I'm grateful for my skills and talents, my animals, my friends, and my family that's no longer with me.

I'm grateful for more of course. Roof over my head comes to mind. My health is something to be thankful for, especially since I'm in-between health insurance coverage. In order to save money, I gave up the California plan while waiting approval from the Tennessee provider.

I always had this fantasy that as an artist I could work anywhere. Having lived half of my life in 2 major cities, anywhere was always a rural outpost. In my fantastical rural outpost, I would get up, walk to the local post office, say hello to my fellow townspeople at the local diner, and have a show at the local gallery once a year, selling out during the tourist season. I would then kick back and paint like a madwomen in my cabin during the long hard winter. My fantasy town was modeled after Saugatuck, Michigan. It is where Ox-Bow is located. I did a couple of residencies at OxBow in my 20's. The couple of summers I didn't do a residency or work on staff, I  drove up to visit my friends who were working there. At least one or two of the artists I met there, gave up city life and lived out my fantasy. I was so optimistic, so naive. One of my roles models at that time was the likes of Basquiat. This was before I went to grad school.

I confided in a friend today that 1) the miniature paintings were addictive and that 2) I was already over the alter ego- not the paintings of the alter ego, just the alter ego. She suggested schizophrenia might be a alternative.

I think there was MSG in my Thanksgiving meal. I allowed psycho dog on the bed today and napped to the sound of football.

Today was to be a running day, but I'm backing off a couple of days until my achilles tendonitis goes away.