In search of some kind of balance

Based on Keri Smith's Artist's Survival Kit, I made a little comic last night. Today I had the fun task of heading to FedEx to play w/the copy machine and churn out, FINALLY, the zine edition of "My Snow," a story that Caron wrote and shared with me in Ithaca last fall. I wish I had finished it earlier, but apparently it's still snowing in parts of the world so as soon as I get them stapled tomorrow, they will be ready to blanket the world.

I was able to run out into the world today after holing up for a while at home to prep for the next round of classes and workshops, rest, recover, and finish the 3rd season of FNL (if you don't know, don't ask. I'm not proud of the habit, but I like to think it could be much worse). I finally got to a place where I felt like I could look at everything I have to do and not feel completely overwhelmed. I could look at it and say, "That's a lot, but I can do it all." I also addressed a few things that I was stuck on (like, not being able to work at home b/c I don't have a surface to work on), and acknowledged some other things (like, I have a hard time being creative if I don't feel safe from harm, and I also have a hard time when loved ones are clearly not safe from harm. Which is why I CANNOT wait until Ben leaves Afghanistan for good. The first is partly why I have so few photographs from my new home; I don't think it's a good idea here to pull out a camera. The second is why war sucks ass*).

*As Colum McCann says in Let the Great World Spin (which Ben mailed to me in Cali from Afghanistan once he finished reading it): "The only thing you need to know about war, son, is: Don't go."