operation in 1991 (1977 – 1991). (big time news:  here and here and a blog)  DC Space (DC was a double entrendre standing for District Curators and Washington DC) was where we cut out teeth on doing sound when we had our own business (Gussound:  No Fuss Call Gus!), serving lots of local bands and some that came through and went on to bigger and better.  It was like a college reunion (never been to one, so I’m guessing) – same folks, but everyone 20 years older.  I have to say, the music was outstanding.  Also poetry and films – just like Space had back in the day.  And some I liked and some I didn’t like – also the same.  Husband mixed from 5pm to 2 am.  That’s a long day mixing by anyone’s standards.  And, as always, he did great making sure each band had its own unique sound.  I discovered two new women singers to love:  Morley (who left a CD on stage that I got to bring home) and Traciana Graves (both with powerful melodic voices.  And Esmirelda was there – she who used to perform on a toilet seat – if you haven’t seen her, you can’t imagine.  Very tongue in cheek.  We got home at 4:30 a.m. Monday and I slept until 11 so that’s where Monday went:  sleep and cottage.

Today is part-time job day, and maybe I can carve out a few hours for a kiln load (1/2 already loaded, more ready to go) since I have to do an evening meeting and that will make for a lot of hours today if I work straight through.

Life is GOOD!

thought for the day:  Staying faithful to yourself will bless everyone around you. When you answer an inner calling, you’re doing the bidding of Spirit, which has a great love for everyone concerned.  It’s easier to connect with those you love, when you have connected to yourself.  While sacred self time may feel almost ridiculously indulgent to you, do not forget that tending your creative gifts is a tremendous giving back to the world.  Tama Kieves  July 31 enewsletter, Seizing Time for your Creative Self…