Nostalgic Warm Hugs
2025/11/25
7:40am
I didn't sleep well last night. And I woke rather early. It has been a bit of a rough morning. Surprisingly, I'm actually in good spirits. I also booked my flights for Christmas. I ended up needing to take an extra day off from work due to when the flights were available on the 24th, but it will work out nicely. The flights sure are expensive this year. I'll want to plan sooner next year and see if the costs are lower if I book sooner than a month out. Last year, even my last minute flights weren't this expensive if I recall. I don't really understand how their pricing works... HAHAHA
9:10am
I had a random thought. I've had jobs where I'd rather take a pay cut than get let go if the budget needed it. And I've had jobs where I'd rather they keep to their promise to never cut my pay than to gradually cut it down until I decide to leave on my own. I've faced both circumstances in my career. It reminds me that the work I'm doing and the management of the company truly matter more to me than the financial compensation. Even in the times I've lived paycheck to paycheck, the pay hasn't been my motivation. It really isn't just a job to me. So it's important what I do and who I work for. And that makes it all the more important to work as if working for God. He is my provider. I am blessed and grateful for what I do, who I work for, and all God is doing through it.
9:45am
Words really do matter. What we say and how we say it can have an impact. Kindness and love can help shape how we say things and create the proper tone to be constructive. Pride and hate can do the opposite. But there's another side to this. If we are on the receiving end, how we handle what is said and how it was said equally matters. It's just as important to me to properly respond to what people say to me and how they communicate it to me. Something my dad once said to me about an art piece I was working on sparked this thought. It felt unkind, but I didn't allow it to negatively impact me at the time. He's obnoxiously honest about things like that. He isn't always the encouraging type. By the time he said what he said, I knew how he is and that his comment wasn't personal. And I had already had enough healing to respond to it in the most healthy way I can. Besides, he's the one who wanted to get me the desktop easel I still use today. I used it last night for my eink tablet while I worked on Stepping Out of Zen... LOL I use it for both digital and physical painting. His actions speak louder than words. Actions matter too... hehehe. And I appreciate his honesty. Even if it is served up cold...LOL
10:05am
I started Phase 2 of something very special. I'm so glad I'm working on this. It's fun, exciting, and a little silly too. I also have some new ideas for something else I'm working on. I'm being vague on purpose. I've found that if I talk too much about creative things, I tend to never finish. But I also wanted to document that I'm working on things so I can look back and have those "Oh, yeah, that's when I worked on that!" moments... hehehe
10:55am
One of the challenges of doing art digitally on an eink tablet is that the exported image doesn't quite capture what I see on the physical screen. Typical tablet screens do not have this. What you see is pretty much what you get. I took a photo of my work in progress last night and it still doesn't quite hit the sweet spot. It dawned on me later that I have a scanner. So I ran some test scans of the piece as displayed on the eink screen only using the light from the scanner. So no frontlight was on. Wow! I love how that worked! The scan was pretty good and I like it so much better. It captured the essence and is a what you see is what you get result. I'm blown away by using color eink to do art and the process I'm developing to make it all work. I did not expect I would be doing this when I started using eink back in May. I'm very excited about this!
3:40pm
I just found out there will be an art contest at work in December... Yay!!!! I think I may enter the contest. I did one last year. It was fun. A 4 x 4 inch canvas for that one. This time I'll likely try something with this new color eink process I'm developing. Perhaps I'll enter the Christmas card I'm working on!
4:40pm
I'm going to start journaling our November vacation tonight. If I get the first part finished, I'll post it tonight too. I'm going to save my travel days for the last part this time. I'd like to journal about our 3 days together first. Those are the most important parts of the trip because of our shared experiences. But I'll still journal my travel because that's a part of my personal journey. And I still plan to journal my last travel day of our August vacation... LOL
4:55pm
Today is my late paternal grandfather's birthday. Happy Birthday Grandpa! Thank you for everything. I sure do miss you. You still inspire me ❤️
5:35pm
Grandpa would have been 95 today. He passed a little over 6 years ago. He was 88 at the time. He didn't quite make it to 89. Grandma is 90 now. She'll be 91 in March. I'm grateful she is still here and that I'll be seeing her again this weekend. Tonight's walk was a lovely time of thinking about the wonderful people in my life. Yes, you too Bingford... HAHAHA
8:00pm
I did it! Yay! I wrote part 1 of our November vacation! You should see it posted tonight. Unlike these journal entries, I didn't write it by hand. My notes from the vacation are written by hand. But I typed up the entry using my writer deck setup. I hope to have part 2 coming soon. I'll be taking my entire setup with me to Indiana. I'll be taking time to write and do art up there. Trust me, I'll need it LOL j/k Actually, I do want to show my family how I do some of these things. Driving affords me this opportunity.
9:55pm
Nostalgia is hitting hard again. And I love it! It's like a warm hug for my soul. Is it okay that even recent memories hit that button in my heart? I like to think so. Nostalgia is a dish best served warm... as a warm hug, that is. And maybe with a side of cranberry sauce... LOL
10:30pm
You can read Our November Vacation Part 1 here