Creativity-- Tick Tock!

I'm working on getting into a creativity schedule. It sounds a little silly-- because isn't creativity spontaneous? Eh, as a teacher of gifted children (and as a graduate of the "gifted" program), I tend to think giftedness and creativity are both nature and nurture. You CAN create beautiful things out of nothing, but it's a lot easier to create beautiful things with fancy-schmancy art supplies, computers, and journals. Creativity is also a state of mind. I see pictures in the clouds. (And Colorado has an abundance of beautiful clouds!) I listen for unusual sounds and think in lyrics all the time. In working with children, I speak up about beauty around us-- in a sunset, in the set up of a plate, in the humor of a tv show-- to encourage creativity there too. Eh, who knows.

So, I have many, many posts trapped in my brain and scribbled in a journal plus many pictures in my camera and my phone to share. What's the hold up? Energy! Creativity! Cleaning up! Going to work!

This day has started fairly productively-- but it also started above 60 degrees (I walked the dog in a tank top, pj pants, and flip flops!), but it's been so blustery and windy, my dog keeps barking at all the sounds it's making in the corridor of our apartments-- to set that apart now, it's below freezing and raining-- which means, it will be snowing in about 3, 2, 1...yup. I see snowflakes out the window. 

I know I moved to a state that has cold winters from one that has one or two snows a decade, but it's still instilled in me that snow= snow day. Stay inside. It's dangerous out there! There's a part of me that wants to just keep this cup of mint tea going all day and watch Buffy on Hulu. Le sigh. My little munchkin will be disappointed in the car line if I don't make it. :)

So some creative things on tap-- some recipes of yummy foods I've made lately, some hiking recaps with gorgeous pictures, more painting, more fiverr orders that I'm delivering (woo-hoo!), and concert reviews. I'm going to the Colorado Writer's Workshop on Friday and I can't wait to see what types of things I will learn to help guide me on a publication journey. We went to see The Airborne Toxic Event at the Ogden Theater in Denver over the weekend and it was incredible. I loved the theater and the whole evening. This is the second concert we went to where they were filming the music video that night. Chris nudged me at one point because I was so into the show that I didn't notice the camera man filming over our shoulders! We are going to see another one of my lyrical favorites tonight-- Bastille. Definitely looking forward to this. 

Some of my favorite lyrics have beautiful imagery and symbolism to history, gods, and pop culture. I wonder where these guys were in some of my younger years-- I could have used these words:

When all of your flaws and all of my flaws when they have been exhumed,  you'll see that we need them to be who we are, without them, we'd be doomed

If you close your eyes, does it ever feel like nothing's changed at all? How am I going to be an optimist about this?

I don't want to hear about the bad blood anymore. I don't want to hear you talk about it anymore. It's been cold for years, won't you let it lie?

Do you understand...the future's in our hands and we'll never be the same again.

Icarus is flying too close to the sun... Living beyond your years, acting out all their fears, you feel it in your chest...Icarus is flying to an early grave.

Are you going to age...with grace? without mistakes? with a path to trace? Are you going to age with grace?

Oh I feel overjoyed when you listen to my words, I see them sinking in, crawling under your skin; words are all we have, we will be talking, what is there to gain? I feel overjoyed when you listen to my words. 

And last but  not least, their Sesame Street-like take on learning vowels: Ay-ay oh Ay oh. 

So, thanks for listening to my words. I hope to have some put together a little more coherently soon. Stay strong, my friends. Shine. 

Shiny new National Park Pass

While I was in Atlanta for Christmas, my dad surprised me with a request for me to choose between a Colorado State Park pass or a National Park pass. I actually haven't been in Rocky Mountain National Park since I moved (I went frequently when I was here summer 2009) due to the flooding in the fall and the prevalence of state parks and open spaces near Denver. 

Hearty breakfast and National Park plans

I'm doing a little research online, dug out my RMNP guide book, and am eating a tasty breakfast-- eggs, homegrown sprouts, avocado, and blueberry-hazelnut bread from Great Harvest. I'm going to fill up my camelbak and head out on a Sunday hike.

It snowed last night (I LOVE THE SNOW SO MUCH!) so it's chilly this morning and there's a nice dusting of snow around-- so I'm excited to get bundled up and head into the mountains. I'm planning to head to the Emerald Lake Trail and see what I can see. It's a little gray out, but I think the clouds will clear so I can see more of this famous big blue Colorado sky. Stay tuned for an update post with some pictures!

Dream Lake (from the National Park website)

Adventures of Scrappy Pete: Vet follow-up

On Monday, Petey and I went to the vet and the vet/surgeon did another exam and blood work for her surgery to remove the Mast Cell Tumor from her front right paw. Unfortunately, in just a week, the tumor appeared to have spread from just the digit (her toe) to the paw (a dog's version of the hand). Due to the aggressive nature of these tumors, the vet requested that we wait a bit, put her on prednisone and a high dose of antihistamine to help stop the cells, shrink the tumor, and increase the chances of a successful surgery. She'll have to lose her toe, but dogs re-acclimate to changes like that far better than humans do. For example, both Petey and my sister's pup Duchess have had teeth removed due to decay...those pups eat and destroy toys like nothing could slow them down.

So, I had to wait because there is a drug interaction between the steroid and the pain medicine she'd been on-- but now she's on the steroid and we'll give it a few days and try the surgery then. If the tumor has lots of tendrils, and those get damaged during surgery, it releases the extra mast cells and histamines into her body. The extra histamines damage the organs and the mast cells increase the likelihood that the cancer will pop up somewhere in her body-- likely in an inner organ that is inoperable, not a subcutaneous location that is (relatively) easy to remove. We don't want that. We want a clean tumor removal.

In other news, the steroid makes Petey PEE like crazy! At 3:30 this morning, she woke me up to go pee and so I grabbed shoes and my coat and stumbled out. My apartment has outside doors that lock automatically. How do you say, I grabbed the wrong *$(*#^%(* keys. So, 3:30, no foot traffic around my apartment, snow on the ground, dog on a leash...and no way to return to my apartment. No cell phone in hand either, because, gosh, that would be silly.

PT Bella thought this was a weird adventure...but she seemed okay. I noticed one of my neighbors (I hadn't met him yet) had a window that was cracked open slightly. The light from the TV was also glowing through the blinds, so I hoped that maybe he was up watching a movie. I knocked on the window (with a great deal of embarrassment and trepidation!) and hissed, "hey! I live down the hall and I'm locked out. Are you awake?" He was about the nicest-- was like, "I thought I was dreaming and heard knocking. No worries, dear, stuff like that happens!"

I think Petey and I owe him a beer or 6.

Also, since Tuesday was a crazy snow day in Atlanta...I came across this buzzfeed. I'm so proud of my Southern-ATL brethren and sistren who helped out stranded motorists in such an awful time of need. My thoughts have been with all the teachers, principals, bus drivers, students (and their parents) who had to make hard decisions about keeping kids in schools, or had to endure keeping them on buses. I don't say this with smugness as I now live in Denver where there's snow, but Atlanta drivers aren't prepared for such things....but I truly wish decision-makers had listened to the weather forecast and understood that....water freezes into ICE below 32 F. Thanks to my friends and family who helped their "neighbors" with food, blankets, support, first aid...it takes my breath away to see and hear news stories about all the people who helped others. Seriously, ATL, you doin' us proud.

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