Here's What's New

I had announced awhile back that I would be doing a meet n' greet at my art show at The Globe in Berlin, Maryland, on Black Friday...which is a really big day in Berlin. They do their tree lighting and they shut the streets down to vehicle traffic and there's all sorts of holiday festivities happening.

Of course I woke up that day feeling very much under the weather. On a scale of 1-10 my pain level was at about 8.5 which is very bad when you have to drive 3 hours and then be talkative and sociable...neither of which are ever easy for me, even on days when I'm not in as much pain.

I knew it would be a waste of very valuable time to trek down there.  No one in that town on that day was going to be there to come and see me and/or my artwork.  They are there on that day to eat, drink and be merry.  And overall it did turn out to be a huge waste of time; except that we gave away 8 gift bags with small framed artwork to unsuspecting strangers.

a few of the gift bag giveaways

We give away artwork every year on Black Friday and it's really rewarding and fun.  This year was no exception and out of the eight people we gave artwork to there was only one guy who was kind of "thanks, whatever"; everyone else was delighted.  Especially a man named Billy who acted as though we gave him $500!  He thought it was the coolest thing and he gave me a tremendous bear hug which was pretty much the highlight of my night.  Thanks, Billy!

We did also meet a lovely woman from Berlin who came inside specifically to see my artwork.  I'm really mad that I didn't get her name because she was so nice.  She said that she was disappointed because Black Friday in Berlin used to be all about local art and artists and now that seems to no longer be the case.  We told her that even we noticed that to be true in the 4 years we've been doing my month-long show.  The first year, art & artists were one of the main features of the Black Friday shindig.  Every year since it seems to have faded off.  We agreed that it was probably because they do an art stroll every month including in December, but it's a missed opportunity to not also do it on Black Friday.  Oh well, not a lot I can do about that.  Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Saturday at our house was a non-event unless you consider blowing and raking massive amounts of leaves out to the street to be some kind of occasion worth celebrating.  We also spent the day wondering if we shouldn't have more carefully considered our decision to buy a house in an area that resembles a forest.  Shade is nice; blowing/raking leaves every spare minute of your life from September - January...not so much.

Sunday morning found me stomping around the house having a hissy fit because the leaf blowing was still not over.
The truth is that it's not going to ever be over.  We will be blowing leaves until it snows and then we'll be blowing leaves again when the snow melts and we'll probably be blowing leaves until we're in our 90s and eating cat food because that's all we can afford as a result of exorbitant electric bills caused by constantly running electric leaf blowers.  You want to know how many leaves fall on our property? This will give you an idea:  last year when we moved in and discovered that the former owners kinda didn't do anything about leaf removal in the three months of prime leaf-falling time from when we signed the purchase commitment (October) until we closed (January), we had a landscaping service come out to give us an estimate once the weather got a little nicer - I think it was March.
A $650 estimate.
And that was just for the backyard...which isn't huge because there's a big ass in-ground pool that takes up 2/3 of the yard.
Yup, $650 worth of leaf collection.
Needless to say we did it ourselves.

So let's review:  leaf "fun" starts in October and doesn't stop until it's too cold - end of December-ish. Then it begins again in March when you have to collect all the leaves the you just left laying there because it was too freakin' cold outside.  That will probably take a good coupla months until the new baby leaves start popping up on all the trees at the end of April.
My estimation is that we will spend a solid FIVE months dealing with leaves, which clearly means I don't think we'll be living in this house as long as we thought we would.

Did I mention that every day, all day, I listen to the constant drone throughout the neighborhood of leaf blowers and giant leaf vacuums that attach to lawn tractors?  Maddening.

Sunday afternoon, though, we did manage to escape the leaf-blowing drudgery for a bit.  We are lucky enough to now live in an area in which we can take quickie road trips to great places and on Sunday that place was Ocean City, NJ.

Busy boating day on the Atlantic.  I hear that stripers are running so maybe that's what they're all after?

Just 45 short little miles from our house to the ocean and that was exactly what I needed as I have been struggling for the past month because I'm a highly sensitive person who is...well, highly sensitive to the shittiness I have been on the receiving end of from people whose names I shall not mention.

We were so lucky to go to OCNJ on a balmy late November afternoon.  People were out and about, doing the boardwalk shuffle...

...including this guy who clearly decided he didn't need no stinkin' shoes - or the flip flops he was carrying in his hand - just because it was late November:

Side note:  In case you are not from NJ or have not had the great pleasure of spending time here, there is a thing here - particularly in the shore areas - in which people refuse to accept cold weather.  The uniform for these people is a hooded sweatshirt, shorts of any kind (almost always cargo for the guys), and flip flops.
Never a winter coat.
Almost always some kind of hat.

I have also seen people doing this in other areas outside of NJ but almost always in coastal areas.  I do think it started here, though.  We New Jerseyans are always on the cutting edge of things, afterall.

It's a beach thing...you wouldn't understand.


Anyway, I think you should seriously consider taking a trip to Ocean City, NJ, because it is quite quietly fantastic there.  It's dry, though, so don't plan on going there to tie one on.  I am not a teetotaler at all (just ask all the bottles of red wine in my liquor cabinet) but it somehow makes me really happy that this town is alcohol-free.  If you live/rent there, you can bring it in but you can't buy it there or take it with you to a restaurant.  OCNJ was founded by Methodist ministers back in the day who wanted it to be a wholesome place.  For years and years I lived in a NJ shore town that has the complete opposite point of view - debauchery for all! - so it's kind of refreshing to go someplace where obnoxiousness is illegal.  You can read more about it here.

I'll be taking a bit of a breather this week while I try to regroup after a month of chaos...which means laying in bed a lot and probably not bothering to wear pants a lot.

Bliss.