Nate and Flannery - Blue and Yellow

It's really not flattering of me just how much joy I take in looking at this drawing. I should have maybe just a bit of modesty but it's just so cute! So how do you like it? Colors good?

Sad. Scared. Excited. Happy.

This week I'm leaving one job and starting another. I’m leaving a job that I’ve been at for four and a half years. A job where, although I’m not the happiest, I’m comfortable. I know what to expect. I know at least ten different ways to get from my office to the vending machines. I know where the office supplies are and where the coffee and the plastic forks are, and I know where my friends are when I need them. And I’m leaving that behind. And I’m scared.

I’m going to go to a new place where I can learn new things and thrive and be something great. I can feel accomplishment and self-fulfillment like I haven’t felt in a long time. But I can also feel lost and loneliness and doubt.

I know that this change is an amazing thing for me. It will allow me to be so much more than I am now. I will be among artists and creative folks and in my element. I’m so happy and I feel honored that I was given the opportunity to start fresh and show this new group of people that they won’t be sorry for choosing me. I am so excited. But every now and then I just want to cry.

Walking down the hall to the restroom or to the fax machine, I think - this is my last Monday here. I will never be here as an employee on a Monday ever again. And I feel a little panic. What have I done? And then I mentally slap myself and try to get over it.

The problem is that it feels like I just broke up with the fifty people I work with. I feel like I’ve disappointed them all and that breaks my heart. I don’t want to disappoint anyone, but I really don’t want to disappoint myself. I need to do this. I want to do this. It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Now that I’ve given my notice, everyone is so much more open and honest. There is dialogue where there was only frustrated silence. Opinions have been shared, frustrations addressed, honesty is everywhere. Why did it take my quitting to make it this way? We should have been this way all of the time. It’s like when your hair looks great the day you’re going to get it cut. It makes you wonder if you’re doing the right thing.

But I am doing the right thing. I’m so happy and I’m so excited. I’m off to be awesome and I can’t wait. I’m going to miss you all and I’m going to cry, but I’m so happy. Really.

Show and Tell

Here's a collection of random things that I wanted to show you.

First off, here's another sketch for Flannery and Nate's wedding save-the-date postcard. Adorable, huh? If F & N like it, I'll make it final and put paint to paper. If not, I'll start on a new sketch. Either way, I'll show you when I'm finished.

Next, here's something new I've been playing with. Aren't these cute? Cherry earrings. Maybe it's just me, but I thought these were great. I wore them to my sister's and was just waiting for her to compliment me on them. I nearly burst from the waiting and finally I said "did you see my earrings??" She said "oh yeah. Cherries right?" Hmm. Not the reaction I had hoped for. What do you think? I love them.

And here, long overdue, is the final shot of the chickadee painting I created for this year's Christmas thank-you cards. I completely forgot to post a picture when I finished it. So here it is. I really like the way it came out, despite the not-perfect wavy lines in the background, I really do like it. Maybe I'm becoming less of a perfectionist in my old age.

So there you are, I hope you liked them. Have a good weekend!

My iPod Needs Meds.

Under the heading of the gadgets I love most, the top spot would have to belong to my new iPod. We’ve only known each other for a little over a month now, but I’m in love. My wonderful husband finally succumbed to my constant whining and not-so-subtle hints that I wanted an iPod, and surprised me with one for Christmas. I say “surprised” because I thought he’d been tuning me out this whole time. Turns out he really listens!

I wanted an iPod because I absolutely must be listening to music at all times. I must. If I could have a chip implanted in my head that would play music constantly, I would be a happy girl. It drives me crazy to be anywhere that is entirely quiet. When visiting people, I’m not too shy to say, hey, let’s listen to some music. It’s like air. And gum. I need music all the time.

I also have an embarrassingly W-I-D-E taste in music which makes having an iPod a good thing. Now I can keep the weird stuff to myself. I can listen to French reggae or SKA or rap or classical guitar or 80’s power ballads and no one knows what’s coming out of those earbuds. Unfortunately, I think this variety has confused my iPod. Putting it on shuffle is like unleashing an attack of manic depression.

This morning, driving in to work, it went from Jack Johnson to Jimmy Buffett to Rage Against the Machine to Josh Groban (remember, I said EMBARASSINGLY wide…) to Ra to Teitur to G. Love to John Mayer to Faster Pussycat. Yikes!

Some days I think it reads my mind.

One day, driving in to work and feeling melancholy, all it played were sad, slow songs. Another day I was really pissed off as I was leaving in my car and it played a block of Disturbed and Rage Against the Machine. Some days it has a crush on Jack Johnson and plays nothing but his songs, but really, who can blame it.

So, yes, I’m in love. This iPod is awesome. I resisted getting one for so long because I hate to follow trends, but heck, if the trends are all this good, sign me up for the next one. Unless it’s legwarmers. In that case, never mind.

So Board.

I know, I know. I'm even making myself gag at these corny titles but I don't see an end to them in sight. Sorry.

So in addition to drawing, painting, making jewelry and loving the gadgets, I can also write with chalk. Amazing, huh? This is one big gi-normous chalk board that I've had the pleasure of maintaining for the past couple of years. It's at a very fine restaurant in Hartford called Max Downtown. Every so often, once or twice a year, the nice folks at Max's call me up and tell me that there's some changes that need to be made and I head out to Hartford in the early morning to update.

You really have to see it in person to appreciate the hugeness of this thing. When they called me the very first time to do the board, I had only been doing small boards, like 2ft by 1ft boards. The kind you can take off the wall and sit on the floor to write on. When I asked if the board could come off the wall, the nice man from Max's burst out laughing and nearly fell over as he told me that it was about ten feet long. And about four feet high. And about seven feet up in the air. Oh boy.

I've got it down to a science now and I was able to get in there, move the tables and booths, haul in the enormous 12ft ladder, remove five items, add four, change one, move the tables and booths back, and put the ladder back in the storage area without breaking a single fancy, expensive lighting fixture, all in just over an hour. Not too shabby.

There's a Polish cleaning woman there named Sophie who I see everytime I go in to do the board and I love her. She doesn't entirely speak English but she understands what you say and she says back words that, when you throw them up in the air, shake them around and rearrange them a bit, will make an intelligible sentence. It's like talking to Yoda.

Here's an example. I was supposed to go there yesterday to do the board but the crappy, slushy weather and the insane traffic made me so late that I didn't have time before the restaurant opened so I made arrangements to come today. When I walked in this morning I saw Sophie and said "Good morning!" She said "G'morning. Ah, you today. People you yesterday looking." After a second's pause to rearrange, I knew that meant that not everyone got the message that I had rescheduled and they were expecting me yesterday.

I once heard her yelling at a Spanish-speaking cleaning lady in her Yoda-English. It cracked me up. I wonder if the woman understood. The important words stand out and allow you to get the gist of what's being said. And that's all that really matters.

So from Sophie and me to you, my good readers, and especially to you, Paula - "Morning you good. Day too."

I Heart Technology.

Not long ago, when I graduated from college, I didn't own a computer. I had never USED a computer. I didn't have a cell phone, I actually had a paper calendar in my purse where I wrote down things with an actual pen on real paper, and I didn't even own a Walkman. There were computers in my high school, and even at my university, but this was the early 90's and they were no big deal. In school, I had computer lab where we learned to program the computers so they would make little pictures with numbers and letters. It was cute, but I thought - what's the fuss? I don't get it. Who needs a computer? HA!

Flash forward about fifteen years. This morning as I got ready to leave for work, I unplugged my cell phone from the charger, grabbed my PDA off its charger, stuck my iPod in my pocket and stepped out the door with my digital camera to take a picture of all the snow coming down so I could email it to my friend in Florida to remind him why he moved out of Connecticut. I got in my car and plugged my iPod into the FM modulator, ready for a long, sloppy, snowy commute filled with loud music, and I headed off to work where I checked my email and read a few blogs. This is insane.

Some days when I think back to my pre-computer days, I just can't believe how I got anything done. How did I learn about everything? Where did I find my recipes? How would I have found neoprene dog boots, size x-small, for Molly without Google? How did I fill my free time? I feel like I must have grown up in the 70's and then shot directly into the 21st century after graduation. I went from indifference to total, flat-out, can't live without it obsession. I love gadgets. I love technology. I can't imagine a world without it.

Mostly, I love technology because it allows me to further my anti-social habits without looking too strange. I can walk to work, iPod blaring in my ears, and not have to talk to anyone. I don't even have to make eye contact. Tra-la-la, can't talk now, Jack Johnson's singing to me, what? sorry, can't hear you, tra-la-la. Blissful unfriendliness. And I'm not alone! It's accepted behavior now. My cell phone allows me to talk to people without ever having to see them in person. My computer lets me email friends and keep in touch without having to make time to go see them. The Internet, my favorite place of all, is filled with blogs that let me feel like I have cool friends everywhere even though they have no idea who I am or that I even exist. I can go shopping without ever having to deal with a rude cashier. I can comparison shop for my new scanner without trying to ignore the useless teenage salespeople circling around me. I can diagnose medical conditions without going to the doctor. I can check the weather without actually looking out the window! It's fantastic!

Technology has made my life so much more fun and I am incredibly thankful for it. So today, on this snowy Monday morning, I'd like to thank Bill Gates and Steve Jobs for the personal computer. Thank you Larry Page and Sergey Brin for Google. Thank you Gateway for making computer-buying so easy that even my parents weren't afraid to buy one. Thank you Steve Case and AOL for dumbing down the Internet and making it so darn easy to get online (back in '98 before six-trillion people were online, slowing down AOL and making it nothing but pop-ups and spam). Thank you DSL for getting me online in the blink of an eye since waiting for dial-up makes me want to rip my hair out. Thank you Palm for allowing me to not have to remember anything and to have everything at my fingertips. Thank you John Warnock and Charles Greschke for Adobe. So many wonderful people to thank...

Most of all, I'd like to thank you, my readers (or reader - hi Mom!). Yes, I am a nerd and now you have proof.

Flannery and Nate, Lisa-style.

A friend of mine, Flannery, (who also has a very funny and smart blog of her own here) asked me to draw her and her husband-to-be, Nate for a save-the-date card for their wedding this September. Here's what I think they look like:

And here's what they really look like: Flannery and Nate. Am I close?

I'm sorry, I really need to get a new scanner. It's a real drag having to tote everything into work to scan (which I'll have to do tomorrow since, as you can see, I need to enlarge the size of Flannery and redraw her - she looks like a Hobbit next to Nate) and this photo-of-a-drawing thing sucks, too. The angle is all weird and, well, I just really miss having a scanner around.

Stay tuned for more progress on the save-the-date drawing...

Well here she is.

What do you think? It's more painterly than I usually work and there's more lifelike detail than I usually use, but it was a good exercise. Sometimes it's good to stretch your brain and work on something unfamiliar. I think I might even try painting portraits of my awesome nephews, (Cameron and Alex), just for fun.

Well, say bu-bye to Leta. She's off to be packaged up and sent off to Dooce. I hope she's not horrified that I painted her daughter.

Leta Complete-a.

But the scanner's in the canner so you're going to have to wait another day before you see the final product. She's finished and for my first real portrait since... since art school, I think, she came out pretty well. I hope Dooce thinks so, too.

I'm working on some new sketches for greeting card illustrations that I hope to post on Images.com sometime soon. I'll show you those as soon as they look like more than a tangled mess of pencil lines.

Thanks for reading and check back tomorrow for the Leta reveal!

Ta-Da!

Well here she is. Her Highness survived her haircut and now she's soft as velvet and needs to wear her Old Navy parka to go outside.

I'm still bummed that I lost my post to the goblins of the Internet and I really don't feel like retyping the whole thing (it was long, I swear, and funny, too, you would have loved it) so here's the short version:

She was a puppy, she got scruffy (see Tina Turner photo below), we took her to the groomer, I cried (see photo of sassy bald dog below). We tried to cut her hair at home (there were funny references to baboons with bald butts...) and then we found Doggie Designs which we love and now Miss Priss gets her hair cut every eight weeks.

Wow, it really was more interesting than it sounds. Sorry you missed it!

Very very not happy at the moment.

I am apparently still getting to know Blogger, and if you asked me, I'd say we're having a really big fight. Blogger had better apologize. I don't know what Blogger would tell you right now, but I'm sure it's all lies.

I just spent an hour typing a nice, long post with pictures of Molly, all about her impending haircut this afternoon. I was all done, I hit the spell check button and POOF! Something TERRIBLE happened. Everything disappeared. That wasn't very nice, Blogger.

I'm so sad I could cry and my back hurts too much from being away from my ice pack for too long to try to retype it all. Ug. I'll try to write it all again tomorrow with the "before" AND the "after" shots.

For now, here's what Her Scruffiness looks like today. More to come tomorrow. Now I'm going to cry. Or throw my mouse. Ug.

I'm baaack. And Leta, too!

Hey there again. Welcome back. I'm still playing with the layout and look of this blog, please be patient as I get comfy with it and sorry if my newbie html skills freak out your eyeballs as I make everything pretty.

So I had started this painting a while back, and I'm hoping to finish it this weekend. It's a portrait (not usually my thing). I thought I'd try something new. One of my favorite blogs, Dooce, had a picture of her daughter on her site that I just loved. And it inspired me. So I painted it. Here she is, this is Leta (stage 1):

And now here's Leta (stage 2, still under construction):

I think she's coming out pretty well. I'll post the final for you to see after I finish up the last few datails.

Here is the original picture from Dooce, it's called "Daydreaming of Differential Equations". Don't tell, but I'm planning to send this painting to Dooce when I'm done. Partly because I love her so, and partly because I don't want her to sue me for copyright infringement for painting her photograph. Hee hee. I think the secret's pretty safe, seeing as how I'm probably the only one reading this blog at the moment.

So, note to self: thanks for reading, come back again soon.

Wow.

I always complain about those blathering people out there who need to have their Internet access taken away who think that everyone cares about the random thoughts in their tiny little heads.

Now I'm one of those people. And now I know why they blather - it's Blogger's fault. It was too easy to create this blog. Way too easy. Like, six-clicks-and-you're-done-no-knowledge-or-creativity-needed easy. Thanks Blogger, and look out Internet. Here I come!

Welcome to my blog, The LisaGaumond.com Blog (since I couldn't think of another, more creative title). This is the place to find out what's new, what's shakin' and what I've been up to. I'll try to post as often as I can but I'm not promising anything.

Thanks for reading and check back soon!