On Vacation

Rach and I leave today for Anchorage, we will be gone 9 days, a little bit of a shorter trip than normal, but given the last year of illnesses for both of us, the most leave I could scrap together for a visit. I talked to my niece Maddie, and she is planning our visit agenda, so far I know we will be going Horseback riding, Dads cabin and perhaps Seward. I am looking forward to just ambling around with my Dad, spoiling my nieces and driving everyone crazy with my camera. The doodle one I did last week during a meeting, I generally produce one or two more elaborate doodles during long meetings. In an odd way it keeps me focused on the meeting, as it acts as a siphon for my nervous energy, allowing me to concentrate. I am one of those people who always has something in motion, a taping foot, fingers that strum, a hand clicking a pen or a bouncing chair. As a child I would cut piles of paper, a habit that drew attention from my kindergarten teacher, who wrote Brenda likes to cut paper--as if it was a habit that I needed to curtail. I learned to doodle pretty quickly after the paper outlet was taken off the tableau of acceptable child behaviors. I used to scribble in the abstract. You take a crayon and scribble a random outline, and then color each intersecting area with a different color. As I grew up, I graduated to pencils and pens as a more socially acceptable form of the abstract. I imagine my professional credibility would take a hit, if I sat in a meeting with a box of 96 crayons. I might be asked to put my toys away. I am ready for vacation, I had hoped I could talk that handsome man I married into coming with us to Anchorage, but he is staying home. I really missed him with all of my travels this summer, and there is a big part of me that needs a week off with him, and just being big home bodies. Perhaps after school starts he and I can play hooky a few days. I am taking both cameras, 5 books, my chapbook draft, my Macbook and a box of 96 crayons.