Week 4: Check In

1. How many days this week did you do morning pages?
 Every day

2. Did you do an artist's date this week? What did you do? How did it feel?
I combined my date and my walk

3. Did you get out on your weekly walk? Where did you go? How did it make you feel?
I walked around the rose garden at Sequoia Park and then through the park itself.

4. Were there any other issues this week that felt significant to your self-discovery?
meh

Week 5 Writing Tasks

Task: Putting a Tiger Back in Your Tank

Among my friends, a “fuse lighter” who makes me feel creative and powerful is Cameron.
Among my friends, a “wet blanket” who drains and dampens me is C.
Historically a relationship that left me depleted from overcaring M.
Realistically, a current relationship that leaves me feeling neutered is M.
My most reciprocal mutually nurturing creative friendship is with Kelsey.

Task: Be Nice to Yourself

I am finding this task difficult to complete because I am in a period of transition where I am reevaluating what it is that I want and what creative things I am willing to do for money. I don’t have a typical job at the moment so I am fairly free to do as I wish.

Week 4: Writing Tasks

Complete this phrase 10 times: Secretly, I would love to...

1. take up photography again
2. become a frosting master
3. spend my days baking new and interesting things
4. work in a library
5. own a tea shop/bookstore
6. be able to support myself independently
7. have a beautiful fairy garden
8. get back into dance
9. be able to teach something
10. travel abroad

Week 3: Check In

1. How many times this week did you do morning pages? Did you skip a day? Why?
Yes I wrote every day.

2. Did you do your artist's date this week? What did you do? How did it feel?
I think the time I spent in the kitchen baking cupcakes for a pair f friends counts as my artist's date this week.

3. Did you get out on your weekly walk? How did it feel? Where did you go?
There's been a lot of rain. I'm hoping to get out and walk tomorrow.

4. Were there any other issues this week you felt were significant?
I began contemplating a cupcake baking business.

Week 3: Writing Tasks

Make a list of your petty angers.

1. I'm angry that a friend said she was coming to visit last year and the date came and went and she didn't visit and she didn't mention it again.
2. I'm angry that the music I liked in high school is on classic rock stations now.
3. I'm angry my grandma asked if my cousin was dating a Mexican at my grandpa's funeral.
4. I'm angry that the last time I saw Sharon was at my grandpa's funeral.
5. I'm angry that my aunt doesn't want me to buy books I love for her kids.
6. I'm angry that I'm seen as being very square now.
7. I'm angry that other people can make me feel less worthy of happiness than I should.
8. I'm angry that I feel the need to constantly justify myself.
9. I'm angry that I can't feel proud of some of my talents.
10. I'm angry that compliments are more embarrassing than anything else.
11. I'm angry that I feel the need to self-depricate rather than acknowledge my talents.
12. I'm angry that my step-mother-in-law continued to ask how my job hunt is going after I told her several times I wasn't looking.
13. I'm angry that I can't talk politics with my parents because they're more conservative than I thought.
14. I'm angry that the majority of the country is backing a psychopath.
15. I'm angry that election years bring out the absolute worst in people.
16. I'm angry that even though we got the gym membership renewed, I haven't been able to go for two weeks.
17. I'm angry that I haven't been to yoga since early December.
18. I'm angry that good things can keep me awake at night with anxiety.
19. I'm angry that Disneyland keeps raising their prices.
20. I'm angry that we probably won't be able to buy a house this year.


Mapping Your Interests
Five topics that interest me are:
1. baking
2. astronomy
3. women of early aviation
4. knitting
5. wedding rituals

Five people who interest me are:
1. Walt Disney
2. Carl Jung
3. Judy Blume
4. Anthony Burgess
5. Tina Fey

Five art forms that interest me are:
1.short stories
2. novels
3. pies
4. cupcakes
5. frosting

Five projects I could try out are:
1. finishing my sci-fi story
2. practice frosting
3. mini cakes
4. pie crust
5. water colors

Week 2: Check In

1. How many days this week did you do your morning pages?
Every day so far though I will miss tomorrow because we're going out of town.

2. Did you do your Artist's Date? Where did you go? How did it feel?
I did! I walked around Old Town between rain storms. I'm going to guess these books were written to be executed during the summer. It's hard to get out and take long walks and such when it is always raining.

3. Did you get out on your weekly walk? How did it feel? Were you able to walk more than once?
I went on two. One in the evening with my husband around our neighborhood and one during the day through Old Town. Again, I had to fit them in between rain storms.

4. Were there any issues this week your felt were significant to your self discovery?
I was asked to bake cupcakes for a friend's wedding. This is my first paid baking gig.

Book of the Month: February

In the month of February, I finished nine books and five of those were graphic novels. I read some really good books that stirred emotions within me, made me think about social justice, made me cry about how close two people could be without knowing each other at all, and made me thankful for the advancements in women's rights we have made in the past century. All of these books hold a special place in my heart but none of them captured my spirit the way "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl," did.

This graphic novel was purchased on a whim from Eureka Books (along with "Lumberjanes") one Saturday afternoon. I admit to feeling compelled to choose between this title and "Ms. Marvel" and while I will read "Ms. Marvel" in the future, I am really glad I picked up this nutty lady. I do not typically enjoy reading superhero comics and I often find them to be one-note affairs and end up causing battle fatigue. This is not the case with Squirrel Girl. She is quirky and actual-human-lady-shaped and highly creative. I had to stop reading the comic after a couple of pages because I found myself thinking about how I would construct her giant tail for cosplay purposed. (Don't worry, I've got it figured out. It shouldn't be any harder to make than assless chaps, right?) This comic inspired me, tickled my fancy and made me reconsider my Halloween costume for 2016.

I am very much looking forward to reading volume two of this tail (haha) and seeing where this lovely lady, her squirrel buddy and her awesome roommate go next.