Time Keeps on Slipping, Slipping
English Landscape III © 2000
As promised last week, here is the third and final work in the landscape series. Obligatory Technical Information: The base media is viscosity monoprint. Details were added with colored pencil and oil pastel. Color may shift depending on your monitor settings.
Timing can be such a beast. So often in my life, things seem to happen all at once. In some ways, I function better under high levels of stress, but usually there is a price. In the end, I come crashing down in need of solace. It’s like a runner’s high functioning under the pressure, and when it’s over I’m empty. I’m not talking about drama. Drama is something I don’t need. I’ve spent wasted enough of my life picking up the pieces of someone else’s drama. I’m not interested in any to call my own.
Circumstances have smiled upon us this month, and Mr Hombre has eight days off. We’ve made plans to leave town. Provided no one falls and breaks a hip…I know that’s cold. Age related accidents and illnesses have prevented us from going away three times in the past few months. No one chooses to have health related issues, but the correlation between them and his time off is uncanny.
I’m leaving my laptop at home this time. When both of us travel with computers, we tend to behave like roommates instead of lovers. Life in a hotel mirrors life at home. He carries his baggage and I carry mine. It becomes routine and sometimes easier to drift apart. Ironic, since the idea of leaving home is to get away.
I’m not pointing fingers, I’m accepting responsibility for my actions.I’m consumed with engaging in the ongoing dialogue of blog reading and he’s engaged in computer games. Neither of us is keeping up our share of the deal. But drama makes you so fucking tired, and a quiet place to paint is so easy.
Good things happen when I leave the computer at home. I spend more time drawing, I catch up on my reading and I can share a crossword puzzle with the Mister. Of course, the downside is I spend entirely too much time thinking…
This will be a challenge. I’ve grown rather attached to google reader, and I like to know what’s happening. Maybe the Mister will let me borrow his computer if I ask nicely.
July 3rd, 2007 at 9:19 am
I have a little imp in my head about this, too. We’re going away for two weeks next month, and my husband says he cannot really be out of touch with work for that long…which means a computer at the beach.
But you’re right. Good things happen without…
Enjoy your trip.
July 3rd, 2007 at 6:37 pm
One of the best places we have ever vacationed is a place that has no phones, no TV and no internet access in the rooms. What did we do????
I love how some people think that their work will just collapse without them. HA!
July 3rd, 2007 at 9:59 pm
While I love the computer, I agree: the best vacations are the ones where you leave it all behind. We went to a cabin up north a few years ago, all we had were some fishing poles and a cd player. It was one of the best trips ever.
Have a great time!
July 4th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Its funny, like the people above, our favorite trip was when we stayed in a cabin in the mountains one winter for a few days. We hiked around, made a fire in the fireplace and just enjoyed being together. No TV, no videos, video games. But lots of Sorry and Scrabble and so on. We reminisce (sp?) about it often.
July 5th, 2007 at 12:39 am
and all I can think is, “I want a painting like that in my house!”
oh, what? huh? yes, very much so, I’ll need that laptop. yes, yes I do!
July 6th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
De, life sans computer is easier said than done, but I managed to survive a five day trip with two hours of wireless, and the benefits were so worth leaving my computer at home.
meno, the phones and the TV, I have no trouble leaving behind. TV is more distracting than stimulating. I felt guilty for leaving my phone Thursday. There was a lady in the museum who lost track of her kid, and didn’t have a phone with her to find out which exhibit he was at. I can’t imagine how she felt at that moment.
It’s funny, I used to be one of those work people, but I refused to leave a cell phone or destination with my office when I left town for a week. Much to my surprise they managed without me : )
sari, that sounds like a great trip. I managed to leave the computer behind, but parting with my ipod, would have been unthinkable.
Maggie,I had a lot of childhood vacations like that. We either went to the mountains or the beach, explored and swam during the day, listened to the radio and played uno, or yahtzee at night.
liv, thanks. You have to wean yourself slowly.