Artists Way Week 2 (Re-Do)

On to week 2!

 

Checked in with Justin yesterday, and as much as I love doing this together I think I love just getting the chance to chat with him weekly more!

This chapter is Recovering a Sense of Identity.

The tasks to accomplish were 4 major activities I did this week.  We're to pick which our "shoulds" and which we wanted to do, and how much time was spent.  It's helping you see if you're spending too much time on others needs and not your own.

1 - Work - 40 hours - This sadly is a "Should".  It's really a necessary evil for all of us I feel like.  I honestly don't know alot of people who actually love their job.

2 - Sleep - obvi a should

3 - Visiting Friends/Fam

4 - Exercise/Walking

5 - Watching TV

I feel like to do spend a reasonable amount of time doing what I want rather than a "should".  The shoulds are just....well....you just gotta do em right?

There's some circle drawing in these tasks.  Circle for the people who help you/don't help you.  Circle for your life - how much is spirituality, exercise, play, work, friends, romance/adventure.  Honestly lately my circle is pretty even.  Work probably takes up more time than I wish it would, but I certainly don't hate it as much as I did last time I did Artists Way (Thank you to a wonderful new supervisor and getting out from under a horrid one).

 

 

Lots of affirmation readings.  I kind of lag at these.  I don't know why - I think they just get a bit repetitive for me.

Last week we were to list 5 Imaginary Lives we'd like to live, and this week add 3 more.  Some are obvi -but some interesting?

Sommelier, Food Blogger, Food Traveler (with my own show), Photographer, Actor, Zookeeper, writer, housewife, Athlete, my friend Rose (She lives the best life)

The other one was list 20 things you enjoy doing and put a date next to the last time you did them.  I remember this was hard for me to come up with last time, and I struggled again.  I was talking to Pat about it and he too said that's tough.  I wonder why?

So in no particular order:

Eating

Eating out with Foodie Friends

Sex

Geocaching

Coloring

Blogging

Cuddles with Luna

Walking Poe

Hiking

Roadtrips

Playing Tennis

Visits with Family/Friends

Photo Play Days

San Clemente Stays

Take a fun class

Sitting on the porch drinking coffee or wine

Watching a good show

Adventure Labs

There's a few I haven't done in a while, but keep up with a lot of them.

Another task: Ten Tiny Changes:

I would like to....

travel more

eat sushi

take better pictures

blog more

meditate regularly

take a fun class

road trip to Louisiana

road trip to Oregon

be more patient

drink less 

I actually did my morning pages every morning!  My workouts fell off a bit but I still got up and did the pages.  This might actually be a competitive thing for me, maybe that's why I'm doing better with them.  LOL.

For my Artists Date I did an Adventure Lab!  These are tied to geocaching and I love them, so it was a perfect date.  I hit up Holy Sepulcher Cemetery. What a beautiful cemetery!! The Adventure Lab was super easy and had some really intereting history to learn!  

This is when I just stopped and thought - what a beautiful location!

1st Stop was an Original Angels Player!

Cool statues all around

This guy played for the Dodgers...thought it was going to be a baseball themed, but no

I didn't know he was buried here!  Dude who invented Carls Jr!  He used to be a donor to the opera!

Such cool statues

A jazz singer

This guy was also a famous musician!

I finished!  Didn't even realize I was already done!  It went so fast!

After completion I figured out the puzzle then headed to the bonus cache coordinates.  Sadly I couldn't find it.  There was also a funeral getting set up near by and some ladies were looking at me quizzically so I figured I'd better head out.  Now that I know where it is I'll come back and find it another time.

I'm not a religous person, but this is pretty intense

And apparently where the funeral that derailed my search is happening

The cache is behind this headstone in a tiny oak tree somewhere...

This a neat memorial for all the Sisters of St. Joseph that have passed on

So there ya have it.  Week 2 - CHECK!

I'll be checking in with Justin tomorrow.  Can't wait to chat with him.  Nothing super as of note came up this week, but certainly enjoying the process again.  Next week we're prepping to have our condo tented for termites so we're being booted for 3 days and hitting up Temecula.  I do plan on bringing my book.  Who knows - maybe I'll do a wine tasting Artists Date while I'm out there!

This captures my mood perfect right now

Artists Way Week 1 (Re-Do)

Hallo friends!  SO - back in 2020 I started up the Artists Way again.  I was doing really good then COVID hit.  Obvi our lives got turned upside down and our world stopped including my Artists Way Journey.  I did get pretty far and you can see that HERE.

Welp - it's getting another go.  My dear friend Justin who lives super far away in MO whom I FaceTime with on the reg got to talking and he's never done it.  BOOM.  Let's do it.  He can pop his Artists Way Cherry and I can try my third attempt once more.

I want to try blogging about it again, because going back and reading my previous Artists Way Blogs made me realize how much more I got out of it this way.

So here we go!

 

 

Week One!

Chapter one asks us who our "Monsters" and who our "Champions" are.  List three of each.  Monsters are folks who were horrid to us.  Shot us down, etc.  Champions are our supporters.  So I'm calling out my Monsters - they were all childhood bullies.  So fuck you Jimmy Bettencourt/Mutter, Mandy McAdams, Mimi Kobata and Sunshine Dunn.  Yeah there's 4...Mimi and Sunshine were kind of a duo of asshole-ness.  These 4 people were horrible to me.  Called me names, tried to pick on me physically (although that never got far because I was a little hard ass), said I was ugly, I could go on and on.  I have no idea where these people are now and nor do I care - but back in our childhood days - they were fucking awful people.

My Champions.  I'm lucky to say I have many champions.  I surround myself with supportive wonderful people.  So the 3 I chose for this exercise are 3 folks that currently really appreciate me and who I am and have just said things as of late that mean alot.  That would be Libby (my best friend/soulmate), Renee Gallo and Julie Ackerman.  (I don't think I listed my 3 last time, but I want to say it was my mom, Carol Bonner and Rose Cameron - not that they are not my champions still, but trying to change it up!).  Libby has always been my biggest supporter.  She loves watching me onstage, loves my pictures, loves reading my blogs - just is a huge fan and I love her for it.  Renee has always made me feel special with little notes, and times she thinks of me and her eternal gratitude from trying to keep our little adventure group alive.  Julie and I love all things food and she and I can just sit and connect and drool over our food adventures.  She's also just a damn light of a person and can lift you right up.  I also noticed I sent those Champions notes last time - I shall do that again!

I won't get too much into the nitty gritty of the chapters, but just rather the tasks/exercises.  Figure if you all want to dive in you will on your own time.  But this chapter basically had a lot of getting the negative crap OUT.

I did my morning pages every morning but one. I couldn't believe it!  They just kind of fell into my morning routine. I try to get up and work out before work, so I just do them before my workout.  I had a good week so they just fell right in.  I straight up forgot Sat morning to do them.  Unfortunately my OCD is what keeps me remembering shit, and so I think I just was out of routine and forgot.  I got up Sat morning though and did a lovely long nature walk and geocaching with Pat and Poe before the heat kicked in.

For my Artists Date this week I decided to do a book store.  I thought "I love Barnes & Noble!  It's so big and I could easily wander around in there for an hour."  I set the lunch date on my calendar at work for myself and was excited.  Well - it's closed.  Wah. Wah.  So I opted for the The Bookman- um duh - I love this place too.  It's the best used bookstore in the OC and has been around for YEARS.  I and my family/friends have donated/purchased many a book there.  Plus...have ya'll seen "You Got Mail"?  I really should be supporting that rather than the bigger companies (although I think Amazon is pushing out the Barnes & Nobles).  Anywhoo - the only hard part is it's a little store, so I couldn't really spend an hour in there.  Although I did take my time and wander through every aisle and take in the smell of old books for almost 40 min.  I was thrilled with my haul.

 

I might have squealed when I saw the Kim Joy book - I follow her in IG!

Parked next to this cool thing

"Bookin"

 Then I figured I'd run over to Daiso that is a super cute little fun store full of random cutsie things and picked up some adorable little paper and envelope sets for my notes to my Champions!  So yay!  I check in with Justin tomorrow!  Can't wait to hear how he did!

 

 

Artists Date 1 - Check!

Lavender Festival Year Two...

Last year Pat, Noel and myself found ourselves at the Lavendar Festival.  It's one of those things I've seen go across my radar many times but never made it - and we finally did last year.  We had a great time.

So - I broached it to my little adventure crew for this year.  Got a few more people to go!

They did change it up a bit.  It used to be an all day thing (not sure how late into the night it went, we left before dark last year) but now it's only at night.  5-10pm in fact.  I was a little disappointed because it's out in the desert and driving at night...well...my eyes ain't what they used to be.

So this year Amber and Andrea joined, as well as Stacey and her friend Sheila!  Yay!  We didn't all stay together the whole time, but we did a bit and had a lovely evening.

As we rolled up, we thanked our lucky stars we paid for parking because it was a bit of a madhouse.  Much more crowded than last year and I was starting to think - oh no!  This will not be as fun as last year....

But - it was not the case.  It was just different.  There were a lot of things that were still the same from last year, but some stuff had been changed for sure.  The only downer was the food/drink area was PACKED.  The booze line where Pat and Noel were looking forward to another Lavender Mojito was a no go.  The line was just way too long.  But we did get some grub.  Yes we had to wait but it was damn delicious!  All three of us got Marinated Beef Sandwiches with a Lavender BBQ Sauce.  So yummy!  I grabbed myself a Lavender soda as well just to get more Lavender in my life but it was a little weird.

Such a yum sandwich!

Amber and Andrea had arrived and were in line for food.  Stacey and Sheila had wandered off.  So we told Ber to text us when they were done eating and we'd meet back up.  Me & the boys decided to head over to the wine bar we found last time to see if it was still there and less crowded.  And it was!  Yay!  So we got ourselves a bottle of Rose and sat outside overlooking some of the fields.  So pretty!  Also pretty hilarious watching all the little "Influencers" do their thing.

Ahhhh the fields

After this we all met up again and got our one group photo.

The group

After this Stacey and Sheila ran off again and the rest of us wandered around looking at all the pretties!  Amber and Andrea headed out and the boys and myself wandered some more, did some shopping (got me some Lavender Honey!) and one more drink then hit the road.

This may be fun to do one time!

Love this picture of us

The crowded food area

Noel being a homie

So magical

Shopping

Went home with some goodies!

It was a lovely evening and we had a great time!  This place has other festivals and Stacey found a membership price that seems very worth it.   So you may be seeing more blogs about fun festivals at this beautiful farm!

Yay random adventures!